Through all of this, one of the worst things that could happen during your day in the call center was to have a customer ask "Do you have Battletoads?"
A prank that spread on the internet while meme's were still trying to get their footing. In 2007, a number of GameStop stores were hit with this question by an anonymous caller. They would keep the employee busy for 10-15 minutes searching for this game in the system, only to be laughed at and hung up on. Or the customer would curse out the employee and proceed to hang up. Why it was funny? I have no idea. I guess preventing employees from helping other customers is hilarious to some.
It eventually spread to hit stores around the U.S. and the call center. Our days would be wasted helping customers "pranking" us. Unfortunately with policy we were never allowed to hang up unless the customer became verbally abusive. Even then, it had to be an extreme because managers would get mad whenever we hung up the phone. Customers had to be the one to end a call. So there were moments where we spent 20, 30, 45 minutes with customers who asked us about Battletoads. Because it was funny for some unknown reason. And this prank still continues, much to my disdain. You only need to take a moment to Google and see the bevy of videos available.
At one point, we had a merchandising associate get so fed up with the store inquiries that he posted a dummy Battletoads game on the website. It only lasted for a few days before he was asked to remove it, but it did curb the prank calls temporarily.
As a former GameStop employee with an endless amount of empathy to the store associates, please stop with this stupid "prank." It's not funny. It takes away the employees time from assisting actual customers. It makes you look dumb for not coming up with a better prank. Stop it.
Which is why I was annoyed to see this rumor once again pop up: New Battletoads in development! This one comes from GameRant via David Wise, the composer for the original game's music. On his website he listed a Battletoads 20/20 in his bio, which was quickly updated to David Wise: 20/20. So far no screenshots can be found to confirm this. The content was on the site for such a brief time that cookies/cache have no record of it. We have no way of verifying if this is even accurate.
That being said, until the current IP holder comes out with an official announcement that a new Battletoads is being developed, please do not harass your local gaming stores. Do not call them to pre-order. Do not take up their valuable, underpaid time to mess with them. They are sick of it as we all are. The "prank" is not funny. It never was funny. And it never will be funny. For their sanity, I hope that this "rumor" does not become reality.
It eventually spread to hit stores around the U.S. and the call center. Our days would be wasted helping customers "pranking" us. Unfortunately with policy we were never allowed to hang up unless the customer became verbally abusive. Even then, it had to be an extreme because managers would get mad whenever we hung up the phone. Customers had to be the one to end a call. So there were moments where we spent 20, 30, 45 minutes with customers who asked us about Battletoads. Because it was funny for some unknown reason. And this prank still continues, much to my disdain. You only need to take a moment to Google and see the bevy of videos available.
At one point, we had a merchandising associate get so fed up with the store inquiries that he posted a dummy Battletoads game on the website. It only lasted for a few days before he was asked to remove it, but it did curb the prank calls temporarily.
As a former GameStop employee with an endless amount of empathy to the store associates, please stop with this stupid "prank." It's not funny. It takes away the employees time from assisting actual customers. It makes you look dumb for not coming up with a better prank. Stop it.
Which is why I was annoyed to see this rumor once again pop up: New Battletoads in development! This one comes from GameRant via David Wise, the composer for the original game's music. On his website he listed a Battletoads 20/20 in his bio, which was quickly updated to David Wise: 20/20. So far no screenshots can be found to confirm this. The content was on the site for such a brief time that cookies/cache have no record of it. We have no way of verifying if this is even accurate.
That being said, until the current IP holder comes out with an official announcement that a new Battletoads is being developed, please do not harass your local gaming stores. Do not call them to pre-order. Do not take up their valuable, underpaid time to mess with them. They are sick of it as we all are. The "prank" is not funny. It never was funny. And it never will be funny. For their sanity, I hope that this "rumor" does not become reality.
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