# Too Good for Their Customers? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 30, 2011, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-good-for-their-customers/580262 "2011-04-30T05:12:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2011, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-good-for-their-customers/580262/21 "2011-04-30T19:28:21Z")
> [@Jaledin](#): > > But given that my record is available for inspection those few times I dare to contest a charge, what are the odds that a heavy, responsible user of expensive ILL materials (which have never been returned late or “gone missing”) with a history of paying his fines is trying to jew down some piss-ant fine? Trying to what? What the fuck is wrong with you? ---
**Author:** ![Jaledin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jaledin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaledin)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2011, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-good-for-their-customers/580262/22 "2011-04-30T19:38:33Z")
My apologies – my father is a Jew (true), I thought I could get back at his improper handling of library materials by malappropriating a common idiom. Sorry if I roused to action or emboldened any anti-semites on the board – and I hope there are none. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2011, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-good-for-their-customers/580262/23 "2011-04-30T19:40:53Z")
Dude… just holy fuck… let me see if I can wrap my head around this… > [@Jaledin](#): > > But given that my record is available for inspection those few times I dare to contest a charge, what are the odds that a heavy, responsible user of expensive ILL materials (which have never been returned late or “gone missing”) with a history of paying his fines is trying to jew down some piss-ant fine? “Jew down”? Seriously? Is this how you act around librarians, maybe it’s not them, but you. Secondly, I can’t speak for how your system is set up, most every library circulation program I’ve worked does not put this information front and center for the circulation staff. So we have no idea what your record is like. All we know is that someone is trying to duck 25 cents with an excuse that makes us go like this… :dubious: Of course, if you do act like this towards your librarians, it’s possible you have a note on your file warning the circulation staff not to budge. > [@](#): > > I especially loved one recent encounter with a male librarian, who, typically, looked like an ill-groomed molester (not a personal attack to you, as I know your posts and you seem bright and meticulous – just an observation from my local branch and a few others), unprecedently asked for my DL number, my birthdate, etc., before “handling” (=scanning like a cashier) my ILL item. You didn’t just play the “All male librarians are child molesters (but I don’t mean _you_)” card did you? Oh fuck, you did. Yeah, I’m gonna circle back up to my previous thought and I’m going to assume there’s a note on your record indicating that you’re either a scammer or a whiner and that circulation staff shouldn’t cave for your crap. Also, ILL rules can be ridiculously complicated and if the owning library wants us to ask for that information, we will ask for it. And mocking the “male librarian” for scanning your book like a cashier is pretty dumb. He was a circulation clerk, which is basically the library equivalent of a cashier. ---
**Author:** ![Jaledin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jaledin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaledin)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2011, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-good-for-their-customers/580262/24 "2011-04-30T19:49:21Z")
I didn’t say “child molester” – I said “molester,” as in, skeevy and ill-socialized, probably apt to speak inappropriately. This could well apply to me in this thread. I understand, having been married to an MLS for eight years or so, the various demands libraries who wish to make available material through ILL require. I still believe the information requested, plainly available from information keyed to my library card, and my identity, verifiable via my DL, was fished out in the intention of plainly obviously playing for power. Can we let this drop? I love libraries, I’m sure you’re a fine, skilled librarian, and my only complaint was about a few rotten apples. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2011, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-good-for-their-customers/580262/25 "2011-04-30T19:56:45Z")
> [@Jaledin](#): > > I didn’t say “child molester” – I said “molester,” as in, skeevy and ill-socialized, probably apt to speak inappropriately. This could well apply to me in this thread. OK, fine, whatever. But you need to understand that throwing the molester word around male librarians is not cool. AT ALL. ---
**Author:** ![Jaledin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jaledin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaledin)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2011, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-good-for-their-customers/580262/26 "2011-04-30T19:58:43Z")
Well, I knew that from experience among MLS students, but I didn’t want to take the lowest road – just a lower road. ---
