I am a regular

[georgiab]

Okay we are not allowed to hold anything for anyone at all but sometimes we bend the rules but for no more than i'd say 30 minutes.

So I go behind the register and find a two piece outfit...I ask Co-worker M if it belongs to someone and she said that the customer said she was going to the bank and would be right back to purchase it...Ok no biggie..now keep in mind this is early in the day...well the customer never comes back and the next day I sell the two piece outfit.....Low and behold guess who comes in less than 30 minutes before closing wanting the outfit...yep Mrs. I am going to the bank I will be right back...She walks up and saids i am here to get my outfit...now at first I am confused until she states the description..I say I am sorry but I sold that..She gets this dumbfounded look and saids well i went to the bank but I didn't feel like coming back (couldn't of called) and I can't believe this...she was so angry and seemed as if she would snap..I said I am sorry but you did not speak with me and that was yesterday..My manager was like plus we aren't even supposed to hold itiems....She saids well I am a regular and I can't believe ya'll would do this to me...uh do what hold an itiem for hours when you said you would be right back...but because you didn't feel like coming back I am supposed to be a mind reader...Well she stormed out...Okay I'll be right back is not a day and a half later....

[hawkchick11]

The clothing store I use to manage would do holds for 48 hours.. not 96, and definately not 168 (thats one week, folks). But it never failed, someone would put something on hold, knowing that we only held it for 48 hours (because we told everyone the policy when we placed things on hold) and show up a week later looking for said item(s). If we were lucky and it wasn't a popular item, we still had what they wanted. But more often than not, it was something popular and we sold out.

Ugh, I can still hear the little teenyboppers whining to this day

[powerboy]

At my store, we are not to hold items, unless it is for the regulars, who are loyal. And that is only for one person. We did have this one Anime series that was on hold for a customer, and said that he will be back in a few days. 3 months later, he comes back in. While in the mean time, we have sold the series to someone else. Not our fault, we told you, that we will hold it for a week. After that you are out of luck, if we sold it. It is going to be harder to get another copy of that Rare series.

[Mark Healey]

I came up with our brilliant hold scheme.

In the used books if you see something you want you should probably get it then and there. We have no idea when we will see another one. We've gone months without a given common title and sometimes we will have multiple copies of a rare one.

We realize that people aren't always as liquid as they would want to be, so we do hold things. We had the usual problem of people not coming back for things and people seeing it on the shelf and wanting it.

My solution was to have one hold 2.5 foot shelf behind the counter. When someone wants to hold something we put it in at the left end. If it is full we reshelve as many from the right end as are needed. It usually takes a book a couple of weeks to traverse this queue. The uncertainty of how long something will be held makes people less likely to flake on coming back. If someone is really interrested and will need more time we will allow them to call or come in and we will move a book back to the beginning of the queue.

There is only one scam we have to watch out for. One guy saw something he wanted in the queue and put some random books that he never intended to buy on hold to push it out. I've tried to come up with a rule to prevent this but there is no way of knowing what they intend to buy.

[Primer]

There is only one scam we have to watch out for. One guy saw something he wanted in the queue and put some random books that he never intended to buy on hold to push it out. I've tried to come up with a rule to prevent this but there is no way of knowing what they intend to buy.

Put the shelf under the counter where it is visible only to you?

[BookstoreEscapee]

BN holds books for 3 days if it's something that's pulled from the shelf (eg, you call and we have the book in stock) and 2 weeks from when we notify you if it's something that we special ordered for you. If you can't come get it you can call and ask us to hold it a few extra days, or if you have other books on order they'll usually offer to hold them until everything is in and then you have 2 weeks from when the last one comes in to pick them all up (at least in the stores I worked in). If you come in after the hold time is up it's only your good luck if they haven't had time to pull holds and reshelve them. I have had up to 5 bays of holds at busy times of the year (ie, Christmas season). That's 5 shelves x 4 feet each x 5 bays = 100 linear feet of books on hold (sometimes filled almost solid).

[Mark Healey]

Another lie about being a regular customer.

A few days ago a "customer" comes in and aska were the graphic novels (a high-falutin term for thick comic books) are. They're in plain sight from the door. OK, I can deal with that it IS easier to ask than to look around.

Anyway after going through the section and not finding anything he wants he comes to the desk and presents a parking ticket for validation without buying anything. Of course, he says all together now "I shop here all the time." If this were true he wouldn't have had to ask where things are.

They can't even lie intelligently.

[JustADude]

A few days ago a "customer" comes in and aska were the graphic novels (a high-falutin term for thick comic books) are.

Hey! Graphic Novels are... okay... yeah... they're thick comic books... but they're generally better done 'cause they don't have to worry about leaving a hook for next month!

[Andara Bledin]

Heh. Yeah, graphic novels are fancy, long comic books.

And the graphic novel has, unfortunately, really ruined some story possibilities in mainstream comics, since now they try to wrap up story arcs in the span of a graphic novel rather than letting them flow at their proper pacing.

^-.-^

[mafiagodfather]

Okay we are not allowed to hold anything for anyone at all but sometimes we bend the rules but for no more than i'd say 30 minutes.

So I go behind the register and find a two piece outfit...I ask Co-worker M if it belongs to someone and she said that the customer said she was going to the bank and would be right back to purchase it...Ok no biggie..now keep in mind this is early in the day...well the customer never comes back and the next day I sell the two piece outfit.....Low and behold guess who comes in less than 30 minutes before closing wanting the outfit...yep Mrs. I am going to the bank I will be right back...She walks up and saids i am here to get my outfit...now at first I am confused until she states the description..I say I am sorry but I sold that..She gets this dumbfounded look and saids well i went to the bank but I didn't feel like coming back (couldn't of called) and I can't believe this...she was so angry and seemed as if she would snap..I said I am sorry but you did not speak with me and that was yesterday..My manager was like plus we aren't even supposed to hold itiems....She saids well I am a regular and I can't believe ya'll would do this to me...uh do what hold an itiem for hours when you said you would be right back...but because you didn't feel like coming back I am supposed to be a mind reader...Well she stormed out...Okay I'll be right back is not a day and a half later....

It's funny when they throw a tantrum like a six year old.

[Becks]

I wish the Goodwill I worked at held things. One night, two gargoyles came in. Somehow managed to remain unsold until the next morning, when I got ONE. (I couldn't afford both, even with my employee discount.) I would've LOVED to have them hold the second one until payday, and I would've waived the ED for it.