Employee Incompetence....

[KillerQ]

Hey all...

In another thread, someone stated "How in the hell could someone {who works in a video store/section} never hear of NOTLD and not know who George Romero is..."

Well, i must say that i agree, and i run into incompetent, snot nosed teenagers all the time that are working in video stores.

The other day, i was at a store (i wont mention which one, but it rhymes with "best buy") and i asked if they had the Texas Chainsaw Massacre on DVD. The girl first said "what?". Ok, she didn't hear me i thought -- i repeated it again. So she went over to the computer and asked me to repeat it one again. So i did...."Texas Chainsaw Massacre" i repeated... I was thinking that this chick was so spaced out she couldn't even pay attention to me... well, it was all clear when she began typing it into the computer. She types "texas...." and then said: "what was the rest of it again"... So now i knew, she had no fucking clue what i was talking about!!! - she had never heard of the movie before. AARRGGHGH!! That drives me nuts.

I can't believe some of these peopel get hired -- then again, i guess all you need is a pulse. Ya know, it's pretty sad when we get a hard-on over the basic fucking fact that someone ocassionaly has heard of the title we are talking about/looking for -- especially when it is not "mainstream". Half the time i end up helping more customers in the video section than the employees do.


Ok guys, what DVD movies have you been looking for when you ran into this same problem?

Thanks,

Matt

[bnoir]

I hear you loud and clear! I used to work in a vidoe store when I was a teenager and I was a movie buff, so it helped, but I watched other films or read up on them so i could help customers out with questions/and or reccomendations......Blockbuster sucks the almighty BIG ONE. The employees are not only clueless, but have no social skills/tact or plain ol simple manners when dealing with customers! I hope they go out of business so the mom&Pop video stores can make a comeback!:)

[darqleo]

The reality is, is that people who work retail don't work there because they want to (well, in most cases anyway) or that they are the most qualified for the job. I used to work at a mainstream movies/music store and I was the one schoolin' the customer on what was what because most of them were complete ignoramuses. I would still be working there if it paid 40k a year, but I had to move on up to something better. Anyway, I think age and gender might also have something to do with it. A teenage girl who works at my local Suncoast hasn't seen any of the Evil Dead movies, yet Suncoast constantly has the merchandise out and about. One of my buddies who is 26 was seeing an 18 year old girl who has never seen Star Wars. "Who is Chewbacca?"

[darqleo]

Oh and I definitely feel that movie rental places should give prospective employees movie aptitude tests.

[ScaryMovieFreak]

A friend of mine and I applied for a job at a video store not that long ago. I know tons more about movies than my friend does, in fact I know more about movies than most of the workers there, if not all of the workers there. Well needless to say they called my friend and offered him a job. They asked him about a movie and he said he was clueless. As for me, they didn't even give me an interview.

[Peter Vincent]

Don't U love when the Best Buy employees suggest the FULL SCREEN versions instead of the WIDESCREEN versions of movies! And they're classic reason for it?...."In the FULL SCREEN version you get to see the whole picture. The WIDESCREEN version cuts the top & the bottom off and it looks smaller."

Nothing burns me up more, especially when I overhear this when an employee is recommending it to a unweary customer! Thanks to these asses, FULL SCREEN will likely always be produced on DVD! :mad:

[TobalRox]

I have not run into any of these problems because I just never deal with people at stores. If they ask if they can help, I just tell them I'm looking around. If I don't find what I want, I don't get it. I did it once when looking for Reefer Madness, and the first thing she asked me was "did you look under R?" I was thinking "yeah, thanks bitch... I didn't think of that already." ugh. They have the little cards to tell you certain titles, and that was one of them, and it wasn't there, and she was like "well, I guess it's sold out" And, as mentioned before, I had to mention the title many times. Oh, and don't get me started on conversations I overhear people having over widescreen versus "full screen"

[gairasleftfang]

heres mine....


at a video store overhearing this from an employee to a customer...

"why do you want to rent Mad MAX, its like a really weird austrailian film or something...so lame"

[Agent Z]

Blockbuster is a chain that seems intent on keeping its employees and customers in the dark ages when it comes to video formats. Film critic Roger Ebert has an obvious distaste for Blockbuster and its ilk, as can be seen in his responses to fan questions in his "Movie Answer Man" feature. Here are some examples below, with a fan's question followed by Roger's response:

Q. Even though I'm not a big fan of the movie ''The Mummy Returns,'' I was appalled to find out that I could not rent a widescreen copy of that movie at either of my local rental chain stores. I can understand if some people would rather watch a third less of a movie's original picture just to fill their TV screen. What I can't understand is that these chains chose at a corporate level (or so I was told by the store managers when I complained) not to provide copies of BOTH versions so those of us who want to watch the widescreen version have the choice to do so!

Karl Englebright, Vancouver Wash.

A. I was actually told by a video chain spokesman that widescreen (''letterboxed'') versions were not stocked in some stores because some customers complained, and the clerks did not have sufficient knowledge to explain the logic of letterboxing. My opinion is that (a) anyone who actually works in a video store and does not understand letterboxing has given up on life, and (b) any customer who prefers to have the sides of a movie hacked off should not be licensed to operate a video player.


