Miss Information is annoyed by logic
What the hell is wrong with people? Libraries are pretty simple. You borrow stuff, you return stuff. If you return it on time, it’s free. If you return it late, there’s a penalty. This concept is elegant in its simplicity. And yet…Today Miss Information encountered a patron who doesn’t get it. A woman came to the desk with an overdue paperback. She shouldn’t have to pay the fine though. Hm…why’s that exactly? Well, she declared triumphantly that she had mistakenly believed that the book had been returned earlier. When she noticed it was still on her record, she explained this to the library and they changed the status to “reported returned”. Then she found the book at home and brought it back. So, you see, she doesn’t owe the library anything. Miss Information has a slightly different understanding of library policy. The book was due earlier, yes? The woman agreed. And in the woman’s house the entire time? But of course. The woman repeated her “reported returned” story. It is a good story for sure, but it still kind of means that even though the book was believed to have been returned, it was in fact NOT RETURNED, in other words—the book is OVERDUE.
Miss Information refused to waive the fine. This is the second time she has had this stupid conversation recently and she’s tired of it.
9 Comments:
Good for you! Stand your ground kid. In my library we might get yelled at for not waiving the fine, maybe even fired.
People are idiots!
My favourite excuse was the lady who returned her books late and it was my fault - because the library hours are so confusing.
What's especially annoying about these situations is that not only did she have the book longer than the normal checkout period, but she made library staff check the shelves for a book she misplaced--aargh . . . There should be a penalty fee for waste of staff time.
That's a case of someone who knew how the system worked before it changed not long ago and expected to still be able to work it.
It's like the patron who didn't want to pay the overdue for a video because she never got around to watching it!
LOL Yeah we get those... But here's a new one for us. This guy went to make copies which is ten cents per page, forgot to put his document in the machine so printed out 12 copies of blank paper. He wanted us to refund his money, no reason why other than he was just stupid.. TWICE !
My tale of stoopid patrons:
Dec. 28th, patron returns book and tells me that even tho' the date due card shows Dec. 27th, she didn't bring it back, because she knows we're closed Sundays (we're not) and our holiday sign said we were closed (it didn't). (Biting tongue) I did mention that an item would never be due on a date we were closed, and I did charge her the whopping 30 cent fine. I just shake my head!
I wonder if that would work if you filed your income tax late. "I had it in the envelope by the due date, so no penalties for me!"
These are the same people that yank on the door, then bang on it and yell "Are you open?". How do they remember to breath?
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