We are not a library

[leralbadu]

So, usually working in a bookstore is fun for someone who enjoys books as much as I do. However, there are always the people who want you to be their personal shopper or do their research for them.

Example:

I answer the phone, it is a man who bought a book earlier that day but got home to find that it was the wrong one. I tell him he can bring the book in with the reciept and he can exchange it. So he asks me to find the correct book, he has the 2007 edition (a baseball reference book) and he want the 2008. Easy enough, except according to everything I can find, there is not, nor will there be a 2008 edition. I tell him this. He asks if I can see if there are any other books like it that we would carry for 2008. Easy enough, but the ONE book I find is the one he bought earlier that day. The man then goes on to ask if I can do some research and find any books like the one he wants and call him back in a few days. I tell him I can't do that, as it was quite a busy night. THEN he asks if I can pass the info to a manager to do the same. It was all I could do NOT to tell him to go to the library/go online himself and do his own #%$! research.

[AnaKhouri]

I usually don't mind helping people with stuff like that (I also work in a bookstore) since not everyone has access to a computer or reference materials, but when I go shopping I am one of those people who always does the research and knows EXACTLY what I want before I set foot in a store.

What I hate are the other people who come in and act like we're a library though- the students who come in and copy the information they need out of certain books (some of them have asked me to make copies on our photocopier...uh, NO!), or buy a book, use it for a report and return it (I live in a college town so this is common), sit around all day piling books on the floor and reading magazines, etc. It has gotten to the point that when people ask me to copy something and then ask why I can't, I say "Because we are not a library, you can buy it however as we are here to make money."