The Horrible Awful Unpleasant Truth

Well, my friends, the time has come for me to admit a terrible secret. It's a dark and shocking thing that I've kept locked up in a closet with the bones of Jimmy Hoffa and the Lindbergh baby. It is a secret source of shame for me, and I suspect shame also for those who hold my confidence and sully their own good name by keeping that secret for me. Heck, it may make some of you ashamed to have ever been mildly amused by my absurdities. It is a bond which I'm now both willing to present and explain while I unshackle myself from its tainted stain. It is, and has been, my secret profession. Apparently, I'm stalling. So, yeah, well here goes.

For the past ten months...

I've been a store manager for EB Games.

I have a lot to say about EB, and the increasing disquiet I've harbored toward retail even while I perpetrated its various offenses. But, what I don't want to do is eject mindless bile onto the name of EB in some kind of therapeutic emotional vomit just for the sake of coloring myself superior. I want to be objective about my experience. I want people to understand why EB treats its customers as it does and the uncomfortable position those too often surly counter-jockeys are placed in when transacting your purchases. I want to talk about the palpable conflict between customer and employee, the changing face of the retail gaming outlet, and the realities of the point-of-purchase, and I want to do that all with an even keel. While I'm certainly exhausted and demoralized from my stint behind that yellow counter at the mall, I realize it's not really EB's fault. More than anything the problem lies with me and some pesky principles that I just couldn't reconcile.

That's right; I'm giving EB the "˜It's not you, it's me' treatment.

Anyway, like I said, there's a lot of hopefully smart things I want to say about retail sales, the gaming industry, and EB itself. Some of it will be good, and some of it will not. But, I recently realized that before I could sit down and write that article that I've been aching to pen for six or seven months now, a smartly worded, well-conceived, dare-I-say somewhat researched piece, I had to get a few tangents and smart-assed comments off my chest. Also, I felt like I had to come clean and earn back some credibility before being laughed straight off the planet.

The first thing you should understand is why I picked this job, and the answer is an extraordinarily simple one: it was offered to me. EB was a means to an end. It's an end that I've since reached, and so the whole endeavor should be considered a successful venture from at least a few perspectives. Elysia wanted to come home to be with our son and start her business, but we couldn't afford to lose the income entirely, the healthcare, and the steady paycheck for the purposes of buying a house, much less groceries, fossil fuels, and those small packages of Jello pudding I do so enjoy. I had spent an unsuccessful summer looking for employment with few prospects and no returns. Elysia was supportive, but increasingly discouraged at the slow progress, and it began to occur to me that a Bachelor's degree in English Literature does not translate well into gainful employment. I have no right to say that such an epiphany was a shock, but knowing a sledgehammer to the knees is going to hurt ahead of time doesn't make the experience itself any less painful.
I'm trying to recall precisely how I felt when I walked into EB with my over-qualified resume, and I remember it being a bit like a proud march to the wall where the firing squad will cheerfully riddle your flesh with high-velocity pieces of metal. I remember a feeling of defeat with an absolute certainty regarding the trivial matter of actually being offered a job. I left my resume with the manager of the district base store. I was told later that the district manager glanced at my resume and rushed out to arrange an interview, but I had walked out just moments before.
There was a message on the machine when I got home. Two weeks later I had a store. On September 1st of 2004 I posted my thoughts about ending my stint as a stay-at-home dad. The second sentence of that piece, “Today is a hard day for me� was woefully understated. And then, I began the long process of hiding my employer from as many people as possible.

For the first few months as I busied myself with projects and constant distraction I could pretend pretty nicely that things were great. I told myself that I was putting together a store and a staff that I would want to shop at, clean, smartly-run, friendly, knowledgeable, and efficient. I tried not to drown too much under the weight of corporate fire-drills, and ranking management. I had taken over a dud of a store, so any progress was both notable and appreciated. I really did quite well, and by November had put together a nicely successful Halo 2 launch (waxed the Gamestop upstairs, thank you very much) and was gearing up for Christmas.

