Tonight I had unfortunate experience with the Wee Book Inn. Let me tell you the whole story.
A couple of weeks ago, I went in, purchased $81.32 worth of books, only to discover that they had sold me a book I already had. In fact, I had previously requested that book, and had picked it up about two weeks before this trip. I phoned immediately after getting home and talked to an employee, Dan maybe? I told him the situation, and he told me to just bring it back with the receipt and I could exchange it for a book of the same value. I let him know I would do the exchange next time that I purchased books, and he said that would be fine. He didn't give a timeline or anything for the exchange, so I assumed that as long as I was within 30 days would be fine.
Fast forward to tonight, I had received a call that I had some books on hold and went in to pick them up. I took in the book I had to exchange, and asked for the books they had on hold for me. I spoke with a young woman with red curly hair, and she was very adamant that she couldn't do the exchange. She offered to buy back the book I was looking to exchange for either $1.25 cash or for $3.50 worth of credit. I let her know that was not an acceptable offer to me, given that I had spoken to an employee by phone and that I had been told I could exchange the book. She told me that I had purchased the book too long ago, 16 days to be exact, and that she couldn't exchange it because she "didn't want to put her job on the line." It was at this point that I told her that I seriously doubted doing this exchange would put her job on the line, and if it would, she shouldn't be working for a company that treats their employees that way. I also told her, that I didn't want her to risk her job, but was extremely frustrated by this. It was at this point, that I took a step away from the counter to talk to my partner about what I was going to do about buying the books I had come in for. After a couple of minutes of discussion, I went back to the counter to let let the employee know that I was torn about what to do. I did really want to purchase the 4 books they had on hold for me, one of which is the last of a series that I had already purchased from them. I told her that if she did not honour my exchange I would likely remove all my requests from the list and leave the books with her. She told me that, "for all she knew, I had purchased the book somewhere else, and that I could do what I liked." This comment was a direct accusation of dishonesty against me, and I left the books with her, and told her to remove my requests from the list.
What I encountered tonight was terrible business practice. I was there to purchase $30.00 worth of books on top of my exchange. I had spent over $90.00 in July on purchases from the Wee Book Inn to replenish my book collection and finish off a few series. I was there to buy more, and had a couple of requests to add to an already long the list. Instead of honouring the exchange I was promised, which would have cost them $7.00 total and left them with a book of the same value, in the same series no less, to sell, they lost a customer.
I won't be going back and you should steer clear. read more