Dumb video game store employee.

[VG_Maniac]

I was on a video game store's website where you could order games online, and noticed that Aero Fighters for the SNES was on the list for $12.95. I figured that the list was just a price guide, and not an actual listing of the games they had in stock. However, Aero Fighters had an "Add to Shopping Cart" button next to it...so I decided to give them a call just in case. The guy on the phone said he didn't have time to check their inventory, but he assured me that every game on that list was in stock...and it would be noted on the site if it wasn't. So I ordered Aero Fighters and give them another call a few days later to see if my order had gone through alright. This time, another person picks up the phone...and he doesn't sound like he's in the mood to talk to anyone at all.

After I tell him the game I ordered was Aero Fighters...he says, "Aero Fighters? That game is called S.N Squadron here in North America! It wasn't released here as Aero Fighters!"

I respond by saying, "S.N Squadron? You mean U.N Squadron. And no...that's an entirely different game."

And then he says, "Oh, well I don't have Aero Fighters, I haven't had that game in since 1994. Good day!" Then he hangs up.

What an idiot! One minute he doesn't know the difference between Aero Fighers and U.N Squadron (not to mention he forgets U.N Squardron's name) and then the next minute he seem to know so much about Aero Fighers, he even remembers the last time he had it in 11 years ago! Ha! LOL

[MegaDrive20XX]

as Bill would say "Here's your sign!"

Yes, the stupidity is breeding rapidly like deadites. Grab yourself a boomstick and a chainsaw. We got work to do...

Worst case, was arguing with one of my old bosses about Ninja Gaiden Black. He swore up and down it was going to be Xbox 360 exclusive. It shows up on Xbox.

I showed him, he denies saying that.

[GrayFox]

Heh, I love working in a game store, just because, atleast once a day somewhere on the internet, there is a thread about stupid game employees. I've seen them.

But, I don't think I am one of them. Reasoning? Being at the #1 Gamestop in the region. Fun.

[zerohero]

How could you mix up those two games anyway?

[jajaja]

Did he seriously just hang up on u? lol @_@

[googlefest1]

ive had a few encounters like that -- man do they piss me off

ive had a couple where the @ssmunch tells me they dont cary a game and i find it my self - b@stards !!

[EricRyan34]

Thats another reason why I dont order classic games online unless its eBay or Amazon

[segagamer4life]

its usually lazy and incompitant employee...10 times out of 10

[fishsandwich]

I did manage to find a very competent and nice employee at a game store in Greensboro, NC, in Friendly Shopping Center at an EBgames. I think he's on this site a lot...

There's another store in GSO that keeps the N64 boxes and instructions on display but charges an extra $4 if you actually want the boxes and instructions. I may have accidentally damaged a box or two. :oops:

Theres an EB here in Atlanta that won't sell the N64 display boxes at all. At least the manager wouldn't. I do not believe he's the manager anymore. He was an asshole and didn't have the temperment to work in a game store (kudoos to those of you that do.) I put the crap back on the shelf and left, then went to the EBgames 2 miles up the road where the cool employees work. They are always wanting me to see stuff, though.

:-P

[smokexx]

here in central pa we have some nice employees at both gamestop and eb.......you can always tell what the manager/company wants their employees to push whether it be a pre order or asking if I have any trade in's even though he watched me walk into the store with nothing in my hands.....but after the sales pitch when you first walk in the door they are more than willing to help.......I keep thinking that working in a game store would be really fun but I am not sure if I can handle some of the customers questions......sometimes you just have to act like you did not hear some of their questions they ask the clerk and try not to laugh

[GameSlaveGaz]

My favorite is customers that INSIST that a game that doesn't exist exists. One time I had a customer looking for "Hook" for PS2. I THINK that's what she said cuz I could barely understand her. So I ask "Hook?" to be sure I heard her right and she said yes. I told her that Hook was a movie that came out in '92. The only game based on that movie came out on Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis, there is no such title for PS2. She insisted her son played it at a friend's house. I told her straight out that there is definitely no game for PS2 called Hook. She walked away annoyed as ever. I've also had a few people looking for Halo for PS2, and PLENTY of people wanting Mario or Pokémon for PS2. Also, many people don't believe me when I can immediately tell them that we don't have a game in stock. They're like "Well, can you check?" and they get really upset when I tell them I spend 40 hours a week making sure that every game in stock is represented on the salesfloor and that I know about 90% of the stock off the top of my head.

