New Scaratings

For anyone not paying attention until now (like me), buzztime did post about this on their Twitter feed sometime yesterday. It says a small handful of BWW sites are losing buzztime after this weekend, but the vast majority of sites will not be impacted.

Whatever that means.

I asked the manager at my BWW last night. She told me that they've received word from corporate that they are not allowed to send in tablets for repair or ask for any support from Buzztime for the foreseeable future.

Just heard back from the management at BWW-Kent. I was told to rest well, and that there were no plans to get rid of trivia there.

This sounds like an experiment at select locations, then.

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Anon
"He may seem like Mr. Rogers but a dark spirit lies beneath."

Thankyou for the updates.It is great to know it appears it is not systemwide.Games that I remember-abused need,TV that was a half hour,triviokia(may be misspelled-it was lines from songs),half hour history,sports iq,fox hour long sports trivia,NASCAR, hockey,hour long glory days,wipeout,etc.I am sure there are many more.They use to also have more system wide contests with prizes.They as others have mentioned need field reps to promote the trivia.Even with the flaws I will continue to play and hopefully buzztime responds with a better trivia experience.

Like me a Minnesota player, BUGG might have added that Inspire Brands Inc, the restaurant arm of Roark Capital, is laying off 132 of the ~400 employees who man the home office of BWW in our neck of the woods. The layoffs shall occur in eleven phases, ending January 2019. The positions affected are those which Inspire Brands believes to duplicate the functions of their staff at their home office in Atlanta. Although I haven't personally interacted with any of the decision-makers in BWW or its parent company, it's clear that Inspire Brands is a very confident organization.

I suspect that Inspire shares my lack of confidence in certain restaurant trends. Unlike me, they're in a position to experiment.

Did Buzztime err in extending its tablets to BWW for the purposes of ordering and payment? Many of us enjoy being served by personable young men and women, and wish to extend our thanks for their service while we're tipping them out. There are ongoing security issues: chip technology is a chain which can be probed for weaknesses. No long-standing computer technology has ever been secure if unimproved. Tech security is a race which is too expensive, unless it's necessary for the conduct of business. When it comes to ordering food and drink and paying for it, this is not a core competence in the realm of hospitality.

I breakfast daily at my local Panera (and I'll thank you coffee snobs in advance for your silence). There are an increasing number of Panera patrons who prefer to order and pay through Panera's computerized ordering system, rather than wait behind even one customer. But this is an inexact parallel to the sit-down dining experience. Panera is stand-up pay, stand-up pick-up, buss your own cutlery sort of a place. It may be that many of the patrons I see using Panera's system are placing to-go orders. I don't know.

I doubt whether Insight Brands knows either. BWW-Roseville has a dedicated Showdown group and regular afternoon Countdown play. It seems an unlikely site for the kind of experiment which HILTER and NOMAR describe.

What happens next? I'm a dedicated pessimist, who is happiest when frolicking in a field of wilted daisies. While BWW needn't run Buzztime through all its stores, the analytics for why this store deserves and that store doesn't deserve, can't be obvious.

I thought I was responding to a post which has subsequently been overwritten by about ten others. I need to bail, and don't have even have time to express my thanks to the many players who have shared their insight into an issue of common, perhaps paramount, concern.

Keep it coming.

I agree with you to a point. I also enjoy interacting with the servers. I also like to sit at the bar when playing Buzztime - the service is better and I have more interaction with the bartender than I would a server (unfortunately, often times I am the only one playing Buzztime at my favorite BWW).
However, I think Buzztime has already missed the boat. I also go to TGI Fridays and they also have an app. While you can't order from the app, you can pay your bill - just scan a QR code and enter your credit card information.
You can already order takeout from the Friday's app, and it's not going to be a big step from here to getting a table id when you sit down and ordering from your phone's app. I think this is the way restaurant chains are going in the future.

Lamenting Li.

All true, but this geared towards the future generation. The younger generation doesn't want to pay cash for anything. Literally. I was at a food court for lunch the other day, a young 20something walked up, ordered a soft drink only that cost $1.37, and she promptly pulled out her chip card to pay for it.

I don't fault buzztime for trying - and buzztime more or less has to give BWW whatever they want since it's the bread & butter of their site count. Most of us on here think the tablets are a hot mess (just go on the buzztime FB visitor comments page to see one recent discussion about them) and wouldn't trust putting any type of card data in them. Can't fault them for trying since it is the wave of the future, but they clearly have a long way to go in getting it right.

