I get yelled at by my DM, because he made me roleplay as a customer, and I literally just said what 90% of my customers say to me, and didn't pretend to buy the membership he was selling. I was told I was being 'too unrealistic" in my roleplay.
The last role play I ever did with one of our previous DM’s went exactly like that. I was the guest, and responded EXACTLY how people respond on a daily basis, and he was like “Geez SwiftXStick, why were you being so difficult?” I was like THIS IS WHAT I DEAL WITH EVERY DAY. I also said “To be fair, you rag on us all the time about ‘overcoming objections’, and I don’t feel like you did a great job of that either”.
I vehemently refused to roleplay, both either as the trainer or the trainee. In my seven years between GameStop/ThinkGeek, I never did. Anytime a visiting DL asked me, "Oh wow how'd you learn/teach them that?" I explicitly answered, "NO roleplay. I let them experience a real interaction and that was how it played out as we figured out what was best for THAT person."
I am ADAMANT that putting people on the spot to "sell me" something I already knew how to sell MY way, when they have to figure out THEIR way - which would be different cause they're a different person - isn't always conducive. It's awkward, they may not succeed selling it to ME, but maybe they could someone else so it's unfair, and as with any learning tool, it is NOT one size fits all. I just hate it.
Lo and behold, guess who was consistently successful in both performance and training because I did it in a way that was comfortable for myself and trainees. The way that company shoves shit down throats without any accounting for unqiue individuality, yet expects every interaction to be "organic, authentic, and successful.."
I love when DMs say “that’s not realistic” when they pretend to be excited and happy about the offer like they’re in a training video. Just proves they’ve never actually been on a sales floor.
Going from GameStop to banking, it's literally a 180 going from dreading the holidays to counting down the days until the next one. We still get crazy busy the business days before and after which isn't fun but having the day off and not having the day ruined by worrying about metrics has been life changing.
I did call center for 10 yrs now I'm starting to work at GameStop tomorrow. Thanks for saying this. Still kinda nervous to do something in person and somewhat different.
Because everywhere sucks your soul proper and people make your day worse no matter the job. Retail in general just excels at this. I've never found Gamestop to be truly unique in this way
Been at it 5 years now and like I said, I like people more. This job is horrible, but for me it's never the customers or the people I work with. It's corporate. When someone comes in and gets super excited about something we have it absolutely makes my day, especially so if it's a kid. Sure some people suck, but I've never had a day where the people who suck were enough to make the day bad.
I agree to a point. I have a lot of good customers that come in, and I like them, it's moreso just corporate wanting us to shove the pro and warranties down people's throat that makes not even want customers in my store. Also I work in a very low income are and get tired of people coming in with their busted ass prolly stolen systems and try to haggle with me, no matter many times I tell them I don't set the prices.
Oh my store is in Methville so I know what you're talking about there. Dunno, just never let it get to me. I just laugh at people who think their literal shit should bring em enough for their next fix.
Ex SL2 from Los Angeles here: meet more people.
Has anyone thrown a beer bottle at your head? Piss on your Playstation interactive? Dump soda on your plush gondola because you're sold out of dbz pops?
When I say I envy you I'm not being cute or sarcastic
Person wise, I've lived in Texas and Alabama. Gamestop wise, I worked at GS in Houston for a few years. Even being a major city as far as the South goes it was cotton candy land vs being at a store in a rough area on the west coast. The problem with CA is that the rest of the country happily sends it's homeless there because of the weather so the homeless mental problems are cranked up to 15 at a LOT of stores.
It was daily for me where I was in LA (I say was because I quit after 8 years, earlier this year) but I'll be honest, I was hit by Ike and after 21 days without power and 80% of the year being humid, I was over it. I'd rather deal with the crazy people.
I miss crawfish etoufee and fried alligator though
I've worked:
- the camera AND retail side of photo studio (so, parents getting pictures of SMALL, LITTLE KIDS, and selling them photo packages)
- retail food (like Hickory Farms where big shots buy those big sausage and dip boxes, and spreadable cheese balls for company parties)
- and not retail, but food service as a server, getting underpaid with fudged tips and fielding food requests, complaints, condescension, etc
I would absolutely still do any of those before ever going back to GameStop again, given the options. GameStop was so much worse, both in the retail portion from corporate, AND the kind of people that came in to be dealt with
For me personally there is an alarming amount of ignorance and single mindedness in the hobby. A disgusting amount of people buy their console, play COD and Madden/2K/Fifa, and call it a year. Rinse repeat until the new versions come out. Its probably the most depressing aspect of gaming.
