Quote from: Zachary The First;749568It stinks, because I really love KotDT, and I think Kenzer makes some pretty cool stuff. But that was a seriously uncool move towards some of their bigger fans. One of the individuals in question mentioned it on their forum or in other feedback, and they seemed pretty ambivalent about the whole thing. It left a pretty bad taste in everyone's mouth.

Sorry to hear that, Zach! I don't know what happened to you and your buddies in 2013, but you may recall me - I was in charge of managing the KenzerCo booth and volunteers from about 2004-2011.

My best, hardest-working group of volunteers left at the same (or roughly around the same) time, I believe, so maybe the remaining staff (Dave, Steve, and Jolly) have been having problems finding new volunteers. My convention attendance has been really spotty since I now have a 'real job' and a 15 month old child, so I haven't seen who's been at the booths lately.

Quote from: Omega;751556That is company policy to this very day

No. Really. The company mandate is to find reasons to fire the floor and shelf workers at the shops before they hit a certain time limit. They apply it to visitors too that dont meet certain criteria. Normally is just a "focus on age bracket X, ignore age bracket Y" stuff.

That's just about SOP in mall retail nowadays, even beyond the seasonal hiring pretense. Reminds me why I still like window shopping and commiserating with staff. But from what I've heard from those who worked at GW mall stores, it's the truth (with workers going so far as getting people into WH/40k and then recommending a real FLGS to buy it at).

The company's a real pisser, historically and now. Only if I liked minis, so I could then boycott their product. Go Privateer Press, they're better.

They had a GW store at the Metreon in SF, where they had ultra normal college kid types showing you how to play WH40K, that was a trip.

Metreon all gone now. I don't miss it. Suck it Sony.

The park behind it is still nice, and the MOMA is under renovation now.

The airtight garage was cool, as well as the amc's; I thought it is now a target? Been awhile.

Quote from: thedungeondelver;751610That's funny; there's a very tiny GW store here I've stood in and talked to customers and employees about how cool the LotR minis are for use in AD&D since they're closer to the "official" 25mm scale...!

The one I used to visit was ok. But I did notice the "older customers are less important than younger customers" vibe going on to a minor degree.

Others though have had appallingly worse. Or really good times. Probably regional. Same goes for the WOTC stores. I enjoyed visiting the one that was here. But others elsewhere had really poor experiences.

YMMV at its best.

Quote from: Mark Plemmons;751614Sorry to hear that, Zach! I don't know what happened to you and your buddies in 2013, but you may recall me - I was in charge of managing the KenzerCo booth and volunteers from about 2004-2011.

My best, hardest-working group of volunteers left at the same (or roughly around the same) time, I believe, so maybe the remaining staff (Dave, Steve, and Jolly) have been having problems finding new volunteers. My convention attendance has been really spotty since I now have a 'real job' and a 15 month old child, so I haven't seen who's been at the booths lately.

Of course, Mark! How are you? I will say our earlier interactions with Kenzer at Gen Con (it sounds like during your tenure) were aces. I remember the Aces and Eights demos, especially. So much fun!

It stinks they've had trouble finding volunteers. I suppose it's the same thing as running a diner and having a crappy waiter working for you. You might not see it, and might be the nicest person in the world, but that waiter can have a huge impact on your customer's perception.

Chaosium makes great products, but their customer service is non-existent. A few years ago, I bought the Basic RP PDF, accidentally ordering two copies. Many, many emails and a couple phone calls, zero response. Absolutely nothing. Finally contacted AMEX to get a partial refund, have never again used their online store.

Exactly opposite from BTRC...Greg Porter replied to my issues within 24 hours, problems were taken care of immediately.

SJGames sent me a new copy of 4th edition Basic Set: Characters after I emailed them about a broken binding, so they're good as far as I'm concerned.

A relevant example of good customer service would be Brendan Davis of Bedrock Games taking my criticism of my Arrows of Indra print copy very seriously.

Quote from: dragoner;751689The airtight garage was cool, as well as the amc's; I thought it is now a target? Been awhile.

I hadn't even heard of The Airtight Garage in San Francisco! Wish I'd known, I lived not far away and could've checked it out!

