Bad Luck With Media Stores

I could write a whole blog about my experiences at our local media store. It’s one of these chain stores that sell all kind of electric knick-knack, DVDs, games and CDs. We recently bought a used Xbox One and we need to get it fixed. It was bought in one of these stores so I tried to call ahead and find out if we need to bring the whole thing including cables and controller or just the console itself, as the problem was that it doesn’t recognise any discs. But as always at this time of the year it is hard to reach anyone, because there are so many people returning their gifts like there is no tomorrow. I wrote about a funny situation on my other blog.

This time however it didn’t actually make me go lol. I was in town to buy a few things and thought I’d stick my head in this store and get my answers personally. The service department was crowded, just as I imagined. I didn’t want to waste any time there which is why I headed upstairs into the video game department. I was under the impression that the guys working there would know. It turns out they don’t really know anything. I’m not even sure WHY I thought they would, as they proved time and again that they are just a bunch of testosterone driven idiots. There were two of them and I told them about my problem and asked my question. They just shrugged their shoulders and said I should go and ask at the service department. I was ready to leave them standing there when they started to actually do their work and try to sell their stuff. Too bad I didn’t plan on buying anything, but they wouldn’t get it.

‘Why would you buy a Xbox One anyway? It’s a piece of shit!’, Tech-Guy #1 said. ‘Buy a PS4! It’s so much better and the games are so much better!’

What followed was a lot of eye-rolling on my part, and a lot of partly stupid and partly wrong assumptions about how cool a PlayStation 4 is in comparison with the Xbox One. It was all kind of funny until Tech-Guy #2 pulled the ‘You’re a girl. Girl like this shit.’-card. Here is what happened:

Tech-Guy #2: ‘You see? PS4 is da bomb! Buy one! Go for it! And also, you’re a girl and girls LOVE PS4, because there are colored symbols on the buttons and stuff.’

Tech-Guy #1 was a little hesitant but nodded his head after looking at me and then at his work buddy. Suddenly everyone got reaaaaally quiet around us, as we had already a small audience. There were a few people that I knew and that have watched a similar scene including a tech-guy that lost his job, because of his crappy treatment of costumers. They probably knew what was coming. To be fair, these guys probably thought that I was a teenager, too shy and too thick to run them over with my opinion. Oh, boy, they were wrong.

Whenever I get angry, I start lashing out. Quietly at first, but I’m always making sure that the audience gets what it came for. And so I lashed out and started correcting every little mistake that they made when they told me about what games are announced for PS4, about how much better said console is compared to the Microsoft one and about how much of a damn a woman interested in video games actually is in colored symbols. I then told them that I could report them, which would lead to reprimand and, if they kept this kind of ‘selling tactics’ up, to losing their jobs and that I decided against it, because they are obviously new to this department and still had to learn. And that, in the future, when someone asks them something about the Xbox One they stick to informations about Xbox One and try to keep it in their pants. I told them that I probably knew more about video games than they did together, which means that they have just been out-smarted by ‘a girl’ and that they shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.

After my little rant Tech Guy #1 looked ready to pee his pants and Tech Guy #2 got a huge hit to his ego. Mission accomplished! Another tech guy, who burst out laughing through my rant, entered the scene and told his colleagues to go and scare some kids. He gave me two thumbs up and told me he would find out if I needed to return the whole thing or just the console until my next visit.

On my way out I snatched a copy of Orphan Black Season 2 and after paying I left with a very satisfied smile.