A patron walks into the library

Ahh yes, yet another patron on the computer story. Interesting how few 'book' patron stories I have compared to computer stories.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you all know that I am a bad terrible mean librarian. Even though I give out accurate information and tell it like it is.

We have what we call a Computer Reservation Station. Everyone has to make a reservation for the computers if they want to use one. The reservation station scans your card and gives you the first available computer at the time you make your reservation. Every reservation is for one hour. Now, usually you can get on right away and don't have to wait, but sometimes (especially on Sundays when we are only open for 3 hours), there is a wait.

A man with his small son come in and make a reservation. It's about 3:55 and his reservation is for 4:20. The computers shut down at 4:45 - 15 minutes before we close. He comes up to me and this is our conversation:

Incredibly Rude Patron: My reservation is for 4:20 - that will be TOO LATE!!!
Real Librarian: I'm sorry - all our computers are full right now. The reservation station gives you the first available computer at the time you make your reservation.
IRP: But I need to get on sooner!! (He is already starting to raise his voice and cop a 'tone' with me.)
RL: Well, we can cancel your reservation and you can try to make a new one, but there is no guarantee that you will get a sooner reservation. And it is possible that this late in the day that you won't get a reservation at all.
IRP: But I need to get on sooner!!! (at this point, he is getting really loud and mean)

I won't keep going on and on with this conversation - but basically I kept telling him that I can cancel his reservation and he can try. And he kept telling me he didn't want to cancel - he just wanted to sit down at a computer and use it. Well, I'm sorry - that's just not how it works here.

Finally he goes down to the section where his computer is for his reservation. The associate in the other section tells him the exact same things I did, but he actually let her cancel his old reservation. Unfortunately for *ME* someone had just logged off their computer early and he was able to get an earlier reservation.

And then he called me a liar.

And complained to the PIC (person in charge). Great.

I'm not worried about it, though. I gave accurate information. I was nice to him even though he started yelling at me. I did everything a nice helpful real librarian would do. He can complain about me all he wants to. And you know what else he can do??

Kiss it.