About a month ago I took my 5 year old to the library and she got her very own library card! She was super excited and checked out like 8 books!!! When we checked out, the librarian gave her a card to fill up with up to 15 books -and for every 5 she read by 4/16 she would get a certificate for a free burger at In n Out! She was thrilled!!!
Needless to say by 4/16 we had filled the card! We proudly went to the Atwater branch of Merced county libraries to redeem her reward... We were met by a not so polite couple of librarians who initially advised regardless of how many books she had read, she would only be given 1 certificate because they were running low on them... Then she spoke with another more elderly librarian who asked if we had been given the card in Atwater.??? No, i replied we had received it at the main branch in Merced. The two librarians then advised they would not be giving us any certificates and we would need to go to the main branch in Merced!!! The older librarian even suggested that we could have gotten a card at each branch and could be taking advantage of the program!!! How insulting! They don't record who is given a card so is it really that serious ladies?!?!!!
We took the drive to Merced and they were as perplexed as we were as to why The Atwater Branch refused my daughters reward for reading all those books! However they were out of certificates . The accommodating librarian, Ms Erica I believe, told us they had already ordered additional certificates and to come back Wednesday and she would get all 3 that she had earned once they got more certificates!
The Atwater library branch needs some educaton on courtesy, empathy and customer service especially when their actual customer was a disappointed 5 year old!
I'd rather drive to Merced where I know they are friendly and accommodating! read more