Unfortunately, today was a complete miss and disaster. I've been coming to Round 1 since 2020 and…read morehave been a returning customer, even stopping by at least once a week until Round 1 itself became busier with business.
This used to be my go-to Round 1, but I will not come back and here's why.
I came yesterday (10/01) for a collaboration I've been avidly looking out for since the announcement for the Persona 30th collaboration. I reloaded my card at the game counter and purchased items with a worker named Angela and asked her if I could redeem the keychains for this collab when reloading the card. She told me that they didn't have them right now, and asked which keychains from the display would I like to redeem. I only came here for one reason so I wasn't really looking for other keychains, and therefore it took a while to figure out what I wanted. Thankfully, since it was a weekday, no one was behind me waiting, but after a while, Angela told me that if I wanted to, I could return at a later date when they have the keychains and redeem them. I was skeptical, I let her know as much as I'd like that, how would the next person know that and she proceeded to tell me that the next person would see on their system that I didn't redeem anything. On the website it says keychains must be redeemed same day as credit reload, but since they didn't have the keychains on their date of launch and after we confirmed it with a staff over the phone the day of, where were we supposed to go from there especially since they're asking for $120 or more to get both keychains? After a back and forth confirming with Angela, she said it's fine that I can come back and she doesn't see a reason why I can't get the keychains the next time as long as I bring a receipt but the receipt doesn't have much info aside from the amount I paid and when and where-- which is even more suspicious in the grand scheme of things (the time is wrong on the receipt for some reason).
I came to this location on 10/03 midnight since we were in the area and decided to asked if the game card counter had it. I spoke to Brianna and let her know what I was told the previous day by Angela. She said that she needed to check with her lead to see if they could do anything if at all since they didn't do that. And after speaking on the mic with someone, she said that yeah I couldn't redeem the keychain-- it would have to have been redeemed day of and I couldn't even redeem anything else. I was feeling pretty cheated, and another worker, didn't really introduce himself but his name was Andrew, intervened, asked if we called, and I have no clue what he's talking about and said I'm not sure what's he's asking about since we did call but for something else (our call was to ask if they would have the Persona 30th products on the first of October because the last collab with persona 3 reload they didn't have product out on release day; they said they did, but sadly on 10/01 when we came, they didn't have the keychain and they didn't tell us that over the phone when we called). I was trying to ask if I could speak to someone like the lead/supervisor/manager for this issue, but it was clear he was getting fed up with us as he spoke to Brianna. He then turned around, grabbed the two keychains of P3 and P5 from the back end of the table and then proceeded to THROW IT at us on the counter, with attitude, as if he was throwing trash and not merchandise in front of customers. We just stared at him, could not believe he just did that, and then he proceeded to try and smooth things over with a fake smile and two thumbs up saying, "We're all good". I just took the keychains and walked away feeling mixed about the whole situation that unfolded when none of that had to happen; who knows what else he would throw at us if we stayed any longer.
But it didn't sit well with me. It still doesn't sit well with me that someone can openly be disrespectful and not be reprimanded by anyone. I don't even know if he was a lead or just a team member, but seriously, if you want a chance to get assaulted and disrespected, this is the Round 1 to be at. I've been pouring too much money into Round 1 and I'm not proud of it, but after this encounter, I'm even more appalled at Round 1 and myself for supporting them. I get that people are trying to take advantage of people out in the world and it isn't a wonderful place to be at right now overall, but if you treat people with kindness, kindness is sure to follow. Round 1 needs to stop hiring people who don't enjoy being here at all and show it and then take it out on the customers. That's terrible customer service and no one deserves to be treated like they're an eyesore or annoying especially at a place that advertises being welcoming and family-friendly.