OOH...and I had one woman get really pissed when I told her there were no Early Childhood rated games for PS2 (as far as I know). And she says in this nasty tone "Yes there is! I have some" I told her they were for PS1, for PS1 games work on PS2. Then I told her that the few PS1 games we still carry were E-M, we didn't have any EC games and we get no new stock in b/c they stopped making PS1 titles. So, again with the nasty tone she says, "So when I ordered a game off your website 6 months ago it was just a fluke?" and I said that our website has a lot of older, out-of-production stock (I got a factory-sealed NeoGeo Pocket Color on there for $30 almost a year ago!) and she was in such a pissy mood and she wouldn't even let me finish explaining, she just demanded to know where the PS1 and 2 games were and stormed off. Then I went to go organize the storeroom and she started bitching about the store's website and shit to my coworker. Then she apologized and explained why she was so grumpy and left, but whatever. Get over yourself people. I work there because I know more than you, so stop acting like you know more than me, because you obviously don't.

Anyone who has never had a job before, do yourself a huge favor: AVOID RETAIL AT ALL COSTS!!! Sure it's fun if you get hired at a store that sells products you love and know a lot about, but the longer you work in retail, the more you grow to despise people.

Show me a person with a deep loathing for all mankind and I'll show you someone who works in retail

I know there is a hell, I work in retail
(a button and bumper sticker, respectively, that illustrates my point exactly)

[LiquidPolicenaut]

I've worked in both a Best Buy and EBGames and I was the only one who actually knew anything about videogames in both stores. Boy, the stories I can tell about EB especially...and I only worked there for 2 months! One guy claimed he saw a "real" PS3 system....back at the end of 2002. Man, I sure had fun proving him wrong and stupid! At LEAST once a day I had those kind of customers. Sadly, my fellow co-workers weren't too bright either nor knew anything about video games except what they are TOLD to remember and speak about. The only times that were good in there was when a few customers told me thank you and really appreciated all the info. I gave to them, the best one being a couple who came back in just to say thanks for getting them into import Saturn games *sigh* that was nice :). My retail experience motto was always this: "Retail would be great if it weren't for the customers" ;)

[DreamTR]

It works both ways. I have seen some moronic, think-they-know-it-all customers as WELL as retail employees. I mind my own business now and not really bother to butt in.

[rbudrick]

It works both ways. I have seen some moronic, think-they-know-it-all customers as WELL as retail employees. I mind my own business now and not really bother to butt in.

True, true. My understanding is that dickhead customers outnumber dickhead game store employees 100 to 1.

And I guarantee the employees could tell you way more horror stories than any given customer could.

However, there are, quite obviously, WAY more customers than workers, hence why we hear more stories of shitty employees than vice versa.

Customers have a habit of SUCKING in retail. Retail blows. I'm so glad I have the job I do now and am not in retail any more.

-Rob

-Rob

[Aussie2B]

I told her that Hook was a movie that came out in '92. The only game based on that movie came out on Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis, there is no such title for PS2.

There's a Hook game on Sega CD too. :P

[Gemini-Phoenix]

I was told (By a GAME manager of all people) that Konami DO NOT seal their UK PS2 games. I was actually inquiring about if they had any sealed MGS 3's in stock.

He rudely told me point blank that such things do not exist (Trying to force me to buy an unsealed copy in the process) ~ I searched for a few weeks on eBay, and hey preto! One fell right into my lap. I then took it back down there to rub it in his face, and he denied ever saying anything of the sort!

I don't get so much hassle from him now when I ask for a sealed game!

[mills]

The gamestop at the mall here is run by tools. THe guy working there had never heard of "River CIty Ransom" although, the ebgames at the mall is one of the nicest stores I've ever been to. Everything is stored and organized very very nicely. SNES and NES games are kept behind glass cases where they belong :) THe young lady that works there has a nice collection from what she tells me, I told her to come to digital press and she did :)

[crazyjackcsa]

One thing that customers should remember though is that even though I work in a videogame store, There is no possible way I've played every game we have. It just can't be done. So don't give me a hard time when I break out a little honesty and tell you that I've never played it, but I've heard half decent things about it. When I'm a customer, you don't have to be my best friend, you don't have to know everything about a product, and you don't have to be that sociable even. When I ask a question, answer it to the best of your abilities, politely and quickly and that's it.

[Cmosfm]

:) THe young lady that works there has a nice collection from what she tells me, I told her to come to digital press and she did :)

Do I smell nerd love in the air? ;)

[kirin jensen]

What retail stores need to do is show High Fidelity to new employees as a training film....

