Why I will not be returning to Sketchbook: Sam. One of the 3 people who work at Sketchbook, and to my understanding, the only one to not co-own it. My last five visits to the store have been, by a large margin, my worst experiences. Not just at that store, but for all of Magic the Gathering. For these last five experiences, it began when I arrived wearing another LGS shirt. I can understand that you may not like competition, but this should never interfere with customer experience. Sam immediately remarked on my shirt with, Thats pretty ballsy wearing that here. Then proceeded to make fun of me for wearing a shirt of a store he hates so much. I know this because he told me several times. I didnt really respond, and several other people jumped in on the conversation on behalf of Sam. From me simply entering the store and trying to give them money to attend an event, Im immediately uncomfortable and having commuted there from the Falls, I have no way back until the end of the event. Wanting to put this behind me, understanding that at times people can be acting out on a recent experience and it may not reflect how they actually feel. I get it. But my next 3 times I attend there I get the exact same experience. Every time I went to Sketchbook, Sam was the only one working there. If not for the just the time of entry, but often for the duration. So now were sitting at 4 for 4 of me being bullied upon arrival and not enjoying myself for the entire day. Here comes visit number 5. I had decided I didnt want to attend anymore sketchbook events previously as I was tired of being bullied by their staff, but my brother wanted to go, I hadnt played magic all week due to holidays, I figured whats one more go? As you already know, that was a mistake. Im standing by the cashier table when someone who regulars the same LGS as myself shows up. Sam inquires what he was playing, he told him he was borrowing a deck from a friend. Discussing who it was, Sam replied, The retard? The one with a lisp? Now, lets take a minute to go over what just happened here: This is the guys friend who he just said he is borrowing a deck from. Surely common sense would tell you, that what was just said is extremely inappropriate. Lets steal a phrase, Ballsy. Continuing. He says the same thing again. Wow. He already began with making a ridiculously rude comment to whom we can only assume is a friend of the guy, and he just made the same rude point again, using the exact same words. And what is his reason for being so obnoxious and offensive? The guy has a lisp. I cannot fathom the need to make any comment near the intentful hurtfulness of what was just said than to make comments like this, beyond having zero censorship of your own opinion, have zero respect for others, no common decency, or trying to promote your store by bashing other stores and their players, or any combination of the above. Lets put this into a little perspective. If anyone works in the service industry, you know you have no opinion on customers. They come and go, some are nice, and then it feels like most others are the scum of the earth. But all of these feelings, you have to keep them to yourself, go home and vent to your cat, who cares, but you cant voice your opinion on the job. Now what makes an LGS different from a lot of other customer service oriented places, is almost its entire sales come from locals and a majority from its regulars. This means that the faces of the store not only directly impact the enjoyable experience and therefore overall success as a company, but become exponentially important. Thinking back, Sam was originally the reason I played at sketchbook in the first place. He was really nice to me my first time out at a casual, and convinced me to come out for an FNM. Upon remembering experiences since then, he just often made fun of the decks I was playing, saying they were bad, and therefore, I was. There are only a few people at sketchbook that I dont like, and its only due to them directly bullying me in my time there. To my understanding, of all that has happened to date, the only way I have directly, or indirectly ever wronged someone was by playing regularly at a different LGS and wear their shirt there. Magic, although at its all-time high in popularity, is still relatively small compared to the size of communities its in. For this reason, we cannot afford to be losing players interest due to something completely avoidable with just common sense and human decency. We all play magic because we enjoy it for one reason or another, and even within the small group of us, we have a variety of interests within. We have our casuals, we have people who would like to one day make it at the pro level and we have people who dont play to one day make the pro circuit, but would like to be playing at their best, skill-wise. But we are all magic players, and our interests should be with loving the sport and community weve all helped build. We shouldnt be tearing it apart because youre mad at someone for not playing a top-tier deck, or because they made a mistake in the game, play at another LGS, or said or did something unintentionally hurtful or offensive. Were all here to learn and grow, but most importantly, were here to have fun. I made a point to not make this post in anger, despite how I felt at the time. I slept on it, and decided on what needed to be said and the best way to make everyone understand my perspective of my recent experiences. I felt this needed to be brought to peoples attention, if not just for the store, but for the community as a whole. The only way to make things better is to raise awareness of these problems and hope they get properly addressed and handled. Overall, I have been quite generous with my attempts at second chances, but theres really no point as I luckily have other options. Most importantly, I have a place I regular now that has an amazing community full of people who actually enjoy the game and want to share their love of it with those around them. To build and grow together and be something people want to be a part of. Thats what it should really be about, right?
Posted on: Mon, 29 Dec 2014 13:43:59 +0000
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