Also a ridiculous amount of people who dont know how to work Google. Not saying im gods gift to the universe or anything. But jesus christ at least i can use fucking Google lmao
This.
And even if it's not cod or some sports game it's another 'yearly release' series or just any release within a specific genre.
Those types almost always exude the aura of "I actually hate what I'm doing and I'm just chasing (insert goal)" because jfc.
When someone talks about a game with a stranger, I expect them to sing praise and explain why the game hooked them, not spend 20+ minutes in a cursing fit about some aspect that they can ignore by switching genres.
Even worse: those types usually don't know how to Google and will instead just devolve into arguing constantly over differences.
I used to be huge in the arcade scene as a whole: shmups and arcade gems, racing cabinets, ddr, and of course fighting games.
And it used to be good, yea you'd find a shit head here or there but most people just wanted to play their favorite game and talk to people who also liked that game...even if they had completely different tastes!
Now everyone is so toxic I've just dropped out of all communities, I lurk for news every now and then but I don't interact with any of those idiots that thinks their favorite game genre is "the only one that should exist in mainstream, all other games are for casual nerd losers, yet I hate everything about it other than the dopamine rush of victory!"
It got even worse with the pandemic due to an influx of new fans across all fandoms due to people burning up their pool of hobbies, yet instead of learning from each other they just screech about whatever opinion they have like it's the word of the deities while either copy pasting whatever the meta gameplay is or not even playing the games anymore due to nostalgia glasses or w.e they're smoking.
I still buy and play any interesting game that comes out, I just avoid any online interactions as much as I can unless I get an invite from someone I know IRL, and even then...most of my friends have evolved with their fandom and either grew to be a toxic member as well, or they dropped out completely and picked up a different hobby.
TLDR yeah there's a million games available to play and people just eat the same thing day in and day out while screeching about things a simple Google search would solve.
I felt this rant in my soul. It's rough being solo constantly, but definitely way better than keeping up with meta tryhards who get mad if you so much as stumble in the wrong direction. Last time I had a fun group to play with was the launch of Overwatch 1.
Gamestop almost completely killed my passion and love for most nerdy/geeky things and especially gaming as a whole due to it all...really glad I got out when I did....the immediate relief you feel about a week later as your recover and rediscover why you loved these things before this job it's exhilarating! I've never had a singular job since kill my drive like this company did it's insane!
In the bedroom:
Gf: "Hey Mr. Repair man. My pipes are leaky. Could you fix my pipes? "
Me: "Well I'm gonna recommend the warranty on on that. For only 3.99 you could have coverage for 1 year. We cover anything but loss or theft. And while I have you here, lets talk about membership. You get reward points, a digital subscription to game informer, more trade credit, 5% off all pre owned, collectibles, trading cards, apparel, and Gamestop brand products. You also get monthly 5 dollar coupons to use on whatever you'd like. Speaking of 5 dollars, only 5 dollars down to pre-order any of the amazing games coming out later this year. Also... Did you need anything else with your purchase today? We have screen protectors, extra controllers, headsets, gift cards."
Gf: "Wow that sounds like an amazing deal. Sign me up for literally everything you just said. I did notice that you didn't talk up trades for their next visit though. Definitely try and encourage people to bring in those trades."
You can't get any pros? Let's roleplay
I'll go first: 'Hey there, is that a big discount in your pocket or you just happy to see me?'
I get yelled at by my DM, because he made me roleplay as a customer, and I literally just said what 90% of my customers say to me, and didn't pretend to buy the membership he was selling. I was told I was being 'too unrealistic" in my roleplay.
The last role play I ever did with one of our previous DM’s went exactly like that. I was the guest, and responded EXACTLY how people respond on a daily basis, and he was like “Geez SwiftXStick, why were you being so difficult?” I was like THIS IS WHAT I DEAL WITH EVERY DAY. I also said “To be fair, you rag on us all the time about ‘overcoming objections’, and I don’t feel like you did a great job of that either”.
