Just Another Stress
Aug
'06
Crappy ending to an otherwise good day: I had just walked up to the customer service desks after finishing all my other tasks (bestsellers, new arrivals, and top shelf) when this woman comes up and says, “Do you have any other copies of this book? This one looks like it’s been read.” It was The Secret Hour by Luanne Rice, and yes, it did look kind of used, as most of our books do because we are inside a mall and people come and sit and read in between movies. So I looked it up and saw that we had 5 additional copies. I went over to where it should have been in the section, but none of them were there. She walked up to me and said very politely, “where are the books?” I said I wasn’t sure, that I could look at the features and other displays to see if they had been set anywhere else. Up to this point I thought she was like any other customer, kind of frustrated that the book she wants is messed up but patient and otherwise polite.
Of course not! Why do I think such things?
“I KNOW there are at least TEN other copies of this book. I saw them in the store just the other day, but I don’t remember where. DON’T TELL ME THEY AREN’T HERE.”
“Ma’am, I am just saying they aren’t in the section. It’s possible they are on a display. If you would like, I can go look for you.”
“No, they aren’t, they were with other books. I saw them. Can anyone not do anything around here? Are you THAT incompetant?”
I said once more that I’d look up front for her, and her response was, “you are SO dumb, why is this your job?” …At which point she stormed away talking to her husband about how stupid I was that I couldn’t find one book in the store. I found the book just where I thought it was and then clocked out and went home. I know she was still in the store (in fact, in the cafe right across from the fucking book) but it is my personal policy that if you’re going to be unnecessarily rude to me, I’m not going to help you.
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