Then a series of events moved me (upgrade?) to the district base store; a higher volume location in a much more upscale mall. This new store presented a series of new projects all begging to be tackled just as winter birthed the Christmas season. Hours began to pile on top of hours that were already perched precariously on its own hefty stack of hours. Dollars rolled as we shoved anything and everything out the door, and yet the location floundered in well-founded mediocrity. This new Gameplay Guarantee that had corporate buzzing was building steam behind the scenes, and it was becoming clear that my boss wanted it to be what our district was known for. I heard myself saying things about reserves, and preowned games, and warranties, and guarantees that stirred a self-loathing that had been gathering strength in quiet for some time. It was like some fundamental part of my psyche had fallen into a terrible coma on the first day of my job, and now that part of me was fluttering its eyelids and twitching its fingers trying to wake up so it could punch this new me right in the face.

But I was good at my job when I let loose, shoved a ball gag in my conscience's yap-trap and just did it. Mine was a PC store and I regularly found myself in the top hundred of the two-thousand plus stores on reserves for major PC titles. With Guild Wars for example, I moved nearly 100 units on the first day against a month goal of eighteen. And I pushed for a Gameplay Guarantee on every one of those suckers; think about that for a moment; a guarantee on a disc for a MMO. Some (rightly) scoffed at the idea of protecting a disc they would likely use exactly once, but not nearly as many as you might think. After all, Gameplay Guarantees were our district's specialty.

By last month my store was attaching a Gameplay Guarantee on 21% of all items sold. Bear in mind that those guarantees are only attached to actual games sold, so that 21% is relatively low when you factor in the accessories, hintbooks, magazines, and systems. On actual software sold, that attach rate is likely closer to 35%. We were managing to talk people into attaching a one to three dollar upcharge on one out of every three games sold in my store. And, baby, we made them like it.

Now, for the horrible truth. Out of the hundreds (if not thousands) of Gameplay Guarantees I've sold, I've processed exactly four replacements. And, I assure you, it's not because I avoided honoring the program. If every single one of those people who bought that guarantee had returned with issues, then I would have honored every single one. But, the truth remains that only four people came to me having bought a Gameplay Guarantee and requesting an exchange beyond our standard fourteen day return policy. It's all about the profit in retail, and this program was a gold mine. I'll talk more about the specifics of the GPG, and how it factors into a store's bottom line, and how that factor's into a manager's yearly bonus, and about the almighty spiff in the article to come. For now, just know that it's to an employees advantage to get you to buy a Gameplay Guarantee.

But as I sold each one, and pushed reservations, and hawked free magazines, and pressured people into buying preplayed items, and gave crappy value for traded games, I felt worse and worse about myself. And the reason I felt like that is that I'm on record as being solidly against that kind of retail behavior. When push came to shove I was entirely willing to shove aside my bluster about reservations and pushy salespeople. It was a fact that increasingly gnawed at me as sixty-hour/seven-day work weeks through Christmas slogged ever forward. The store was skyrocketing from a rank in the low seventies to the high twenties and I was driving home through dark cold nights feeling appropriately cold and dark.

Certis was certain I was prepared to leave the site. I would go weeks without posting here in the forums (some of you may have noticed my absence through much of winter) much less the front page. My time was absorbed by the store which, despite constant effort seemed in a constant chaos, and my enthusiasm for gaming had ebbed to a dramatic low tide. I kept telling myself, and my family, and Certis that once Christmas was over my spirits would return. They did not.

And so, I lasted these past six months in a passionate kind of hidden self-loathing, increasingly burned out with this job and hating every time I pressured some kid to slap another three bucks on his already overpriced game because we all know he's going to scratch it and don't come crying back to me if it's after our strict two week return window.

