THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)

  • 14 Dec 2024, 14:14
  • Welcome, Guest
Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  
Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: Why you should be nice to your video game clerk  (Read 6454 times)

Emaline

  • Lovecraftian nightmare
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2,796
  • Drink, Drank, DRUNK

Alternative title: A day in the life of a video game clerk.



I realize that this is kind blog posty, but I thought some of you might get a kick out of it. Some of you might enjoy knowing what some video game clerks go though daily.



The other day, this wonderfully hooiser^ couple came in. Complete with spandex stretch pants on the wife's sausagey legs, and a dirty Nascar cap on the husband. I am standing behind the counter and the man brings up a video game, PS1's GTA(the first one). Our conversation is as follows:

Nascar Man: (turning disc around, and repeatedly point to a picture, a screenshot from the game. Top down view)"Is this how it looks????"
Me: "Is that how the game looks? Yes."
Spandex wife: "Well, we ain't want that, honey."
Me: "The original GTAs all looked like that. It's how all the first few ones looked."
Man: "..."
Wife: "..."
Me: "Alright?"
Man: "Well it ain't alright!"
Me: "okay......"

I walked away at that point. There was obviously nothing I could do to help that man.

A while later, the beautiful couple moseys on up to the register. Immediately spotting the coupons we are utting in our bags, the wife dives over, and snatches one up with her little porky hands. My coworker spots this.

Coworker: Did you just take that coupon ff the counter?
Wife: No, ya'll gave it to me the last time I was here.

I don't think she conversed with her much after that. We had a long line, and only two of us were working. Sometimes, its just easier to not argue.

After my coworker rang them up, and I handed them their things(no, they didn't get GTA), and thanked them and wished them a nice day and all that typical nice stuff that store clerks tell you, the hillbilly couple starts to leave. But! Not before Nascar man mutters under his breath:

"Next time I come to Slackers*, I should wear earrings, so I can look like a Slacker."


I guess this was a comment about my piercings. You know, we let them use the damn stolen coupon, I was nice to them, I attempted to help them, and we probably even gave them more coupons. And all this dude can do is be a fucking douchebag. This is why I often hate my job.



^Hooiser is a local term that basically has the same meaning as hick, hillbilly, etc.
*Slackers is the company that I work for.
Logged
little bitty bird, with the flaxen hair, can i help you with the weight of the cross you bear?

est

  • this is a test
  • Admin emeritus
  • Older than Moses
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 4,157
  • V O L L E Y B A L L
Re: Why you should be nice to your video game clerk
« Reply #1 on: 14 May 2008, 03:14 »

Some people are just cunts, no matter what
Logged

clockworkjames

  • Bling blang blong blung
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1,081
  • Grammar Nazi vs Illiterate Jew
Re: Why you should be nice to your video game clerk
« Reply #2 on: 14 May 2008, 04:34 »

I quit my job in electronics retail because most of my money started going to booze and weed notfor fun, but to get through the work day.

People are dicks. The people who are not dicks are awesome though.
Logged
still new here, didn't wanna piss anyone off

Doug S. Machina

  • Pneumatic ratchet pants
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 302
Re: Why you should be nice to your video game clerk
« Reply #3 on: 14 May 2008, 05:01 »

At least the people I deal with (in a restaurant) are more confused than hostile.

The forum of Customers Suck! has many people who'll share your pain. Good comic strip too.
Logged
Man, if I was the sort of person who quoted things like that in my signature, I'd quote that it my signature.

Jimmy the Squid

  • Vulcan 3-D Chess Master
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3,543
  • Feminist Killjoy
Re: Why you should be nice to your video game clerk
« Reply #4 on: 14 May 2008, 05:14 »

I will never understand why people are horrible to sales staff. It honestly just doesn't make any sense to be mean to someone who is just doing their job, especially when that job is to help you out. On the other hand I was told that I am "the scum of the earth" and "the worst person in the world" today, so maybe I'm just interested in being nice to people today.
Logged
Once I got drunk and threw up in the vegetable drawer of an old disused fridge while dressed as a cat

Dimmukane

  • Vulcan 3-D Chess Master
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3,683
  • juicer
Re: Why you should be nice to your video game clerk
« Reply #5 on: 14 May 2008, 06:47 »

I actually know my video game clerks on a first-name basis! I am polite to them because I frequent their store quite often.

