(no subject)

[theweaselking]

The definition of bad customer service:

I just went to a comic store to purchase the Serenity comic for my mom. [...] The store I chose, which shall remain nameless (Warp 1 Comics), at an undisclosed location (just off Whyte Ave), has the singlemost sanctimonious, condescending, dishonest a$$hole I've had the misfortune of meeting. My brother and I called ahead to find out they had one issue left, but upon arriving, found out they are gouging people $20 bucks for the damned thing! "That's what they're worth." he sneered at me. I asked him to show me a listing of some sort to back it up. "Well, I just know what I paid Dark Horse for it." He wouldn't show me that, either. I am aware that Dark Horse wasn't expecting these books to sell as well as they are, and that they are going into a second printing, but I just picked up three of them two days ago at cover price at another store. My brother piped up with a, "What an interesting attitude you have." Let me tell you folks, this fella had an attitude, and a smirk that you wanted to knock off his face with a baseball bat dipped in dog poop. Of course, my brother couldn't help letting this guy know who he was trying to hose by holding the issue next to my face. "This guy look familliar?"

-Nathan Fillion

Don't know who he is? He's this guy:


That doesn't help? Try him here. He's the guy in front and centre.


That same picture (roughly) is the cover of the comic in question.

Comments

[ceara.livejournal.com]

That's the funniest thing I've seen all night.

[lurkerwithout.livejournal.com]

Oh man, I hope the arrogant little shit tried to backpedal into fan suck-up mode...

[lurkerwithout.livejournal.com]

Apparantly one of the store clerks has an lj account:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/ivica/21480.html#cutid1

[unnamed525.livejournal.com]

If it really cost the store $19.99, then I don't give a flying fuck if it was Joss Whedon himself that wanted to buy it, the store shouldn't have sold it to him for less than $20.
Now, if they had two copies, I would have had Fillon sign one and gave him the other.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

It didn't cost the store $20. They were selling, all over town, for $3. Stores buying from distributors for a $3 pay $1.50. *Dark Horse* certainly wasn't selling 'em for $20.

Besides, the locals say that guy in that store has a history of this kind of thing - if you call him asking about anything, he'll say he's only got one and then gouge you on the price once you've made the trip out to his show to pick it up.

[unnamed525.livejournal.com]

I love relevant conditionals, but they said something about having to get it from some third party ... but, bleh, he's stupid for not trading Fillon a copy for his mother for Fillon signing one.
That's what the smart businessman would have done.

[unnamed525.livejournal.com]

For the record ...
I accept what people have said about this comic store owners general style of business.
I'm also asserting that he's obviously a complete fucking moron, since he didn't just trade Fillion the comic for a signature or two.

[sclerotic-rings.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, I'm very familiar with that attitude, especially from the Lone Star Comics line, where their staff buys up in-demand toys from every venue in town and then marks them up by 200 percent or more. Between that and the Cat Piss Men, people still look surprised when I tell them that I haven't gone into a comic shop in nearly four years.

[jl-williams.livejournal.com]

I actually know the guy he's talking about, and yes, yes indeed he is a giant, sanctimonious, gaping asshole.

[sclerotic-rings.livejournal.com]

I'd consider having him branded: Cat Piss Men should always have an indelible label to warn any humans in the vicinity.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

One tends to find that the smell works, for that.

[jl-williams.livejournal.com]

Cat Piss Men. I love it.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

You don't know Cat Piss Man? (http://www.savantmag.com/16/retail16.html)

[jl-williams.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah. Darrel's *totally* a Cat Piss Man. The dilemma being that he in fact *owns* Warp 1 -- so going there without being exposed to him is quite literally impossible.

[torrain.livejournal.com]

The local Comic Book Shoppe's pretty good. The local gaming store, however...

It's run by Weird Pete. The guy does nothing but bitch about games and gaming companies; the best thing he has to say about any of them is "We sell X amount", and most of it is clever little nicknames like "Werewolf the Foreskin." Ask if he knows when a book is coming out, and get interrupted before you finish your sentance with "Well, the company *says* next month, but they're always behind, so probably October. They just can't get their schedule together. Bitch whine moan. Clever snarky nickname. But people'll buy it, even if it's not OGL."

