Scott_Rouse
Explorer
No sleep for the Rouse.
OK GenCOn ENWorlders, document your experiences here...
No sleep for the Rouse.
Scott_Rouse
Explorer
The Ugly:
I had the single worst customer service experience that I have ever had in all the years I’ve been attending cons. Wizards of the Coast booth. Early Saturday afternoon, about 2 PM-ish. I strolled up to the counter ->
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Me: “Excuse me…”
Booth Guy: <Looks through me, doesn’t respond>
Me: “Sir?”
Booth Guy: “Sigh” (No, he literally sighed. Seriously)
Booth Guy: “Can I help you?” (spoken in a tone of voice more appropriate for saying “Bite me and die screaming, maggot fan boy.”)
Me: “Can I get a copy of the Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide and the DM’s Screen, please?” (trying to stay polite but inwardly taken aback)
Booth Guy: “Read my lips – SOLD. OUT. FOR. THE. CON. Got it? Next.” (spoken in loud and clipped tones, and if anything, managing even more hostility than his prior sentence)
Me: “…” (a little stunned at the level of rudeness)
Booth Guy: (noticing I’m still there) “Was I unclear, sir?”
Me: “No. Not at all. Good day.” (cold, but still polite as I walk off)
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I try to be a polite person and teach my children to be the same. I have a very low tolerance for direct and intentional rudeness (I'll tend to overlook the obviously unintentional rudeness...we're talking gamers, after all) . Maybe I’m just a little old-fashioned, but this was an astonishing display as the face of a company interacting with the public, at least in my opinion. Okay, the booth staff may have caught some grief during the Con from various rude attendees (such as all those people wearing those incredibly tacky “4th Edition Killed Gary” T-Shirts), but still, on what level was this at all professional or even excusable? If I hadn’t been so angry at the time, I would have had the presence of mind to get the name of the jackass, but sadly I didn’t. I’ll sure as hell remember his face and voice, though. I’ll continue to support my local FLGS and buy WOTC products through them, but I will NOT be giving my money directly to WOTC again. Period. Oh, I was pissed.
Regardless, the good outweighed the bad enough that the ’08 Gencon gets a thumbs upfrom me. The looks on my children’s faces as they saw the life-sized remote controlled R2-D2 moving around in the hall was enough to push Mr. “Too Damn Cool To Be Working A Booth” down the tally sheet far enough for a positive outcome.
Longshadow,
I would like to personally apologize for the total lack of professionalism and customer service you received at the Wizards of the Coast booth. Yes we under ordered the FR books and lots of people were probably asking about them and likely upset about us being sold out but that is no excuse for apathy and rudeness.
See my PM as I would like to get a description of the individual and take this incident up with our show manager.
Also PM me you home address and I will send you a copy of the Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide myself
Kind Regards and Apologies,
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Jack99
Adventurer
/tips hat
Kid Charlemagne
I am the Very Model of a Modern Moderator
I got in on Wednesday with Sir Brennen, one of my fellow gamers from Chicago, and ate at Fogo de Chao - figured that I could eat enough steak to last me through the lean days ahead - especially Friday when I had games scheduled from 9 thru 5. The CM party at Embasssy suites was a hit, and I reintroduced myself to a lot of gamers who I hadn't seen since last year. I spent more time introducing myself and finding out who folks were this year - a good move on my part.
Thursday morning was the dealer hall, followe by my only dissapointment of GenCon - the Kingmaker game I had booked cancelled, as the guys running it never showed. That was made up for by a very fun Traveller game (character creation took place during the game, which in any game buy Traveller would be a bad idea) and got attacked by Vargr pirates trying to take my dilettante nobleman's yacht (my PC was accurately described by the GM as a "male Paris Hilton." I replied, "yup that's what I was going for!" That game sold a Mongoose Traveller book; I'd like to run a game sometime in the not so distant future.
Friday morning was probably the highlight of the con, as Barsoomcore's DinoPirates of Ninja Island was an absolute blast. It may also have sold a copy of True 20, as I really liked the system. I trampled an escaping villain with a Triceratops.
After that came a lackluster game at the Pathfinder Society - I didn't really realize that it was a "living campaign" sort of deal, and I especially didn't realize that they weren't using Pathfinder rules! I was wanting to try Pathfinder at the Con. Oh well.
That night was the Ennies - I went to one of these a long time ago, and haven't been to one since, but this year was great. Moving tributes to Gary Gygax and Eric Wujcik (sp?), and great products winning prizes. I'll second Chris Perkins' class move of asking the Paizo guys up on stage when WoTC won the Silver Ennie for Expedition to Castle Greyhawk, especially as it turns out that Paizo won the gold Ennie in the same product (Piratecat as host: "uh guys? Don't go too far...")