Obviously,is important as an individual to be flexible and grow.That does include adapting to change.I am one of those that may charge a small amount on my card since I get a few pennies back.Yes,as most people I am sometimes penny wise and pound foolish.But like Dave(GoneD),I do like the personal touch of interacting with the staff on my visits.Maybe in long run owner transfer at bdubs will lead to a better run buzztime experience.

The ordering and paying by the tablet will not eliminate the servers. You still must place your 1st alcoholic beverage order with a server to ascertain the age of the old fart.

Then the servers will have to bring your drinks and food out to your table etc.

The system is only intended to make it quicker if its a busy night and the location is under staffed as happens.

If you sit at the bar there would be no reason to use it except to pay if you are in a hurry for the early bird special at Golden Corral.

The point of this thread isn't too whine about buzztime but to make those 3 BWW in MN and the 1 in TX realize they are losing customers.

I have called the Roseville store to complain about the situation and told them I wouldn't be spending any money there. everyone on scar should do the same. They must get enough negative feedback at the store level to tell corporate bww to turn it back on for good.

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BUD - Stained Glass Pub Silver Spring MD
OC BUD - Grotto Pizza DE near Ocean City MD

LET'S GO ....Caps and Os!!!!

Yes,I did tell them it was not a good decision.One other way you can mention is if you fill out a survey,which I often do is to mention the importance of buzztime to you,your family and friends.Also,you can complain on the survey about bdub stores that do not have it.The survey is easy to fill out.I usually do it on my phone after paying my tab.This way I so not forget to do it.There is a comment section on the survey.

I am playing trivia at Turtle's in Shakopee, Minnesota.Suddenly,two people I had only seen playing trivia at Savage BWW walk in.They had just come from BWW Savage.They wanted to play trivia there,but they were told that trivia was done for good.So they left and came over here.They said all the trivia equipment had been removed.If people want to call and voice their concerns the customer service number for buzztime is 1-800-745-4686.The customer service number for BWW is 952-593-9433 and hit option 4 and you can leave a message.

I would concentrate on BWW.
I'd guess Buzztime already disagrees with their decision.

Yes please call BWW not Buzztime.

Also go to buffalowildwings.com, scroll to the bottom to "contact" and fill out a negative complaint for whatever store you like that dropped BT mentioning the loss of Buzztime. Corporate BWW does see those negative ones and will keep track of it according to the Leesburg VA BWW manager who is very mad that his store was one of those dropped by corporate BWW in MN. He's pretty sure his bonus based on sales will be gone for this quarter.

The Leesburg manager also said all of their 7 stores in northern VA were picked to have BT taken out by corporate BWW. He also said it would be re evaluated in a year not 6 weeks as had been reported.

The Sterling BWW is gone too, home of Rick (Zebra).

So even if you don't go to BWW it is important for the health of BT to voice our concerns to BWW.

http://www.buffalowildwings.com .... down to "Contact"
Pick a location: Dulles VA or Leesburg VA or Roseville MN or Savage MN or Elk River MN or Baytown TX among others.
(I guess we need a full list of drops)

Or call 952-593-9433 then 4 as Bugg says.

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BUD - Stained Glass Pub Silver Spring MD
OC BUD - Grotto Pizza DE near Ocean City MD

LET'S GO ....Caps and Os!!!!

I agree that BWW should be contacted first.The value of also contacting buzztime,it gives them information they can pass on to BWW.Anyway, hopefully buzztime is focused on improving their product and marketing so companies do get a return on their investment.

Buzztime has made a few tweets the last couple hours - and interestingly, they're defending BWW.

But it makes sense. They were at the table with a huge pile of BWW chips, they lost a "small handful" of chips, and they're trying to protect their remaining chips.

While the rest of us are curious to know which "small handful" of chips they actually lost...

Well, I did the negative feedback for BWW and got a response that they wanted to discuss their other entertainment options with me.

Oh, good, maybe you can go ahead with that and explain the concept of trivia and the unique opportunity that BWW is giving up. We can go anywhere to watch sports.

I had to explain to a manager of a dropping VA bww that we can't just play on our phones. He had no clue that you have to be in a location with buzztime on to see the questions to use your phone. He thought we could still just sit in his store and use phones instead of tablets.

Go for the discussion, Brutus.

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BUD - Stained Glass Pub Silver Spring MD
OC BUD - Grotto Pizza DE near Ocean City MD

LET'S GO ....Caps and Os!!!!