And on top of all that, there's you damn people! You! With your inability to keep a receipt, and your constant problems, and your incompetence at installing software, and not knowing what kind of video card you have, and buying Gamecube games when you don't even freakin' have one, and being far too big for that poor fifteen dollar dance pad, and your prattling on about the disappointing boss battle in Generic Anime RPG Five, and your constant misinformed "facts" about how the Xbox 360 will cost seven hundred dollars and float on magnetic suspensors, and your kids that you turn loose on my interactive machines for an hour while you shop at JC Penny, and your “can I throw this half full McDonalds cup away in your trashcan� which you'll probably just leave on a shelf to spill all over Paper Mario anyway! Let me tell you, you people are no picnic. And, oh yes, when you pissed me off, when you were rude or condescending, you're damn straight that I threw every annoying sales pitch at you, gave you the lower value for your crappy scraped up trades, and followed the return policy to the letter just to stick it back to you. Oh, you better believe I did. Remember that time you asked in a huff to speak to the store manager, and I sneered back at you and said you're looking at him. Yeah, I loved it every bit as much as you think I did. Maybe more.
But, that's all symptomatic, isn't it? I realized as the days drifted by that it wasn't that there were more and more jerks coming into the store. It's that I saw more and more perfectly benign people as undesirable. I could have blamed the constant pressure from my bosses, the atmosphere of the corporate dictums, my employees, or just the clientele of the store, but it wasn't true. The truth was I wasn't proud of my job, or what it asked me to do, and it was making me angry at whatever I could get mad at. I knew, even before I had formed it into a solid idea in my head that I had to get out.

Last week, finally, when it really began to sink in that I was leaving, and the pressure began to relax, I started to look at the customers like I hadn't since those first weeks. And I've spent the intervening hours selling them what they needed instead of what I wanted them to buy. I've all but stopped shoving guarantees and presells and used (because that's what it ought to be called) games down people's throats, and it's been easier. Not good, or pleasant, but at least less shameful. It would be nice to say that treating the customer with that kind of service has increased our numbers, but it has not. My personal numbers have never been lower, and everybody pretty much pretends not to notice that I've all but checked out.

Which brings me to this, my last week with EB, and finally my admission to all of you. I told myself I was hiding my employment because I didn't want there to be some perceived conflict of interest. That was, and I ask your forgiveness in advance for the language but it's necessary in this case, bullsh*t. It was all about pride, and my lack thereof. I hope my coming article that I'll now be better prepared to write about the practices of EB will prove insightful, but more than that I also have a strange hope that it absolves me some. Like I said, I have a lot I want to say about the topic, and now that I've gotten some of this personal stuff off my chest I think I'm ready to tell you some rather interesting things.

- Elysium

Comments

Zedian wrote:
They don't deserve articles on how horrible they are to their customers from someone who gleefully endorsed it for months themselves.

Wrong! Corporations aren't your friends. They don't care about you or your family, they care about the bottom line. And as soon as you affect that bottom line, will they hesitate for one second to stick it to you? Nope they won't. I have no loyalty to the company I work for as they have no loyalty to me. They pay me, I make money for them that's it.

For the record, there are some smaller, private corporations that do value and reward their employees. Of course, I'm pretty sure that you were speaking about the Fortune 1000 type mega-corps but I just felt obligated to point out the difference.

Looking at the companies (post-collegiate) on my resume, their peak sizes are as follows: 1 (me - yes, my first job was as an incorporated sole proprietorship; I thought I knew it all), 7, 750 (nationwide though our local office peaked at 25), 14, and, currently, 50 in headquarters and around 200 counting techs and reps nationwide. My point is that there are still plenty of opportunities to work for companies where your contributions are valued - and that's in the small(er) businesses of the world. They might not be able to afford top dollar and are probably don't do as good a job about advertising their opportunities but if you want a job where you're more than an easily-replaceable cog in the machine, the Fortune 1000 is not where you should be looking.

