Games Workshop Stories

Umbrela is the worst shit corporations can froce on their consumers.

>go to GW
>one man black shirt store
>"hey man what's up?"
>me:" nothing just getting some paints and something for my DE."
>him: "cool"
>look around for a while, pick some shit out
>check out the tables, some dudes playing 40k
>go to the counter
> him: "we have an Escalation League starting, and we have an ongoing Mordheim night on Thursdays, check thout Facebook page
>me "thanks." "Bye"

I think it strongly depends on the manager in question. Mine is a chill guy who wont push stuff onto you if you dont want

I'm not sure if it is 'official' official policy, but for the large part GW corporate culture is that they are selling you 'the GW hobby' rather than admitting they are part of a wider hobby. They do not compete with other tabletop wargames, they pretend they are the only tabletop wargame.

My story of GW is not a bad one like OP's.

>I bought a Imperial Guard Sentinel

It was missing a leg from the factory

>I emailed them pictures of the sprue and a brief description.

Less than an hour later I was emailed a message that said a replacement was in the mail for free,

A week later a brand new sentinel still in the shrink-wrap arrived to my door free of charge.

Thank you GW customer support.

Didn't look like it. They were all there for quite while yet. The cool ones were still cool, but the manager watched everyone like a hawk.

>go to GW
>they have one of their 40k displays out - Dark Eldar vs SM
>I go over and pick up one of the DE miniatures
>guy comes over
>Oh no, don't touch that

I thought the entire point of having that shit out for customers was so that they could actually hold it. Why not just put a fucking photograph down instead?

stop posting mundane experiences, we're only allowed to call GW satan here

Last gw I went in the guy was ignoring the few people in there and painting I went to the till and he was still painting so I shouted over to him and he was like thanks bye
Was like a parallel universe not sure what I prefer

Why did you feel the need to touch it

So you can pick up a model and look at it to see if you like it and want to buy it?

>Do they get commission on sales or something

They get fired if they don't hit their sales targets, which are notoriously draconian and often shift on a weekly/monthly basis, depending on what the New Shiny Thing that has just been released is. Most GW staffers don't want to act like hyperactive, pushy sales machines, but they probably don't want to lose their job either.

>go to the louve
>they have one of their Leonardo da Vinci displays out - Mona Lisa vs Saint John the Baptist
>I go over and peal one of the paintings off the wall
>security guard comes over and starts beating the shit out of me
>Oh no, don't touch that

I thought the entire point of having that shit out for customers was so that they could actually hold it. Why not just put a fucking photograph down instead?

No, these things are always for display. The models themselves are far more impressive than a picture, and the staffers don't want children and clumsy autists pawing over them, breaking them, and stealing them.

How bad are the sales targets really?

Any former or current staffers want to spill the beans, like 10 big models a month or something or do you have to make a certain amount of money?

Not an ex staffer or anything so there are people better than me to answer this if they want to but I heard it is along the lines of $XXXXXX a year plus X number of starter sets and XX number of A, B and C top sellers.

He took one of the glass cases with completed models in it? That's awesome.

>buy a paint
>go home
>roomate already bought that paint, but i notice it just after opening it
>fuck
>the day after im at the store, chatting about it while the shop worker (dunno how they are called in english, sorry) is painting stuff for the 40k table trial
>he hears it, grabs the paint and lets me choose another paint

What? No. He took one of the fuckhuge cases with foam in it. Apparently, he stashed the foam in someone else's bag, and went to town.

I also remember another friend supposedly stashed a Battlesuit in what he thought was our driver's bag. Turns out it was not, which we discovered several hours later at home.

Ex-Blackshirt. (Central London, TCR.)

Our targets are generally a certain amount of flat sales per day. TCR was looking at about 1,500-2000 pounds per day. On top of that, every staffmember's goal is to sell at least one beginner's pack a day (be that Dark Vengeance or the AOS gear, or a painting kit), and a certain amount of addons. No matter what a customer is there for, you are expected to sell every kind of peripheral to them.

For example, if someone comes in for a model, you MUST discuss paints, white dwarf, visions, other models, coming to tournaments and events, etc with them. I cannot stress this enough, you are expected to cover this with every single customer who walks through the door.

When I managed a smaller store in West London for a while, it was exactly the same. Community second, recruitment first.

Isn't the Mona Lisa in a big glass case specifically to prevent people from touching it? I agree with your point but your comparison needs work

>big glass case

The Mona Lisa is absolutely tiny. Pictures don't do that justice.