**Author:** ![YaraMateo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/58f4c7/32.png) [@YaraMateo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YaraMateo)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2011, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-good-for-their-customers/580262/27 "2011-04-30T21:14:59Z")
> [@flatlined](#): > > I like our UPS guys, but the bitches at Victoria’s Secret managed to chase me off. I know I’m underweight, I’m trying to do something about it. I don’t want people to tell me to go to Sears and shop the teen selection. I’m 33 years old, I do NOT want panties that have cutesy words across my ass, and I do need underwire bras. I’ve never had good service at ANY VS. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2011, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-good-for-their-customers/580262/28 "2011-04-30T21:40:13Z")
Is Apple too cheap to buy enough letters to make the sign read “Condescending Hipster Bar?” ---
**Author:** ![Absolute](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Absolute](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absolute)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2011, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-good-for-their-customers/580262/29 "2011-04-30T22:10:12Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > Is Apple too cheap to buy enough letters to make the sign read “Condescending Hipster Bar?” 1000x this. I love Apple products, but I cannot stand trying to get warranty service at the Apple Store. People rave about Apple’s service, but in my experience the “geniuses” are a bunch of self-important assholes of average intelligence. I used to visit the Apple Store near MIT fairly often, and came very close to losing it several times. “You’re not a fucking genius, you’re a dipshit asshole who works at the mall! The geniuses are two blocks that way, curing cancer!” ---
**Author:** ![Jaledin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jaledin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaledin)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2011, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-good-for-their-customers/580262/30 "2011-04-30T22:23:32Z")
Substitute “Condescending Hipster [Apple] Bar” for any “Condescending Hipster Coffee Bar,” and reinclude all members into a new set, and this might win the thread. I hang out occasionally at some real gutterpunk hipster douche booze-bars, but nobody ever gives me any shit even when I’m wearing the whole fancy pants and nice shirt and everybody else has spikes, leather, and just gang-vomited in the pinball machine. What the fuck is so fucking great about working for the man at a place to get some hot, exploitatively-harvested drink that gives them rank? FTR, I don’t drink coffee, just an observation. Now I’m mad after hearing those Apple asswipes are called “Geniuses” – that’s even worse than some soft POS boss making a waitron introduce themselves to their table as “Pat” or “Chris.” ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2011, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-good-for-their-customers/580262/31 "2011-04-30T23:13:20Z")
> [@Absolute](#): > > 1000x this. > > I love Apple products, but I cannot stand trying to get warranty service at the Apple Store. People rave about Apple’s service, but in my experience the “geniuses” are a bunch of self-important assholes of average intelligence. I did Apple desktop support (phone) a while back and have known a few people who have (and no longer) work in the stores. They get that way because, like Police Officers, they see the worst people every day, all day. Self-important morons who scream and throw tantrums demanding Apple replace their hardware AND give them “compensation” because they’re too fucking stupid to get their own email account working. Or figure out how to operate a computer. Or they want to do something impossible because “if I can think of it, it has to be easy” It was bad enough dealing with these people over the phone. It has to be god awful horrible dealing with them in person. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2011, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-good-for-their-customers/580262/32 "2011-04-30T23:32:12Z")
> [@Jaledin](#): > > This is going to draw some ire, I’m sure, from librarian dopers, but librarians in general tick me off. They always think I’m trying to scam them out of a $0.25 fine when I (correctly) claim a book was returned on time in their drop box, or, worse, they claim a book was never returned which was. > > Always, I’m sure, the fault of those stooge pages they hire. I’d have loved to have been hired as a page, instead of working parking cars during a lull in the music business, but I guess knowing five languages and knowing more about the theory of information science than any librarian I’ve ever met would make them feel bad about themselves. > > Yeah, shut me up – go ahead. Go clean the toilets or do something useful, rather than giving me the hi-hat about some mistake for which you’re responsible. One time, my mom had the library all mad at her for not returning a book she had returned. She walked into the library, over to the shelves, and found the very copy of the book they were claiming she never returned sitting right there. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Jaledin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jaledin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaledin)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2011, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-good-for-their-customers/580262/33 "2011-04-30T23:50:15Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > She walked into the library, over to the shelves, and found the very copy of the book they were claiming she never returned sitting right there. :smack: I’ve done that twice: once, at age 11 or 12, of a cheap Beethoven Dover edition, at the request of the very nice librarian, who was really very nice (although I somehow doubt a small child should be performing the work of a “professional” with an “advanced” degree). Again in grad school, where the royal bitch accused me of smuggling it in myself to avoid the $0.50 fine or whatever it was. What a c-word. Don’t want to get the noblewomen mad by using a swear. