"Did you have sex with her?"

[Soria]

Its too bad you just can't hire someone to come and 'need' the phone after three minutes.

[Spiffy McMoron]

We had a guy like that at work--we used to have a courtesy phone for customers, but this one guy (who was in his 40's or 50's) would get dropped off by his dad at my work.

This guy would grab a cup of coffee, use the phone for 15 miutes or so, and wait for his dad to pick him up again. The guy never got work at our shop done--he might not have even had a driver's liscence for all I know--but he always would come in to use our phone and drink our coffee.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

So you admit that it's just an excuse, and not the real reason! I was RIGHT!

All I'll say on that note is that my dad has 400 acres and a shovel . . .

[earl colby pottinger]

You need

You need someone with some tech skills.

For the phone I would trace the line and find where I can access the line out of sight of the user. I would then install a M.O. switch. Then whenever I hear someone mis-using the phone I would step out of their sight and then disconnect them.

For the research computers, a password protected firewall that blocks out youtube and most porn sites would do the job, since the firewall would only be blocking non-research sites. Any complains about blocking should require a written request to unblock a site and why.

[Kirkygirl]

They see the phone and think, "Sweet! I don't have to burn cell phone minutes!"

...I wouldn't do that, and my cell is a whopping fifteen cents per minute. (On the flip side of that, everything else, email, web, text, etc are unlimited and free with the $1/day access fee)

O/T: 15c a minute?!?!? I get charged 25c!!! (damn phone company)

It really burns my ass when random people walk up to the phones at our service desk and just start using them without even asking us. It seems to me that they don't even know how to ask for something simple. If you do ask us, we'd be more than happy to let you use our phones! Douchewaffles.

Hey now, for my current project, watching youtube really WAS part of my research.

Now I'll never get pi-ta-go-ra su-i-chi! outta my head.

I LUV you! I was looking for that for the longest time!!! Thanks!

[otakuneko]

And I thought MY rate was bad!
Though your location says Canada, so perhaps after conversion, the difference isn't so large.

Google claims 15 US cents = ~19 Canadian cents.

[protege]

All I'll say on that note is that my dad has 400 acres and a shovel . . .

I used to tell people not to piss me off. I had 80 acres plus a tractor and a backhoe

[earl colby pottinger]

Only

I only have 8.5 acres, but I have lots of rope and concrete blocks and a very deep lake.

PS. Yes, the lake is deep enough that once a body reaches the bottom that there are no floaters.

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

With a per minute rate like that I'd bet he has a prepaid phone. Most post paid plans include a base number of anytime minutes, with a per minute overage cost after that.

[depechemodefan]

You need someone with some tech skills.

For the phone I would trace the line and find where I can access the line out of sight of the user. I would then install a M.O. switch. Then whenever I hear someone mis-using the phone I would step out of their sight and then disconnect them.

For the research computers, a password protected firewall that blocks out youtube and most porn sites would do the job, since the firewall would only be blocking non-research sites. Any complains about blocking should require a written request to unblock a site and why.

The M.O. switch sounds awesome. But most of our patrons our volitile. We had a swtich for each row of computers. It's 9pm and I flip the switch (after we've been making the announcement several times "the library will close in "x" minutes") to turn off the row and the customer bitches that A)we didn't give any warning B) They were almost finished, they just needed one more min. C) "You close at nine? You used to stay ofpen latter (we've never been open past 9). And they get so pissed, ugh.



In theory IT has installed firewalls, which I believe, but these nutters who can't figure out the catalog can figure out how to get around the firewalls.

[Moggie]

Because you murder people on a regular basis, which is why you have only rare stories of SCs?

This seems perfectly reasonable to me. Does Oxyclean work on old stains too?

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

This seems perfectly reasonable to me. Does Oxyclean work on old stains too?

Where's Billy Mays when you need him?

[protege]

Where's Billy Mays when you need him?

Probably trying to sell the next latest and greatest product

[Jay 2K Winger]

Probably trying to sell the next latest and greatest product

And probably talking the same way he talks in his shills at home.

"THESE POTATOES ARE GREAT, HONEY!"

[Snowbird]

It really sounds like your library needs to revoke the free phone completely. If there's a real emergency (as in 911), they should allow you to call it from behind the desk. Otherwise, it's become one of those sad situations where abuse of a great service has negated it's benefits. How often does someone really have a car situation or dead cell battery, really? And research calls? That really should be the responsibility of the person doing the work, not the library.

Everyone in that local area pays the taxes that keeps the library running. So why is it that the freeloaders and abusers get preferential treatment just because they complain, particularly when it's known their complaints are bogus? It sounds like the management there is the most to blame. I know it's hard to say no or put one's foot down but in the long run, it's worth it. /rant