I do have my own stories regarding retail experiences, though.  I used to work at a Michael's Arts and Crafts that was right next to the Light Rail and a liquor store, so we'd frequently get drunk homeless people causing trouble.  However, I'm a bit busy, I'll have to post those in a couple hours.
Logged
Quote from: Johnny C
all clothes reflect identity constructs, destroy these constructs by shedding your clothes and sending pictures of the process to the e-mail address linked under my avatar

Blue Kitty

  • WoW gold miner on break
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 6,964
    • Twitter
Re: Why you should be nice to your video game clerk
« Reply #6 on: 14 May 2008, 10:52 »

The manager of the local Gamestop knows me personally, even asking me how things are going and just generally shooting the breeze with me every time I walk in.  Then again I have been going there since I, "Couldn't buy M Rated games," and when it was an EB Games.

I find that I no longer have to deal with people being angry at me for doing my job, then again I deliver flowers.
Logged

0bsessions

  • Born in a Nalgene bottle
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3,242
  • Change Is Taking the Seventh Dick
    • Quiki
Re: Why you should be nice to your video game clerk
« Reply #7 on: 14 May 2008, 10:54 »

I'd have to say: I think this thread belongs in I LIKE HURR more than here. It really has more to do with people and their mannerisms than video games. The fact you work in a video game store is more incidental to the story than anything, this could've happened anywhere.

I worked in retail from the age of sixteen to roughly twenty-two, so I got a good six years of it. Across that time I'd worked at multiple retail spots (From Wal-Mart to Target to Circuit City Express to Best Buy to a cell phone accessory kiosk to part timing at another Circuit City WHILE working the cell phone place to a cell phone dealer for Nextel and T-Mobile). Honestly speaking, if one takes into account the sheer amount of people you deal with in retail, it's really not all that bad.

I can still remember my first "nightmare customer" at Wal-Mart. I'd been there like a week. On average, your worst customer at a Wal-Mart is going to be a middle aged guy. I was working in the electronics department and this guy comes moseying up (Oh yes, he entirely moseyed) with a carriage full of junk from other departments. Typically, we're supposed to send anyone with more than twelve items up to the front, but it was slow and I felt generous. Upon ringing him up, the guy starts berating me. Tells me I did it wrong and calls me incompetent and blah blah. I say fine and hand the guy a calculator. I tell him that if he's so certain MY REGISTER somehow added up his items wrong (I scanned down the totals and there were no duplicate items, so I didn't scan anything twice), he can add up the price tags himself and I'll adjust it appropriately to find my "mistake." He comes to the same total, starts bitching again and storms off.

First in a long line. I've been publicly berated, threatened with violence (Literally), SEEN coworkers threatened with violence, talked down to, called intimidating (This one actually drew a laugh from my boss), etc. I've dealt with countless situations mirroring each of the situations detailed in this thread (Through the majority of my job at the cell phone accessory dealer, I was covered in piercings and I've dealt with tons of hagglers).

Overall, though, in the grand scheme of things, even if you get one of these twats once every shift, that's still on average about one percent of all customers compared to 99% decent to really awesome customers. I've also now spent a good few years on the other side of the fence and noticed that a lot of retail workers really are condescending, patronizing twats most of the time (Guilty myself in retrospect) or completely incompetent. This isn't always the case, and when I deal with the former, I generally treat it with extreme praise. I had one occasion where I walked into a Circuit City with the intention of simply asking a question about cable converters and was sold on a digital camera that I absolutely loved. I hunted down the store manager, pointed out the clerk who assisted me and explained the details to the manager so the boss would know his employees were doing a phenomenal job. The thing to draw from this, though, is that the percentage of incompetent or rude clerks is a lot higher than the percentage of douche bag customers, in my experience from both sides.

