Snooty EB Games Employees

[maibock]

Who the hell do these punk kids think they are? I had to set this one guy straight yesterday.

 

Mothers Day and the kids and I drop my wife off to go shopping(of course after breakfast in bed and gift opening) So being the nice husband that I am, I decide to take the kids and let my wife shop in peace. So we head up the street to EB Games which we frequent quite often. The employees there are generally helpful and non abrasive up until about a month ago when this troll like kid(guessing he's 20-22) started working there.

 

My oldest son is flipping through a gaming guide, my youngest is playing something on the game cube, and I'm perusing the Genesis games looking for something cool(btw they had Virtual Racer for 10 bucks if anyone wants me to get them a copy - PM me). I over hear the employee in question talking quite loud and boisterously of how HE has the most sales than even the older employees..yada yada yada

 

So he walks into the back room for a minute or two and comes back and decides to walk by where I am and a discussion ensues.

 

arroagant EB employee: Ahh yes checking out the older games, huh?

 

me: yep

 

aEBe: (in a condescending manner) you really should upgrade your system..

 

me: oh yeah?

 

aEBe:(walking with his back to me) they have better graphics now.. *snickers*

 

me: listen bonehead, I happen to have an Xbox and a PS2

 

aEBe:ohh well sorry I didn't know, we do have some new games out(as he points to the xbox games) why don't you check those out

 

me: because they suck and are over priced

 

 

That was about the extent of it, he didn't say anything after that and it was all quiet in the store except I could hear my son chuckling from an isle over..

 

picked up Pitfall Mayan Adventure for 4 bucks!

[Happy_Dude]

Good call

 

If you need a new game they have cheap (ha!) Ask him about it then walk off

and a few minutes later pick it up and go over to an older employee

[Witchfynde]

me: because they suck and are over priced

 

HAHHAHAHHAHA! F***in' people...sheesh...

 

That was about the extent of it, he didn't say anything after that and it was all quiet in the store except I could hear my son chuckling from an isle over..

 

Probably 'cause it's just TOO funny to hear dad saying "suck"

[chrisbid]

what kindof prize do they get for having the most sales? Im pretty dam sure that since EB is a corporate whore operation, that they pay their employees anything at all, and probably only use sales stats as an excuse to yell at clerks that dont sell enough service plans. if the person in question had ANY professionalism at all, they wouldnt discuss sales numbers on the floor, but a job that pays 8 bucks an hour can hardly be considered professional.

 

I know its hard, but look around town for a mom n pop game store. They can be hit and miss, but if you find a good one and get to know the owner or employees of such stores, they will give you great deals on stuff, and the profits wont go back to corporate headquarters

[z28in82]

As a fellow Philly guy I was wondering as to what store it is that I should avoid. I normally go to the EB in Franklin Mills and have never had a problem there, and the help is actually helpful, kinda scarey

[maibock]

what kindof prize do they get for having the most sales?

 

yeah, that's what kind of baffled me. I mean c'mon, they surely can't be commissioned. Judging from the arrogance oozing about the place, I'm sure it was two guys just having a pissing contest.

 

Oh yeah and another thing, as we were leaving, said employee was giving another customer the hard sell about a playstation that the guy bought used that didn't work with questions like, "you sure it's not your TV?" "You know how to hook one of these things up, right?". I can see asking questions like that, but it was the snearing way he asked them.

[maibock]

As a fellow Philly guy I was wondering as to what store it is that I should avoid

 

it was the one in Exton, but please don't stay away, indulge the little shit. I know I'll have some more fun at his expense

[Mendon]

From what little I know of EB (my one son worked there 6mos ago):

 

A) They get NO commision.

B) In Tampa, Florida, you are LUCKY if they start you out at $6 an hour... $8 is manager wages

C) They better sell Extended Warranties & Game Doctors... OR ELSE

D)Take any game in on trade, no matter what condition, then make sure you sell the piece of junk to the next unsuspecting customer for top price

E) No matter how BAD a piece of crap a game is, tell that customer its the greatest game ever made. Get that sale!!!

 

When my son worked there and a customer would ask if a game was good or bad, he would tell people when a game was good but make sure he stated IN MY OPINION. But after his 2nd reprimand, he would never tell someone that a game might not be very good. He would take the "non-commital" approach such as "Some people really like it" or "I haven't played it enough to really comment on it".

 

I shop at EB occasionally... store near me is pretty good and very clean & organized with friendly, pretty knowledgable people. And they got a good selection of magazines, guides, and games. I just never buy anything used from there unless I check the disk, especially after walking in one day and seeing employee's running used games thru a Disk Doctor, then asking $44.95 for these games used when a new one is $49.99. They do tend to get a little frustrated, though, when they bring out a stack of 5 used copies of a game and you go thru them trying to find one that hasn't been used during a Rap recording.

