Unfiltered Story #32490

(We are bookstore for a small university in Pennsylvania and after working here two years I have seen some crazy stuff with people assuming that since we are the bookstore we must know everything.

We get called because people are tired of waiting and want to get transferred to Financial Aid or the Registrar…yeah we don’t do that. We are a bookstore, not an operator.

Or parents call wanting to know what school supplies they need to get their child. Here’s a clue, maybe ask you’re ADULT children what supplies they think they need. I had a parent ask me if their student needed pencils! Seriously pencils. I replied “Well if you want them to take notes then that might not be a bad idea.”

My personal favorite was when a customer asked me why the Lacrosse roster was made the way it was. I’m a graduate student working a cash register…why would people assume I know anything about who is in charge of the lacrosse roster and why it is the way it is?

Now our books are organized by class. Because if they were by title or author it would be really difficult to get every book for a class if there are five or six books for a certain class. Much easier to pull all the books for ENG 120 at once as opposed to having to look up the books one at a time. Every student is told this at orientation. But do they listen?

Of course not.

Student:Hey I need my books for class.

Me: Do you have my schedule?

Student:No

Me: Okay can you look it up?

Student:Sorry, I can’t, could you do it for me.

Me: Sorry but that is private information. I cannot do it for you. But I do have a list of classes given this term. Do you know what classes you are taking?

Student:No

Me: … If you don’t know your classes then how did you expect me to pull your books?

Student:I just thought you would know

*Note there are THOUSANDS of students at this school even if it is relatively small. Did they really think I would know the schedule for each of these kids?

I wish this was an isolated incident but alas it happens every single day. My personal favorite was when one student who actually WORKED for us didn’t have a schedule and didn’t know their classes but thought we could look up the books.

*facepalm*