I may've come up with the solution to the mystery of why people are so....disinclined to be courteous at my place of employ. Here's my theory: so many customers no longer come to the library to browse. They're here to drop off items and pick up what has come in through ILL, so they make one stop at the end of the counter to leave their goods, then proceed immediately to the other end to pick up more. Far too many seem to feel that this is too time-consuming, so the transaction goes like this: person is in line with handful of stuff, hands it to you, saying, "I'm returning these and picking up holds for______." So then you have things that need to be revised and discharged and an order to fill. More and more frequently, too, I'm hearing an exasperated sigh when I ask, "May I see your card?" The "may I see your card" question seems to be getting under a LOT of people's skin: why??? It's THE LIBRARY. Maybe it's because of the proliferation of store-specific cards? Because you KNOW who the person is, as he/she is in here all the time? Then shouldn't they know to have their card ready?
I had a really nice example of this at closing last night: guy comes in with his daughter at 5:56 pm. They have two plastic bags of returns, which he hands us right over the check-out desk. He proceeds immediately into handing me his debit card and says he has to pay for a book he hasn't "lost" but doesn't know where it is. I ask if I can see his card, and he puts his hands flat on the counter, leans over until his face is about six inches from mine, and says, voice dripping with sarcasm: "What...if...I...don't....HAVE...a...card?" I blinked a few times, and said that I had to look up his account SOMEHOW and he cut me off by flipping his debit card at me and telling me to just tell him what he owed. I had the fun then of having to tell him we accept only cash or checks and to please hand me either a card or a license so I could look up his account. He was just launching into this seething "Why don't we... just... use... MY NAME?" approach when the customer behind him said "Excuse me" and stepped in between him and me and handed me his stuff, winking and making a can-you-believe-this-guy face, bless him. The angry guy backed off and sort of wandered away then. I ran into him at WalMart not twenty minutes later (gee, wonder if he was there shopping for Easter dresses, too?); lucky, lucky me.
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Maggie, why do you get the live ones? Is it because you have such a patient, angelic look on your face that they just feel compelled to ruin your day? Maybe you look too happy.
Me, I would have had to mess with him. "If you don't have a card, how'd you check out these books? Or did you steal them?" Better yet, when he flipped the debit card at me, I probably would have flipped it back, aiming for the throat.
This is why they don't let me work the desk without being heavily medicated.
Maybe we ought to get a "community" prescription for something that would render anyone working the desk appropriately "sedate." We could help ourselves from a big bowl of it upon coming to work...
Funny; my "library voice" works wonders on the phone: the grouchiest customer tends to melt at the sound of my sickenly sweet "Thank you for calling the Wadsworth Public Library! HOW may I help you?" query. In person, though....I should adopt a slightly dangerous look: sort of a twitchy-eyed you-don't-want-to-mess-with-ME expression....hmm...
Hey, I just asked someone the other day how he'd placed a hold with no card! The gentleman walked up to the counter and said he had a book on hold for _________ and I asked, "May I see your card?" and he said, "Oh, I don't have a card" and I- thoughtlessly- asked, "Well, how'd you place a hold?" Turns out he'd called it in...and needed to get a card. Sigh.
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