Regret....Customers and Mine.

[Hon'ya-chan]

Customer spills Coffee onto $300 worth of books. Takes responsibility and cleans it up. Brings wet books to counter.

Clerk starts to ring up books. Customer says nothing. Customer pays for the books. Leaves.

AM that loves smelling farts is called up in middle of night by (now former) friend. Friend goes ballistic. "Advises" spilling coffee customer to return books because she's not responsible for them.

See me in the office putting enough dents into the file cabinet rendering it useless except for scrap metal.

[rerant]

Good on the customer for at least paying for the books they damaged. Had it have been me I would have hidden behind a shelf and stealthly crawled towards the exit.
Shamefully, of course.

[marasbaras]

Uh, yes you sack of shit, your friend IS responsible for spilling the coffee on the books.

So, what did your AM do? The typical retail manager thing and take the books back?

[Cyphr]

Wow Get this this asstuba of a person fired

(first attempt at making up a word how did it go)

[Boozy]

When a customer takes responsibility like that and attempts to make amends, our company writes off the damaged product.

Its a one-time loss for us, but a customer who tries to do the right thing is definitely a customer worth keeping.

[freaktard]

I like saying "asstuba."

[Victoria J]

When a customer takes responsibility like that and attempts to make amends, our company writes off the damaged product.

Marks and Spencers not only didn't charge me for a plate I broke and offered to pay for but said "you can break as many plates as you like".

One day when I'm having a bad day I may yet take them up on that

(Though sadly I don't think they've got the nice plain white plates/cups/bowls etc. any more. They were good, and £2 each but buy 2 get one free).

I certainly do think well of somewhere that doesn't make me pay (I am a destructive force) but I always offer. And while I would be a little shocked to have to pay for a small mistake that may be partly the shops responsibility (the plate falling out of the basket due partly to the basket design) I'd expect to pay if I did major damage due to real stupidity. Spilling coffee on that many books isn't really a mistake it's reasonable to expect to have written off.

Victoria J

[LemonZest]

That's why I don't shop at bookstores that sell coffee and allow it to be consumed in the bookstore itself.
I'm also overtired of trying to find a copy of a book that hasn't already been read, dogeared, paged through with spitty fingers, etc. If I'm giving money to Borders or Barnes and Noble, I expect those books to be new, not already used by cheapos who use the bookstore as a library (which Barnes and Noble ENCOURAGES...which is why they get none of my custom - in addition to I don't shop anywhere that feeds the Green Apron Machine).

[HYHYBT]

That's why I don't shop at bookstores that sell coffee and allow it to be consumed in the bookstore itself.
I'm also overtired of trying to find a copy of a book that hasn't already been read, dogeared, paged through with spitty fingers, etc. If I'm giving money to Borders or Barnes and Noble, I expect those books to be new, not already used by cheapos who use the bookstore as a library (which Barnes and Noble ENCOURAGES...which is why they get none of my custom - in addition to I don't shop anywhere that feeds the Green Apron Machine).

The bookstores can't win. If they allow people to eat, read, and generally hang out in the store, they lose your business. If they don't, they lose theirs (surely they make money selling the coffee and food, and not everyone damages the books) and mine as well. If I set out wanting to buy a particular book, I go to Amazon; if I'm in a bookstore it's probably because I'm meeting someone, or waiting for a movie to start or something along those lines, in which case I'll look for something that seems interesting, flip through it a bit, try something else, and when I see something I like I'll sit down and read... and when it's time for the movie, or the person I was meeting gets there and is ready to leave, I usually buy what I was reading and maybe a couple of others I found. True, this may mean I'm there two hours and only buy one $5 book, but it might well be more, and it would definitely have been *none at all* if their policies were different. Then again, I'm more careful with other people's stuff than with my own, and with all books, so even if I'd read the book you bought you'd probably never know it.

As for spills, well, if it were my store I would charge people for damaged books in general, but let them off if they were apologetic and offered to pay before being told they'd have to. Unless they made a habit of it. (the opposite of most stores' policy of strict enforcement against nice people while letting the rude ones do whatever they want)

[Andara Bledin]

I must be all backwards, then.

I go to bookstores to buy books.

If I want to hang out somwhere while waiting for smoeone I go to a cafe or coffe shop/lounge.

Lounging at a bookstore is just kind of silly.

^-.-^

[powerboy]

I am with HYHYBT. I will most likely buy online. But if I do go in, it will be to check out the book first. Hey they let other people read them there. I might as well just check out a few pages too see if I might actually want it. Plus, I can most likely find it online for half the price.

[Snowbird]

People want the best of both worlds in their bookstores. They want them to be coffee cafe's set in a library. Unfortunately, it's hard for managers to lay down the law to page turning thumb licking, dog earring, coffee spilling, spine cracking, mess making doofuses.. Doofi?.. unless they catch them in the act and even then, it's a tough call.

I've seen more than a few people use the local B&N cafe as such, and the best part was that I got a rude glare from a woman who gathered up all her crap and moved to a table further away because I dared talk to my mother(and neither one of us is loud) while sitting down and enjoying our drinks. Gimme a break, will ya?

[Eric the Grey]

I've had to do that. The last time was in the grocery store. They sell small plastic tubs of soup (about enough for 2 bowls) and I picked one up and it slipped out of my hand and fell, splitting open and splattering all over the floor.

After the someone came by with a mop to clean it up, I grabbed another one and went to pay. I told the cashier about it and asked that she ring up a second one. I actually had to persuade her to do it.

No wonder she was confused.



Eric the Grey

[dispatch]

I worked for a local chain grocery store, things would break frequently and we would always give people a fresh one because we got money back for damaged products (some anyways).

As far as the bookstore thing, it's kinda like test-driving a car. If someone wants to take it for a spin, that's great, even encouraged, but if you're going to pick up your kids, go grocery shopping, and visit your cousins 5 counties away then thats a bit excessive. Sure you want to flip through your book, read the foreword, in some cases check to see if it has the content you're looking for (IE; reference & self help titles), but if I'm looking for somewhere to sit and read, well, there's this coffee shop nearby that's never crowded and has my bank on one side and a decent pub on the other, so whatever kind of bored I may get to feeling I can either spend money or drink.