I guess what I'm trying to say is: sack up, poor, misunderstood retail workers.
Logged
I've decided to give up psychology and become a peacock
Quote from: Tommydski in Gabbly
JON MADE ME GAY

Dimmukane

  • Vulcan 3-D Chess Master
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3,683
  • juicer
Re: Why you should be nice to your video game clerk
« Reply #8 on: 14 May 2008, 11:46 »

Anyways, one of the stories I had not involving drunk homeless people had to do with our terrible return policy.  I've personally seen a person take a clearance sticker (4 bucks) and put it on a 300 dollar item and try to get away with it.  Then there's the ridiculous amount of batty old hags that come in with handfuls of coupons that are mostly from other stores, even though we had a one-coupon-per-day rule.

Back to homeless drunk guys.  We had a guy come in one time, I think his name was Sheldon, who went straight to the women's bathroom.  Once he got inside, he apparently drank a handle of vodka over the course of 10 minutes and just sat there, waiting for the police to come get him so he wouldn't have to sleep outside in the winter.  Which creeped everybody out.  While on the subject of creepy, there was one married guy who would come in everyday looking for one of our female employees.  He usually had his kids with him, and would say things like "I haven't had a crush this big since high school."  He somehow found out her phone number, so long story short, he got a restraining order put on him.

And people used to completely destroy our toilets.  Seriously, how bad of a diet does a scrapbooker have?

As far as being condescending, this usually wasn't the case, because most of us were as clueless as they were.
Logged
Quote from: Johnny C
all clothes reflect identity constructs, destroy these constructs by shedding your clothes and sending pictures of the process to the e-mail address linked under my avatar

Emaline

  • Lovecraftian nightmare
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2,796
  • Drink, Drank, DRUNK
Re: Why you should be nice to your video game clerk
« Reply #9 on: 14 May 2008, 12:22 »

I'd have to say: I think this thread belongs in I LIKE HURR more than here. It really has more to do with people and their mannerisms than video games. The fact you work in a video game store is more incidental to the story than anything, this could've happened anywhere.

Actually, I had figured response to this would be more along the lines of discusson about video game retail, old GTA, and the like. I didn't expect people to post about their retail experience.



Quote
Overall, though, in the grand scheme of things, even if you get one of these twats once every shift, that's still on average about one percent of all customers compared to 99% decent to really awesome customers.


Actually there have been quite a few days where my coworkers and I have kept a tally going on good customer vs bad*. Bad always wins. Maybe its because we are in such a small town. A small hoosiery, farming town.


*we didn't keep track of average customers. Just above average, and below average.
Logged
little bitty bird, with the flaxen hair, can i help you with the weight of the cross you bear?

Ikrik

  • Asleep in the boner patch
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 765
Re: Why you should be nice to your video game clerk
« Reply #10 on: 14 May 2008, 14:16 »

The people I buy my video games from make fun of me.  I got a DS....they made fun of me for not getting a PSP, when I told them I wasn't interested in a PSP they laughed at me more.  I got a Wii, they spent the next three months making fun of me for "not buying one sooner...idiot."  I got a PSP about a week ago from my dad as a gift....when I went in to buy some games for it.....they made fun of me again.  I've seen people give clerks attitude....but it's hardly ever for videogames or movies because mostly those clerks are pretty badass.
Logged

Doug S. Machina

  • Pneumatic ratchet pants
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 302
Re: Why you should be nice to your video game clerk
« Reply #11 on: 14 May 2008, 18:44 »

Fair point, if the staff go out of their way to be arses, shop somewhere else.

I find that I no longer have to deal with people being angry at me for doing my job, then again I deliver flowers.

Love this quote. "Everyone loves me now, I deliver tokens of love."
Logged
Man, if I was the sort of person who quoted things like that in my signature, I'd quote that it my signature.