[GamecubeFreek]

I have had a lot of experiences with unknowledgeable game store clerks in the past; in fact, of nearly 100 different gamestore employees that I have conversed with, I would only say that four or five of them knew more than a minimal amount about games. Having said that, I do not mind when they dont know anything about a game. I do mind, however, when they haven't even heard of a game before, especially when it screws me up. I still remember trying to buy Katamari Damacy when it first came out (you know, before people had heard about it). I went to my local EB on the release date and asked for the game. They had no idea what I was talking about, so they just told me they didnt have it (I found out later that they did, they were just stupid). I then called the other stores around me. One Gamestop, One Gamecrazy and two other EB's all said they didn't know what the game was (some of them even referred to the game as something like calitari damalie, even after I spelled it out for them so they could check their computers). Finally, I called another Gamestop, and the person there actually knew what I was talking about. I actually had a similar experience with Nanostray recently... at any rate, to make a long story short, Game store clerks should be required to have a good knowledge of the game industry, and not just the mainstream games. Sure, more people are going to ask about Madden or GTA, but for repeat business, there is no customer like a real gamer. The gamestop that actually was helpful in my search for katamari damacy has found this to be true...I have over ten games reserved at that one store right now.

[CrimsonNugget]

Anyone who has never had a job before, do yourself a huge favor: AVOID RETAIL AT ALL COSTS!!! Sure it's fun if you get hired at a store that sells products you love and know a lot about, but the longer you work in retail, the more you grow to despise people.
Holy jeebus AMEN.

[mills]

Do I smell nerd love in the air? Wink

Haha actually the REAL nerd love is my fiance and I, she actually is responsible for rekindling my love for classic games. When I moved in to live with her a year ago she had a box under the bed with an SNES and some games. Since then I am now up to almost 100 games and counting. She is awesome, she can beat ALTTP in a few hours flat. Also she and I sat down one afternoon and got all 96 levels complete in Super Mario World together in a matter of a couple hours. :)

btw sorry about the "first reply" thing, it was a joke.

(edit)

Today I had another good example of "video game stoore employee ignorance/stupidity":

I went to Gamestop today again with my brother in law who is 14 years old. I was asking the clerks when the Messiah: Generation Nex NES clone systems were coming in. He replied with "what, you want messiah for the XBOX?" I said NO it's an N.E.S. clone system made by Messiah, it's ON the Gamestop website for preorder! "OH you want a Nintendo DS?" No...nevermind.

At that point the other employee who overheard me talking about this said "What's that thing called again? I'm interested in this I wanna know what your talking about"
I then proceeded to explain to him what Messiah was about to release and that it was actually on the Gamestop website.

I successfully baffled Gamestop's entire staff in a matter of 5-7 minutes...

[MrSmiley381]

The local Babbage's employees said that they felt Marvel Nemesis would fill the gap that SHOULD'VE been Marvel Vs. Capcom 3. I heard Marvel Nemesis sucked, and I saw some kids playing it in store, and it didn't look like it played out too well. That, and I don't think that any of them have heard of Ogre Battle. Ever.

[Dire 51]

Boy, am I glad the GameStop I lived near in Georgia (and later worked at over the holidays in '04) had some actual GAMERS working there. They knew what they were talking about, they weren't ignorant of gaming history, and a couple of them were collectors. Anything they didn't know about that they heard me talking about they wanted to check out. I brought in my Duo one day (you know, when I still owned it) and demoed several PCE CD games for them... ended up drawing quite a crowd. The games that seemed to get the most attention from employees and customers alike were Dracula X, Spriggan, Kaze Kiri and Star Parodier (or is it Parodia?).

Reminds me of another story... when I was working there, this kid (maybe 12-13) came up to me one day and asked to take a look at Final Fantasy Anthology, which we kept under lock and key, along with some of the other harder-to-find PS1 games. So I opened up the case and let him take a look at it. He looked at it for a few minutes, all the while asking me questions like what my favorite FF game was, what games these were in the U.S., and what the battle graphics are like. I point out the battle screenshot on the back, at which point he kind of looked at me in disgust and said something like "those look like GameBoy graphics". I kept my mouth shut... I figured he's a kid, he may not know enough if he's valuing graphics over gameplay.

Then he said "Well, I don't know, I was expecting graphics more like FF 7, 8 or 9". At that point, I said to him "You know, if you end up passing up a game because the graphics aren't what you were expecting, you might be passing up one of the greatest games you've ever played. You'll never know, either, unless you try it. Think about that." He nodded, then walked away.

Five minutes later he and his mother walked up to the counter and bought the game. He never came back to return it either, so I'm guessing he either loved it or got rid of it another way. I'd like to think he loved it, but I'll never know for sure.