Well, I spoke to the local manager personally on Wednesday since I was going in anyways. He listened but all he really did was re-iterate what one of the assistants had already told me in that their hands are tied as it relates to buzztime and the experiment is going to have to run it's course or at least until corporate says otherwise but he would pass my concerns up the chain. I know at least one other player there made his concerns known as well already. The only thing corporate will understand is if this alters profits. This particular store is already worried because an Elsa's is going in next door which is going to take business and if that Elsa's location gets buzztime, he already knows he'll lose some at least some of his trivia players to them too. If I hear any different from this location, I'll be sure to pass it on.

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liljol, still residing in a humble lil abode in Buzztime's Backyard, San Diego County, in The Horribly Site-Poor Golden State, California...

<--805 NTN Buzztime sites visited as of 11/13/2018...

F CUBS!!!!! FBOSOX!!!!!

FPDRES!!!!! FCHGRS!!!!!

BWW Sterling, Va and Leesburg, VA have also dropped NTN. The poor bartender who Zebra and I could probably list as a dependent on our tax return looked aghast as the manager removed the chargers Saturday, March 31. The 5 trivia players were his only customers that day.

The manager at Backyard Grill asked me a few months ago what it would take to get me back. I said for BWW to piss me off. Well, Backyard, I'm back! (Backyard drove me off by refusing to put the sound on for a CAPS game, then 3 days later putting on the sound for the State of the Union address, which I had come there to get away from -- LOL)

We need to vote with our wallets.

Lumpy,great comments.I have already filled out 2 BWW surveys imploring them not to drop buzztime.I already have seen several people go to other places because of this.Not that I want them to but overall,if buzztime is smart and resourceful I feel they could survive without BWW.You brought up an interesting thing about putting the sound on for games.It is so arbitrary.One afternoon I was in a BWW and they had sound on for soccer which is fine with me if none of the major events are happening.But at times although seldom some places will not put the sound on.I was at BWW one day and someone had a long streak of winning on Jeopardy and I asked if they would put it on without sound.I was told no that they could only put on sports programming.I guess when I was younger things like not putting on the sound would really bother me,but now I just go with the flow,kind of when buzztime makes a mistake on a question.I am resigned to the fact we live in an imperfect world and life is indeed not always fair.

BWW Waldorf MD and Arlington VA have also dropped Buzztime. They are in the same franchise as Leesburg and Dulles/Sterling VA. There are 7 BWW in that franchise, all of which were forced to drop BT against their wishes according to the Leesburg manager. I'm not sure where the other 3 dropped stores are located.

I put in a negative complaint asking how long the "test" would last and got a response from corporate BWW saying it's not a test, these stores are part of "store re-imaging". Whatever that is. I guess the image of Lumpy and Zebra was too much.

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BUD - Stained Glass Pub Silver Spring MD
OC BUD - Grotto Pizza DE near Ocean City MD

LET'S GO ....Caps and Os!!!!

The tablets no doubt convey to Buzztime how much activity, and of what type, each tablet has performed. Since Buzztime pursued the tablet technology in response to BWW's request for it, the results have, no doubt, been shared commonly between both Buzztime and Buffalo Wild Wings.

It's been obvious, for several years, that the tail has been wagging the dog.

More recently, families with significant disposable income have been equipping younger and younger children with smartphones, the phones equipped with game apps which encourage children to sit in contentment while waiting for a parental ride from one safe environment to the next. These children are not going to log into Buzztime's relatively cumbersome tablets to pursue the pleasures they've already accessed, over their personal devices, while waiting for Mom or Dad.

In the event that Buzztime's customer base were to collapse - an event which could be precipitated by BWW's justifiable review of corporate policy - anyone who wished to run Buzztime as a legacy might be spending $3-5M or more per year out of pocket. The good news is that you could charge BWW a rate which is not discounted. Pregnant brides get stood up at the altar. I'm still hoping that Buzztime might survive the embarrassment.

The prosperity of Buzztime depends on good players engaging other, less adept players, in mutually satisfying competition. But this is true of all games.

Dave,you are right.The kids are not asking mom and dad to go to BWW so they can play the kiddie games.I think they tried to start charging to play the kiddie games at one time.Bud,reimagining means to me and not a test is that there is a strong liklehood they hope dropping it works in their favor .They may have already decided not to bring it back,period.Buzztime should not rely on one company to sustain itself.Buzztime appeals to a very small market.Myself,I am often in wonderment at how few people play.I beleive it can prosper in the right places with proper games and marketing.They need to get back to games people enjoy and add other ones that more will play.Still,I feel it is important that one should exert whatever influence they have to BWW that trivia remain.Both buzztime and BWW can be better off with buzztime trivia than without.