Why do the idiots not realise that hard/addon selling turns people off and makes them look elsewhere?

>upper management
>knowing anything about people

Man that is brutal surely they know it's impossible

Because frankly, it doesn't.

New people who have had no exposure to the hobby eat that shit up. And people who are very new want the advice.

Hard selling turns off the vast majority of *existing* hobbyists and customers, but those people don't make most of our money. (In my experience at both major and minor stores, anyway.) Once customers become established, they stop spending, and that's the point where their opinion on hard/soft selling stops mattering.

I personally hate the approach with a fiery passion, and prefer being an actual person to my customers - but the approach undeniably works. And that's part of the issue, when GW stores were the friendly local hobby stores (more like clubs really) where the owners did passion displays and there was never any pressure, they failed. The retail arm of the company bled money for years. While it's far more pleasant for the people working there, and going there, it isn't a viable business model for them, and factually so. I might love working in a hobby club far more, but a hobby store pays my bills.

Eh, I've worked a couple of different retail jobs and both expected me to push peripheral or complimentary products on customer.

GW guys can be a little strong about it but it's not just them. Thankfully the guy manning my local store right now doesn't seem to give a fuck and doesn't give me the hard sell.

Exactly, it's just a part of any sales job. I've worked plenty since and before GW, and it was a part of all of them. That's just sales. GW just pushes more than most, and it works for them.

Might not be pleasant, but until it stops working, nothing's going to change.

>Walk into my semi-local GW store...not a regular customer
>Bunch of 40+ autists waiting in line to buy a garbage Forge World mini for $30
>I walk over to the paint rack, grab the couple of paints I need
>I get in line
>Listen to two "men" over the age of 50 trade what they believe are witty barbs about how the one guy was banned at another store
>Make it to the register, GW bro looks at me with pain in his eyes
>Starts to ring me up and asks what my current project is
>Show him some shots of my SoB conversions
>Tells me they look amazing, asks some questions about what bits I used
>Doesn't say shit about how I used non-GW base models, simply offers encouragement
>Hands me my stuff and tells me to have a nice day
>Manchildren continue to sperg about who is banned where as I walk out the door

There is a girl in our local store that always gets pestered by a bunch of spergs, I kind of feel sorry for her. You can see the desperation in her eyes and she always makes a beeline to new customers to talk to get away from them.

I lived a year in Berlin as a kid and would go to the GW on Thursdays to paint miniatures. One of the staff named Johan spoke english and helped me a lot. We even played games and he let me borrow units from their collections. Really cool store and nice staff.

as someone who actually works as a GW store manager:

we have quotas, yes. but those quotas are set by the manager himself (we only have to increase the quota on the following year by 2% each month. meaning, january 2015 i made 10000$ now i have to make 10200$ in january 2016)
most managers put sticks between their own legs.

regarding forcing customers to buy stuff x y z. we have the store policy to talk about the goals and visions of the players army. we should ask them what they want.

if any of your managers and or blueshirts does that contact customer service, they are there for those complains aswell.

Aforementioned Blackshirt. You're absolutely right in saying that most managers put the sticks inbetween their own legs, but what I mentioned earlier is explicitly listed as an expectation in the UK. Maybe there's different policies globally?

I'd far prefer your way, but in the interest of clarification, nobody is being "forced" to buy anything. But we are expected to talk about all the aforementioned in every single transaction.

That's why I hate going to the GW store. Not only is everything more expensive than a local store, but its populated entirely by creepy autists trying to look cool.

>move to a new city
>GW tanked hard years ago
>hobby shop selling all kind of miniature ranges is thriving with an awesome community
>GD-winning minis in all the shelves and players for every kind of games
>go back to home city for the WE
>both GW are one-man stores, empty bar a handful of grognards who play 40k complaining about the game

The best part being, one of the regulars actually lives in my come city but drives 2 hours every Friday and Saturday only to play here.

>Walk into GW with friend (our intent was to buy some paint)
GWG: "uhhhhh.... can I help... you?"
>Just here to look at some paint thanks
GWG: "uhhhh... look or buy?"
>What?
GWG: "Are you looking at paint or buying some"
>Well... erm... lets see if you have what we want?
GWG: "What paint are you looking for"
>Do you have Baharroth Blue?
GWG: "Uhhh... we only sell Citadel paints here, not other brands"
>(friend) Holy shit... it IS a citadel paint
GWG: "Never heard of it"
>It's an edge paint?
GWG: "Uhhhhh we don't... *sell* those in store
>(friend) Fucking hell I'm done, lets go

Last time I went into a GW, so whenever the Edge paints were released

GW Customer Support have always been bro's.

