First of all, let me state that I don’t have unreasonable demands for the bookstore. All I wanted were my books! Seriously, there is a disturbing lack of organization that I’ve noticed over my two years here at UBC. For instance, last year the bookstore ordered the wrong book for my ASTU 100 class, so the professor had to rewrite her entire syllabus to fit the book that the store had ordered instead! But that’s not what is bothering me right now.
OK, here’s my story:
All I wanted was the course materials for my ARTH 300 class. Since I was on the wait list for the class, I hadn’t bought the course materials ahead of time (in case I wasn’t able to register for the class.) So when I got to register for the class, I went to the bookstore to get the course materials, but of course they were out. (This is understandable because they would have been bought by people already registered in the course.)
On Tuesday I put my name on the course reserve list. Now, if you’re not familiar with a course reserve list, this is where the bookstore orders you a copy of the book, and gives you a call when it arrives. However, they only hold the book for two days. They tell me that the materials should be in on Thursday – Friday at the latest.
Wednesday – Even though they haven’t called me I go to check just in case. Nope.
Thursday – Not in yet.
Friday – Nope.
Saturday – I call to check, and the lady says they’re not in.
Sunday – No call.
Monday (Today) – I still haven’t received a call. I ask the lady at the info desk if my course materials have arrived, and without checking anything, she tells me, “If you haven’t received a call, they’re not in yet.” OK, fair enough. So I walk away to check on the Chem lab coats and find out that they’re not in yet, “but might be upstairs being processed.”
On a whim, I go back and ask the SAME lady to check when I could expect the materials to get in. She rolls her eyes and I say, “humour me.” So she goes onto her computer and then goes to look through the course materials on reserve behind the desk. She then goes back to her computer and tells me, “It looks like the course materials had already arrived, but are sold out now.”
Me: “….What.”
Her: “Yeah, you didn’t get a call?”
Me: “No. No one called me.” By now I want to scratch my eyes out.
Her: “Well do you have voicemail?” She gives me a look like it’s my fault no one called me.
Me: “Yes.”
Her: “It also looks like you’re not on the course reserve list. It seems your name is not on here. You know we only hold the books for two days after we call you, right?”
Me: “I realize that, but no one called me, and every time I came in to ask for the course materials I was told that they weren’t in yet.”
Her: “OK, well I can put you back on course reserve but you’re going to have to wait another couple of days.”
Me: AAAAAHHHHHDHGKSLNFKELNSSSSSSS (in my mind)
So long story short, I have to wait “another couple of days,” for my course materials, and I still don’t have a lab coat.
Katy
x
EDIT: When I got home that day, I found a message on my answering machine saying that my course materials had arrived. Since I only had a 1 hour class, that means the package was probably RIGHT BEHIND her when I was speaking to her… When I got there the lab coats were out as well.
Tags: 2 Comments
2 responses so far ↓
YES YES YES X10000000000000000
For my first year, in BOTH terms, the bookstore gave me the most difficult time in getting my ECON APLIA code, because it wasn’t available until the end of the first month of the term. I would go in and ask every, single freaking day, sometimes I’d call too, and I’d always get different answers from different people, and they all made it so clear that I shouldn’t be bothering them. >.< Needless to say, I try to avoid the place as much as possible!
wtf. Didn’t they just tell you they hold the books two days after they call you?