[rbudrick]

Reminds me of another story... when I was working there, this kid (maybe 12-13) came up to me one day and asked to take a look at Final Fantasy Anthology, which we kept under lock and key, along with some of the other harder-to-find PS1 games. So I opened up the case and let him take a look at it. He looked at it for a few minutes, all the while asking me questions like what my favorite FF game was, what games these were in the U.S., and what the battle graphics are like. I point out the battle screenshot on the back, at which point he kind of looked at me in disgust and said something like "those look like GameBoy graphics". I kept my mouth shut... I figured he's a kid, he may not know enough if he's valuing graphics over gameplay.

Then he said "Well, I don't know, I was expecting graphics more like FF 7, 8 or 9". At that point, I said to him "You know, if you end up passing up a game because the graphics aren't what you were expecting, you might be passing up one of the greatest games you've ever played. You'll never know, either, unless you try it. Think about that." He nodded, then walked away.

Five minutes later he and his mother walked up to the counter and bought the game. He never came back to return it either, so I'm guessing he either loved it or got rid of it another way. I'd like to think he loved it, but I'll never know for sure.

Good man, Dire. Good man. Sometimes it just takes the right propaganda to convert them young'uns/nonbelievers.

-Rob

[segarocks30]

ive had a few encounters like that -- man do they piss me off

ive had a couple where the @ssmunch tells me they dont cary a game and i find it my self - b@stards !! That happened to me at EB games.I saw a Rolo To the rescue game there once.I decided to buy it another time.My dad went out and got it.But the clerk said he did not have that game for a long time.Of course when i go there,I found it in the boxed genesis games.The clerk only looked at the loose genny games.What an asshole! :angry: :roll: :rockets:

[Dire 51]

Good man, Dire. Good man. Sometimes it just takes the right propaganda to convert them young'uns/nonbelievers.

And I'd do it again in a second if I had the chance.

[cyberfluxor]

It's not that I have problems with the employees, it's more of a matter of that they can't help me much because what I'm usually looking for, they don't have. Game Stops and EB Games I've practically given up on because the only things they have are N64, PS1, and GB games I might buy, but are usually over-priced compaired to pawn shops and thrift stores. I loved those places when they had stocks of GEN, SNES, and NES all over the place at reduced prices, but they were shipped out or gotten rid of nearly 2 years ago now. Usually I venture into those places once a month when I'm bored or traveling with friends. The main places I've been hitting up are pawnshop chains and privately owned game stores. I'm sure quite a few of you have heard of Cash Converters. That place is great for game collectors. If a NES, Atari, SNES, SegaCD, or GEN game doesn't have a price tag on it (either peeled off or never put on) it's 1$. My last purchase from there was Super Mario Kart and Super R-Type for the SNES 1$ each (That's a steal of me). They have 3 locations near me and each have different games. Another place is called Replay owned by this middle eastern looking guy in his late 30's or 40's. He's freaking awesome and when you look at ANY of the hundreds, if not thousands of games on his shelf, he knows at least SOMETHING about that game and it's play. His prices are quite nice too and really close to if not less than the Ebay auctions. The last place I go is Cool Stuff. This place is ran around the clock by teenagers and young adults that life their lives in video games. They don't know everything but they are far more help than the retail clerks. Usually I see these guys chilling behind the counters playing Xbox with emulators of older game systems or playing hand-held devices. They have the largest selection out of anyone but are usually over-priced. The only reason I go there is because sometimes, just sometimes you find something rare that's just what you want (like Toe Jam and Earl for GEN 10$).

But for the most part, I do find that the retail game stores grab these people that know just enough about games to get in, but are more into if they can sell/work the register than product knowledge. If they could learn from the game pawn stores, it'd help us out a lot!

[GameSlaveGaz]

I told her that Hook was a movie that came out in '92. The only game based on that movie came out on Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis, there is no such title for PS2.

There's a Hook game on Sega CD too. :P

OK, well, the point is, there's no game titled "Hook" whether related to the Robin Williams movie or not, for the PS2 LOL

[mills]

I've scored some titles from Cash Converter's too. One thing that sucks though is how they price really old things. Like 50 Bucks for a bare atari 7800. They have alot of games though and they are all realtively cheap. Some good scores have been a mint mega man 2 for 4 dollars. SNES game genie MINT for 3 dollars. as well as many others. They even had a few sealed sega genesis titles like Sonic and Sonic 2.

[Streetball 21]

Ha, I remember i went to my local gamestore which I wont say which one, asked if they carried EGM (Electronic Gaming Monthly), and she said, "Whats that?" I then said never mind and left.