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2011, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-good-for-their-customers/580262/34 "2011-05-01T00:01:00Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > One time, my mom had the library all mad at her for not returning a book she had returned. She walked into the library, over to the shelves, and found the very copy of the book they were claiming she never returned sitting right there. :smack: Blockbuster mailed me a charge for not returning a movie. I went there to dispute the charge since I had returned it. The manager walked over to the movie section and found the one I’d returned sitting there. Charge removed. Some idiot failed to check it in properly. They’re only human. ---
**Author:** ![Jaledin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jaledin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaledin)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2011, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-good-for-their-customers/580262/35 "2011-05-01T00:07:29Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > They’re only human. They are humans, yes, and can make honest mistakes; but they are members of institutions with the ability to remove potentially large portions of your freedom, without possibility of recompense or retribution. Kill them all and let that God sort them out, or something. Respect thine owners, kine. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2011, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-good-for-their-customers/580262/36 "2011-05-01T00:43:38Z")
> [@Jaledin](#): > > They are humans, yes, and can make honest mistakes; but they are members of institutions with the ability to remove potentially large portions of your freedom, without possibility of recompense or retribution. > > Kill them all and let that God sort them out, or something. Respect thine owners, kine. What on _Earth_ are you talking about??? > [@Shakes](#): > > My beef has always been with the computer sales guys. ( at just about any store) I went in there one time looking for a video card. I asked the sales rep what’s the best deal on a video card. He then proceeds to give me a 10 minute lecture about video cards. Of which I understood about 10%. I tried to explain to him that I’m just a laymen. Can you dumb it down a little? He did not. He proceeded with his lecture as if I were in the industry. :rolleyes: We’re not all like this, though- but it’s worth bearing in mind that there’s a lot of computer stuff that you _can’t_ dumb down without actually being unbelievably condescending to people. What you think is a “lecture” might be the sales guy’s “One step above 'This Computer. It good. Play games. Bring naked ladies. Listen music. Write Letters. Internet Stuff. You buy.” ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2011, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-good-for-their-customers/580262/37 "2011-05-01T01:23:58Z")
Bring naked ladies? Not real. Porn. Much Porn! You buy now! ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2011, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-good-for-their-customers/580262/38 "2011-05-01T01:28:18Z")
I have been to a few bars in my time where the bartender/waitress apparently thought it was a great inconvenience to actually get a patron a drink. I have always been mystified by this attitude, as they depend on tips for he bulk of their income, and acting standoffish to the customer isn’t typically the best way to engender goodwill and generosity. I don’t want to get into the whole tipping debate, but I am usually a VERY heavy tipper, but there is nothing that makes me more inclined to write “Fuck off” on the gratuity line of my credit-card receipt than being treated in a condescending manner by waitstaff. ---
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2011, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-good-for-their-customers/580262/39 "2011-05-01T01:34:02Z")
I went into a McDonald’s this morning, and they looked at me like something smelled bad, and went back to watching the back, waiting for things. I left. Apparently, _McDonald’s_ is too good for me. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2011, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-good-for-their-customers/580262/40 "2011-05-01T01:42:20Z")
> [@Jaledin](#): > > I’ve done that twice: once, at age 11 or 12, of a cheap Beethoven Dover edition, at the request of the very nice librarian, who was really very nice (although I somehow doubt a small child should be performing the work of a “professional” with an “advanced” degree). Again in grad school, where the royal bitch accused me of smuggling it in myself to avoid the $0.50 fine or whatever it was. What a c-word. Don’t want to get the noblewomen mad by using a swear. Did a librarian kill your dog or something? And if you think people don’t try to smuggle books back in to avoid the fine, you’re living in a fantasy world. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-good-for-their-customers/580262.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-good-for-their-customers/580262.md?page=3)