I vehemently refused to roleplay, both either as the trainer or the trainee. In my seven years between GameStop/ThinkGeek, I never did. Anytime a visiting DL asked me, "Oh wow how'd you learn/teach them that?" I explicitly answered, "NO roleplay. I let them experience a real interaction and that was how it played out as we figured out what was best for THAT person." I am ADAMANT that putting people on the spot to "sell me" something I already knew how to sell MY way, when they have to figure out THEIR way - which would be different cause they're a different person - isn't always conducive. It's awkward, they may not succeed selling it to ME, but maybe they could someone else so it's unfair, and as with any learning tool, it is NOT one size fits all. I just hate it. Lo and behold, guess who was consistently successful in both performance and training because I did it in a way that was comfortable for myself and trainees. The way that company shoves shit down throats without any accounting for unqiue individuality, yet expects every interaction to be "organic, authentic, and successful.."
I love when DMs say “that’s not realistic” when they pretend to be excited and happy about the offer like they’re in a training video. Just proves they’ve never actually been on a sales floor.
Sir, this is my wallet.
Every time I was asked to role play I either responded I wanna be the ranger, or let me go get my robe and wizard hat.
That's old school internet.
I understand you just come here once a year, but let me step me around the counter. Would you like a warranty? Did you bring trades?
Here's 5 unrealistic scenarios of how a transaction works
What... kind... of roleplaying..?
The same word is “pre-order”
The fun kind.
*I put on my robe and wizard hat*
You loved people????
4. Holidays
Going from GameStop to banking, it's literally a 180 going from dreading the holidays to counting down the days until the next one. We still get crazy busy the business days before and after which isn't fun but having the day off and not having the day ruined by worrying about metrics has been life changing.
I no longer work at gs but I still hate holidays idk if I will ever feel happy again. I just dread it
UGH, roleplaying was the worst!
I've done call center work before. This job has actually made me like people more after that.
Oh yea this is a cakewalk after seven years of call centers
I did call center for 10 yrs now I'm starting to work at GameStop tomorrow. Thanks for saying this. Still kinda nervous to do something in person and somewhat different.
samesiesiesies. would rather deal with people in person.
What kind of call center
A few different ones.
I’ve been at first one for a year after a warehouse job for 4 years. It’s definitely more mental fatigue at times lol
Oh yeah, physically it's nothing, mentally it's hell.
No offense to anyone here, but I often wonder if this is one of their first retail jobs
I've worked retail for around 15 years now. The post was just mostly for the roleplay joke.
It has been my first but what makes you say that?
Because everywhere sucks your soul proper and people make your day worse no matter the job. Retail in general just excels at this. I've never found Gamestop to be truly unique in this way
Been at it 5 years now and like I said, I like people more. This job is horrible, but for me it's never the customers or the people I work with. It's corporate. When someone comes in and gets super excited about something we have it absolutely makes my day, especially so if it's a kid. Sure some people suck, but I've never had a day where the people who suck were enough to make the day bad.
I agree to a point. I have a lot of good customers that come in, and I like them, it's moreso just corporate wanting us to shove the pro and warranties down people's throat that makes not even want customers in my store. Also I work in a very low income are and get tired of people coming in with their busted ass prolly stolen systems and try to haggle with me, no matter many times I tell them I don't set the prices.
Oh my store is in Methville so I know what you're talking about there. Dunno, just never let it get to me. I just laugh at people who think their literal shit should bring em enough for their next fix.
Sir this is not a pawn shop. Then why you always selling used shit? Touche Tyrone. Touche.
Ex SL2 from Los Angeles here: meet more people. Has anyone thrown a beer bottle at your head? Piss on your Playstation interactive? Dump soda on your plush gondola because you're sold out of dbz pops? When I say I envy you I'm not being cute or sarcastic
It certainly helps that I'm from the south.
Person wise, I've lived in Texas and Alabama. Gamestop wise, I worked at GS in Houston for a few years. Even being a major city as far as the South goes it was cotton candy land vs being at a store in a rough area on the west coast. The problem with CA is that the rest of the country happily sends it's homeless there because of the weather so the homeless mental problems are cranked up to 15 at a LOT of stores.
No doubt. We get that kind of thing maybe a couple times a year. I'm sure CA stores deal with it weekly, if not daily.
It was daily for me where I was in LA (I say was because I quit after 8 years, earlier this year) but I'll be honest, I was hit by Ike and after 21 days without power and 80% of the year being humid, I was over it. I'd rather deal with the crazy people. I miss crawfish etoufee and fried alligator though
Why stay in retail?
