"GW Employees; Nice Guys OR not?" Topic

My experiences have been positive

I never had a negative experience with anyone from the GW stores over here in Holland.
Of course, they try to get their stuff sold, but when you say that you're not interested, or want so see it first at a friends place ( Mordheim ) of know where you can get it for less, that's fine with them.
Regarding to ordering OOPmini's or bits, they were friendly, helpful, interested ( in a businesslike manner, of course ),seemed to enjoy their job and wanted to make me a satisfied customer.

Up to some 5 or 6 years ago, because I moved on, didn't buy, game with or collect GW stuff and also didn't buy their paints anymore ( too expensive, enough other brands etc ) , but the GW Staff didn't make me leave their store.

I've kept out of this thread up untill now, because, a> I'm the guy who quit because of the Manager, and b> i was a GW staff member for most of my working life before that.
I feel I have to point out a few things. One, my complant was with ONE member of the company. Just one. He was a total no-hope, dead-set Evil man. The manager i had before him was the best manager, person, gamer i've met. And that lead to him being fired. And replaced with a beer-swilling, Flanell-shirt wearing yobbo thug, who threatend a kid in his store, in full veiw of everyone (the kid was also mildly handicapped. I quit that day) As for his skills as a manager, i saw the store go from making $2,000 USD a week, to $10,000 a week, under the first manager. Then back to $2,000 USD under his replacement.
As for the staff, they are TRAINED to do what they do. Approch every customer, speak with every customer, they are even told what questions to ask. It's hard to balance the training you get, with being frendly, with not seeming like a frothing fanboy, or a system-snob.
But i'm sure some of the people working in the stores DO have an attitude problem, that too is part of the training, they are told again and again they are the best, the games are better than anything else out there, and that they are " the emporor's finest" ( i kid you not, we had a poster of a almost full sized space marine on the back of our door, with the caption " remember who you are, and be proud!")
The GW stores do SO much for our hobby, the staff are 99% really nice, understanding kids who are there for the hobby as a whole. I'd love to still be one of them, but if that kind of manager is "company material" it's not a company i would work for. I still don't think i'd even buy a figure off them now. It's been quite a while and i've not even been into a store again.

That's an amazing and disheartening story Vampire, yet I'm sure this moronic manager-type you describe is not a product of the GW recruiting process and was an a--hole before he ever joined them.

The regular guys at my local stores (I have two within easy driving distance) are great – they know me and generally leave me alone to browse in peace. A few of them are genuinely interested in what my latest project is (I've displayed several terrain pieces in their shop window in the past) and I've had some interesting conversations with a couple of the guys about Warmachine and Confrontation.

But the weekend casuals are definately 'Tiggers' – bouncing around the store being overbearingly cheerful, asking the same old stock questions over and over to everyone that walks in. I avoid GW shops on weekends.

Well, there's no official GW structure in Russia, so the stuff is sold by independent traders. In one of the shops all the stuff are my friends or at least the people I know well. Sure thing, I have no problems there. Another store (of the official distributor) is different. I always get an impression that they ( after 5 years ) don't think they should pay any attention to me. I guess they just think that as I came to the store, I'm going to buy smth. anyway :).
Those employees I've seen in Germany were nice enough, good sales but not pressing you. I really liked a guy in some independent store in Leuven, Belgium. I've been digging in his blisters for ca.40 minutes, he saw that I know what I'm looking for (they had lots of old models) so he just adressed me when I needed his help. He also wanted to issue me a discount card, but since I wasn't sure if I be there ever again I just told him where I'm from and we had a nice chat later…