Saturday I only had one game but it was also a great one - Rel's Sky Galleons of Mars. I got to be swashbucklery again, play Carlotta, the defrocked nun turned pirate turned crew member of the Indomitable. This was the All-Mod (plus a mod's brother) game. Fun, fun, fun.
Finally on Sunday, I got top play Mutants and Masterminds as run by Piratecat. Another great group of players, and I managed to make excellent use of my super-scientist's eidetic memory to defeat the bad guy at the end.
Then back to Chi-town! We gave Piratecat a lift to the city, and I came home to rest and go through my pictures - I have about a hundred to sort through and see what I can put up on Picasa. I'll post here when I do - I've got some nice ones.
See you all next year!
Thursday morning was the dealer hall, followe by my only dissapointment of GenCon - the Kingmaker game I had booked cancelled, as the guys running it never showed. That was made up for by a very fun Traveller game (character creation took place during the game, which in any game buy Traveller would be a bad idea) and got attacked by Vargr pirates trying to take my dilettante nobleman's yacht (my PC was accurately described by the GM as a "male Paris Hilton." I replied, "yup that's what I was going for!" That game sold a Mongoose Traveller book; I'd like to run a game sometime in the not so distant future.
Friday morning was probably the highlight of the con, as Barsoomcore's DinoPirates of Ninja Island was an absolute blast. It may also have sold a copy of True 20, as I really liked the system. I trampled an escaping villain with a Triceratops.
After that came a lackluster game at the Pathfinder Society - I didn't really realize that it was a "living campaign" sort of deal, and I especially didn't realize that they weren't using Pathfinder rules! I was wanting to try Pathfinder at the Con. Oh well.
That night was the Ennies - I went to one of these a long time ago, and haven't been to one since, but this year was great. Moving tributes to Gary Gygax and Eric Wujcik (sp?), and great products winning prizes. I'll second Chris Perkins' class move of asking the Paizo guys up on stage when WoTC won the Silver Ennie for Expedition to Castle Greyhawk, especially as it turns out that Paizo won the gold Ennie in the same product (Piratecat as host: "uh guys? Don't go too far...")
Saturday I only had one game but it was also a great one - Rel's Sky Galleons of Mars. I got to be swashbucklery again, play Carlotta, the defrocked nun turned pirate turned crew member of the Indomitable. This was the All-Mod (plus a mod's brother) game. Fun, fun, fun.
Finally on Sunday, I got top play Mutants and Masterminds as run by Piratecat. Another great group of players, and I managed to make excellent use of my super-scientist's eidetic memory to defeat the bad guy at the end.
Then back to Chi-town! We gave Piratecat a lift to the city, and I came home to rest and go through my pictures - I have about a hundred to sort through and see what I can put up on Picasa. I'll post here when I do - I've got some nice ones.
See you all next year!
Rel
Liquid Awesome
Where is the +rep button? Nice job, Scott!
Mistwell
Crusty Old Meatwad (he/him)
(not looking for free products here, just mentioning my experience).
I also had a negative experience at the WOTC booth. And mind you, I have been a super cheerleader for WOTC since the announcement of 4e (heck, since the announcement that Dragon and Dungeon were being pulled from Paizo and going in-house and online). In fact, I have gotten a lot of flak from people I like for that staunch loyalty to WOTC. So I was going in with a very positive view of WOTC, in what was to be my first meeting with anyone from the company in person.
My wife had a booth in the autograph area, and I got to the WOTC booth 8 minutes before opening on Saturday morning.
I had been told the day before that the FRCS book was out, but more would be back in the next morning, and possibly more DM screens though maybe not. So, I made a point of getting there first thing in the morning.
Me: "Do you have any DM screens?"
WOTC Employee: "No, gone, not going to be any more for the con."
Me: "OK, could I get one of those forgotten realms campaign setting books (indicating the stack of books on the shelf behind the counter)".
WOTC: (looks at my special guest badge, no recognition apparently) "No, not until 10 (flat monotone bureaucratic tone)."
Me: Quizzical look, waiting for some more explanation, and then a shrug and I left.
Yes, that's right...no explanation beyond asking me to wait 8 minutes. For no particular reason it seemed. The booth was full of WOTC folks doing nothing but chatting to each other. The register was on and ready. All set up seemed to be done. Nobody could have possibly arrived before me at 10am, because I was STANDING RIGHT THERE.
