Gotta Catch ‘Em All For A Price

(I’m around 14. I’m entering my local game store for a “Pokémon Event;” basically a thing where you bring in your game, load it up, and you can download special creatures to add to your team, usually unavailable by any other method. I stand around for a while, trying to perform the download, with no luck. After five minutes of trying, I go up to the desk.)

Me: “Hey, has the Pokémon event ended? I can’t make it work.”

Cashier: *stares at me like I’m insane*

Me: “The thing where I put on my game and download the Pokémon? Keldeo? The watery horse thing?”

Cashier: “Oh, that. Yeah, you need to reserve the new game. Otherwise, we leave it off.”

(This is entirely new to me. The events have never been done like this before, and I was planning to wait until the reviews for the game came out, since the previous game hadn’t been up to the series’ usual standard. Still, I want my Pokémon, and I figure I can just not pick up the game.)

Me: “All right, put me down for a reservation.”

Cashier: “Do you have a membership card?”

Me: “No?”

Cashier: “You need to be a member before you can make reservations. You need to sign up.”

(A fairly long line is starting to form behind me, as only one other cashier is available. Customers are starting to glare at me holding up the line. Wanting to move as quickly as possible, I agree.)

Me: “Okay, fine, make me a member.”

(The painfully long process of giving this guy my name, address, email and phone number is dragging on and on. Finally, I think I’m going to get the event activated.)

Cashier: “Okay, that’ll be five pounds.”

Me: “For what?! You can’t be charging for events!”

Cashier: “Reservations are five pounds. I’m sure I told you.”

Me: “No, you didn’t! I haven’t got any money!”

Cashier: *condescendingly* “Why would you come into a game shop with no money? You just don’t want to pay!”

Me: “I have no money because events have ALWAYS been free! I don’t even WANT to order the new game!”

(I’m close to tears by this point, when my dad decides he’s had enough.)

Dad: “I’ll pay for the d*** thing. We’ve been here too long not to get the Pokémon.”

(Finally, the employee begrudgingly turns on the event, and I collect my new character. The next time I went in to pick up the reserved game, the other cashier was running the till, and informed me that the man I dealt with had since been fired for poor customer service and rudeness!)

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