I am seriously so tired of getting heckled by customers who do not understand that there are rules in place and that "students" like me cannot break them.
Don't people realize that I could get fired for breaking these rules? And anyway, even if I could break them, why in the HELL do you think that I would stick my neck out for you if you're going to be a total d*ck to me? And, seriously, this is a LIBRARY. You are getting these things for FREE. Why are you going to b!tch and moan about something that is FREE? This is one of the best media libraries in the country, be grateful or show some dignity or SOMETHING.
This morning, a student came in and told me that she had a late DVD and wanted to know how much money in fines she was going to have. For students, it is $5/item/day, and it has been like that ever since I've started working here. I have no f*cking clue why she was so surprised, and almost outraged, when I told her that the late fee was $20.00. She demanded to know why it was so much, and I told her it was because her DVD was due on 6/22, which is four days ago.
"But you guys do two day loans, and Saturday doesn't count as a day, so why do I have so many fees?"
...Um ... what?! She was under the impression that, because we normally do two day loans, a weekend loan is somehow also converted into a 2 day loan, skipping Saturday entirely. This made no sense. I explained to her that we do a four day loan on Thursdays because a "normal" two day loan from a Thursday would run into a Saturday... and because we're "closed" on Saturday, we do everyone a favor and just automatically extend it over the weekend. Regardless, if something's due on Friday, you should turn it in on Friday instead of waiting until Tuesday.
For some reason, she was convinced that she would only get a two-day loan's amount of fines instead of a four-day loan's amount of fines. Sorry, but that's not how this works. We have little slips that we hand out to everyone that says "Return videos on the due date. Day after Friday returns can result in two days fines." This basically means that if you return something on Saturday, and it was due Friday, it WILL be late and you WILL receive more fines because, even though we're closed on Saturday, it still counts as one more day of a DVD being overdue. Ugh. That girl was just being such a b!tch to me, I couldn't even believe it. Turn something in when it's due, it's not that hard.
I would expect some sh!t like that from students, but I didn't expect that I would get it from fully-grown-up faculty members as well. I did receive some trouble from an older gentleman, and it was enough trouble that I had to go get one of my bosses because he just wouldn't take any answer I was giving him. He wanted the first disc of Downton Abbey, which is a new series that everyone's obsessed with. It's pretty much a period drama with a lot of violence and sex and all that good stuff.
Anyway, faculty members are allowed to reserve items for themselves for a short period of time. Naturally, this first disc was booked for a month and a half, with a day or two between bookings (our grace days) when the item can't really leave the library because someone else has a booking on it that would start very soon. This older gentleman told me that he knew the disc was on the shelf, and that he wanted to check it out. I told him that I was sorry, but I couldn't loan it out to him because someone else had a reservation that would begin the day after the next. He got so upset with me that he started harassing me in front of all the other customers, telling me that my policies are really stupid and that we shouldn't advertise the item as being "On Shelf" if it's just going to go out in a day or two. He kept on harassing me for the DVD, expecting me to break rules for him, risk my job, and loan it out to him.
I got so angry with this dude. Like, seriously? You're a FACULTY member. You have the ability to put holds on almost whatever you want. It's your own damn fault that you didn't put a hold on this and that several other people beat you to it. You're an adult. Seriously, if you're that pissed off about us not having it because we're a free service that several other university affiliates take advantage of, then why don't you just buy it? Seriously, you can afford it. And I'm not going to do you a favor if you're going to be a d!ck because you're upset at how our system works.
Dammit. There is this other faculty member who recently asked for about 20 DVDs. We usually don't even loan out that many to a faculty member at a time, but get this: she hassled us until we let her keep those items for seven weeks. Usually, everyone else gets a couple of days, or maybe a week or two if it's for a class. But she asked for these things for seven weeks. And THEN she had the audacity to start harassing me when I told her that no, I couldn't give her students special treatment and give them four day loans on these DVDs that she was hoarding. I can't just break the rules for you and for your students, and I don't even know who the f*ck your students are. THEN she got upset at me because I told her that we didn't have a group space, besides the screening room, where her students could watch something together and have a discussion about it. If that's what she wants to do, then she needs to coordinate that with her students. Leave me out of it!
I am just amazed that these selfish people try to take advantage of a service that is already free. I'm sorry, but we can't break the rules for you because you're impatient or forgetful or because you have special needs. We'll try to work with you, but please, don't try to change our policies. We'll do that on our own, thank you very much, and if you don't like how we do things, then just GO SOMEWHERE ELSE OR BUY IT YOURSELF. Stop being such a selfish b!tch, this is a library--a place for the community to acquire and share knowledge and entertainment.... this is NOT your personal stash that you can just hoard all to yourself. And argue all you want, because the more you argue, the less likely I am to be nice to you or try to get one of my bosses to be nice to you. Don't people understand that employees don't do nice things for you if you're a d!ck? Do you think that yelling at your waiter made the food better?
No, not unless you secretly (or not so secretly) enjoy someone else's saliva as a meat tenderizer or a seasoning.
AUGH.
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