Ikrik

  • Asleep in the boner patch
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 765
Re: Why you should be nice to your video game clerk
« Reply #12 on: 14 May 2008, 18:48 »

Why the fuck do you go back to a place that ridicules you for buying things you enjoy? Swap stores. I would walk an extra mile to avoid a store with employees that gets kicks out of fucking with their customers.

Eh...I've known them for like 8 years....it's not like...they're ridiculing me for what I buy, we mostly just joke around.  I've never had a clerk be a jackass to me and I don't understand why people are assholes to the people they buy stuff from.
Logged

will: wanton sex god

  • Cthulhu f'tagn
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 509
Re: Why you should be nice to your video game clerk
« Reply #13 on: 14 May 2008, 20:12 »

If you can avoid it, stop working retail.  Even as a server, people are sometimes nicer to you when they realize you are the person giving them their food. (note that i am not condoning any food sabatoge)

Also to contribute to the thread, I had a copy of Meet the Robinsons put in a Cooking Mama case at my local blockbuster due to one of the clerks there hating me.  Meh!
Logged

Fletch

  • Guest
Re: Why you should be nice to your video game clerk
« Reply #14 on: 15 May 2008, 01:36 »

I teach English in China, so it's not exactly retail-related ...
Most problems aren't with people being rude, just clueless or a couple who can't help being obnoxious.

On the whole, students of almost any age are polite. (uni students are less motivated) Just think about how much money you're making when I convert mine back into dollars. :P

The original GTA was one of my favourite games at the time, even if I found the controls frustrating. Turning speed and the like.
Now I'm playing IV on xbox, and there's almost the same annoyance.
Logged

Orbert

  • 1-800-SCABIES
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 870
Re: Why you should be nice to your video game clerk
« Reply #15 on: 15 May 2008, 12:20 »

Overall, though, in the grand scheme of things, even if you get one of these twats once every shift, that's still on average about one percent of all customers compared to 99% decent to really awesome customers.

True.  But the problem is that it only takes one asshole customer to ruin the whole day, or at least the next few hours.  You don't go home that day thinking "Wow, 99% of the people I dealt with were really cool," you go home thinking "I hope that one guy dies slowly and painfully". 

That's how it is with me, anyway.  It bugs me.  They were wrong, I was right, but I still had to take their shit because it's my job.  And there's no closure, so it festers.  I don't get to tell them off, or see them get their come-uppence.  I just have to have faith that Karma will someday catch up with them, which of course won't actually provide me with any satisfaction.  I'm working on "just letting it go" but it's tough.
Logged
There are 10 kinds of people in the world: those who understand binary and those who do not.

Surgoshan

  • Duck attack survivor
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1,801
Re: Why you should be nice to your video game clerk
« Reply #16 on: 15 May 2008, 13:03 »

I wish I could find my copy of Good Omens, because there's a section right near the beginning that's very applicable to this.  In short, a demon working on spreading evil meets up with some of his more old fashioned colleagues.  They each regale the others with their tales of delicate subversion of good by seduction/tarnishing of an individual.  He in turn tells them that he managed to shut down all mobile phone communication in London for an hour at lunch.  At their blank looks he says, "Look, it wasn't easy" and thinks to himself that they just don't understand.  You could hear arteries clanging shut across the city.  Not only did all those people have their screaming fits, but they then went on to take it out on their waiters, secretaries, spouses, and perfect strangers for the rest of the day and, here's the best part, they thought up all that inventive nastiness on their own.  The effective spread of low-grade evil would persist for weeks.

When I was delivering pizza, I always made it a point to help people out, even in rush hour traffic.  I like to think it made a difference.
Logged

0bsessions

  • Born in a Nalgene bottle
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3,242
  • Change Is Taking the Seventh Dick
    • Quiki
Re: Why you should be nice to your video game clerk
« Reply #17 on: 15 May 2008, 13:04 »

sack up, poor, misunderstood retail workers.