I would have been fine with some explanation. Something like "I'd like to sell it to you right now, but my boss told me I cannot sell anything until 10am because it's in limited supply". Or "I'd love to help you, but it will still take a couple of minutes for [whatever technical issues might prevent a transaction at that time]." Or even "I'd be happy to do that, but the convention rules say I cannot do that during non-convention hours". Or ANYTHING other than a deadpan "No, not until 10".
It felt to me like a purely lazy, bureaucratic answer. As if there WAS no reason for not selling the book to me aside from the fact that he didn't HAVE to do it for another 6-8 minutes. That his standing there doing nothing was more important than customer service to someone TRYING to spend money on a product he was there to sell.
I could have stayed and waited the 8 minutes (actually, 6 minutes at this point), but decided against it. Why buy at full price from WOTC when I could buy at 30% off from Amazon.com? I mean, I want to support WOTC by buying direct and writing a review when I get home, but if those 6-8 minutes of doing nothing are more important than helping a customer out, then I've got no reason for any feelings of loyalty to WOTC enough to just stand there doing nothing for 6 minutes so that I can pay more to buy it directly from them. I'll buy the book later from a discount source.
I also had a negative experience at the WOTC booth. And mind you, I have been a super cheerleader for WOTC since the announcement of 4e (heck, since the announcement that Dragon and Dungeon were being pulled from Paizo and going in-house and online). In fact, I have gotten a lot of flak from people I like for that staunch loyalty to WOTC. So I was going in with a very positive view of WOTC, in what was to be my first meeting with anyone from the company in person.
My wife had a booth in the autograph area, and I got to the WOTC booth 8 minutes before opening on Saturday morning.
I had been told the day before that the FRCS book was out, but more would be back in the next morning, and possibly more DM screens though maybe not. So, I made a point of getting there first thing in the morning.
Me: "Do you have any DM screens?"
WOTC Employee: "No, gone, not going to be any more for the con."
Me: "OK, could I get one of those forgotten realms campaign setting books (indicating the stack of books on the shelf behind the counter)".
WOTC: (looks at my special guest badge, no recognition apparently) "No, not until 10 (flat monotone bureaucratic tone)."
Me: Quizzical look, waiting for some more explanation, and then a shrug and I left.
Yes, that's right...no explanation beyond asking me to wait 8 minutes. For no particular reason it seemed. The booth was full of WOTC folks doing nothing but chatting to each other. The register was on and ready. All set up seemed to be done. Nobody could have possibly arrived before me at 10am, because I was STANDING RIGHT THERE.
I would have been fine with some explanation. Something like "I'd like to sell it to you right now, but my boss told me I cannot sell anything until 10am because it's in limited supply". Or "I'd love to help you, but it will still take a couple of minutes for [whatever technical issues might prevent a transaction at that time]." Or even "I'd be happy to do that, but the convention rules say I cannot do that during non-convention hours". Or ANYTHING other than a deadpan "No, not until 10".
It felt to me like a purely lazy, bureaucratic answer. As if there WAS no reason for not selling the book to me aside from the fact that he didn't HAVE to do it for another 6-8 minutes. That his standing there doing nothing was more important than customer service to someone TRYING to spend money on a product he was there to sell.
I could have stayed and waited the 8 minutes (actually, 6 minutes at this point), but decided against it. Why buy at full price from WOTC when I could buy at 30% off from Amazon.com? I mean, I want to support WOTC by buying direct and writing a review when I get home, but if those 6-8 minutes of doing nothing are more important than helping a customer out, then I've got no reason for any feelings of loyalty to WOTC enough to just stand there doing nothing for 6 minutes so that I can pay more to buy it directly from them. I'll buy the book later from a discount source.
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Jack99
Adventurer
You must often leave stores, if that is your usual reaction to such a responce from a sales guy ...
Kid Charlemagne
I am the Very Model of a Modern Moderator
I've put up my pcitures in this Picture Gallery! I'll title them later so people will know who's who - I'm not sure of some folks 100%, and I wanted to get them up ASAP!
Rel
Liquid Awesome
Well of course. Leaving and buying a product elsewhere is a pretty typical reaction to rudeness by a salesperson.
Darrin Drader
Explorer
I often leave stores because I dislike being there to begin with. If there were some way to get my groceries and mundane items such as toilet paper and dishwashing soap delivered to my door, I'd be all over that. I do realize that there are places where you can do exactly that online, but they don't have that where I live. Most of my books, gadgets, software, and other more expensive items are ordered online. I'd be perfectly happy if I never had to set foot in another store as long as I live.
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