Comments | booksellers: rant about ill-prepared students

daria2 in booksellers

rant about ill-prepared students

May 07, 2006 16:24

(just joined - hi everyone ( Read more... )

we are not a library, independent, college / university bookstore

Comments 14

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neaira May 7 2006, 15:45:06 UTC

Same on everything you just said.

daria2 May 7 2006, 22:45:28 UTC

I feel I want to grab them and shake them and point out with great precision the irrationality of their expectations. Which would not be ideal customer service.

And then there's when they even expect me to tell them what books they need for a particular course - I want to scream at them 'why on earth don't you know, you're the one taking the course!!??' But of course I have to grit my teeth and help them, cos I really do know which books they need.

Bookselling:- being a back-up brain for complete strangers.

fuunsaiki May 7 2006, 16:28:22 UTC

I work in a large branch of a well-known chainstore, and we get people coming in for specific books they need for their course. We don't keep every book in the world, so we offer to order the ones they need, but they need it "this evening", "tomorrow", "this weekend", "sooner than that". Is it REALLY that difficult to try and get hold of a book you know you're going to need in a timely manner or something? Silly customers! XP

dyfferent May 7 2006, 17:29:14 UTC

They've been drinking the money that was given to them for books because it seemed a good idea at the time. That's my theory!

liamstliam May 7 2006, 19:47:12 UTC

In their minds, you had the books, so you will always have the books.

They are in college to learn this is a fallacy.

By the way, I still have that,"Tomorrow (ro today) is the exam I must pass to graduate, and I have not been to class all semester" dream.

cryingdrunkgirl May 7 2006, 19:51:46 UTC

For me it's not just college students-it's the younger ones and their parents. I usually work on Sundays and all day every week we have kids coming in needing a specific version of a Shakespeare play or classic literature and are shocked when we are out. If you need a book on Sunday it is probably best to buy it early, but they don't think that way. The good thing is that if they start to get mad at me for it I just say, "Sorry, but we sold a bunch of these to students a few days ago." It's not only true, but they get the point that they shouldn't have waited.

lapinguina May 7 2006, 23:00:56 UTC

Yes! We had the same thing. We never had college student issues (perhaps because there are no colleges worthy of mention in the area?), but the parents of elementary, middle, and even high school students continually would whine at us for not "stocking enough" of the random obscure classic they're reading in class, when in fact we received a list from the schools in the area and ordered extras but sold them to the people who bought them BEFORE the day before they were needed...

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lapinguina May 8 2006, 19:38:18 UTC

Yup... we got those too. I just always found it hard to be sympathetic toward the parents who were frazzled because their kid just told them about the project a few hours prior - it's kind of worrisome to me that a parent wouldn't talk to their kid about what they're studying in school and if they have any projects coming up and stuff. Isn't that kind of, like, their job as a parent?

And I don't think there are numbers high enough to count the people who asked if I could check "out back". Because that's totally where we hide all the good books so that no one can buy them and we can keep them all for our greedy selves!