He's gotten a little better since I asked him if he meant that I shouldn't spend my money on the books, 'cause I was perfectly willing to put them back. But I still try to shop when the other clerk is in there. The polite, rational one.

(The owner recently took a ten-day vacation and came back slightly mellower. Let's hope it lasts.)

[sclerotic-rings.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a children's rhyme:

"Do you fear the Cat Piss Man,
The Cat Piss Man, the Cat Piss Man
Do you fear the Cat Piss Man,
Who stinks up Drury Lane?"

[leighdb.livejournal.com]

Oh my God.

See, this is why I don't go into comic stores, and every comic book I've ever bought (all 12 of them) I have either bought at Barnes & Noble or through Amazon.

[sclerotic-rings.livejournal.com]

Behold: the wrath of Cat Piss Man (http://www.savantmag.com/16/retail16.html). Spread the meme far and wide.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Beat you to it by 26 minutes.

[larpguide.livejournal.com]

Maybe you should volunteer your services and make a bit o' cash on the side? Create a paypal account and offer people the service of printing out and hand delivering their comments about this to Darryl in person for $2 (+ $1 per additional page). Have them send you a word document, you print it out, then once a week, deliver these docs to his doorstep. :)

Or just use the 'flaming bag of poo' tactic instead.


As for me, anyone has the right to charge what they want. And, likewise, anyone has a right to discuss the type of customer service they received and said company can stand with the results of said CS.

[jl-williams.livejournal.com]

Pfft. I have better things to do with my time, like sit and bitch! *airfist*

You're right: anynoe has the right to charge whatever they want. But just because his business practices are *legal* doesn't mean they're *fair*.

[silmaril.livejournal.com]

My arm would fall off from all the pointing (in the direction of Warm 1 comics just off Whyte Ave) and mocking that needs to be done, anyone wants to help?

[silmaril.livejournal.com]

Warp 1 Comics. Me fingers faster than me brain.

[jl-williams.livejournal.com]

I just basically told him he was a dick the last time I saw him, and refused to shop in that store again. Mainly because I would ask him questions, and he acted like it was an inconvenience for me to be there. In his store. With money.

[sclerotic-rings.livejournal.com]

With most of these guys, customers are an inconvenience. The moment Borders or Barnes & Noble figures out a way to cut into the comics market at any significant level, most comic shops will be dead in a matter of months, because the people running comic shops and running indie bookstores are the same type. That is, they're usually fanatics who want to be a cultural focus point but who really don't want to do anything but focus on the books. (My ex-wife used to run a bookstore here in Dallas that died six months after the first Borders opened, mostly because the owner gave the distinct impression that she didn't really want customers in the store. It was a wrong impression, but by the time she realized it, it was too late.)

[torrain.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean. One of the local genre indie bookstores went out of business last year; the guy didn't make the customers feel unwanted, but he was so far into the genres that I'm pretty sure he left them feeling kind of ignorant or overwhelmed.

The indie two blocks down from me still seems to be going strong, though. Need to ask them to order in a couple of things.

[kugelblitz.livejournal.com]

Oh my, there are so many feet in that guys mouth that he could walk on his face.

Poor Ivica

[laurewyrm.livejournal.com]

I feel bad for the guy with the LJ. He was just sharing an anecdote from work, and has had his LJ highjacked by a variety of people, ranging from idiot to intelligent, enemy to ally. It is almost scary to read some of the comments (although highly amusing for others)...and to top it all off, he has to work for a guy who sounds like a complete poophead. Not to mention that the folks commenting on his LJ can't seem to differentiate between Ivica and Darryl.

The anonymity of the internet makes it too easy for people to be mean and crazy to each other.

[toku666.livejournal.com]

That was amazingly entertaining.

Sounds like Cap'm Mal's brother is kind of a jerk, less of a jerk than Darrel, and Ivica had nothing to do with it and I really really really envy Ivica right now.

He and his friends were HILARIOUS.