Did I go back in time?

[HappyFun Ball]

This was a couple of year back when I was a seasonal worker at We B Toys.

I was working the floor that day and a guy comes up and asks if we have any "Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers" toys.. What is this? 1989? I smile and say "I used to watch that when I was a kid" he gets a bit huffy and I tell him I will look on the computer for it.. We might have it on DVD, no, he wants the toys. Oh-kay I think. He follows me to the computer and I start to type it in and he decides to enunciate "It's Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers". I type it in and nothing, nada "We don't have any toys for that." I say "Are you sure?" "Yep, I am sure.. It's an 80's show" he scoffs and demands to know where he can find the toys "Ebay, I'm sure" I reply "Well that's no help!" he cries and storms off.




Yep ruining Christmas is my speciality

This was back when Wii's and DS lites were all the rage. Most of the time I answered the phones.. A good job, I sat on my ass and answered the phones I had to go out on the floor sometimes to make sure we had some thing.

Most of the calls I recieved were inquiring about Wii's, asking if we had any. We never had any while I was in the store, the truck would come 2-3 times a week and there would be Wii's on it and they would always be sold out within 15 minutes of opening.

Call 1:

SC: Do you have any Wii's?
Me: No ma'am we sure don't.. We do have a truck coming in tonight a Wii's will be on the floor before we open tomorrow.
SC: What time do you open?
Me: 6 am, I suggest getting here a couple of hours early though
SC: But that's 4 am!
Me:...
SC: Can you put one on hold?
Me: No ma'am, not during Christmas I can't
SC: You have ruined Christmas! *click*

I think your procrastinating until 3 days before Christmas is what ruined it.

Call 2:

SC: Do you have any DS's in stock?
Me: Yes ma'am we do, I just checked and we have 6 in stock right now
SC: Any in pink?
Me: Let me go check ( I go up front to the game counter, there's a phone up there, I check the DS's.. We have 2 red, 1 blue, 2 black and a white one)
Me: No ma'am, we have every color but pink right now.
SC: Can you call around to see who has one?
Me: I can give you the numbers for all the We B Toys within a 100 miles of here.
SC: You are deliberatly being unhelpful! My daughters Christmas will be ruined!

Not my problem

Sighting:

This was last year, DH and I had run out of money a couple of days before payday, we had very little gas and no food. So I took my DSi XL to pawn to get a few bucks till pay day, I was going to ask for 30$, that'd be enough for gas and food for a day. I get to the pawn shop, get in line, I have my DS with the power cord in my hand a lady approaches my "Oh! Are you going to pawn that? I'll buy it from you!" "I'm going to get it out in a couple of days, I'm not selling it" "Oh come on! I'll give you 50$ for it!" she said "I just got this last month and I paid over 175$ for it.. No." I reply.. She would not drop it "I'll give you 100$ for it!" she said "I can't, sorry" I reply "Well you have ruined Christmas!" she exclaims and stalks off.

I got 30$ and got it out a couple of days later.

[EricKei]

I remember the Wii launch. I worked at GameStore in our busiest-of-the-district store. One Saturday, we actually kept a written tally of how many people called in asking for the Wii (we had 2 phone lines, iirc, and they were ringing off the hook, to the extent that he had to have a worker who did nothing but answer the phones)...We gave up at two HUNDRED calls, four hours after we opened for the day.

It really didn't help that Ninty's delivery scheme was: 16-20ish units at a time, they would not warn us what day of the week they would come in. The only way to get one was to have preordered it back in June of that year (it took until the following March just to fill the preorders due to the anemic supply, but taking down the Wii system advertising displays was expressly VERBOTEN on pain of immediate termination). Once they were available for common sale, the trickle continued for most of the year, thus, the only way to get one from us was to be in-store when UPS showed up that day, see the Ninty-labeled boxes on his cart, and say I'LL TAKE ONE!. Ten minutes, twenty systems, tops. Usually at around 2 in the afternoon. Even the employees who failed to pre-order them couldn't get one >_<

[thehuckster]

Geez, everyone here at CS.com is ruining everybody's Christmas! Do you people have any heart?

[Grape The Cat]

Putting one of the most in demand items on hold for someone who might show up when you'll have paying customers waiting? Not gonna happen. Why couldn't the second lady buy a DS in another color and tell the daughter that they could exchange it for a pink one after the holidays? Hell, the daughter may decide the color wasn't such a big deal. Oh wait forgot where i was for a sec. The last one just screams of "I'm taking advantage of you because you seem in need of money".

