"GW Employees; Nice Guys OR not?" Topic

I read in an post some where that some guy got Screwed over by GW manager in Australia.

I was shocked, as All the Employees at all the GW's I've been to all in England, (that's England UK, for you crazy American Types) have been really nice and helpful.

I poped in to the Solihull Branch this weekend to pick up a White Dwarf. As I walked in the Guy there instantly called "Hi mate!" as if we had been old friends!

I had a similar thing happen in Birmingham (again, that's in the UK) a few months ago, I went in to get a pot of Green(Goblin Green is it?, why do they have crazy names for their paints? anyway), the Guy working there was really helpful, showing me the range of greens and helped me pick the one I wanted.

From my Experience I vote:

Nice Guys.

I've only ever met the matey sort.

Have ended up having a long conversation about historical wargaming when going in there, all set off because the chap was curious as to why I was buying loads of slotta-bases but no figures.

Mind you, it is years since I've been in one. Most of my wargaming shopping is done on the net these days.

Most have been nice to me but I have met a few dodgy ones. The ones in the UK have always been nice. I would imagine it isn't that much different from any other business, there are mostly good ones with a few bad ones mixed in here and there that don't get sorted out for one reason or another.

I find them a little too chummy.

"So whattaya game?"

I don't game.

"Have you tried the new LOTR game?"

I'm not interested.

"How long have you been gaming?"

I don't game. (in my best New York accent) Actually, I only come here to buy the odd paints because you charge too ing much for this crap. I used to pay less than $1 USD a pot and for a figure, now it's more than $3 USD for paint and up to $20 USD a figure. How much do they pay you here anyway? I can't afford these prices so how do you?

Only been in the local GW shop a few times and I cant say I have anything to complain about.

I think $1 USD is about the same as £0.53,

generally its £2.00 GBP for a basic metal figure, like a Imperial Guardsman or something.

that's about $3.7 USD I don't mind paying about £1.00 GBP per miniature and maybe a bit more for Characters etc.

That's all irrelevant anyway, ( we all know they are robbing M***** *** B*******!),

this is about friendly-ness.

I find them a little too chummy.

well, usualy it's the other patrons that smell like bait…

My local puts up with me despite my "old curmudgeon" act, though they are shockingly ignorant about the parts of GWs *current* lines they don't carry, other than Forge World. Having the store manager refer to LoTOW as "one of our older games" was a bit much…

I think they are mostly ok. In London, a redshirt once advised me to use Tamiya Smoke over bare metal for painting armor!! (A very good tip!)

They guys at the Glendale store here in LA are similar to Farstar's: Well meaning, but woefully ignorant of much beyond this month's releases. They also were a little too salesman like for my taste, and I found it annoying when, after I told them I now only play historicals and Space Hulk, they asked me if 'I was thinking about getting back into the hobby…'

GW employees are peaches. Really swell guys.

I've gone in maybe twice in four years. They just wouldn't leave me alone. I found it impossible to just browse, most of my purchases come from browsing and thinking that something looks neat and picking it up, and they just wouldn't let me look around.

It definately wasn't my kind of store. With all the great stores in this area that sell everything under the sun I don't ever feel the need to drop into a GW Store.

Every time I've talked to Mail Order US (which is really my only direct contact), they've been superbly helpful. Got me a missing part from an OOP set I found buried in a store some years ago, even. Very pleasant, ready to answer all sorts of questions.

I've met two or three and wouldn't mind slamming a few pints with 'em. Nice guys.

Sometimes a little too in your face for my liking, but generally a decent bunch, with a surprising number of "proper" hobbyists. Fave will always be the old Leeds store manager; when the Praetorians first came out I couldn't resist and bought a box; he persuaded me that 24th Foot was a bit passe, and that maybe I should look at an alternative (his army was a rather impressive khaki-clad force that made White Dwarf and the collecting armies book.) After some deliberation I opted for naval brigade style in blue with white facings, which got me 3rd place in the only painting competition I ever entered, and all manner of nice comments over the years; lovely looking army.

