Customer relations

[written while blog was being revamped]

So, I tried to purchase a Jazz Fake Book at Borders yesterday night. My jazz piano teacher told me it was available there.

Someone ought to tell the Borders staff that. The first employee I approached, gave me an incredulous stare, and made me repeat the title a few times. He couldn't believe there was such a thing as a fake - Fade??? no, Fake, spelt F-A-K-E book.

Why don't you check with information? He gestured briefly and walked off.

Fine. The girl at Information gave me a funny look. Er... everything's there, she gestured vaguely at the music shelves. (Yes, I thought ... that's why I'm asking Information, because you guys can tell me exactly WHERE it is?)

She keyed in a query on her computer. 'We only have one book, Charles Mingus, More Than a Fake Book. Is that the one?'

No, I said. I didn't just want Charles Mingus (even if he is a great bassist). I did see a Fake Book on the top row of a shelf, but it was more evergreen than jazz, cost S$100 and was thick enough to kill someone with a slug on the head.

Instead I picked up a Bills Evans biography going at S$34+, and left.

This morning, I decided to check out our local bookshops online. Kinokuniya had an efficient books database system, and priced the title I wanted at over S$70. Deliveries over S$50 are free, and made the next working day.

Times didn't stock anything with the word 'Jazz' in it, but I'm certain they stocked the Idiot/Dummy series in-store, meaning that their database is probably out of date.

Borders doesn't seem to have a local website. The MPH website is sparse, a far cry from its heydays.

Online bookshop Acmabooks, however, gave a 10% discount on the original price, bringing it down to about S$60. Deliveries over S$50 are free. I expect the book to arrive anywhere between 1-14 days. Woo-hoo. (Incidentally, the biography I bought was going at $29+. Dang.)

And here ends one of my they-could've-been-so-much-better rants.