[Treasure]

Geez, everyone here at CS.com is ruining everybody's Christmas! Do you people have any Heart?

Which album would you prefer?

[XCashier]

Geez, everyone here at CS.com is ruining everybody's Christmas! Do you people have any heart?

I haven't yet. But there's still ten days until Christmas...

[MoonCat]

Remember "Tickle Me Elmo"? Damn I hated those things. The year those were the "must have" toy, we must have taken several hundred ads for them....People were running out and buying them up, then placing ads in the paper asking ridiculously high prices for them. It was nice that they were buying ads, of course, but it was like a black market for Elmo! I remember somebody asking $1500! No idea if they actually sold it.

[LillFilly]

Remember "Tickle Me Elmo"? Damn I hated those things. The year those were the "must have" toy, we must have taken several hundred ads for them....People were running out and buying them up, then placing ads in the paper asking ridiculously high prices for them.

Sigh. My sister did that, but put them on ebay. She even tried to suck a couple extra bucks out of the desperate buyers by charging them 30 + dollars for shipping. When her account was shut down she tried to have me sell stuff on mine. Yes, my sister is an evil bitch and does stuff like this all the time, which is why I haven't spoken to her once in 5-years.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled posting....

[BeenThereDoneThat]

The earliest "Must Have" madness I can remember is Cabbage Patch Kids...though I'm sure there were others before that. Perhaps the Atari 2600 and its myriad of available games...who knows, my parents didn't have the money to buy anything for us as soon as it came out anyhow

[mharbourgirl]

Remember "Tickle Me Elmo"? Damn I hated those things. The year those were the "must have" toy, we must have taken several hundred ads for them....People were running out and buying them up, then placing ads in the paper asking ridiculously high prices for them. It was nice that they were buying ads, of course, but it was like a black market for Elmo! I remember somebody asking $1500! No idea if they actually sold it.

I was working at Wal-Mart that season. *shudder* Those things were evil. We did accidentally discover one way to freak out customers and amuse ourselves with them, though. There were like, 6 to a case, I think, and they came with batteries. If you kick a case, they ALL start giggling and the box starts vibrating across the floor all by itself. Sounds like a box full of demonic creatures, and scared the crap out of more than one customer.

The earliest "Must Have" madness I can remember is Cabbage Patch Kids...

The Great Cabbage Patch Kids Debacle

[Dreamstalker]

If you kick a case, they ALL start giggling and the box starts vibrating across the floor all by itself. Sounds like a box full of demonic creatures, and scared the crap out of more than one customer.

That is AWESOME.

[manybellsdown]

Quoth mharbourgirl
If you kick a case, they ALL start giggling and the box starts vibrating across the floor all by itself. Sounds like a box full of demonic creatures, and scared the crap out of more than one customer.

My mother did something like that once to a display of Halloween toys. You know those sound-sensitive ghost things that would go "OoooOOOOoooo" when you clapped your hands? She picked one up to look at it, said "Gosh this thing is ugly." and slammed it back down on the metal shelf. Whereupon the loud noise caused all 60+ toys to go off at once. I literally was hanging onto the cart to remain upright I was laughing so hard.

I got my Wii pretty close to launch and the motor burned out a few months back. Now I'm all nostalgic for it. But I remember how frustrated all the employees were because of the limited numbers they kept getting. I think it was a good 2 years after launch before I started seeing them actually out on store shelves.

[XCashier]

If you kick a case, they ALL start giggling and the box starts vibrating across the floor all by itself. Sounds like a box full of demonic creatures, and scared the crap out of more than one customer.

Great mental picture; would've loved to have seen that happen.

I've been very fortunate that my son hasn't demanded any Hot Toy Of The Year. I refuse to get into those idiotic scuffles over a stupid toy.

[PepperElf]

"I'll give you 100$ for it!" she said "I can't, sorry" I reply "Well you have ruined Christmas!" she exclaims and stalks off.

A case where you really CAN say "not my problem"
and I'm glad you got it back so soon.

[simplyanother]

Two things:

I wish that I could find Doctor Who toys in store We Be Toys (instead of the mighty internet), because that's what my kids want (specifically the notLego). I'm thinking of going to the local store and demanding they look it up, then getting pissed when they suggest the internet. Which is how I'm relating that random tidbit to the thread. Sorry.


I know it's because they think that we've got some sooper seekrit special line to the other locations, because that's the only thing that would explain customers who CALL me and want me to call other stores. Nope, but here's their number, Have at it!