BYU Bookstore outdoes itself

I’ve blogged several times about being messed around by the BYU Bookstore here and here.

This time, however, they’ve really outdone themselves.

I went to the BYU Bookstore, and printed out my booklist.

I pick up the books and took them to checkout.

All proceeds as normal, except they overcharge me by $20 for my multi-variable calculus book.

I complain, and show them my printout. They ignore it, and say it must be wrong.

I go back to where I got the book, and get the official price, which also says $60 (instead of $80), but they again tell me that it must be a mistake, and that the real price is $80.

I’m very annoyed at this point.

They tell me if I want to complain I must go and talk to someone at the customer service counter.

They kept bouncing me around to different people (it was almost as bad as calling Sprint Tech Support!). Each person looked at me as though I was an idiot, and that the prices I had seen were obviously wrong.

Finally they sent me to the person who was supposedly in charge, Tom something

He acted important, and told me that the price had changed.

I nicely told him that obviously it hadn’t!

Changing the price would entail actually CHANGING IT! Changing it on the web page, changing the price tag that was next to the books etc..

He basically told me to get lost, and that the only price that mattered was the price on the bookstore’s internal register. They’d just forgotten to change the price everywhere else.

Tom didn’t listen to a word I said. He just kept repeating ‘the price has changed’, so I soon just gave up.

His behaviour was rude, inappropriate, and condescending. He didn’t care. He just wanted me to go away.

Had this occurred at a any other shop, I imagine the conversation would have gone something like this:

Manager: I’m really sorry that we forgot to change the price. Thanks for letting us know that we made a mistake. Since you saw the cheaper price, we’ll honour it. We’ll now go and update all price everywhere.

Thanks!

But that would require decency.

Obviously I didn’t have a choice, as I needed the book, so I bought it.

Later I went to the BYU Bookstore website and found this.

They failed 4 of their values

• Integrity
• Exceeding Customer Expectations
• Respect for all Individuals
• Accountability

Integrity and Accountability: To fullfil those, they should admit it was their mistake (Tom never admitted a mistake, nor did he apologise. He just kept repeating ‘the price has changed.').

They certainly didn’t exceed my expectations as a customer.

And they certainly didn’t respect me.

This is where it gets good. A few days later, I find a friend who has the book and lends it to me. I take the book I purchased back. How much do you think they try to refund me? That’s right. It wrang up at $60. Obviously I complain, and show my receipt with $80. The clerk looks at me confused, and says “that’s impossible. Book prices don’t change. You must have brought me a different book.” After a few minutes of arguing, I finally get a refund.

The moral of the story? Never go to the BYU Bookstore. Always buy online at Amazon, or get it from a friend.