Edit: Another thing to point out is that the bigger the company, the harder it will be to move up, especially since it's likely to be more mature and therefore, most opportunities will come through attrition, not growth. Yes, I'm a big fan of small companies and, if I can help, will never work for any company where I'm more number than name.

Disclaimer: Should one of you be a CEO of a Fortune 1000 and want to give me a job at the VP (Senior/Executive VP if your work at a bank - everyone's a VP there) level or higher, that would meet my "more name than number" criteria.

salesmunn wrote:

I can't believe no one here actually understands where I'm coming from with this. I read posts from disgruntled retail employees all over the internet but never thought I'd see it here.

It's not that we don't get where you're coming from, it's just that we don't agree. The corporation that he worked for routinely closes stores with no notice to its employees. They just come in to work and find that they have no job. Why should he be loyal to a company with those policies? They paid him for a service, he provided it 100%. He doesn't owe them anything.

I'm looking forward to his future posts regarding his time there. I'm sure that'll be a better judge of where he wants to go with the topic. I definitely could be jumping the gun.

I do think you're jumping the gun a bit. You've read his previous articles. He's extremely fair-minded. Wait and see what he has to say before you call him disgruntled. "Disgruntled" would imply that he feels wronged by them. He doesn't agree with the way they treat customers and employees. There is a difference.

I also hope your company is highly successful and that Elysium's harsh words against a former employer don't burn a bridge he might have to cross sometime in the future.

Thanks for the good wishes - I hope we do well, too. He's not burning bridges. His former district manager will always be glad to give him a glowing reference. Elysium is a wonderful employee. He works hard, has a great attitude while he does it, and gives everything he's got. I'd hire him...in fact, I am!

Elysia wrote:

I'd hire him...in fact, I am! :)

You're obviously the company's president but does Elysium get to start at Vice President or does he have to work his way up from the mail room?

Edit: Maybe that should say coffee grinder instead of mail room.

Wow. Just this morning it was all "well wishes" and "welcome back," and in 8 hours it's turned into "Derek Smart is banned and Ely is peeing on EB."

Which is neat.

But mostly I just wanted to say congratulations leaving a job you didn't like, good luck with the family business, and welcome back to the GWJ fold. Please don't go away again.

Damn, well I wish I would have gotten in on the conversation earlier but I want to say good luck in all you do. I just finished my last day as a Teacher and am looking forward to working for the Military. No really I am.

Grumpicus wrote:
Elysia wrote:

I'd hire him...in fact, I am! :)

You're obviously the company's president but does Elysium get to start at Vice President or does he have to work his way up from the mail room?

Edit: Maybe that should say coffee grinder instead of mail room. :D

Well, someone had to be called President in order to incorporate, but Elysium is the Veep. Also the Treasurer and Secretary. And Coffee Grinder. So he gets several titles, while I just get the one. Does that sound pretty even?

PS - I don't drink coffee, so his duties as Coffee Grinder are pretty light.

Since you don't drink coffee, I guess he'd just be your personal Grinder.

Man, this is the best thread since that last one. You know the one.

I have to post here because everyone else of importance has :D.

It's great to have you back Elysium, really great. Doing what you did was incredibly noble. I hope that when I have a wife and son I can make the sacrifice that you made.

But yeah, this thread has gone into strange strange territories. Derek Smart got banned, demands for pictures of the Deva's breasts have arisen again, and someone named "salesmunn" seems angry that Ely didn't like his job. Oh, and Elysia is sticking up for her husband. Your kid is going to be amazing.

Vector wrote:

But yeah, this thread has gone into strange strange territories. Derek Smart got banned, demands for pictures of the Deva's breasts have arisen again, and someone named "salesmunn" seems angry that Ely didn't like his job. Oh, and Elysia is sticking up for her husband. Your kid is going to be amazing.

Well, at least they aren't demanding pictures of my breasts...

Holy crap, you banned this sites only nationally known celebrity. Now that's sticking to principals!

