New Job, New SCs- Bookstore Madness!

[Bookkeeper]

Well, it finally happened... the college bookstore I had been doing temp work for off and on for the last year has finally hired me! Unfortunately, this also comes with a lot of SCs.

Who let you in?
This one was more comical than SCish, though it did leave me wondering how this girl was admitted to the college. Not that it's prestigious, mind, but still.
SC: Hey, my teacher told me to get this book about witches.
Me: No problem What class is the book for?
SC: History 150
Me: Alrighty, and who is your professor?
SC: *crickets chirping* I... don't know.
(Note, this is the END of the semester. A little odd, but maybe the teacher has a difficult name to remember)
Me: Okay, well I'll read you the list of professors' names, and you stop me if one sounds familiar.
*I do so..... and then I do so again. Having failed this, I take her to a computer to pull up the schedule*
Me: Okay it looks like the books that we have ordered for your class are: *can't remember, but one was world history, one was about Sparta, and the other was about the black plague* Are you sure it's a course textbook?
SC: Yeah. She asked for it.
Me: Do you have a syllabus or the assignment sheet?

The girl whips out the assignment sheet, and low and behold, it was not a textbook. In fact, it was not even a book. It was her essay prompt. It literally said: Essay TOPIC 1: Witches and Women
Of course, when I explained this to her, the SC went on a lovely tirade about how awful her teacher was and how that made NO sense at all and WTF argleblargle! Horrible person that I am, I directed her to the library, who might have had a better chance in at least finding her a book about witches. I only sell textbooks, so she was a bit out of luck with me.

This is all I have time for now, but after class I'll post about the SC who made me cry today Grumble. I need thicker skin.

[lupo pazzesco]

...

Welcome to the trenches.

Speaking from one fellow bookstore minion to another, start drinking. A lot.

It makes the stupidity a bit more bearable.

[Eisa]

Boohoo, poor her. She wants to bitch about that, she can write my ten-page research paper for Sociolinguistics that's due Monday and worth 45% of my grade. I'll write her paper on witches and women, at least that sounds interesting.

I'm sorry you're going to have to deal with so many stupid people. If what I've read of lupo's experiences are anything to go by. Plus how stupid people here seem to be.

[chainedbarista]

can't tell the difference between an essay prompt and a textbook? she won't be around much longer, i'm sure.

[dalesys]

Doesn't she make you long for the good old days of giant books that were large enought to press more than flowers?

Send her to The Librarian with a question about monkees...

/Pratchett Fratchett

[BigBird]

Anyone else want to bet on how much of her essay comes directly from Wikipedia, once she figures out how to use a computer?

[Bandit]

Anyone else want to bet on how much of her essay comes directly from Wikipedia, once she figures out how to use a computer?

The trouble is *trying* to work a computer.

I pity the person at the other of the support call.

"It doesn't work! It didn't do my essay for me! What do you mean 'is it on'? Why do I have to turn it on?!?!!!"

My sympathies, Bookkeeper

B

[Bookkeeper]

The trouble is *trying* to work a computer.

I pity the person at the other of the support call.

"It doesn't work! It didn't do my essay for me! What do you mean 'is it on'? Why do I have to turn it on?!?!!!"

My sympathies, Bookkeeper

B

I know, right? I feel bad for sending her to the library- who knows what havoc she wrecked there? Poor librarian... though I have the feeling that karma will bite me in the butt in a few years from now when I too am a librarian. One day I'll look up, and there she'll be *shudder*
And thanks Lupo, I will. Starting tonight with a few well fortified eggnogs
As promised, some more stories:

Failure on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine
Sadly, this week was the first week of buyback, where the bookstore will buy back whatever books we sold you. We get your books, you get some coffee money, and everybody's happy right?
I wish.
The biggest problem today appeared to be people trying to sell back textbooks that came with a cd... without the cd. Normally we'd take the book and sell it to the wholesalers, but SURPRISE there is a new edition and nobody wants it.
This includes the poor SC trying to sell it back. Kind soul that I am, I pitied the kid for about two seconds. Then he yelled at me, and all sympathy flew out the window like a monkey on fire.
I tuned out most of his rant, but the gist of it was that we, the bookstore, weren't doing our job and so he, the customer, was paying the price of it and it wasn't fair! (Enter child tantruming stomp and angry face here)

Me: Sir, the bookstore is doing our job. When we bought this book last semester, it had the cd in it. The same system that prevented you from selling the book back would have also prevented another student from doing the same thing. If we accepted a book back without a cd for some reason, we would have noted it in our system... which currently states that all of the books we bought had the cds. If you buy a book which is supposed to come with a cd, please check that it has the cd. That way, you can bring it back to the bookstore at the beginning of the semester, where we can either get you the cd you need, or switch it out for another book. Right now, at the end of the semester, I'm afraid there is nothing we can do.

Internal monologue: It was probably stolen by one of your idiotic friends. Go yell at them for sticking you with this book, not me.

SC: But you guys have stuck me with the most useless book to not sell back!

Me: I'm sorry sir, I really am. I've been in that situation before and now I have a sociology book that I don't use. I suggest either Ebay, or the lovely donation bin we have set up near the buyback station for situations such as yours.

Sigh. Really? Check your books people. At the beginning of the semester I can help you, but now you just seem super scammy and childish for throwing a temper tantrum that would put a two year old to shame. Tough luck. Learn from it.

