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<blockquote data-quote="Mistwell" data-source="post: 4430923" data-attributes="member: 2525"><p>(not looking for free products here, just mentioning my experience).</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>My wife had a booth in the autograph area, and I got to the WOTC booth 8 minutes before opening on Saturday morning. </p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>Me: "Do you have any DM screens?"</p><p>WOTC Employee: "No, gone, not going to be any more for the con."</p><p>Me: "OK, could I get one of those forgotten realms campaign setting books (indicating the stack of books on the shelf behind the counter)".</p><p>WOTC: (looks at my special guest badge, no recognition apparently) "No, not until 10 (flat monotone bureaucratic tone)." </p><p>Me: Quizzical look, waiting for some more explanation, and then a shrug and I left.</p><p></p><p>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. </p><p></p><p>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". </p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Mistwell, post: 4430923, member: 2525"] (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. [/QUOTE]
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