Games of Martinez — Local services in Martinez

I went to Games of Martinez for a One Piece TCG Prerelease event for OP06. I registered in the Bandai TCG+ app weeks earlier for an event with a 32 person cap, and it said my application was successful.

I got to the shop over an hour early because I live far away and forgot to bring my Don cards for the event. I walked in and was greeted by an older man who I assume was the owner or manager. I told him I was here for the prerelease but needed to buy some Don. He didn’t know what Don was and admitted he knows nothing about One Piece, referring me to an employee. That employee also had to ask me what Don was and said it would be fine to use any card instead. I purchased some DragonShield sleeves and left until the event was about to start.

I walked back in and they announced that it was time to line up to get our packs. They called out three specific players who would not be able to play because they were on the waitlist and the event was full. I was not one of those players, and my application has always said “successful,” so I lined up.

I got to the front of the line and the employee handling registration had trouble looking me up. This took roughly 2 minutes. After that, he told me that the event was actually 16 players instead of 32, despite what the official app says. According to him, I was actually on the waitlist of the 17-32 players.

So supposedly the event is kicking out half of its players, yet I saw nobody else getting kicked out. Before I could ask for clarification, the same older man from before walked up and said in a very rude tone, “Is there a problem here? This is taking way too long.” I said that yes, there is a problem, the official app is saying that I’m in the event and they are saying I’m on a waitlist. The employee said that the shop didn’t receive enough prerelease materials for 32 people, so it was 16 now.

Why was this not mentioned when I was in the store over an hour early? Allocations were known well before that point. The shop is also clueless about One Piece in general and should not be running events without any information. It makes me inclined to believe they made a mistake or, worst case, could be holding back product at the expense of those of us who signed up properly. Bandai allocates a certain amount of prerelease kits based on the tier of store, so I’ll be reporting this issue to Bandai. If it’s an allocation issue on Bandai’s end, so be it. But if they actually were allocated the correct amount, this is a big problem.

Regardless of anything else, it’s not OK to treat customers like they are an annoyance when you are turning them away for something like this. If everything was just an allocation problem, it should have been communicated properly and earlier than at the counter when I’m ready to play. Competence and respect for players are missing at this shop, and I regret choosing them as my priority...

Rewriting my review since they moved. Still 5 stars, but now they have a larger section for tables and a much bigger inventory. Lots of events, tournaments, organized play you can be a part of if you jump on the store discord.

I’ve gotten to know the people who work here, and they are such nice and helpful people. Very knowledgeable about games and stuff be had many fun and interesting conversations with them.

To name a few, they carry tons of MTG, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and Pokémon cards and accessories, Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder, Starfinder, Warhammer, Star Wars, and many more. Lots of board games as well. Miniatures, prepainted, blind box, unpainted. Lots of dice.

They have several locations so if you’re looking for something they don’t have, just ask, they may have it at another store.

I’ve been to just about every game store in the Bay Area, and I travel all over and tend to stop at them on my lunch breaks. Games of Martinez is my favorite place so far, even more so than Games...

I just discovered this place about 3 weeks ago while waiting to get a haircut.

The good; it is a brand new store with good inventory for the size. I actually really wanted to like it, especially for the convenience it offered me.

Upon entering the the store. The employee greeted me and asked me what I played. I told him that I was on a hiatus. He then talked over me by saying I must be a bad player and wrecks groups; hence, the “hiatus”.

If he had not talked over me the way he did. He would have heard me say I’m on hiatus because of Covid. So many tabletop game stores just hire the most socially inept and rude people.

So after being in the store for under 2 minutes I already decided that I would not purchase anything and would not come back in again.

Just know that I will drive past this store many times from here on out to spend my gaming money at your competitor. I hope you can fix your customer service issue for...