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<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Greetings,</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>> We get verbally abusive patrons, unbearably smelly patrons,
demanding patrons who can simply never be satisfied no matter how hard you work
to please >them, serial thieves who check out and never return
materials.....you name it, we've got it. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>That reminds me of a situation I found myself in 2 weeks ago, and I'd like
the list's commentary on it.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I work for a jeweler - learning the craft, being an all-around secretary
and general scut monkey, basically a full apprentice in real life. My boss
is co-Autocrat of a *huge* rock & gem show down the street from our
location, and he's at the site helping to set up the 2 days before the show
starts. So I'm the phone answerer and door answerer for those 2 days, and
though the patrons can be a bit irritated that the boss isn't there, it's
usually not a nastygram fest.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>So, the day before the show starts...I get a phone call from this irritated
woman, demanding to speak to someone "associated with the show". Well, I'm
the only one in the shop, and I'm staff (I work Troll at the show), so that's
me, how can I help you? She then demands the schedule of public
transportation from Philly to the show, which is in Lebanon, but she keeps
insisting Lancaster, no matter how much I gently correct her. I'm sorry, I
don't have that information, you'd have to call the transport people yourself (I
was a bit flustered with the Lancaster-Lebanon mixup, and I wasn't sure if
she was talking about PennDOT buses (public) or Greyhound
buses (private business) or train (also private) at this point).</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>"Well, you're in charge of the building, you MUST provide public
transport!"</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>"I'm sorry ma'am, we just rent the show complex, we don't have
*anything* to do with public transport."</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>"If you're putting on the show, *you're* responsible for public
transport!"</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>"I'm sorry ma'am, but we're a *private* show, PennDOT would have our head
if we tried to take their place."</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>"Well, what are you going to *do* about it?!?"</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>"I'm sorry ma'am, there's nothing I *can* do about it."</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>"Well, I've already driven up to Hershey once this week, I'm *not* spending
more of my own gas money in this economy!"</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>[in a chipper voice, sounding suspiciously happy that the situation
has been decided] "Okay." </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>[huffing noises] *click*</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I'm still wondering if she actually though one of the show staff should
drive down to her curbside and pick her up.....(2 hours one way in Saturday
morning traffic)</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>And I got razzed a lot by the vendors....I laughingly told my boss, and he
told everyone else, so they were all asking for "public transport" from their
homes to the show!</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Weird.....and something I'm not used to in my job! I'm assuming
librarians get a lot of this? Though I'm on the internet a lot at my job,
usually my only interaction between it and a customer on the phone is telling
them where the price of gold is at that moment!</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>-Carowyn</DIV></BODY></HTML>
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