Last Friday, a customer came in and wanted to know if he had bought a particular title (one of the Dresden Files novels, he didn't say which one). The customer DB that's accessible from the register only stores purchases for one year, so the earliest I could see was 1/20/07. He told me he had bought it in June.
There were none of any of those titles (at all), but a lot of used book purchases from the month in question (used titles are not individually catalogued because often we only have one copy, and get so much random stuff it would be an impossible task). I told the customer that, rung up his purchase, he left, all was well. Or so I thought..
Today, I get a slap-on-the-paw email from the owner saying that said customer was irate over buying the same title twice. According to him, the previous purchase was made this past February (no it was not, at least not as a new book). In his words "X said you freaked out for a bit" (WTF, I was scouring the db list. A pensive look is not "freaking out").
I'm suspecting what happened is that the guy got the books home, realized he already had one of them (which had been bought used), then came back and complained. That, or the record the owner was looking at was the one I rang up on Friday. The customer struck me as being very high-strung.
I fail to see why this was such an issue. You get home and realize you already have a title, you simply return the one you just purchased. Or give it to someone....wait. That would make sense.
Yeah, this niche market has fewer freaks, but when they do show up...
There were none of any of those titles (at all), but a lot of used book purchases from the month in question (used titles are not individually catalogued because often we only have one copy, and get so much random stuff it would be an impossible task). I told the customer that, rung up his purchase, he left, all was well. Or so I thought..
Today, I get a slap-on-the-paw email from the owner saying that said customer was irate over buying the same title twice. According to him, the previous purchase was made this past February (no it was not, at least not as a new book). In his words "X said you freaked out for a bit" (WTF, I was scouring the db list. A pensive look is not "freaking out").
I'm suspecting what happened is that the guy got the books home, realized he already had one of them (which had been bought used), then came back and complained. That, or the record the owner was looking at was the one I rang up on Friday. The customer struck me as being very high-strung.
I fail to see why this was such an issue. You get home and realize you already have a title, you simply return the one you just purchased. Or give it to someone....wait. That would make sense.
Yeah, this niche market has fewer freaks, but when they do show up...
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