Chap comes in. He has been a pain in the neck for a long time - always wanting discounts, free books etc:
He recently ordered two books - then decided he only wanted one of them - costing me £20.
"I'd like you to order me in a book"
"I'm not very keen after last time"
"What do you mean?"
"Well I got you two books - and you only paid for one. The other cost me money and I can only sell it for a fraction of this"
"Well that's not my problem - I took one of them"
"Yes but you ordered two - I have to buy books in - I can't get them on approval"
"Just send it back and say you've changed your mind"
"But i haven't changed my mind - and I can't just return books because customers are unreliable - there is postage to be paid in each direction"
"Not my problem - now are you going to order this book for me?"
..............I don't think i will be seeing him again.
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6 comments:
... unless you remember where you put that baseball bat, possibly... except then it would mean actually having to use your energy and he's not worth the effort, dammit.
I know that you will appreciate this. I was at a Christmas Fair the other day, selling my books. Someone asked me where they could buy my books when I wasn't at this Christmas fair, which after all was only on for one day. I suggested that they try a bookshop as probably a butchers or a hardware shop would be the wrong place to go.
I didn't mean to be rude. Honest.
Thick skin story from last week: I'd just shut for lunch and someone starts fiddling repeatedly with the door handle. I peep out of the side door and say we're reopening in an hour. "Oh," they say. "We have some books to sell and we've carried them in all the way from Xington. OK, I say, drop them off and give me your phone number, as Mr Y (the buyer) won't be in until late afternoon. So they come in, but instead of getting to the point, start sloooowly slooooowly taking the books out of the bags one by one. I look at my watch pointedly, with no effect. I assume they want the bags, but when they've finished the whole laborious process, they give me the bags to bin. "What's your percentage for buyback?" they say. "We bought them here. We haven't even read some of them". I say there's no fixed percentage, and anyway it depends ... ew ... on the condition. My "ew" is because many of the books have sticky stuff all over the covers. "Oh, that must be the glue leaking from your carrier bags". Looks more like marmalade, but I'm not going to taste it to tell. Some of them look OK, so I take the details just in case, and finally, get them out of the shop. Three-quarters of an hour later I come back from lunch, and they're waiting outside asking if Mr Y has been in yet. I say I told them that Mr Y wouldn't be in until late afternoon. Oh, they say, and go away. I look through the books. The ones that aren't sticky turn out to be distorted from storage at some kind of odd angle, probably in damp conditions, and/or have multiple pages creased or folded inward. I think "no way" and Mr X agrees. I bet their hurry won't extend to coming to take the damn things away.
Sticky Books Person phoned today to argue the toss with Ms Z about Mr X's decision, omitting the teensy but crucial detail about the books being sticky when brought in. Fortunately Ms Z rang me for confirmation.
I am glad see that I am not the only one - I feel for you all my compadres.
Update: Sticky Books Person finally got back to us. Moanfest about all the things that have gone wrong in their life making it impossible to come and collect them. Been ill, car broken down, etc etc. Sigh of relief as sticky books went in bin, where they should have gone weeks ago.
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