Way back in the days when Mordheim first came out, the rulebook in the box set I got hadn't been bound correctly. Nothing major, just an annoyance. Got in touch with customer support asking if they could replace the rulebook.

Two weeks later I got another copy of the Mordheim box set in the mail.

>come
Home*

>Walk into closest official GW store
>Need some Air paints of Baneblade Brown for doing some scenery so it matches my Agrellan Earth basing scheme.
>I'm not hand painting that shit, it would take a gorillion years.

>Store is dead, couple neckbeards in the back painting marines
>"Hey man, I'm not seeing any air paints here, do you have any in stock?"
>"Well, we don't NORMALLY carry air paints because MOST hobbyists paint by hand. I can order them, it'll only take a week."
>The way he says it, it's almost like he's trying to make me feel bad, as if I'm some sort of heretic for wanting a product I assumed he would carry.

>Leave store
>Drive to further away locally owned game store
>Full selection of Air paints, everything GW is always 25% off
>Haven't been back to official GW store, even for small purchases where gas money cancels out the cost savings.

>25% off

source please

>go into GW
>ask if anyone wants to play a match AoS
>no one around other than a few 40k player
>redshirt wants to play

Oh boy, all those stories I read on Veeky Forums

>plays a lizzard list
>herewego.jpg
>no slann
>mostly skins with a few big beasts
>play a mission out of a random sourcebook
>having a blast
>talking about the leaked stuff and how points might change the game
>talk about cool unit combos
>he even give me a link to a "how to build your own jezzail" tutorial because the mailorder ones are way too expensive
>overall really enjoyable experience
>looking forward to playing him again

I wish I could post a horror story, but so far my experience has been mostly positive.

We're all about made up dank memes in here I'm afraid

Mugu Games in WA.

Do they do online shopping/mail orders to NSW?

As far as I know, they only do in-person sales.

Damn. I'm about to do a $1,300 order, and 25% off would be an absolute godsend.

Walks into our local GW with my mate, we go there frequently and there have been a few managers in the time we have been there. The current one at the time of the story was an ex-Starbucks american control freak woman with a plethora of triggers. Through are time there had been sanctions on FW miniatures, many debates about her policy and general attitude and the conclusion that she couldnt cope with not being in control of a bunch of sperge lords instead of our rather well rounded community.

Walks into GW to pick up bits with my mate, thinking of starting 30K blood angels and doing a model for Nassir Amit...

>Me: I wonder what i could use for him to give a bit of BA look
>Mate: Maybe some of the sanguinary guard nipple plate but battered and damaged?
>Me: Good idea but i'd want him in MK3 legs and backpack, do you have any of those bits spare that i could trade or maybe buy off you??

The manager hears this and comes storming over...

>GW: Why are you talking about FW in my store and trying to sell it in here???? I've spoke to you all before about this why do you keep trying to sell it in my store?

She begins to slowly lose control over herself as i try and explain i want sang guard and then some legs from my friend, she proceeds to keep overreacting, then goes red in the face and scream at me to 'stop selling FW in her store' and throws something at me to stop talking about it.

Needless to say she then said to our community at the store to stop coming in for as much as we did as we scared off new customers with a 'full store', saying that because we didn't spend money as much as she wanted we weren't as welcome as those who did. Thankfully she fucked off to plague some other poor GW where she now posts 'hobby related memes' to try sell miniatures on the store FB page.

"ex-Starbucks american control freak woman"

This happened at Twickenham, didn't it? Diana?

>GW is always 25% off

Do that actually happen?

>playing age of smegma.

>be younger me
>go to my local GW
>it's the golden years back when the hobby was good
>1947
>walk in, death metal blaring at ear shattering levels
>"I AM THE LORD OF HATE I AM SATAN'S HERALD"
>employees shooing heroin and playing a game
>there's hundreds of tables with hand made terrain
>pick up some paints in dropper bottles
>go over the robust space marine shelf
>grab a battle box
>120 miniatures for $9.99
>wonder why GW seemed to have raised the price since last time I came in
>go to the cash register
>employee rings me up
>say thanks
>he invites me over to his house to drink

you guys don't know how bad you have it

>walk into store
>"Can I help you find anything?"
>tell the redshirt I'm looking for paint
>"You sure? We got a bunch of [SHINY NEW THING] in yesterday, they seem pretty popular."
>tell the redshirt I'm a Sisters player
>redshirt looks at me and nods
>"Paint's over here. You have a color scheme in mind, or are you going with a canon Order?"
In all fairness we had a nice chat about what shades of blue would work best with silver armor, and I left with exactly what I came in looking for.

