Hingle Boys TCG & Hobby — Local services in Slidell

This post is coming from a long time supporter/ patron of the store and as a former employee.

I will not be conducting business anymore as it has become very apparent Corey and Heather are no longer in the business of being player/ customer first and put profit above all else. In their earlier days when Corey and Heather were at the shop, they were customer/player centric and did build on that philosophy, making their store a place well relationships were built and weekly tournaments for their games were fun to attend and spend our time. However, with their expansion of their business, they have removed themselves from the forefront and since started multiple new endeavors, stretching themselves too thin. This has negatively impacted the community they built because people came to see THEM, not their employees, and I can attest to this, having dealt with MANY disappointed customers and always ask where is Corey and Heather.

To name a few things that have impacted me personally, just recently at a weekly One Piece tournament, the games were going longer than expected and as a result of that, Heather asked one of their employees to put herself on speaker, bring the phone to me, and proceed to yell at me for 5 mins. She was yelling at me how games were going way too long and blamed us for that. Yelled at us for causing her employee (singular because they refuse to staff the stores accordingly or man the store themselves) to stay late on a weekly basis. Even have the audacity to use official bandai rules against me in regards to time limits and will be way stricter on us. This is the complete opposite of being a friendly player first store. What Corey and Heather fail to realize is THEY FAILED to properly staff their store, THEY FAIL to regulate their own tournaments and rely on the players to figure it out, and proceed to gaslight their players for their own mistakes.

If they want to talk "Bandai Official Rules" in season prize supports are to be given during the time period One Piece weekly tournaments are taking placed. This has been a complaint brought up to them in the past but they continue to ignore their community and never give the correct/ most up to date prize support to their players. They are constantly giving out old prize support while OTHER TCG hobby stores are giving out the correct up to date prize support because they want to go through all their backlog first rather than give out the new stuff. They will host special tournament such as Treasure Cups for One Piece, Ultimate Battle for Dragon Ball Fusion World, New Type Challenge for Gumdum, etc. On multiple occasions they have charged full price for these premium events and not given out the promotional prizes because they did not have them.

There was a incident in past where a former former player/ customer purchased two spots for a dragonball ultimate battle. They did not have enough players to start the event so they cancelled it, when the player asked for the promotional cards, they said no he cannot receive them and did not offer him a refund. When he continued to ask for them since he PAYED for them, they proceed to ridicule him in front of other customers and belittle him, telling him how the business works and our purchases pay towards funding the tournament kits. So correct me if I’m wrong, if we are contributing to the stores tournament kits and we pay our entry for an event, are we not entitled to the prize support associated if not given a refund? So after being put on the spot, the customer left, having spent well over $50 and leaving empty handed. After hearing of this news a month later, I instructed the player to go back to Corey and heather and request a refund for his entry since it was never ran, Corey instead gave him ONE of promotional cards instead of doing the full refund. When the player asked about the second one (since he payed for two), Corey told him he’s lucky he got one.

This is just another example of their greed and how they had...

Drove all the way out from over 30 mins away to get a card, simply inquired about trade value to which they replied that they do 50% just like if they bought. Which was fine if that's their deal, I simply commented that it was low compared to others. Two guys one stayed silent the other decided to make a retaliatory comment with attitude about their rate, to which I said look man I'm not trying to argue I'm about to buy this $100 card just simply commenting. He kept on afterwards so I put the card back on the counter and left, I'd rather take my business elsewhere.

Edit after owner response: While I appreciate your genuine reply to this matter, I find your employees description of the incident disingenuous. I don't believe I said the words "just wrong" but I may be mistaken. He certainly did not desist with his aggrivated banter towards me after I stated that I wasn't trying to argue and I was going to buy the card at full price. Traveled less than 30 away and got the same card at price with the option to trade 60-80% depending on card value. Maybe one day I'll visit again but will most likely not do business with that individual.

Edit after edit and tldr: owner keeps trying to reframe the confrontation he started and would not cease to make a sale, based on a comment in passing (not repeated) about his outrageous trade value. I recommend people to go to anywhere else but here if they are looking to TRADE cards. New shop in Covington is way better to people, same with the new shop in Hammond. Drop Hingle boys like...

Amazing store, great people and staff, great location, and great prices. The store has may rooms for diff activities such as war hammer Pokemon and magic the gathering tournaments. The people who compete are fair, fun, and cool. The staff is amazing. Corey is a great manager alongside his wife who both maintain an other poke stores. There’s a guy who’s very patient with teaching about psa and all the other alternatives as well as MTG. Noah is also very kind and helpful and he’s esp very good with kids in the store. The location is great- next to a smoothie and wrap shop with amazing staff who makes you feel at home and even brings ur food next door to u in the tournament if the tournament doesn’t serve pizza already. Prices are very fair even tho no military discounts. Some chairs in tournament room have cushion and some don’t- so prepare for bringing cushion if u just had surgery or need accommodations. The tournament tables already have playing mats so don’t worry about bringing one! So blessed to have this shop in...