Anyway, it's good you left the job, Ely. You don't want to miserable with your job now that you have a child in your life. No matter what sacrifices will come in the future, being a happy family is the most important.

At least your not an attorney. Think of the BS I have to sling. Sheesh... Have you ever considered teaching? I hear that is rewarding.

Elysia wrote:

Well, at least they aren't demanding pictures of my breasts... :)

*raises hand*

Well, since you're offering...

Bill Swanson, the CEO of Raytheon wrote a small book that consolidated his years of experience into 25 simple directives. He gave this book internally to his management staff, and a few friends. A few management reporters found out about it when Warren Buffet asked for 100 copies to give to some of his friends.

I thought you might like to see the list, even though you can't buy the book. I know I enjoyed them.

Bill Swanson's '25 Unwritten Rules of Management'
1. Learn to say, "I don't know." If used when appropriate, it will be often.
2. It is easier to get into something than it is to get out of it.
3. If you are not criticized, you may not be doing much.
4. Look for what is missing. Many know how to improve what's there, but few can see what isn't there.
5. Viewgraph rule: When something appears on a viewgraph (an overhead transparency), assume the world knows about it, and deal with it accordingly.
6. Work for a boss with whom you are comfortable telling it like it is. Remember that you can't pick your relatives, but you can pick your boss.
7. Constantly review developments to make sure that the actual benefits are what they are supposed to be. Avoid Newton's Law.
8. However menial and trivial your early assignments may appear, give them your best efforts.
9. Persistence or tenacity is the disposition to persevere in spite of difficulties, discouragement, or indifference. Don't be known as a good starter but a poor finisher.
10. In completing a project, don't wait for others; go after them, and make sure it gets done.
11. Confirm your instructions and the commitments of others in writing. Don't assume it will get done!
12. Don't be timid; speak up. Express yourself, and promote your ideas.
13. Practice shows that those who speak the most knowingly and confidently often end up with the assignment to get it done.
14. Strive for brevity and clarity in oral and written reports.
15. Be extremely careful of the accuracy of your statements.
16. Don't overlook the fact that you are working for a boss.
* Keep him or her informed. Avoid surprises!
* Whatever the boss wants takes top priority.
17. Promises, schedules, and estimates are important instruments in a well-ordered business.
* You must make promises. Don't lean on the often-used phrase, "I can't estimate it because it depends upon many uncertain factors."
18. Never direct a complaint to the top. A serious offense is to "cc" a person's boss.
19. When dealing with outsiders, remember that you represent the company. Be careful of your commitments.
20. Cultivate the habit of "boiling matters down" to the simplest terms. An elevator speech is the best way.
21. Don't get excited in engineering emergencies. Keep your feet on the ground.
22. Cultivate the habit of making quick, clean-cut decisions.
23. When making decisions, the pros are much easier to deal with than the cons. Your boss wants to see the cons also.
24. Don't ever lose your sense of humor.
25. Have fun at what you do. It will reflect in your work. No one likes a grump except another grump.

They are a private business,

Actually they are public...but I get your point..

I can't believe no one here actually understands where I'm coming from with this. I read posts from disgruntled retail employees all over the internet but never thought I'd see it here.

retail is retail...and for most people its hell...

Probably simply because our pursuit of greed has turned so many public corporations into pretty crappy places to work for as the "officers" of the companies get paid inflated salaries.

Makes me appreciate where I work now...to see people investing millions of their own money into creating or funding companies that in turn create REAL jobs for Americans..

And no...we dont allow the officers of our companies to get paid ridiculous sums of money.

Grumpicus wrote:
Elysia wrote:

I'd hire him...in fact, I am! :)

You're obviously the company's president but does Elysium get to start at Vice President or does he have to work his way up from the mail room?

