If it’s free, can I still complain?


As many of you know I currently work in a book shop. As you also know I quite enjoy reading books so, obviously, this suits me quite well. Now, the thing to point out I suppose is I rarely buy any books. If I see something interesting a work I see if I can borrow it from the library. Is that so bad? So what if I only buy the books I truly love!

Anyway, I’ve recently starting requesting DVDs from the library too and I’m somewhat appalled at the amount of dvds that are ‘claimed returned’ or ‘missing inventory’. It really really annoys me that people steal these! You’re getting the chance to watch something for free people! Give other people that same opportunity.

Even though this is incredibly frustrating, that isn’t even what this post is about. No, this post is about the people that take things back late. Currently, I’m waiting ever so patiently (read, not at all. Hiring it as we speak. Yes, spending money! Argh, I know!) to get my hands on Season 3 of Battlestar Galactica. Which you wouldn’t expect would be hard, considering it is 4 years old now (yes, I just jumped on the BSG bandwagon, you have a fracking problem with that? :)).

In reality I put in my request for this around a month ago. The library has 3 listings which are “Missing Inventory”, “Item being held” and Checked out with a due date of 26/03/2010. That was 5 weeks ago!!! So of the 3 copies potentially available I have to wait on the 1 actually available. At the moment I have 11 requests on items and this is happening so much more than I’d expect. It just really drives me crazy! I don’t mind if something is a few days late but when it gets to a few weeks, what is the reason?? And does the library do anything about it? Other than advise of fees they will probably never actually receive.

Now you know the intricate story behind this, my question is this: Do I have the right to bitch? It is a free service I’m using, am I allowed to be upset? It makes me think of those torrent sites where people complain about the quality of the file they’ve downloaded and everyone tells them to frack off because they haven’t paid anything for the file. Is this the same situation? Do I have to sit and wait because someone else is abusing the system or can I bitch out my library?

I really hope the answer is yes, because I’d also like to ask them why they still insist on using IE6 on their computers and can I install Chrome instead 🙂


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