Dom.

I've been to many GW stores in the UK and a few in the US. (one in France) I found all the employees to be very nice.(including Paris) None were game snobs. I can't say the same for my local game stores and the people who work there. The only GW employees I had issues with was about 18 years ago at GenCon. (When GW would send their own reps from the UK) The salesman was just plain rude. This was on the first day of the Con in the morning, when the doors first opened. I would understand being a little tired on day 4.

I don't think you can draw sweeping generalizations on a company with global store locations.

I've had some good, some bad experiences. The last experience I had was in the Carousel Mall store in Syracuse, NY. The staff was either indifferent or incredibly rude, with one staffer calling me an hole during the course of a polite but pointed conversation about GW's treatment of the Specialist game lines.

I never go to GW stores anymore, but that's mostly because the nearest one is 300 miles away.

"Over Generalizations. Problem or not?"

When I encounter one of the over-enthusiastic sales types (which I trend to believe are the ones with the least experience), I just run them off and glaze their eyes over with a long litany of all the GW games I've played (some before these tykes were likely to have been conceived). None has yet engaged me in an in-depth discussion of winning strategies for "Oi, Dat's My Leg!"

In the UK, usually I've been in a three-piece suit when I pop in to a GW store, which tends to make the staff a little more shy.

In the US, the only stores I've been into have been in Glendale (as Ivan DBA mentions) not long after it opened (I'm not surprised if turnover has changed the staff), and Ontario Mills, both here in SoCal. No problems with those guys; they have usually been familiar with what I've done for WAB. Oh, yes, and years ago I went to the launch of the original, now defunct LA area store: Long Beach? That was nuts, but it was an opening day.

In the UK shops, there have sometimes been some very cool staff to talk to, like the young lady in the Oxford Street (The Plaza) store who was taking her degree in classical history and painting up a Roman army. We had a good chat.

I find that there are a surprising number of historical miniature-playing "non-fanboy" staff members in the sotres I've been in. They just have to be a little cautious about who they're talking to. I wouldn't expect to walk into a Chevy dealer and strike up a conversation with a fellow F-150 fan.

Allen

I find them either nice in a "come join my cult" sort of way, which really creeps me out or the snobbish "oh I've never heard of that game before".

I haven't been to one of their stores in years, so maybe things have improved.

Most of the GW employees I've meet are pretty decent folk. There have been one or two guys that were kinda creepy, but they didn't last long – but then you also have to consider that people are people – and you are going to probably get a similar percentage of creeps as you would elsewhere.

Overall, my vote goes to "Nice Guys"

I don't mind them in the stores, it's when they come knocking on my door with their 'Hey buddy, have you heard the good news about the new Imperial Guard…' patter and trying to thrust Codexes into your hands that I start getting batey.

Overall the majority of GW staff i've delt with over the years have been cracking guys and gals. One or two are a little over zealous.. but we really knock someone for being enthusiastic?

Last year I did a GW training course for the Elite Stores program, alot of what they teach is good stuff, I suppose it depends on how the person digests the info.

My vote goes for Nice Guys…

Phil (the GW plant)

I have generally had no problems of nasty staff. The occasional over enthusiastic staff member certainly, and whenever I go in and it is a bit slow a staff member does always come up and start asking the normal questions. Never had a problem with them being rude though.

Most of the staff I've met have been fine. If I've found one slightly annoying then they tend to be the bouncing over-keen type but I can handle them.

The guy at the SanFran store I went to…in this cool mall thingy with a dedicated Playstation store…was really nice and helpful. We talked shop about older stuff as I poked around. Sadly…GW stores naturally do not carry older stuff.

The guys who have been working in the in the stores when I visit occasionally in Adelaide, South Australia have been good blokes. They say "Hi, can I help?" and help you or leave you alone. Like Allen I've found that there are a number of historical miniature gamers working where I've been.

After I walked into a Bring in Battle (about a year before they rereleased the landraider) to be greated by "You've got Landraid….duh. The're cardboard!" I found that the Gw staff were quite reasonable if slightly nervous, particularly if they spotted me measuring any new models that were sitting on their gaming tables.

