Give me a break

Customer: I'd like to return this.
The Customer has an audio book box
Me: Okay, do you have your receipt?
Customer: One of the tapes won't play right.
Me: Okay, but do you have your receipt?
Customer: No. I bought it in October.
Me: It's March.
Customer: Yeah well I just got around to it.
Our return policy is 7 days WITH a receipt.
Me: It's been 6 months since you say you bought it and you don't have a receipt. There really isn't anything I can do for you.
At this point there was much grumpiness and repetition......

No receipt really is killer for a return. No Receipt no return. It's pretty hard and fast. Then tell me it's been SIX months!?!?!?! Really? Give me a break.

I'm Not qualified for this

Customer: Do you have Mind Over Mood?
Me: Sure. Right over here.

I show the customer to the right spot and leave her to take a look at the book.

Customer: My therapist recommended this book for me but I don't know if I like it. What book would you recommend?
Me: Ummm... If your therapist recommended this one I would probably suggest it's your best choice.
Customer: But is there a different book you would recommend?
Me: I can tell you what sells well but I'm not in anyway qualified to say one of these books would be better for you....



There is only so far that a bookseller's expertise goes. If your therapist recommends something I say go with it.....

Laugh or Cry?

Ok.
In my opinion, if you are over the age of 18, there really shouldn't be anyone monitoring your reading choices. I mean, seriously, what you read is up to you.

We had a young lady (well over 18) who asked for a novel for Christmas. Her mother bought it for her. The young lady's grandmother started reading it before it was wrapped (HUH?) and decided that it wasn't appropriate reading and instructed the young lady's mother to return it.

Now family is family, and whatever transpired there I don't know, but the mom comes in to return the book and tells me this story. She had the receipt so no matter how absurd I thought the reason for returning it was I would have done it with a smile. Except - and here is the kicker - Grandma was so rough with the book that there was NO WAY it could be returned.

The young woman got the book from mom along with some advice to just not mention it to grandma.

I'm not sure whether to laugh or shake my head......

Overshare

Customer: Do you have Dr.Phil's Relationship rescue?
Me: Sure. It's over here.
Customer: My husband and I are having some trouble. I hope this will help.
Me: Well I hope it works for you.
Customer: Yeah, we're not having sex anymore.
Me: Ummm... Oh.....
Customer: I don't know if we can get things going again but this book was recommended.
Me: So can I ring you through?


There are things I just don't need to know.

There are some young adult novels over here...

I feel I must preface this post with a statement about myself.
I am not a book snob. I know a lot of them. I work with some. I am not one.
I really read just about anything, I believe that there is a time, or place or reader for just about anything. There are times I want something that I can sink my teeth into and will make me think or maybe learn something. There are times I want to be challenged. There are times I just want to be entertained by a fast paced thriller or imaginative fantasy and still other times I want to read something mindless and fluffy that I can just enjoy without guilt.
I am Not going to look down on someone because they like romance novels or D&D books. Hey, they're reading.

However, I admit I had some difficulty figuring out what to recommend to this lady,

Customer: I'm going on vacation and I'm looking for a light read.
Me: Great. A beach read. What kind of books do you like?
Customer: Well I want something that's not too hard to follow. Nothing as hard as Danielle Steel. I like her but they're kind of hard to follow.

This is where I begin to stall for time.
I've read some Danielle Steel; they are light, entertaining, and very very popular. I think of them like fairy tales for grownups. Not a darn thing wrong with them if that's what you have a hankering for. They are NOT however a hard read. What do you recommend without being condescending?

I went with Nicholas Sparks, not because I think he's any easier per say but his novels tend to be shorter and I hoped that might equate to an easier read for this lady.

Still looking for that ESP!

Customer: I'm looking for a book about a guy who gets lost on a mountain.
Me: Okay. Is it a true story?
Customer: I think so.
Me: Is it recent?
Customer: I don't think so. It came out around the same time as that movie about the boat and the big storm.
Me: The Perfect Storm? The one with George Clooney?
Customer: Yeah.

So I check it out and find out that The Perfect Storm came out in 2000.

Me: Okay so it came out in 2000. So the book about the guy lost on a mountain came out around then and it's a true story?
Customer: I think so.
Me: Okay, let me see what I can find.

I whittle the list of over 100 "guy stuck on a mountain" books down to the few between 1999 and 2001. I even try giving her the titles of some of the most popular books from other years.

Customer: None of those are right.
Me: I'm sorry, but there are so many books about people getting suck on mountains. If you can give me any more info about it I might be able to narrow it down some more but with just this info these all fit.
Customer: Well, I thought you could be more helpful.


WHAT? MORE helpful? More helpful than figuring out what movie from nine years ago you are vaguely referring to to find the book that you don't know anything more about then it's a guy stuck on a mountain. More helpful than finding out when that movie was made for you and then spending more than 20 min searching lists for books that match your info in the last nine years?
I'm going home now.

No wonder people get frustrated with tourists

Customer: Do you have books with that language they speak in Dominican?
Me: Spanish?
Customer: Do you have books with Spanish words in it?
Me: Ummm.. like a Spanish English dictionary?
Customer: I guess so.
Me: Here they are.
Customer picks one up and looks at it.
Customer: This looks hard.
Me: Ummm, the English word is here, and beside it is the Spanish word and in the other half of the book it's Spanish and then English.
Customer: Well, this doesn't say appendix.
Me: It does in Spanish. That's the point. That's the Spanish word for appendix, beside the English word appendix. Here in the middle are common phrases like "where is the bathroom" and "how much is this" and the Spanish for the same phrase.
Customer: Don't you have an easier one? Like with less words?
Me: I'm afraid they're all pretty much the same. This one is the smallest, and it has the lowest number of words in it. I have some picture dictionaries but they're all pretty big, not really great for packing.


Ack! Any suggestions about how to make a dictionary easier to use? Anyone?