All About Games

All About Games… You have have been circling my I will no longer shop there drain for some time. I loved them for so long. Especially for the purchasing of MTG and D&D related merchandise. But…
Today was last straw. I went in to make a quick purchase today. I was greeted by one girl behind the counter. There were patrons looking at items and obviously games being played, the store was rather busy. I went to the cash out counter and two guys are staring at me like I am a giant clown. I ask to purchase something in which the bigger older guy gruffly says «We are closed for inventory. I won’t be selling you anything.» I blink confused, thanking them politely and leave. On my way out I notice a tiny hand-​written sign saying «closed for inventory». Ummmmmm… My entire 10 years or so in retail I have NEVER worked/​shopped a store that is «open» but «closed for sales» for inventory. You do that while closed!!! What brilliance is turning away business all day? They were having a tournament where people were paying… I understand being a «venue» but they are a store first and foremost. The owner is nice enough but not remotely business savvy. All the good employees are gone…
Last year we bought a BOX of magic cards. You know the unopened ones typically $ 99 or so dollars. Some girls working there said it wasn’t $ 99 that it was $ 4 per pack in the sealed box… Any MTG players know this is bull, as boxes are sold cheaper as bulk (and wasn’t a rare box or anything). So they charged us $ 149 or so. Baffled we searched Boise for another distributor. Finally finding one doing boxes for $ 92 and bought one of those instead. These same employees at AAG told us we could not return the unopened box we had just purchased… Ummmmmm. After a tiresome conversion they finally refunded us for the return of the sealed box.
I have played in events and given references bringing others in. Including a state MTG champion. However, the customer service became crud. Employees harass players with accusations of theft with no evidence but hearsay. I have had stuff go missing with hardly anyone in the store… I never accused the staff of theft. One of the biggest rules of customer service is never to use the words «theft» or «stolen» to a customer or accuse a customer of a crime EVER!!! Just a few examples of their decline in customer service and merchandise. I have a dozen more. I kept going back and letting them break our hearts.
Bye, Bye, Bye All About Games. I am taking my patronage and references down the hill to Franklin and Cole.

So I’m updating my review. They seemed nice enough however when going there today I was accused of stealing. A guy saw me trading some nice cards their so went and claimed they were stolen from him two weeks ago. With no solid evidence other than his word vs mine the worker there Tom interrogated me and accused me of stealing them. I had made up my mind to just leave and never return when he banned me from the store! I am neither sad nor disappointed. Only angry that after four years of patronage this occurred. If I could it would 0 stars but oh well. Also someone else should take this dukedom from me as I want to no longer be associated with them in any way shape or form.

Here’s the thing – my son has participated in Yugioh tournaments for four years at this place. We have purchased cards here. He has participated in trading cards here. He and his group of friends have enjoyed their Saturday mornings here. I have been happy to have him participate in this because… well, frankly, there’s a lot of less desirable activities a teen can be engaged in.
On Saturday mornings, there are a lot of young people that participate and a lot of cards are being passed, traded, played, and left lying around. Just a couple of weeks ago, my son found a pack of rare/​expensive cards that was left by a sponsored player (ie: One that travels and plays in these tournaments for a living). He turned them in. The player was phoned, found to be on his way to Japan, wouldn’t be back in the Treasure Valley any time soon and so expressed the desire to donate them. It happens.
Up until this morning, I have been happy with our experience with this establishment. This morning, however, my son engaged in a trade of cards with another player. Once the trade was complete, a third player approached and asked to look at the cards my son had traded. The player he had traded them to agreed and the third player claimed they were cards of HIS that had been «stolen» two weeks prior. An employee named Tom then approached and interjected into the situation that «some» of the cards that had been traded were the same as the stolen ones (even though hundreds of thousands of identical cards are distributed). They had no video graphic evidence of a theft even having taken place two weeks prior (the kid could have left his cards lying around and someone mistakenly picked them up for all they know), but based on this boy claiming that two weeks ago his unmarked cards had gone missing and my son happened to have just traded similar ones (though not identical), Tom felt it appropriate to accuse my son of stealing in front of a group of patrons. There were no players who had seen my son supposedly steal these cards, the employee did not bear witness to this supposed «crime», nor did the purported victim of the theft witness who had «taken» the cards.
I cannot begin to express how unprofessional and just downright inappropriate and really slanderous this is. Retail clerks are not, last I checked, detectives and it seems presumptuous, and a little preposterous that one would attempt to behave as such. If a retail clerk suspects a crime has been committed, it seems to me that reporting that crime to the appropriate authorities and allowing them to sort it out would be the correct course of action.
As a mother, this bothers me because quite often kids are dropped off at these tournaments (assuming it’s a safe place for their children to spend a few hours playing games with friends). And, the idea that my younger son could possibly be playing here and accused of cheating or stealing in front of his peers without an adult there to defend him is completely unacceptable. And, thus, my older son (as he’s old enough to decide for himself) won’t be attending these events any more and I cannot possibly feel secure allowing my younger son to either.
It is really a shame that one employees rather unprofessional and ridiculous behavior can ruin it for others. Fortunately, they aren’t the only place in town and Phoenix Fire has begun holding tournaments and seem to be comporting themselves with a little more professionalism than we have received here.
We won’t be back.