Quote from: Baron;751996I hadn't even heard of The Airtight Garage in San Francisco! Wish I'd known, I lived not far away and could've checked it out!

It was cool, a Moebius designed/themed game room/bar; great before or after going to see a movie on a giant IMAX screen.

A couple of RPG publishers/companies I'd like to point out for their particularly patient, friendly and helpful communication, in alphabetical order:

Bedrock Games
Beyond Belief Games/Simon Washbourne
Evil DM Production/Jeff Mejia
Ganesha Games
Outland Arts
Precis Intermedia
Rogue Games

I hope I didn't forget any.

Any other publishers I've had contact with generally did a decent enough job, so I've not had any bad experiences really.

I've had very little need for interaction with gaming companies, as I've seen precious few fucked books and/or bunked orders.

But I did have some hassle with getting my copy of both Delta Green: Targets of Opportunity and Sense of the Sleight of Hand Man delivered. On both occasions Arc Dream and Shane Ivey did a top notch job with staying in contacts, checking up and making sure things got done and books delivered, with bonuses for late-arrival. First class and great customer service in every way. And spectacular books, obviously.

Quote from: noman;749657I recently had a positive experience with BTRC.

I've been playing around with EABA2.

The main rulebook went from v2.0 to v2.1.  I tried to upgrade, had a complete mental shutdown, failed to do so, and made a total ass of myself; angry email to BTRC.  I was a real prick.

Greg Porter emailed me back.  He was professional, courteous, and fixed every problem I had without complaint.  He refunded the money I spent when I bought the same product twice.  He took a lot of time out of his day to fix the problems I needlessly caused.

I apologized for my behavior, and he shrugged it off.  No biggie.

A class act, and an excellent system I'd recommend to anyone looking for good generic/universal system.

Greg Porter is a great guy! I emailed him about 2.1 and he made sure I had the pdf in no time. Class act.

Quote from: Exploderwizard;751603To this day, still haven't played the LOTR battle game but I have a crapload of those minis.

You should. It is GW's best game system by far.

Quote from: Doughdee222;749615I worked for a call center that handled Internet sign up and problems for Bell South. Oh lordy, the calls I had. The woman who tried to talk while holding a screaming baby inches from the phone, the woman who wanted to sign up for Internet service while in the midst of preparing dinner. The people who have no idea what a browser is, or had none on their 10 year old computer. People who want me to hold their hand as they look at a dozen web pages and explain what every box and link means. The guy who needed help setting up a half dozen email accounts all with aliases. The lady who took 12 minutes setting up an Internet account then immediately cancels it because she's just not sure if she wants or needs it.

And I got to dreading calls from certain states. Alabama! Louisiana! Most Southerners shouldn't be allowed to have a computer. The average education level in Alabama must be 4th grade, they shouldn't even have electricity.

Meanwhile my bosses are telling me to lie to the customers and get the call over quickly to reduce average call time (the most important thing in the call center industry.) As if I have any control over the stupidity level of my callers. Yes sir, I wish I could have hung up five minutes ago but this caller's machine is still junk and he's not understanding what I'm telling him.

That was a job I hope I never have to do again.

I didn't work at a call center, but I worked at Radio Shack after college. This was back in Fall '91 - Spring '92, when RS had 8086 and 286 machines when everyone else was selling 386 and 486 machines. We had to try to make commission on crap boxes, selling to people who thought a computer was something that was in those bad 50s/60s SciFi movies. Remember that scene in Star Trek IV when Scotty picks up the mouse and talks into it? I've SEEN people do that while checking out a computer, thinking that was a handheld mic like you find on a CB.

There were some really cool amateur radio and electronics buffs who would come in, buy some parts, and shoot the bull about radio and all sorts of interesting electronic projects, but they were outnumbered by the idiots. If I had a buck for each time someone came in and had bought a VCR from somewhere else and wanted to buy the cables to hook it up to their television, I'd not have to work right now.

And those people who would come in and have their free battery card out to get their (once a month) free carbon battery... I still can hear the shrill "Gimme my battery!" that some of the old ladies used to yell when they came in...