Disgruntled

It's been a while since I told a good patron story, so I thought I'd share one.

A woman comes in to the library with her three kids. She asks me to look up her library card number so she can get onto the computer. Once I see her ID and look up her name, I see that she's been billed for about 12 children's books to a tune of over $200. YIKES!!

Real Librarian: Um, actually, did you know that there is a fine on your card? You are being billed for a number of items that were due back in February.

Disgruntled Mom: (Instantly defensive and ticked off) No, this is NOT right. I KNOW I returned those books. There might be ONE that is missing, but I KNOW I returned the rest of them.

RL: Had you talked to someone before? Did we do a shelf check for you?

DM: No, I haven't talked to anyone. I just KNOW they came back.

RL: Ok, well, I can definitely check the shelves for you. Why don't you take a quick look at home and see if you can find the one that you think you might still have. We'll get back to you once we check our shelves.

Well, the DM left, but you could tell she was not happy with me. She totally made it seem like it was all MY fault that the books hadn't been checked in. Well, I went to the shelves and checked for all 12 of the books. Now, I can see not finding one or two - but I couldn't find ANY of them! Makes me wonder...

Anyway, I gave all the details to my supervisor and decided to let her deal with it.

I came in to work 2 days later, and since we were a little backed up in the shelving department, I decided to work on shelving some picture books... That's when I came across some VERY familiar titles...

Turns out she went home and found them. All but three. Yup. But I have to tell you, I'm not really surprised. I get the "I KNOW I returned them" line quite often. Then, she came back in today with the rest of the books she KNEW she returned.

DM: Can you believe we found all those books?! I just KNEW I returned them! I hope I wasn't too crabby with you.

RL: Oh, no, it happens!!

Well, it does happen. I promise not to be crabby with you, if you promise not to be crabby with me!!