Edit: Maybe that should say coffee grinder instead of mail room. :D

Oooooh...mail boy fantasies....let's explore that, shall we Grump?;)

Elysia wrote:

Well, at least they aren't demanding pictures of my breasts... :)

I have heard quiet rumors that they are things of beauty; rose colored melons of godly sweetness, sung about in psalms, they are so amazing. I'll take a signed 8x10 color glossy. But seriously folks... I'm gonna send you a site message so you and I can chat about some synergy between your company and my company...as I'm desperate need of brand identity. (Don'tcha love how I was able to work synergy into a sentence? Later, I'll see if I can properly use the word 'myriad'.

(Don'tcha love how I was able to work synergy into a sentence? Later, I'll see if I can properly use the word 'myriad'.

If someone gets their hands on a picture of your "melons of godly sweetness", they will be used in a myriad of debaucherous ways.

I too thought Elysium was leaving the site, even after he came out and said "I'm not leaving the site", I still had the thought it would happen eventually if things continued along their current course. I'm glad they didn't. Good job putting your family first Elysium, and congrats on finally working at something you take pride in. I enjoyed your catharcic post and look forward to your next one.

Great article, Elysium. As always, as a matter of fact. But especially so because it is evidently written with the very blood of his heart.

Salesmunn, I certainly absolutely DO see where you're coming from. But I also think that you're greatly exhaggerating Ely's treacherousness manner of biting the hand that used to feed him. Because, in fact, there is none of that happening. Ely laid out his grievances in an exceptionally calm, considerate, and constructive manner. He goes out of his way to stress the point that the problem is with him, not with the job itself. He clearly states so, in fact. He is not disgruntled. He is burnt out.

He is not burning any bridges, because he hasn't disparaged his manager nor hasn't dished any particularly dirt on EB in general. All EB has to remember him by is his work, and the way I understand it, he worked his ass off. I have no reason to think he was not loyal to EB or is ungrateful to EB for the bread he's been putting on his family table. But I think you're confusing notions of loyalty and outright allegiance.

So anyway, to him and Elysia, I am wishing every success in their family business, as well as countless instances of unmitigated sexual harrassment right at the workplace.

Oh yes.

By the way, those wishing to see pics of Duckideva breast and more should Paypazzle me $5.

Well, I would have had a lot to say during the day, but I was at my nearly former store doing my job for nearly the last time. It's been a remarkable thread to return to, but - and this probably won't surprise anyone - what I primarily want to do is address Salesmunn, because I do understand where he is coming from, so let me make a few points in response.

1) EB hired me to do a job, and I did that job better than many of my peers. Regardless of how I might have felt about any particular directive, I put that aside every day and I put my best foot forward as a representative of the corporation that hired me. In remuneration for my more than adequate services I was paid by EB every two weeks. That was the extent of our contract, and when I cashed my paycheck we (EB and I) were even. They owe me nothing, and I owe them nothing. We did business, both of us to the best of our abilities.

2) I harbor no ill will toward EB as a soon-to-be former employee. They paid me well, met their obligations to me, offered me strong benefits, and usually treated me with respect. The manager who hired me - and who also moved on from EB at the beginning of the month - is a close friend now. And I developed strong relationships with my peers. I do not leave with a can of lighter fluid and a box of bridge burning matches in hand.

3) I have no intention of revealing any confidences I have been asked to keep. I will not reveal specific sales figures, employee information, or sensitive information.

4) At no point have I said, or am I likely to say, that EB is a "bad" or "evil" company. I have no intention or reason to drag EB's name through the mud. Now, I have said that I could not reconcile the requirements of the job with my own principles, and I stand by that, but I don't see how that's unreasonable. I was very unhappy with my job, and the things I felt I had to do to be successful.

5) What I do want to talk about is the practices of EB, and I want to do that in a generally neutral tone - which is why I wrote this clearly more emotional piece first. I don't think a lot of what I have to say will be scandalous, per se, but it will be informative. I will be honest about my experiences, will tell the good with the bad, and will try as often as possible to leave the judgment to the reader. There's a lot of things consumers should know about the places from which they shop, about the state of the product they are purchasing, about why they pay what they do for services and products, and what they can expect in return for their dollars. That is my goal. Simply to be informative.