Robert

Casey Work wrote, "With all the great stores in this area that sell everything under the sun I don't ever feel the need to drop into a GW Store."

Where do you live, and do you have a spare room?!?!

My nearest GW store is an hours drive in Cherry Hill
up NJ Highway of Death 295.I don't go much but its always
been fine,of course i'm sure they don't get many senior citizens.Last summer I stopped by with my dad whose in his mid 80's which I think at first they thought we had wandered
into the wrong store!

Mail order is great & replace anything without question.

OD

I have to admit that my contact with GW employees has only been at cons or over the phone, but it has never been good. Here are some examples:

Having a staff member at a convention openly cheat during a demo for one side. I had brought a friend to this demo (Inquisitor) with the hope of creating an opponent. This turned him off to the game for good.

Having a staff member at a convention tell a customer to come back later for an item that was under the table in a box because he did not want to unpack it now. The customer -- another of our gaming group -- needed 6 packs of the same mini for a WFB unit. They had a whole sleeve or two, but the buyer was told they would be put out 1 pack at a time on the display rack and he would have to come back once an hour or so.

Lastly, when calling to order bits the conversation with the mail order "Troll" turned to one of the latest releases. He asked what I thought of it. When I gave it a negative review involving the phrase "codex escalation" his comment was that I didn't have to play their game.

For these reasons (and because the ones that have not been rude have been annoying -- no I won't yell WAAAAGH!). I have since avoided GW employees as much as possible.

Nice guys.

From the crew at GW shop in York when I was there a dozen years ago, to the crew at the store in Orange, CA and to John who took care of me when I called about some missing parts last week (even threw in a few spares) – they've been unfailingly polite.

Wyatt

Quite variable, I've been in quite a few stores across the country. I find the worst time to catch them is on the weekend, there's a lot of staff in there and I think the pressure to create sales hangs over people. They do sometimes come across as overly enthusiastic and 'chummy' which can be uncomfortable, not everyone appreciates people being friendly or invading their personal space and the like. I remember going in there when was younger and was startled by one of their staff who said "hey, try not to look scared!", as I think he realised he'd spooked me.

The best time to go in is in the middle of the week during school term-time so the kids aren't around. There's often just one or two members of staff and the pressure is off I think. These are the only times when I've had proper conversations with staff about the game, past years and even other games. You still get the occasional enthusiastic one, and I've been blanked by others, but met a few decent ones as well.

I have to say, like any other store I have ever been in it has been a mixed bag of responses in GW stores. I have been ignored in favour of painting. I have been said hello to and then ignored in favour of drooling over the latest gewgaw on the shelf. I have been asked questions and given answers. I have been treated like a long lost brother who just dragged himself in out of the snow and cold, no joke if the guy had had coffee in the store I am sure he would have offered me a cup.

I have also been jumped on almost before the door closed behind me. I thought I was in some high pressure sales store the way the guy was all over me. I felt like I should hide my wallet.

It was a mixed bag, however, for the most part I have been ignored in favour of the younger guys that came wondering in before and after me. I guess i just didn't look like the standard GW customer. Ah well, my money went elsewhere partially because of this but then I tend to do that if i get this response in any store…..no HELP, no money!

GW don't target girls. When I've been in with my sister of fiancee, they speak to me first always. They often don't get around to them. I think they are leaving a section of the market wide open, if they produced a line of stuff aimed at girls they could expand their customer base. Girls like female figures. GW seem too focused on the teenage boys crowd.

Okay, I have to get this off my chest because it annoys me every time a thread like this comes up…

I know that most of the comments above have been on the "nice guys" side, but even in those posts the "not nice guys" criticisms have been about things like being too chummy, asking too many questions or trying to steer conversation to the latest products. Newsflash – THAT'S THEIR JOB. And I don't mean in the broad sense of being shop floor sales staff, I mean that they are specifically trained and instructed to do the exact things that people here find objectionable – greet everyone who comes into the store, try to engage all customers in conversation, ask open questions about what the customer plays/collects, favour GW products over others and, yes, try to sell more product by talking up the new releases. They are not asking you all about your gaming or armies simply because they find you such a fascinating individual, nor are they being chummy with you because they want to be your new best friend – they are trying to establish a rapport in order to sell you stuff because that is specifically what they're paid to do.

