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Always a good excuse, no?
Patron comes in to use our computers, tries to sign up and is denied. She then comes to me, I look up her account. The problem is nearly $50 in fines & billed items. Key word: nearly. Big 'Brary down the road (closed, oh-so-conveniently on Saturdays in the summer (and Sundays all year, the bastards)) cuts folks off at $50 from using their computers. We stick with nothing over $10 (which is the consortium-wide rule for no checkouts, renewals, other card activity).
I explain our rule to her, show her what she's got that's become billed and she tells me: "My problem is that I don't know how to renew."
Me: . . . .
FinedPatron: I just don't know how to renew and all I do is use the computers so I never learned.
Me: . . . . Well, we're happy to do it for you. You can just call or when you come in we can do it.
FP: I don't know how to renew things and since I only use the computers.
Me: You can call us and leave a message or if we're in we're always happy to renew for you. It will give you another 3 weeks on regulars books and 2 weeks on new books.
FP: *is a broken record*
Me: *wash, rinse, repeat*
FP finally finished staring at the screen with her billed items and fines (some of which she quibbled about, but as she claims to have paid some of them at Big Brary (and the amount she says she paid wasn't enough to get her on our computers) I wasn't going to change a thing) and left.
I looked at her record. It was created in 2004. I'm sure she could have asked someone in the 8 years she's had a card how to renew a book. Plus, her fine record shows she's done this same thing before--kept books so long she was billed, brought most of 'em back, paid the fines & lost book bill. So 'I don't know how and I only use it for the computer' is utter bunk.
Patron comes in to use our computers, tries to sign up and is denied. She then comes to me, I look up her account. The problem is nearly $50 in fines & billed items. Key word: nearly. Big 'Brary down the road (closed, oh-so-conveniently on Saturdays in the summer (and Sundays all year, the bastards)) cuts folks off at $50 from using their computers. We stick with nothing over $10 (which is the consortium-wide rule for no checkouts, renewals, other card activity).
I explain our rule to her, show her what she's got that's become billed and she tells me: "My problem is that I don't know how to renew."
Me: . . . .
FinedPatron: I just don't know how to renew and all I do is use the computers so I never learned.
Me: . . . . Well, we're happy to do it for you. You can just call or when you come in we can do it.
FP: I don't know how to renew things and since I only use the computers.
Me: You can call us and leave a message or if we're in we're always happy to renew for you. It will give you another 3 weeks on regulars books and 2 weeks on new books.
FP: *is a broken record*
Me: *wash, rinse, repeat*
FP finally finished staring at the screen with her billed items and fines (some of which she quibbled about, but as she claims to have paid some of them at Big Brary (and the amount she says she paid wasn't enough to get her on our computers) I wasn't going to change a thing) and left.
I looked at her record. It was created in 2004. I'm sure she could have asked someone in the 8 years she's had a card how to renew a book. Plus, her fine record shows she's done this same thing before--kept books so long she was billed, brought most of 'em back, paid the fines & lost book bill. So 'I don't know how and I only use it for the computer' is utter bunk.
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