Feltbadman

Not the user with the story, was most certainly there though.
In a completely hypothetical circumstance, and utterly excluding the admission that your stab in the dark, which I can only assume is a random name off a GW employee register, how would you have come to the conclusion of that name "Dianna"?
I.E, from where would the source of "Ex-starbucks control freak woman" originated as a reference point for you? How might you have knowledge of this individual?

Also, who GW/twicks/ here? tfw people in pubs actively try to murder and rape us^^

>walk into store
>"Can I help you find anything?"
>tell the redshirt I'm looking for paint
>"You sure? We got a bunch of [SHINY NEW THING] in yesterday, they seem pretty popular."
>tell the redshirt I'm a Sisters player
>redshirt looks at me and nods
>we exchange the secret handshake and he leads me into the backroom
>when he's sure we're alone he pushes aside a mountain of ork and dark eldar starter boxes to reveal an ancient staircase
>he pulls a torch off the wall and leads the way down
>as we go deeper and deeper I notice the walls are adorned with the dust covered skulls of other sisters of battle players, and I make the sign of the Aquila in their honour
>after a few hours we come to an small room with a man inside
>this new man stood seven feet tall, completely naked aside from a leather apron and games workshop employee pin
>the redshirt and leatherman gave each other nods and leatherman pulled out a hammer and went to work on the anvil behind him
>after about an hour he finished and presented me with two sisters of battle
>me and redshirt make the sign of the aquila and leave

It wasn't until I got home that I realised I'd completely forgotten to buy the paint.

I'm convinced upper management are grown in a sterile laboratory environment, raised by robots and taught with a strict regimen of detached and vaguely wrong information, then flash-implanted with some sort of vague human experience and memory.

I'm one of her best friends. Also know the current manager of Twicks. I'm the aforementioned Blackshirt. I mentioned it because this cunt is full of shit. That never happened. I've never once in years known her to raise her voice at anyone.

Let alone if a manager "threw" things at customers, they'd be fired on the spot once it was proven.

There used to be a group of neckbeards in Twicks who would constantly complain they weren't allowed to bring in FW gear and shit all over newbies with it. Guessing this guy is one of them.

Why do you have to go on the internet and tell lies, user?

>bought a finecast with huge bubbles on it , like shit tier emmental cheese.
>ask the black shirt in front of me another box
>"wtf models are new there is no problem with this malekith I can't give you another lol"

Came on Saturday with a empty eastpack and loaded the shit out of it with whatever I wanted to recoup the loss.
probably made $250 discount.

go into any flgs they will do a discount for you faggot. learn to trade retard.
no one will ever say "yeah no I won't take this $1000 from you you know, try to give that grand to the next store"

Wherever it happens its alienating and puts people off coming back. Yet people act like its effective.

Frankly if somebody tells you it works they are insulting your intelligence or are assuming you are a worthless pushover.

Garbage bags

ring up ANY private owner store and i can guarantee they will help you.

Not much of a story since i am into historical now:
>Find my old space marines from when i was a kid
>Decide to strip and Ultra marine the fuck out of em
>Lurk on Veeky Forums and understand grav guns are the new and really powerful (1.5 years ago?)
>Cool guess i will pick up some of those and some plasma rifles
>Go to GW store in Amsterdam.
>See a bunch of 12-14 year olds painting
>Some giant robot thing which i had never seen. Realize it is not a warhound. Awh gawd its some sort of shitty mini titan.
>See the box
>See the price
>GW store no longer has a bits folder where you can order from
>2 years later
>Still in fucking shock
never played 40k since, but did paint my ultras. Now into BA and getting really decent at painting. Currently working on 3 BFG factions because i always had a hardon but never played/collected it

Again, will profess the absolute truth that I am not the individual who told that story. Again, I will absolutely confirm the validity of what he said as I was there and part of the long and awkward silence which took place. I know for a fact it was the same day she threatened to call a child's parents to come and collect him for the singular reason of talking to members of the community (i.e, myself) about trading me a few items in return for me buying him box-sets from the store equal to their value. I remember this happening on the same day because I intervened, confronting her that she shouldn't talk to someone as young as he was (he was older than 11 but younger than 15) in the way she was (including her volume, tone and the way in which she gave him the ultimatum) to which she had little to say.