Now, some GW staff do get things wrong and unintentionally make customers feel threatened, harassed or irritated, and some have problems gauging things like personal space and the appropriate manner of approach. The thing is, GW staff are recruited from gamers, and as a community we are not renowned for our social graces and people skills. Inevitably some staff are less able to judge individuals' moods and reactions to their sales technique, which leads to customers getting annoyed. It may also be that staff are directed to act in certain ways that they themselves don't feel entirely comfortable with, but that they have been told to do by their managers.

The point I'm trying to make here is that all of this is entirely irrelevant to whether or not they are nice guys. Some are, some aren't. In fact, in my experience, most are, though you do get the occasional bad apple as with every line of work. But if you really want to find out if they're nice guys, talk to them at a non-GW gaming event, or at the pub or something, not while they're trying to do their job.

Incidentally, I'm not a GW staff member but I used to be almost a decade ago, and regardless of my feelings towards GW as a business I can't help but sympathise when GW shop floor staff suffer personal criticism for their professional behaviour.

Is this the forum bug?

The last comment (Parmenion) seems completely unrelated to what I was reading above – bizarre…

I've experienced good and bad over the years. Too many GW staff are over enthusiastic and stupid.

I take on board Parmenion's point about them behaving the way they've been trained to. There was a period of years when every time I walked into a GW shop the first thing that was said to me was "Are you familiar with our hobby?". Incredibly annoying by the 20th time but obviously not the individual's fault. A couple of times when they were really in my face I replied that from the look of him his hobby was .

I could write a thousand words on my various worst encounters in their stores (like the redshirt who didn't know who the Perrys were and denied that anybody else made 28mm figs), but I've forgotten the hundred others that went OK.

At the end of the day, if there's perceived to be a general problem, then there IS a problem. And GW need to train their staff differently or use different criteria to choose them.

Parmenion,

While I do tend to agree with you that these threads are kind of silly and can be annoying to some. I do find a common thread through all of the critical comments and that is a lack of awareness and the business sense to know what to ask your customer to find out what they want, are looking for, or are not looking for.

Training to steer your customer to the new releases or whatever is good, builds awareness of new product that may not be there, but to keep doing it without little regard for the customer is annoying regardless of the store.

Being "overly chummy" is another problem in a wide variety of stores and that is just a symptom of not knowing when to shut up and let your customer do what s/he needs to do. Rapport building is nice but there comes a point where you have to read the customer's body language and listen to their responses and then decide whether you should continue or not. Some just do not learn that trick. Not just a GW problem.

I agree with you pretty much and you make a very good point but so do the other posts in the thread. They point out something that is lacking in GW stores and in many other stores, part of which is decent sales training and part of which is common sense. Knowing when to speak, listen, and see your customer is a good thing.

I think that is what is being said here.

Is it really a problem from GW's point of view? I expect the number of kids they snare with the eagerness outweighs the number of adults they annoy with it. And as has been said most of their staff know when to cool it down.

I'm just reminded of an episode of The Apprentice (the UK one) where the teams had to sell flowers. One side had a natural salesman who was effective and entertaining to watch. The other side had a woman whose sales technique was over-keen and cringe-worthy, but it was still effective. That's all GW care about.

I definitely vote "nice guys" well over 95%. And, if they push the products a little it mostly seems to be out of genuine enthusiasm rather than any sort of sales training manual response.

In the UK I've only ever had to deal with one really arrogant assistant who took the out of me for not playing 40kV3. All I said was I don't like the system.

Oddly enough he didn't last too long (we're talking about two weeks).