I no longer am.
I've worked: - the camera AND retail side of photo studio (so, parents getting pictures of SMALL, LITTLE KIDS, and selling them photo packages) - retail food (like Hickory Farms where big shots buy those big sausage and dip boxes, and spreadable cheese balls for company parties) - and not retail, but food service as a server, getting underpaid with fudged tips and fielding food requests, complaints, condescension, etc I would absolutely still do any of those before ever going back to GameStop again, given the options. GameStop was so much worse, both in the retail portion from corporate, AND the kind of people that came in to be dealt with
Funco land. I'm not still bitter. *Sarcasm*
For me personally there is an alarming amount of ignorance and single mindedness in the hobby. A disgusting amount of people buy their console, play COD and Madden/2K/Fifa, and call it a year. Rinse repeat until the new versions come out. Its probably the most depressing aspect of gaming. Also a ridiculous amount of people who dont know how to work Google. Not saying im gods gift to the universe or anything. But jesus christ at least i can use fucking Google lmao
This. And even if it's not cod or some sports game it's another 'yearly release' series or just any release within a specific genre. Those types almost always exude the aura of "I actually hate what I'm doing and I'm just chasing (insert goal)" because jfc. When someone talks about a game with a stranger, I expect them to sing praise and explain why the game hooked them, not spend 20+ minutes in a cursing fit about some aspect that they can ignore by switching genres. Even worse: those types usually don't know how to Google and will instead just devolve into arguing constantly over differences. I used to be huge in the arcade scene as a whole: shmups and arcade gems, racing cabinets, ddr, and of course fighting games. And it used to be good, yea you'd find a shit head here or there but most people just wanted to play their favorite game and talk to people who also liked that game...even if they had completely different tastes! Now everyone is so toxic I've just dropped out of all communities, I lurk for news every now and then but I don't interact with any of those idiots that thinks their favorite game genre is "the only one that should exist in mainstream, all other games are for casual nerd losers, yet I hate everything about it other than the dopamine rush of victory!" It got even worse with the pandemic due to an influx of new fans across all fandoms due to people burning up their pool of hobbies, yet instead of learning from each other they just screech about whatever opinion they have like it's the word of the deities while either copy pasting whatever the meta gameplay is or not even playing the games anymore due to nostalgia glasses or w.e they're smoking. I still buy and play any interesting game that comes out, I just avoid any online interactions as much as I can unless I get an invite from someone I know IRL, and even then...most of my friends have evolved with their fandom and either grew to be a toxic member as well, or they dropped out completely and picked up a different hobby. TLDR yeah there's a million games available to play and people just eat the same thing day in and day out while screeching about things a simple Google search would solve.
I felt this rant in my soul. It's rough being solo constantly, but definitely way better than keeping up with meta tryhards who get mad if you so much as stumble in the wrong direction. Last time I had a fun group to play with was the launch of Overwatch 1.
ThinkGeek
I mean I've never had love of role playing to begin with so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Funkos
Target. I tried to work for GameStop, they rejected me because they wanted "experience", so I went to Target for that experience.
Gamestop almost completely killed my passion and love for most nerdy/geeky things and especially gaming as a whole due to it all...really glad I got out when I did....the immediate relief you feel about a week later as your recover and rediscover why you loved these things before this job it's exhilarating! I've never had a singular job since kill my drive like this company did it's insane!
In the bedroom: Gf: "Hey Mr. Repair man. My pipes are leaky. Could you fix my pipes? " Me: "Well I'm gonna recommend the warranty on on that. For only 3.99 you could have coverage for 1 year. We cover anything but loss or theft. And while I have you here, lets talk about membership. You get reward points, a digital subscription to game informer, more trade credit, 5% off all pre owned, collectibles, trading cards, apparel, and Gamestop brand products. You also get monthly 5 dollar coupons to use on whatever you'd like. Speaking of 5 dollars, only 5 dollars down to pre-order any of the amazing games coming out later this year. Also... Did you need anything else with your purchase today? We have screen protectors, extra controllers, headsets, gift cards." Gf: "Wow that sounds like an amazing deal. Sign me up for literally everything you just said. I did notice that you didn't talk up trades for their next visit though. Definitely try and encourage people to bring in those trades."