 

Mendon

[Witchfynde]

I just don't understand these people's attitudes though, saying "why don't you get ____ new system?" Why don't you go f*** yourself? Gee, don't you think if I had the MONEY I'd just buy it already? Or maybe I'm not as stupid as you look so if I wanted it, maybe I'd be smart enough to BUY one already? Why wouldn't I have thought of that already? Or maybe I don't like x system, maybe I'd rather buy y system instead...it's ridiculous.

 

But instead of going around in circles, it probably just boils down to the employees being young and still thinking they know it all about everything (heh, might as well simplify it that way, since they look at US in only one way too. Nyeh! ).

[Scooterb23]

Must just be dumb luck...but I've never had a problem with any employee at an EB store...

 

I've also noticed that few of the employees are under 25 in the stores that I go to. Always clean stores, even the really tiny one, they are tightly packed, but clean. Very knowledgable...and they didn't even laugh at me when I bought Stretch Panic!!

 

If I can't find it at a mom 'n pop...the only place I ever go is EB.

[Gabriel]

Tee hee.

 

I had a kind of semi-bad experience the other day. It was my first negative experience for the store in question.

 

I had been hunting all over for a brand spankin new copy of Tactics Ogre for the GBA (I needed it to trade for the N64 system I'm currently using to play Ogre Battle 64 on). I hadn't found it anywhere yet, so I decided to check GameStop which has been a pretty good place to find stuff like that.

 

So they have a copy of the game, and I take it up to the front to check out. The guy looks at the game, does a mild snort, and then comments, "Wow, I've had a lot of complaints about this game."

 

I think that this is an odd thing for him to say, as it comes across that he's kind of offhandedly dissing my taste in games (he had been raving about some brand new FPS to another customer a little while ago, so I know his tastes in games are probably radically different from mine). So, I ask him, "Really? Like what?"

 

He responds by saying, "Oh, I guess it wasn't what they expected." I took that as his backpedaling a bit, and I dropped the matter. Maybe he felt he should say something about the game since I'm a regular of the store, and was truly just trying to be helpful. I don't know. It seemed a bit like my purchasing the game was a bit of an inconvenience to him on some level.

 

It was nothing at all like the rudeness that I would have received had I gone into the pen & paper RPG shop and tried to purchase a game that the clerk didn't like. At the RPG shop, the clerk would have said something like, "This game sucks. Only brain dead morons play this shit. The publishers of this game and the people who play it should be executed. Will that be cash or charge?" So, it was really mild compared to that or any other gauge of such things, but it was irritating, and it gave me flashbacks of that unpleasant shop.

[Inky]

Sounds like the Secretary of State's office employees (Department of Motor Vehicles for those outside Illinois) are starting to give lessons to the private sector...

[Lost Monkey]

About 2 weeks ago, I was waiting for my wife to close up her shop in the mall and I was sitting on a bench with my back to the EB store (which was already closed)...

 

I kept hearing these crashing and laughing noises coming from EB that went on for at least 10 minutes before I finally turned around and looked to see what the hell was going on...

 

The two employees.. one behind the counter, one in front were attempting to play "hackey sack" with games.... There were 5-6 cases on the floor already and as I watched, the guy behind the counter tossed out a couple more for the guy in front to "punt" back at him...

 

I left the bench and went to my wife's store to wait for her there, and when we went past EB again more than 10 minutes later, they were still at it...

[chrisbid]

why stores like these succeed at all amazes me. They make a shitload of profit from buying back games at rock bottom prices from stupid kids/parents, then turn around and sell them at horrible prices. Seriously, 45 dollars for a used game is crazy. The place i frequent the most, sells used game at 30 dollars tops, and yet their trade in prices are virtually identical to EB's or gamestop's.

[Intrepid]

My local EB employees are great. The manager has gotten to know me and always knows what's new in the DreamCast department. My only problem with him is that he thinks the XBox is the pinnacle of gaming and he tries to get me to leave with one each time.

 

Good guy. Nice to see a manager of a gaming store that truely enjoys gaming.

[Nintendo Penguin]

I found this thread extremely interesting. I am planning (crosses fingers) on opening a store in the not to distant future. (1-2 years) I am ashamed to say it, but I actually worked at a Funcoland for about a month and a half. You don' get a commishion, but getting more sales does give your some perks... like cool promotional stuff and what not. It was not a hard or stessful job, but I just didn't like it. I didn't care for the idea of pushing the Game Informer Magazine, I don't like talking ppeople into the extended warranty, and I would not tell someone a game is great when it isn't! If a game sucks.... the customer is going to be pissed-off... why would you want the customer to be pissed-off?

 

I am glad you put that asshole in his place. "Upgrade your system" who the fuck is he to tell you what games to like?!?! Not one store in Southern California sells Atari games and most of the are phasing out everything pre-SNES.... why is beyond me!

 

I tell you... when and if my store ever open, I am carrying everything I can and there won't be any "buy this game" Bullshit. I am a firm believer in no pressure.... just games.