I invite you to judge for yourself. And, if it seems petty, childish, or unprofessional then so be it. I don't expect everyone to click with what I have to say. But, if it's any consolation I wouldn't be ashamed to have that manager that hired me read it if he were so inclined.

What a strange thread.

If someone gets their hands on a picture of your "melons of godly sweetness", they will be used in a myriad of debaucherous ways.

If someone gets a picture of their hands on your "melons of godly sweetness", it will be used as evidence of a myriad of debaucherous ways.

duckideva wrote:
Grumpicus wrote:
Elysia wrote:

I'd hire him...in fact, I am! :)

You're obviously the company's president but does Elysium get to start at Vice President or does he have to work his way up from the mail room?

Edit: Maybe that should say coffee grinder instead of mail room. :D

Oooooh...mail boy fantasies....let's explore that, shall we Grump?;)

Elysia wrote:

Well, at least they aren't demanding pictures of my breasts... :)

I have heard quiet rumors that they are things of beauty; rose colored melons of godly sweetness, sung about in psalms, they are so amazing. I'll take a signed 8x10 color glossy.

Oh, Deva, how you titillate.

Fletcher1138 wrote:

What a strange thread.

That about sums it up.

Most disappointing fact of the evening:

A Google Image search of "melons of godly sweetness" returns 0 results.

-Fan

Vector wrote:

It's great to have you back Elysium, really great. Doing what you did was incredibly noble. I hope that when I have a wife and son I can make the sacrifice that you made.

Let me rewrite that for you:

"It's great to have you back Elysium, really great. Doing what you did was incredibly noble. I hope that when I have a wife and son I'm a millionare, so that I never have to do a job I don't like."

Glad to see you back Elysium and I am grateful that I have never had to be in that situation. It is a tribute to your character that you placed family above self. By the way - as a holder of a degree in English Literature you are more then eligible to be a military officer should you need a job {you'll have to lose the beard}. I should know because I have a B.S. in BS and they employed me...

P.S. Derek Smart is still alive?

Vector wrote:

I have to post here because everyone else of importance has :D.

Likewise. And, for the reasons Vector pointed out, I think this is, like, the greatest thread ever.

Great article too. It took a lot of courage to disclose that, as well as to leave a job that meeting material needs but was burning you out. I still don't tell people about some of the jobs I worked in down times.

polq37 wrote:

I still don't tell people about some of the jobs I worked in down times.

Bah, I talked about mine, and even mentioned the rashes. Use the power of anonymity and let us know your deep dark secrets! Were you a gaffer?

Elysium, I think your well within your rights (personal and legal ... not that I'm a lawyer) to discuss known facts about EB's business practices along with your job experiences. Thats one of the great things about living in America. However, be careful, if EB gets wind of this and thinks that you are damaging their reputation or discussing business practices that are not public knowledge, don't be suprised if you get a cease and decist letter. Even if you aren't actually saying anything false or slanderous, many companies won't hesitate to use the ol scare tactic to try and shut somebody up. You may think that you are a small fish in a small pond but when it comes to negative publicity, there is no small pond. You may not think that you are going to say anything negative, but based on the fact that you had to leave the company to maintain your sanity, I can see how any commentary on the matter would be viewed as negative from a certain point of view.

I'm looking forward to your future posts on this interesting topic.

NOTE: Just read this and . . . .
*stunned silence*
*gasp*
*more stunned silence*

It's no secret that these retail stores push their "extended warranties" because they are very profitable. Caveat Emptor! Think of it this way, if it wasn't for stupid people wasting their money on these scams, we'd have to pay more money for games.

I've made a career out of profiting off of stupid people. I love them.