I respect loyalty to friends, and it is only from loyalty to friends that more than two patrons, including myself, did not register official complaints about Dianna and her conduct towards the customers and community. Their reasons for protecting her, while themselves finding her practices distasteful, were assorted from "She needs this job", "We couldn't prove it", "Keep the evil we know, we shouldn't risk another manager", "No, maybe she will relax if the figures stabilize".

NONE of the defense regarded her character or behavior. MOST of the adult patrons recognized how badly behaved and Anti-community / pro-figures.

And no, that person is not full of shit. The comment about
>"she then said to our community at the store to stop coming in for as much as we did as we scared off new customers with a 'full store', saying that because we didn't spend money as much as she wanted we weren't as welcome as those who did."

-ABSOLUTELY TRUE. There were perhaps 9 store regulars there, INCLUDING MYSELF and the debate over whether or not we were allowed to spend time in the store without purchasing items proportionate to how often we could come in and stay.

Well, Satan apparently used to train his lackeys with broken records. I was approached by the same sales person three times with the same greet line in five minutes. In one of the smallest stores they operated at the time.

sjw feminist friend zoned fag. like your pseudo entitlement is worth anything

Dude. Out of the grim darkness of the gloomy internet, an user flings a hammer blindly, thinking of stereotypes and knowing nothing more than what people have said in a forum and that hammer.... hits the nail SQUARE of the fucking head m8. Trust me.

bump

Come, why have you not addressed me in the same manner you addressed the user who told the story? Are you UNCERTAIN that I am a liar? Do you not care enough to protest the innocence of your friend?
Your silence screams that either you know what we're saying is true and want to disengage, or that you think 2 people in the thread are absolutely deluded and dangerous to communicate with?

I assure you, my fedora tipping blackshirt, that the later is not the case.

>be owner of the minis
>pour hours of time and oodly doodlys of dollary doos into my minis
>show them off at friendly local GW store
>fat sweaty nerd approaches
>he has cheeto dust crusted over his sausage fingers
>he picks up one of my minis without asking beforehand like the ogrebeast he is
>in a state of panic i try and tell him to unhand my hard work as politely as possible
>a look of confusion spreads across his fast upon hearing my words
>during later days, that same fat sweaty nerd complains about the experience on a japanese image board thread

Autistic as fuck user.

>across his face*

spellcheck is changing face to fast for some reason lately.

I thought you intended to type 'fat'.

is she hot?

Doesn't matter, the nerd and Asperger infected people that frequent and GW store to hang out are thirsty as fuck for any female contact.

She could have 3 eyes and spider legs and these disgust smelly fucks would pester her anyways.

You guys are a bunch of pussy nigger faggot retards, walking into a store obviously owned by a jew corporation and expecting the employees to not try and upsell like little pussy whipped bitches for their minimum wage and commission is like expecting to not get burned after sticking your hand in a fire pit, grow some fucking balls and tell those employee faggots to shut their traps and to sell you the shit you want to buy not whatever fuckery they want you to, grow a pair of nuts niggas.

the manager at my local GW is a fat chick

hahawhatthefuckgohomepol

Haha is that real?

I'm an AoS fan and I find this hilarious

H I G H T E S T
I
G
H

T
E
S
T

Hot/cute fatty with a big arse or fat fatty?

watchoo think my manlety kishkabos?

That's sick. Can't wait to hit this place up once I move.

im a fa/tg/uy just like you, the aforementioned anons are just pussyfaggots and so is the premise for this thread, it is funny though

>walk into GW, super noob
>buy scions
>buy inquisitor
>go home and paint with shitty paints
>bring them in to store
>the guys and the black shirt all teach me how to strip minis, how to properly prime, basecoat, drybrush, and wash
>get 3 free marines

fast forward a few months to now

>have ~1000 points of Marines/scions
>play there on weekends sometimes
>have fun

If I bought this guy in a GW store do you think I could convince one of the Redshirts to build it.

Yes. Wouldn't even take much convincing if there's not much else going on.

>3 eyes and spider legs
That's my fetish.

Another user with a chill GWG. I go in to my local store every week to check if WD looks worth buying for a read and to check up on whatever tg's started saying. Always friendly and willing to talk, no trying to sell me stuff. I've been doing this since AoS was new (pre Death grand alliance book). I now own Silver Tower and Sylvaneth Battletome. I can stop any time I like, really, right?

Maaan, are you speaking about Grenoble ? Sounds totally similar to what we've got here haha

You can't stop, but you should stop.

fat is fat, fucking disqusting, shes chubby fat with zits all over her and shes like 30