OK, I do arcade games. One of the locations I take care of is a theater with a large arcade. Very large for a theater location... and designed by an idiot. But that's mostly another story. The pertinent detail for this one is the fact that the arcade has a balcony level that runs around three walls, and has games on the upstairs levels.
This theater has a regular family that comes in... Grampa and Gramma with Granddaughter, I believe they are. Very regular customers... and pains, at least Grampa and Gramma. Not the worst ones out there, but "stealth" SCs. Their grandchild, when she comes, mixes up the games she plays. Grandparents, OTOH, play cranes. And complain when they don't win.
The stealth part of the SCness is that, when you do a few things for them as part of good customer service, they then expect that you to do it again. And again. And again. You're upstairs with a hot soldering iron and exposed wiring? But this will only take a minute. They're always polite about it. Always asking. Asking. Asking. Oh, and they'll be back next week, too. After a month of help them out once, then saying I couldn't do any more for the rest of the day, I just shut it down. It took them a few months to stop pleading, but they did, eventually. And they mostly avoid me now, since I won't play their game.
OK.... that's the backstory....
I'm at the location, counting tokens, hoping to be able to fix the zillion things that broke sometime today, when I notice them upstairs, heading toward the back set of stairs down. Not a problem.
Then they're heading away from the stairs, around the circuit of the balcony area. Now, I had no idea why they were upstairs. Only video games and air hocky there. No cranes, no other merchandisers, not even the ticket-spitting games (yeah, big arcade for a theater). IE, nothing that they play when granddaughter isn't around.
![Confused](https://www.customerssuck.com/board/core/images/smilies/confused.png)
A minute later, I see them heading to the back stairs... reach the wall, and turn around. At a decent clip. I'm definitely confused... some odd psychological warfare? You won't play our games, so we're going to try to psych you out? Not going to work. With apologies to the Cool and Froody Zaphod Beeblebrox, I see weirder things than you on my game screens.
Back and forth... back and forth... membership to the YMCA went up, obviously, and you need your excercise... back and forth... back and forth... it's been five minutes... now ten... they keep going... until I finish counting tokens in one of the cranes and move on to the next game. You've seen parking lot vultures scream into that spot they've been hovering around? These people did them proud— down from the upper level and on the game before I had gotten the tokens out of the next game. Then they dumped two tokens into the game... lost... got another dollar worth of tokens... played them two at a time... two games, that is, because you get four tokens for a buck... got another dollar worth of tokens... y'know, that thing has a dollar bill acceptor on it... another dollar worth of tokens...
But... I didn't touch the plush inside the crane. So what's magically better about it now?
This theater has a regular family that comes in... Grampa and Gramma with Granddaughter, I believe they are. Very regular customers... and pains, at least Grampa and Gramma. Not the worst ones out there, but "stealth" SCs. Their grandchild, when she comes, mixes up the games she plays. Grandparents, OTOH, play cranes. And complain when they don't win.
"We've really been wanting <cheap stuffed toy>, but it's up against the glass where the claw can't reach it. Can you put it where the claw can grab it?"
"Everything's too tight... can you loosen it up?"
"It's impossible to win... can you make it winnable?"
"Everything's too tight... can you loosen it up?"
"It's impossible to win... can you make it winnable?"
The stealth part of the SCness is that, when you do a few things for them as part of good customer service, they then expect that you to do it again. And again. And again. You're upstairs with a hot soldering iron and exposed wiring? But this will only take a minute. They're always polite about it. Always asking. Asking. Asking. Oh, and they'll be back next week, too. After a month of help them out once, then saying I couldn't do any more for the rest of the day, I just shut it down. It took them a few months to stop pleading, but they did, eventually. And they mostly avoid me now, since I won't play their game.
OK.... that's the backstory....
I'm at the location, counting tokens, hoping to be able to fix the zillion things that broke sometime today, when I notice them upstairs, heading toward the back set of stairs down. Not a problem.
Then they're heading away from the stairs, around the circuit of the balcony area. Now, I had no idea why they were upstairs. Only video games and air hocky there. No cranes, no other merchandisers, not even the ticket-spitting games (yeah, big arcade for a theater). IE, nothing that they play when granddaughter isn't around.
![Confused](https://www.customerssuck.com/board/core/images/smilies/confused.png)
A minute later, I see them heading to the back stairs... reach the wall, and turn around. At a decent clip. I'm definitely confused... some odd psychological warfare? You won't play our games, so we're going to try to psych you out? Not going to work. With apologies to the Cool and Froody Zaphod Beeblebrox, I see weirder things than you on my game screens.
Back and forth... back and forth... membership to the YMCA went up, obviously, and you need your excercise... back and forth... back and forth... it's been five minutes... now ten... they keep going... until I finish counting tokens in one of the cranes and move on to the next game. You've seen parking lot vultures scream into that spot they've been hovering around? These people did them proud— down from the upper level and on the game before I had gotten the tokens out of the next game. Then they dumped two tokens into the game... lost... got another dollar worth of tokens... played them two at a time... two games, that is, because you get four tokens for a buck... got another dollar worth of tokens... y'know, that thing has a dollar bill acceptor on it... another dollar worth of tokens...
But... I didn't touch the plush inside the crane. So what's magically better about it now?
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