[Gregory DG]

Great work! I love to see those clowns get it!

 

I'm lucky that I know the EB employees. One was a student of mine and we'd have Quakefests after class.

[angrybrit]

There are 4 employes at my closest EB World store. Only 1 of them is moody and annoying. I go usually on tuesdays and he's not there. The girl is there. She is polite and a gamer herself!

 

Though you must realise also that they may be really tired of being around 30 years old kids. Those 30 years old are really tiresome too you know!

[Ze_ro]

I'm lucky... we have a store in town that's run by a guy around my age, and he's into older games, and sells tons of older stuff (although he doesn't usually sell stuff older than NES, since he can't make much money off of it). He's always pretty good to talk to, and doesn't mock older games. The EB's that we have are fairly decent too... they don't sell anything older than N64 stuff though, which is always overpriced by a wide margin.

 

However, we also have a few Microplay's in town, and one of them has a particularly ignorant employee. My friend was in there once and inquired about Saturn stuff, since he had seen some there a few weeks prior. The guy scoffed and said if someone brought in a whole Saturn, that he wouldn't pay $2 for it! My friend asked him what he was into then, and he went on to say that he had a hard time enjoying any of the current stuff, since he "notices all the little mistakes" that the developers make! This was because he had done some work on video games in the past... (Yet for some reason, he's now a lowly employee at Microplay... uh huh... I guess he just works there in between games)

 

He even once told us that he knew "one of the guys" who worked on Bleem! for the Dreamcast... and that he could probably convince the guy to release the source code, but wasn't sure that he should do it. Yeah, sure buddy...

 

Needless to say, we joke about the guy pretty regularly.

 

--Zero

[Witchfynde]

I am ashamed to say it, but I actually worked at a Funcoland for about a month and a half. You don' get a commishion, but getting more sales does give your some perks... like cool promotional stuff and what not.

 

Ha ha...yeah, the first one in Houston opened right when Dune for the Genesis came out, and when I arrived on their 2nd day of business, a guy was playing it, which he said they got two demo copies of it, one he got and the other the other dude got. I was always afraid to rent that game since a friend of mine rented it once and kept it two weeks past the due date, losing weight since he didn't even eat much, since he was so addicted to it...and when he returned it he took it straight up to the Blockbuster counter and paid the late fees (pretty impressive coming from a pathological liar...muha ha).

 

If a game sucks.... the customer is going to be pissed-off... why would you want the customer to be pissed-off?

 

That's a good way to think...print this topic out and drop it in the hands of the next d***head employee that says something stupid like that

 

I tell you... when and if my store ever open, I am carrying everything I can and there won't be any "buy this game" Bullshit. I am a firm believer in no pressure.... just games.  

 

Nice to have a person who's hopefully going to own a store actually BE a video game fan himself (see my earlier post on this page about the guy making money off of Trekkers just to make money...sheesh).

[Witchfynde]

I'm lucky that I know the EB employees. One was a student of mine and we'd have Quakefests after class.  

 

Ha ha! What a cool teacher you must be!

[Brad2600]

EB and Gamestop employees around here are not too bad.

 

They know the value of NES games..hence the reason why some really common games are overpriced and the rarities are dirt cheap..LOL.

[Jasoco]

From what little I know of EB (my one son worked there 6mos ago):

 

A) They get NO commision.

B) In Tampa, Florida, you are LUCKY if they start you out at $6 an hour... $8 is manager wages  

C) They better sell Extended Warranties & Game Doctors... OR ELSE

D)Take any game in on trade, no matter what condition, then make sure you sell the piece of junk to the next unsuspecting customer for top price

E) No matter how BAD a piece of crap a game is, tell that customer its the greatest game ever made. Get that sale!!!

Guess that ruls me out working at the new EBX opening here.

 

I worked at a Toy Store. No Commission.

 

Started at $6, took me until the last month of the stor being in business to get to $7 and only because the manager liked how well I work and since the store was closing anyway..

 

And up until the announcement to the shoppers that we were closing we had to "Push the Family Fun Club or else!!" None of the employees liked that club but the head office made us push it. I really hated that part.

 

We didn't trade things in and when something sucked, we'd tell them it sucked.

[T]

okay, this happened to me at EB last week

 

I am looking at dreamcast games trying to fill in some holes in my collection

 

This guy says to me "you actually own a dreamcast"?

 

I say yes

 

He ask " It actually works? Most of them have broken"

 

I respond, "I don't know about that but mine works and i guarantee

it will still be working long after my piece of crap PS2

is in the garbage!"

[T]

okay, this happened to me at EB last week

 

I am looking at dreamcast games trying to fill in some holes in my collection

 

This guy says to me "you actually own a dreamcast"?

 

I say yes

 

He ask " It actually works? Most of them have broken"

 

I respond, "I don't know about that but mine works and i guarantee

it will still be working long after my piece of crap PS2

is in the garbage!"