And the number one complaint of the day.....

[MerryRaven]

I am at the book Check-in station.  We have just brought in a bin of books from the outside book drop.  We have also just recieved a delivery of 8 bins of books from other branches not to mention the books people keep setting on the check-in counter.

The counter to the left of where I am working has stacks of books about 2 feet high and three feet long.

I am running them through the scanner as fast as I can.

"Hey" says this very disgruntled man as he shoves a slip of paper in my face, "we brought these books back and my daughter's account is still blocked." 

I peer over the pile at his slip and ask, "When did you return them." 

"Over ten minutes ago!" he exclaims with righteous indignation.

Another employee and I look for the books in my stack and sure enough the 6 books that were due in October are there.  At the far end of my stack.

I grab them and run them through the scanner and say that the account should be clear now. 

I suggest that after this, if he thinks something might be overdue that he ask the check-in person to check them in right away to clear up any blocks.

His complaint?  "How am I suppose to know if they are overdue or not?  It's your responsiblity to check them in!" 

I admit it.  I smiled and said in the cheeryist cheesyist voice I could muster.  "Well, okey-doke then. The account is clear."

He was still grumpy.  But it is hard to act hostile to some one who grins at you and says "Okey-doke."

[HushHush]

I get the same thing.  Clients call me and want to know when their case will be processed and they turned their information in that morning.  Its, at the bare minimum, a 24 hour turnaround time for mail to get to me from the lobby dropbox. 

I tell them now that I have 30 days to process their food stamps and I don't want any angry phone calls until the 31st day.  That gets a laugh and I don't get phone calls.

I had one guy call me every two hours for four days.  This was before I had voicemail so I had to answer the phone each and every time, pulling my attention from the case I was working on.  I finally told him that everytime he called me, he went to the bottom of my pile.  He stopped.

Charlotte

[Sirius]

I had one guy call me every two hours for four days.  This was before I had voicemail so I had to answer the phone each and every time, pulling my attention from the case I was working on.  I finally told him that everytime he called me, he went to the bottom of my pile.  He stopped.

Charlotte

Years ago I was working by myself in the transcription office, and I pulled up an extremely long rush dictation from one of the neurosurgeons.  Then the calls began.  On the third call (and I should have told him this on the first call, I admit) he asked me what he could do to help get his dictation done faster.  I told him, "Stop calling!  I'm the only one in the room, and every time you call I have to stop what I'm doing and answer the phone!"  He apologized, said he didn't realize I was the only one there, and didn't call again until I paged him that his report was done. 

[CalabashCorolla]

Sigh. I feel for you, MerryRaven. I worked in a campus library in college, and there were more than a few people (often professors, BTW), who seemed to assume that we lowly library staffers were borderline omniscient. My favorite "suggestion" from one of our patrons (probably the snootiest, control-freakiest faculty member in her department) was that, since a lot of the most popular books went on course reserve (2-hour loan) every semester, that we should have at least 2 copies of EVERYTHING, which is of course near-impossible for any library, let alone a campus branch outfit.

By the way, did the guy in your story even bother to look at the due-date slip in his books? Or did he do a remote-renewal thing and fail to note the new return date? Either way, I'm sure he at least wishes that you folks could use telepathy to see exactly which books were overdue in the return stack! Gotta love the library!

[MerryRaven]

By the way, did the guy in your story even bother to look at the due-date slip in his books? Or did he do a remote-renewal thing and fail to note the new return date? Either way, I'm sure he at least wishes that you folks could use telepathy to see exactly which books were overdue in the return stack! Gotta love the library!

I don't even think he looked at the due date which was in October which means there were at least two notices sent before the account was blocked. 

So he pays no attention to the check-in date and then ignores mail from the library. 

'sigh' I guess I expect to much when I think people might actually read their mail and I should know when every book in the library is due.

[CalabashCorolla]

I don't even think he looked at the due date which was in October which means there were at least two notices sent before the account was blocked. 

So he pays no attention to the check-in date and then ignores mail from the library. 

'sigh' I guess I expect to much when I think people might actually read their mail and I should know when every book in the library is due.

Classic. It's amazing how inconsiderate people can be about library materials and not returning them, even when bombarded with notices. To them, it's like "free to check out = book is worthless".

A university library near me has quite an interesting loan policy. For state resident non-student patrons (like me), the loan period is 30 days, plus another 60 days with lost status after which the book is declared permanently lost. There aren't any fines for regular books other than the lost fines at 90 days, but at day 31 an ominous e-mail is sent out declaring the "lost" status of the overdue materials, and threatening a fine of $125 per book ($100 replacement + $25 processing fee) if the book is declared permanently lost. This is usually enough to make people FREAK OUT if they think they will get hit with potentially hundreds of dollars in fines, and perhaps this school has found its method to be the most effective one in getting back materials in a timely manner. Maybe you can't teach people to respect the books, but it's not hard to get them to respect their wallets.

[IndianInlaw]

You know what is wonderful about university libraries?

The university can WITHOLD YOUR TRANSCRIPTS if you have "obligations" (any unpaid fees, including overdue fines and lost book charges.)

[Twik]

You know what is wonderful about university libraries?

The university can WITHOLD YOUR TRANSCRIPTS if you have "obligations" (any unpaid fees, including overdue fines and lost book charges.)

Or, as I found out, a university can withold your transcripts even if they just think you have unreturned books, even if they admit they can't determine which books you supposedly have out, so you can't even pay the imaginary lost charges to obtain release of your transcripts.

Yeah, I'm bitter.

[T'Mar of Vulcan]

In my business we have a saying, "You can't argue with someone who agrees with you."

OT, but I wanted to say I love your avatar picture!!

(Gee, I wonder why.)

[enjoyetiquettehell]

I got a good laugh from your post.  just needed that. Sorry you have to deal with kind of stuff.

Eva

[Thipu1]

Sarcasm on:

Honestly MerryRaven I fear your library school education was incomplete.  You obviously neglected to take the course that teaches mind-reading and the sort of X-ray vision that can home in on overdue books at the bottom of a pile.

You're not totally to blame, however.  It takes a sort of ESP to find that course in the catalog.

Sarcasm off:

[HogwartsAlum]

His complaint?  "How am I suppose to know if they are overdue or not?  It's your responsiblity to check them in!"

No, dorky, it's YOUR responsibility to get your books back in time and/or pay your fines!

(I have to admit, though, I singlehandedly support my local library with my fines...*sigh*  This year, I SWEAR I'm going to use my calendar to keep track of my books!)