If you can't brush off one asshole customer and move on with your day quickly, retail is not the proper venue for you to work in. Hell, if you can't brush off assholes and move on, society probably isn't ideal for you and I'd recommend life as a hermit.
Logged
I've decided to give up psychology and become a peacock
Quote from: Tommydski in Gabbly
JON MADE ME GAY

Emaline

  • Lovecraftian nightmare
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2,796
  • Drink, Drank, DRUNK
Re: Why you should be nice to your video game clerk
« Reply #18 on: 15 May 2008, 13:28 »


I have nothing of value to add, other than calling you all babies, and telling you you need to grow up. Repeatedly.
Logged
little bitty bird, with the flaxen hair, can i help you with the weight of the cross you bear?

0bsessions

  • Born in a Nalgene bottle
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3,242
  • Change Is Taking the Seventh Dick
    • Quiki
Re: Why you should be nice to your video game clerk
« Reply #19 on: 15 May 2008, 13:38 »

My sincerest apologies. Feel free to continue crying into your blog thread about how unbearably trying the world of retail sales is.
Logged
I've decided to give up psychology and become a peacock
Quote from: Tommydski in Gabbly
JON MADE ME GAY

est

  • this is a test
  • Admin emeritus
  • Older than Moses
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 4,157
  • V O L L E Y B A L L
Re: Why you should be nice to your video game clerk
« Reply #20 on: 15 May 2008, 18:01 »

I can see the points that both of you are making here.  As I said earlier, some people are cunts.  It sure is annoying, but as Jon says you should try to learn how to deal with these people, as they aren't going to go changing their ways for you.  It's nothing personal, they are probably cunts to everyone.  The quicker you deal with them, report the incident to your manager so that they can't come back and lie about you in a complaint then forget about them the better.

These people are insignificant shitstain specks in your life.  If you can learn how to deal with them and move on you strip them of any power they have over you.
Logged

Dimmukane

  • Vulcan 3-D Chess Master
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3,683
  • juicer
Re: Why you should be nice to your video game clerk
« Reply #21 on: 15 May 2008, 18:52 »

Oh.  I wasn't complaining about bad customers I've had, I was ranting more about how these situations are forced upon us due to policy.  It's never gotten to me, though; I just went home and played Halo/Call of Duty/Gears of War for an hour or so to vent.  Besides, for every shitty customer I had, there was at least one little old lady giving me a couple bucks to carry stuff out to her car.

This is a snarky description of what our average customer was like, though.  (not me in the video, dude has terrible locks)
Logged
Quote from: Johnny C
all clothes reflect identity constructs, destroy these constructs by shedding your clothes and sending pictures of the process to the e-mail address linked under my avatar

Johnny C

  • Mentat
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 9,483
  • i wanna be yr slide dog
    • I AM A WHORE FOR MY OWN MUSIC
Re: Why you should be nice to your video game clerk
« Reply #22 on: 15 May 2008, 23:03 »

I can see the points that both of you are making here.  As I said earlier, some people are cunts.  It sure is annoying, but as Jon says you should try to learn how to deal with these people, as they aren't going to go changing their ways for you.  It's nothing personal, they are probably cunts to everyone.

This, mostly.

The big thing with retail/fast food is that maybe one in twenty customers is a dick, it's just that the twentieth person is an absolutely tremendous sack of douche that it's mystifying how they found someone to fill in collect tolls from people crossing over their bridge while they went to Best Buy to pick up Paula Abdul's greatest hits. Just focus on making those other nineteen happy because the twentieth is focusing on making your life miserable. Don't let them.
Logged
[02:12] yuniorpocalypse: let's talk about girls
[02:12] Thug In Kitchen: nooo

snalin

  • Vulcan 3-D Chess Master
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3,540
  • You may Baste me
Re: Why you should be nice to your video game clerk
« Reply #23 on: 15 May 2008, 23:14 »

Swap stores. I would walk an extra mile to avoid a store with employees that gets kicks out of fucking with their customers.

Coffee of doom, anyone?
Logged
I am a cowboy / on a steel horse I ride
I am wanted / Dead or alive
Pages: [1]   Go Up