Q. Re widescreen DVDs: I work for Blockbuster and the company did indeed make the decision to stock only pan-and-scan DVDs for rent. Apparently, they would rather cater to the public's ignorance than try to educate them to the benefits of letterboxing. I have tried on numerous occasions to explain wide screen to customers, with some success. The visual example on the ''Die Hard'' DVD changes a lot of minds. Some DVDs have both pan-and-scan and widescreen versions available and I have changed customers' minds by telling them to watch five minutes of one version and then five minutes of another. All it takes is a little effort to educate the customer.

Toby Schmidt, Dayton, N.J.

A. True, but Blockbuster has made a corporate decision that casts a pall over the emerging DVD market. The majority of DVD users want letterboxing, which is why most DVDs have been widescreen or offered both formats. Now Blockbuster has asked manufacturers to supply DVDs in the pan-and-scan format. and does not carry letterboxed DVDs in many of its stores. This takes me back to a day years ago when I had one of the founders of Blockbuster in my home and was proudly showing off a letterboxed laserdisk. To my disbelief, he did not understand the format and I had to explain it to him. He was a retailer, not a movie lover. The company follows in the same tradition.

Q. I recently rented the film ''Bully'' by Larry Clark, and was played for a fool. On the box it was given an R rating, even though I knew it had been rated NC-17. Yet there was no disclaimer on the box stating that it had been altered from the original. I went home to watch it and sure enough before the movie began there was a title screen explaining that the version I had rented was not the version the director intended to be seen! I was unable to return the film for a refund--nor would anyone else who made the same mistake! How could they market this film without a written disclaimer stating it had been altered, and why can't they carry the original ''Director's Cut'' as well?

Kevin Young, Whitman, Mass.

A. You did not name the video store. If it was Blockbuster, the chain refuses to handle NC-17 movies, insisting that R-rated versions be supplied. Blockbuster thus dictates both format and content. Imagine the outcry if a book store stocked only the Reader's Digest Condensed Book versions of a novel, and quietly removed all the offensive parts.


To read more from the "Movie Answer Man", check out the link below:



Movie Answer Man Archive (http://www.suntimes.com/index/answ-man.html)

[DefJeff]

like someone above said, i dont even bother asking for help anymore. if i dont see it i just dont get it. ive gone thru too many of the mentioned things and ive learned my lesson.

[Andrew]

Yeah, I've learned to accept that few people know anything about the movies I buy. I don't think of them as incompetant, but seeing as how most of these people are 18-25, they were either not born or younger than 10 when all of these came out. 75% of people don't like watching "old movies", which is a shame, but it's not at all unimaginable. None of my friends have heard of Suspiria, so what? I have and I like it.

As for the employee encompetance, it's just something you need to deal with. I know more about movies than the people at Blockbuster and Best Buy combined, and I'm only 13. What does that tell you?

The one place that I give credit is Suncoast. Once I was there when some guy was doing a job interview and they were asking him film related questions. I remember them asking something about The Godfather, so they aren't total morons. They actually knew what I was talking about when I asked if they had the Book of the Dead too.

[Suicide]

I think it depends where you go, I know my Blockbuster has the unrated version of Bloodsucking Freaks, and they at one time had Buried Alive - the Joe D'amato version, but someone stole or lost it. And we give people people credits if the movie was cut and said it wasn't, or if it has the "stupid black bars" on the screen or whatever they claim is wrong with it.
I am one of the more helpful employees, being that I usually know what movie people are talking about. Although I don't think it's a talent knowing ''that 80's college movie'' the customer is referring to is Animal House.
I agree with darqleo, I'm working there not really because I want to, but because it's a job, and I don't have to pay for rentals. If it were up to me I'd have a real job, but I can't afford to take classes to get a better job.
The reason that most customers that prefer the full screen version prefer it is because they like having their tv's filled up, even if that means what you see is actually less. It distracts them from the movie if there isn't picture from the top of the screen to the bottom.

[deke rivers]

I ordered The Evil Dead at Best Buy on-line then picked it up at the store..they guy pulls it out..reads the title real slow like it was too much for his peabrain to comprehend all at once then asked If I was sure this was the one I ordered..after that he preceeded to tell me about his huge dvd collection..must be full of chickflicks and latest "blockbusters" like Pearl Harbor

[Trout]

I guess it is up to us to educate the masses.

[crank]

My favorite of the Blockbuster moves is when they'll invent their own release dates. Now thats cool and all when it's working in my favor (IE, I picked up Hell of the living dead, The Church, Stagefright, and Rats 3 weeks early), but when they tell me that something comes out next Tuesday and you know damn well it came out 2 weeks ago.

crank

[DefJeff]

Originally posted by crank
(IE, I picked up Hell of the living dead, The Church, Stagefright, and Rats 3 weeks early
crank


you got these from blockbuster???? or am i readin it wrong

[parallax1]

I think you are reading it wrong. He probably picked them up at Best Buy early, yet BlockBuster told him they didn't come out until weeks after the official street date.

[crank]

I'm just a tard and meant to write Best Buy the whole time, but after reading the Roger Ebert thing had Blockbuster on the brain.

crank