Warhammer — Local services in Gaithersburg

I am going to preface this review by saying that I'm by no means in denial about the severity of the Covid-19 pandemic, and how it can severely affect businesses. I follow exactly what guidelines are requested and listen when I may do something incorrect, but the way that the manager Ryan treated me and my significant other is inexcusable in every sense of the word.

My first, and last, trip to this store happened just yesterday, but still burns my blood to think of how inept the customer service was. Me and my SO were going out to this particular location to get a gift for a close friend for his birthday, and figured going to a name-brand warhammer store for a wider selection would help in finding the right gift. When we came to this particular location, we both saw that the maximum occupancy posted for the store was one person, and figured, "Okay, that's most likely the hard rule for the store, but I will ask before entering the store if we can both enter since we knew exactly what we are going to get". So, before I took a step into the store, I asked the manager simply, "Is the posting outside a hard and fast rule? Me and my SO live together, so I'm asking if it is possible for us both to enter together". The manager, Ryan, retorted in the most sarcastic way possible, "Nah, it's okay, I just put up that number because I was bored". Figuring that he just had a certain sense of humor and that it was a joke (sarcasm is hard to judge behind a mask), we took one step inside the store and was met with the manager SHOUTING at us like we were five year olds who just stole a hot-wheels toy at Walmart by accident.

From this, I waved my (visibly upset) SO outside so I could handle the situation. The customer service only got worse, as Ryan was constantly pressuring me to buy expensive items when I only had a few items in mind. On top of this, he seemingly power-tripped very hard on the fact that he was able to do this, almost disregarding me as a person when I was asking simple questions about inventory. Despite his apologetic and kind guise, I wanted nothing more to do with this store and being even near this person churned my stomach.

To anyone reading this review, go anywhere else for your warhammer and hobby needs. You'll most likely find more tolerable and professional...

TL;DR - Manager (Ryan) is a lil' tyrant, ruined our first Warhammer experience. Don't waste your time, avoid this location if you want better than terrible customer service.

If you have a shred of self respect, don't waste your time here. I visited with my gf this last weekend and while I'm still willing to give the Warhammer 40k hobby a try, this first impression permanently ruined Warhammer for her.

Without being consulted on what we wanted to learn about in Warhammer 40k, Ryan immediately sat us down to do a figurine painting tutorial.

Ryan is the least professional manager that I've ever come across.

At the beginning of the tutorial, he interrupted my simple questions about 40k lore and different model types that I wanted answered before moving ahead.

I was referred to as "Woah, killer" and told to stop touching things for handling tools and parts I was already familiar with - I've had several years of experience building models just like these.

When I pulled out a pocket knife with a utility blade to clean up some parts, Ryan yelled, "Put that away! That is a weapon!", as if I were a child. Reasoning with him didn't work, so I put it away - apparently there was a tool that Games Workshop wanted you to use specifically for this. Asking politely instead of barking orders would have worked wonders, even if Ryan doesn't have the foresight to give a brief overview of what the process is and what tools would be in use for each step - 4 or 5 total. Assuming Ryan's tyrannical little heart still wants to dictate your every move, a simple "wait for my cue and don't touch things until I say" would have prevented every conflict here.

Ryan has zero awareness personal space - he mouth-breathed inches from our ears and dripped sweat onto my gf's paint paper.

Ryan exercised textbook-definition man-splaining at every step of this tutorial. Breathtaking.

This is aside from other rude interactions we overheard with customers and high-pressure sales tactics to get you to...

Came in today, to talk WH and possibly spend some holiday cash. Walked from my car to the front door in the rain to find the door locked. The front door read the hours of operation, which mentioned a small break somewhere around 2:30pm to 2:45pm (something like that). I was there at 4:50ish. Kept trying to pull the door and then called the shop to get some long winded non-relevant message and then no one picking up. Lights were all on but no one in sight. I kept waiting until someone approached the door to unlock it. After the gentleman asked me how long I’ve been waiting I exaggerated my statement and sad 30mins. Instead of apologizing or being welcoming all he could fixate on was “you haven’t been waiting 30mins!” and mentioned how “I’m the only one here, I can’t go grab a coffee?”

I’ve worked retail, there was no sticky note saying “be right back, next door grabbing coffee” or “just left [time] be back at __”. Clearly the customer is at fault here for wanting to talk Warhammer and spend his hard earned money and wait but gets met with condescending speech and to what may have been their only customer today.

Wont be coming back and will be letting everyone know that they can spend their money and time at the other smaller game shops...