And this is why I hate game store employees

[Razer]

First off, let me preface this by acknowledging that our resident PO game store employees have shown that they are NOT represented by the asshole in this story.

That being said...

I was in EBGames today looking at some stuff when I overheard the salesman

"It depends on what you're looking for..."

He was pointing out the choices of buying a PS3 or XB360 to a customer. I thought to myself "Now there's a game store employee doing his job. This followed...

"The PS3 will be about 3 times as powerful as the 360 and when you add up all the things you'd have to buy to equal the PS3 IF they ever make it for the 369 then it'd be way more expensive and it will never play Blu-Rays so you should just wait".

Now I may have forgotten the exact words but that was the gist of it. I immediately took back all credit I had silently given to this A-Hole. Anyone comparing something that is not in a finished state to something that is is off to begin with. But on top of all of that I still feel, and I realize I am the one wrong here, that one of his responsibilities is to correctly inform customers...at least when they inquire about products. I mean, if that were his friend in his living room then ok, but if someone comes in and ASKS you for info on something you're supposed to be knowledgable about then it's different.

I tried to push it off as I went to the counter to pay for my stuff. Then I felt the assininity first hand. I got the "Would you like to preorder anything?" speech and I simply asked if they had started doing a Wii preorder policy. He told me no and then said he would look tho. He told me they were taking orders for some games and rattled off Mario something, Metroid something, and Zelda something. I told him the only game I'm interested in right now was Pokemon Battle revolution and tho I read that it has a December release date I hadn't heard a date yet. He then looked at me and said this incredibly stoopid statement...

"No, I don't see any pokemon (pronounced Po-key-mahn by said asshole) game."

I was shocked but still added "Yeah, since they announced it as the first online game I figured it might have a date."

He then said "It is?"

OK, so here we have a moron who works at a game store...giving out completely biased and unsubstantiated info as facts...turning away customers...who has no idea what is going on concerning the industry that employs him. Didn't know that Battle Rev will be the first online game for the Wii? Never even heard of "a pokemon game" for the Wii? Holy Jeezus! The TGS just ran this weekend! It was only covered by every major, minor, and mom-and-pop game site in the free world!

I am still dumbfounded. I have never had any respect for game store employees as gamers before (as a group) but this guy took the cake and ran home with it.

Again, I know he doesn't represent the few quality salespeople that do exist but in my experience he is representative of the vast majority.

I don't care what field you work in, you should take it upon yourself to be at least mildly knowledgeable about your craft. Hell, if I worked in women's underwear I'd try to learn something about it.

But that's just me.

[Andsectoid]

Good examples of the reason employees of video game stores never achieve anything in life.
:checks to see if Shino and Sciler were listening:

[RivaOni]

I have similar problems at my local Gamestation.

Case #1: Sales Assistant telling buyer that Nintendo are dropping out of videogames because the Cube didn't sell and the DS is doing terribly. I couldn't resist and informed him that over the Christmas period in Europe the DS sold 4 times the ammount of units as the PSP or something like that. he replied with "Well our store sold more PSP's" I had to restrain myself from calling Bedford a Chavvytown who are only actually interested in Pro Evolution and settled with "One store doesn't count for all sales, everywhere i still sold out of the Nintendogs DS Packs" This was around the launch of Shadow of the Colossus over here, so around Feb I think.

Case#2: Same guy, told a guy who had pre-ordered SotC and ICO that he was much better off buying Grand Theft Auto San Andreas when he went to actually properly purchase his games. Luckily this guy knew at least something and just said he wanted the 2 games he'd ordered.

Case#3: Chixie heard the Assistant Manager telling some college students that the 360 is playable on Live straight out of the box when you buy the Core package.

Luckily the managers not a complete dickwad and I had a lengthy conversation with him around the time that Sony announced the delay for the PAL PS3. He actually informed me that he'd been to a sale conference with Sony that day and thy'd told them about the news but asked them to try ands take pre-orders whenever someone asked for one, rather than them waiting to hear how much stock they have first (Gamestation do this anyway so its normal business for them) But, worst of all in my opinion, they were told to push it onto families, directly competing with the Wii.

[Shino]

I have the best one for you guys...

Shan and I walk into EB on Mansell road (just for those that know the area). There's a manager and an employee there.

This is before Date and price of the PS3 were announced (I think). So keep that in mind.

I asked them if they were taking preorders for it. We go on to have a pretty intelligent conversation. Some of the stuff they were saying sounded like a bunch of crap... but then came the kicker.

[RivaOni]

I steppe din the other day when some stupid cow, sorry woman, was buying her 10 year old son GTA: Liberty City Stories on PS2. The guy behind the counter was willing to sell it to her, which could of actually lost him his job, maybe I shouldn't of said anything......

[Daijaga]

[Faye]

[RivaOni]

Whats worse with the GTA thing in the UK though is that it recieves a BBFC rating of 18.

This is a lawful rating, meaning no one under the age of 18 is allowed to buy/use it.

But then, I cant name a single person my age who didn't watch the likes of Nightmare on Elm Street or Evil Dead or what have you before the age of 10

[Daijaga]

I dont mind the parent buying their kid that material as long as they are AWARE of it. I was playing and watchign some violent stuff when I was younger, I just wish people were informed about their deciscions. I might not buy GTA for my 10 year old, but I probably would for my 14-15 year old (probably not much younger than when I was actaully playing GTA*

[Ming]