Missing Cds part two
Mkay imagine this is your day: open the store, go to class, go to work, go to class, go to work, go to class, go to work and close the store.
The night before I was up until one finishing one of my four final papers (all of which are at least 10 pages long... bleh)
I had only eaten an apple today (but now I am munching on nummy pizza, so problem solved ) so I was kinda headachy
I've been debating about whether or not I want to break up with my long distance boyfriend of 2 years, so it's been kinda rough emotionally as well.

Needless to say, I'm a bit touchy.

So when I get a phone call from a lovely girl with the same issue as the guy above, I am shocked rather than mildly amused when she also yells at me for not being able to go back in time and magically warn her that the lack of the stupid cd thing she was never going to use anyway is still going to bite her in the butt.
All that ran through my mind is "someone is yelling mean things at me for something that I have no control over whatsoever"
I transfered her to my Supervisor and, as soon as she was off my line, I broke down crying and had to take a break.
Now I just feel bad that I let the stupid SC get to me

Some more general rants
Supervisor, if you don't ask me, I won't do it. I am new, therefore I can't read your mind. If you have always asked me to do A and B when you hand me a green sheet of paper, it won't occur to me that you also want to do C, D and oh yeah if C isn't possible then get information X too. Use your words, please.

Coworker, if you have to go to the bathroom, that's fine. But when you disappear for half an hour at a time going to the "bathroom" and then come back with an energy drink in hand, I might be a bit suspicious.
And I'll be downright po'd if you decide to take off while I'm on the phone with one publishing company while dealing with two customers trying to ask me questions, and expecting you to handle at least one of those issues because I don't know you left, you sneaky evil ninja, you.
Especially if you pull that stunt right after watching the first SC yell at me. The frustration really doesn't help with the not crying thing later in the day.

[Pagan]

Here, have some scotch and chocolate. Lots of both. And this

Then he yelled at me, and all sympathy flew out the window like a monkey on fire.

This is a beautiful image! (Here I'm imagining Carl from Janet Evanovich's books.)

[MoonCat]

Who wants to bet that the "witch book" girl will hand in a copy of a Harry Potter book with the author's name crossed out and her own scribbled in?

Student: Well, there's witches in there, and there's a girl in there! It should count! What do you mean, I failed the course?!

[Kristev]

I'm so sorry you had to deal with that SC.

It sounds like a fascinating topic. In the old days before feminism, witchcraft was one of the very few ways women could gain power over their lives. It was also, and more frequently, used as a common slander by men who didn't like such an independent lady. All she needs to do that book would be some basic anthropology texts, Jane Harrison, perhaps. A little bit of neo-pagan literature, and some Gloria Stienum, and she's got that essay in the bag.

Oh, I miss my college years.

[DeltaSierra]

Ahhh college book buy-back time. When I was in school, so many kids were abusing this, and some even went around and *STOLE* textbooks from other students just to get $ during buyback week (the science textbooks were the most common targets, as they gave back the most money) and it got so bad that the college bookstore started requiring the students to submit their student ID's in order to get $ for their textbooks. If it came to light that they were bringing in books for classes they'd never been to, or more than 1 of the same textbook, they were blacklisted from ever making a return again.

[PepperElf]

o man she waited until the end of term to start her paper
and it's the teacher's fault eh?

[lupo pazzesco]

Ahhh college book buy-back time. When I was in school, so many kids were abusing this, and some even went around and *STOLE* textbooks from other students just to get $ during buyback week (the science textbooks were the most common targets, as they gave back the most money) and it got so bad that the college bookstore started requiring the students to submit their student ID's in order to get $ for their textbooks. If it came to light that they were bringing in books for classes they'd never been to, or more than 1 of the same textbook, they were blacklisted from ever making a return again.

This is such an ongoing problem, it isn't even funny.

My store has taken to requiring a valid state ID or student ID only, for any buyback. We have over a dozen at least, known textbook thieves/suspicous sellers of buybacks that we are tracking. These people get away with serious money, one duo we just discovered yesterday. I'll have exact numbers later today of how much they've gotten out of us since April. Textbook theft is a huge problem, believe it or not. It's insanity.

I'll have to start a few more threads about that soon, I think.

[Bookkeeper]

This is such an ongoing problem, it isn't even funny.

My store has taken to requiring a valid state ID or student ID only, for any buyback. We have over a dozen at least, known textbook thieves/suspicous sellers of buybacks that we are tracking. These people get away with serious money, one duo we just discovered yesterday. I'll have exact numbers later today of how much they've gotten out of us since April. Textbook theft is a huge problem, believe it or not. It's insanity.

I'll have to start a few more threads about that soon, I think.

We require student ids as well. It has become so bad here, we have rings of textbook thieves who try to pull this during buyback season. There are several colleges and universities along one highway, and they just drive up and down stealing from one bookstore and selling to another... the area behind my desk looks like a collage of "America's [bookstores ] Most Wanted" with all of the pictures of the people I'm supposed to be looking out for. Lol I was behind the register (when I was still a temp) when my best friend (a manager) took down one of the textbook ring thieves... he literally walked in right after we discussed what we would do if the guy walked in (he was kinda dumb... came in and pulled the same stunt every couple of days- it was sneaky, and took a while for us to notice, but I mean, come on- if you get away with it, don't do it on a daily basis!). The higher ups in the store hadn't even been let in on the plan just yet, so they were a bit confused when we called them to tell them that the "scanner" wasn't "working".