Wednesday, April 23, 2008

My Library Bill

is up to $40 and they continue to send me extortion attempts.

They will not allow me to pay late fines or renew books until I pay for the damaged book that I did not damage.

World Without End (sucks) and Thousand Splendid Suns (haven't even started) are so late they are claiming they are either lost or I am buying them (for $20-some dollars a piece...yeah-right).
Three other books are racking up overdue fines by the minute.

I guess it's a good thing I checked out a tall stack of really long, enjoyable books since I may as well take my sweet time and/or just keep them, now that the library has chosen to take this route.

Screw you and your not so free books, Library.

Oh, and don't forget that I not only have two children...I have a fleet of family and friends stupid enough to give me their library card on long term loan...IF I decide your establishment is even worth my time in the future.

You will not win this time, my friends. No way. No how.

9 comments:

Stacy said...

Haha, sounds kinda like the people who work at your library are similar the ones who work in mine. I haven't gotten outrageous fines yet but they tend to treat people like you are up to no good or trying to steal something - like they are suspicious of everyone. Very weird attitude to have if you work in a library. Sheesh.

The Chic Chauffeur said...

Our library actually sent me to a collection agency. Huh? Just because our books were overdue? I was gonna return them and pay the fine. geez. They didn't need to get all huffy. I had the last laugh. I just took my son's card, and went and checked a book out anyway. haha (but did pay off the fine, and return the books because my husband almost had an attack when he saw a collection letter and thought the library was going to ruin his perfect credit).

You should read A Thousand Splendid Suns. It was great!

Life, Love And Lola said...

Tell Carmen she'll get her damn money when she returns the pictures!!

Monica said...

The Library police in my town demanded I pay for a "damaged" book but then would not give me the book. I figured If I paid for it, I should at least be able to keep it. Big skirmish and I boycotted them for awhile and then went back. I still am mad about it and it was over 10 years ago. Good thing I don't hold a grudge!

jenn said...

Yeah, I always have a tab running at the library. I guess it gets embarrassing for my husband b/c he's on the Library Board and they razz him about it. I could give a shit. I'll give the books back when I'm done with them. Or not.

Ironically, in the last town we lived in the library had NO FINES EVER, and I managed to turn in nearly every book on time. I keep telling my new library that, but they don't believe me.

Jen said...

I finally sucked it up and paid my $10 book replacement fee lately. I made sure they knew I was mad and had actually returned the book. I told her from now on I was coming inside to return books in person and watch them check them in. She said "lots of people actually do that - there are just so many books for people to keep up with sometimes, they prefer it." Or, perhaps, hmmm.... Would it be because these people had gotten screwed over too? YES, I'M SURE!

the mom said...

Stick it to em Ashley!...off to pay my library fines.

http://jenatwork.blogspot.com

Renee said...

Well, I am one of the friends who has a library card from your county (I spent 3 weeks in Ashley's town last summer, for those of you who don't know, and we used the library while we were there), and I am totally willing to let you use my card. It's also a good idea to get BK and lk their own cards so you can use those! Do they let you do that if Mom has a balance on her account? Maybe you should drive to a non-Carmen-inhabited library to try to get a card for BK and lk. The one over near where we stayed was nice. :) If things go as planned, we'll be back for a few weeks around Thanksgiving (woo hoo!) and I can leave my card with you when we leave town. So you have enough time to run up some fines on BK and lk's cards before then. :) Tee hee.

-The Renee

Anonymous said...

Wow, what a bunch of absolutely inane comments regarding libraries and library employees. It’s interesting how people could care less about how they treat property borrowed from a library, as if it’s their god given right to do with it what they please. When you rent a DVD from any rental chain, you have to give a credit card number. If you don’t return it, you get charged. How are libraries any different? Oh, that’s right, you don’t get charged to borrow things! Library employees may seem “suspicious” because they deal with people who “could give a shit” (brilliant Jenn!) and return things whenever they please, in whatever condition they please. You’d think the library would be the last place you’d see the worst of people, but it’s an institution that get’s abused more than any, because people take it for granted that they have access to an amazing amount of information for FREE (besides your hard earned tax dollars, that is). It is hilarious how you can all spend so much time writing about being “screwed” by your local library, as if it’s out to get you. The only thing a library expects of you is to return (in a reasonable amount of time) what you’ve borrowed in the same shape it was in when you borrowed it. Wow, that’s really tough…