Other than that I find them to be overly friendly much akin to a friendly puppy who's yapping around your feet no matter where you try and escape to.

On the flip side to my above post I've been to an awful lot of indie stores who couldn't be bothered to serve me as I wasn't a regular.

Typhoon – I think you're right and that there is a problem in GW stores and the way in which customers are often treated. I just wanted to dissociate that from whether or not GW staff are nice guys, since the latter is a personal quality of individual staff members as people, and not related to their performance in their jobs or GW's overall sales policy.

Certainly a number of GW staff seem to lack the kind of social sense that would keep them from grating the nerves of some customers, and can be, as Killer Bob said, "over enthusiastic and stupid". It's a hazard of the job. :) But as Killer Bob also pointed out, if this is a problem then the solution lies with GW as a business and their recruitment and training processes, not with individual staff members.

Of course, Bombot also makes a very good point and one which I have observed from first hand experience – as far as GW is concerned, regardless of those customers who find this approach obnoxious, GW's sales technique meets their targets and therefore works for them. Of course, I base this opinion on my experiences from some years ago – whether it can still be said to be working for them in today's market I do not know.

Another problem I think is that GW don't make much effort to fit in with the wargaming community. They are seen as the Evil Empire because they've set themselves up in direct opposition to everyone else, and can be aggressive about it when setting up stores.

If you go into a bookshop and they don't have a book you want, they will quite often send you to another one to try and find it there instead, it doesn't matter to them, they aren't getting your money either way. They believe that if they send customers your way, you'll send some their's. But this isn't GW policy, if you're looking for a certain type of figure or supply and they don't have it, their staff will rarely help you out in the same manner. GW always talk about "the hobby", but it's the GW hobby, not the wargaming hobby, and they do their best to pretend the rest of it doesn't exist. That is why their staff seem pushy, it's company policy.

Parmenion,

Ah, yes, I see your point. Gw sales staff may be nice guys but may not be so geat as salespeople. The two may not always be one and the same. Very true. Some very "nice guys" do make lousy salespeople.

Unfortunately, it tends to get linked in together because we do not often get to meet them outside of the work environment. Unfortunately, the term "nice guy" gets tossed in when it should read "good salespeople".

Now Ralphio's initial post about the Australian story does have some questions that remain unasked and unanswered. It could very well be that the manager of the Australian store is not a nice guy but we have no way of telling. It could mean he is a poor manager but again who knows at this point. But your point is valid the term should not be used here.

if it hasn't been said yet, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that since GW doesn't clone or inject their employees with behaviour altering drugs, that I know of, that a persons mileage may vary on the state of the freindliness of any particular store. Probably on a day to day basis since even the best of us have bad days.

So our journey concludes;

Result: 90% Nice Guys!

Cool, that was interesting.

It was Genius; Whoever it was Who, called them the:

"Evil Empire"

Mmm that would make an interesting Thred…

Most Ive met were great.One or two not so great.
We have had a few GW days at one of our local pubs…….one group of GW lads were really freindly,genuinely interested in anything related to gaming,modelling and painting.Another group who came at another time were much the same except for one guy who wasnt in the least bit helpful or interested in promoting his own company.He was pretty much in a minority though.

I worked for GW and I'm a great guy!

After all – I'm Good Enough, I'm Smart Enough, and, Doggonnit, People Like Me! – Al Franken said so!

I'm very shy, so I can't say I much enjoyed my experiences with GW store personnel.

That being said, the customer service person for Forgeworld that I spoke to was incredibly nice and helpful.

Keep in mind all of this was probably seven years ago.

"I've met two or three and wouldn't mind slamming a few pints with 'em."

That is funny because I have met two or three who I wouldn't mind slamming with a pint glass.

I think, as has been pointed out above, that they are trained to go for the sales kill. I just find it annoying. Really annoying. Just like the salesfolk in gas stations who try to get you to buy two chocolate bars with your petrol. My local store know I am a wargamer and GW armies are just two of the many I have and work on. I also refer to Games Workshop games as wargames and not "the GW Hobby".