Several months ago I splurged and purchased the books 'Reading Strategies' and 'Writing Strategies' by Jennifer Serravalle. I had been looking for ways to improve my small group lessons and another teacher I work with talked to me about these books. I did hours and hours of research before purchasing these books because my school district didn't buy them... I did. They are an investment coming in at around $35 each using Amazon Prime.
I came across several teacher blogs that talked about binding their books so that it made it a little more user friendly. One particular blog post I loved was from Teaching My Friends. Her post about the book and binding are linked below.
http://teachingmyfriends.blogspot.com/2015_07_01_archive.html
I "stole" a picture from her blog of what her book looked like after she had it spiral bound.
Is that not the coolest thing since scented markers?
So I finally broke down this Memorial Day Weekend and headed to Staples! I live about 35 minutes from our closest Staples location. I have also read that to get the binding completed it takes about 20 minutes (according to the blog posts I have read, no one has taken longer) which works out perfectly because the guys in my life needed to get some shoes and shorts and I had some Kohl's cash to spend. I went in and placed my order and was rather surprised that the gentlemen behind the counter said that it would be an extra $3 to get it finished today....WHAT? Not once I have a read that anyone was charged extra for the same day pick up but okay I'll pay the $3 so I can have my books today. He verified my information and since we have recently moved I had him chance my email address too. He said that he would call me as soon as he finished since we were still going to be in town.
HE NEVER CALLED.
I WAITED AN HOUR AND A HALF.
HE NEVER CALLED.
So my family was finished with our shopping and decided that maybe he just forgot that he said that he would call me but had finished.
NOPE
I walked into the store and he was working on the second book, my first book appeared to be finished sitting on the counter. My heart got excited.
We looked around the store for awhile thinking that he was almost finished with my second book. We even sat in the back of the store hanging out in their office chairs trying to kill time. Still NOTHING.
As my 14 year-old is getting hungry and my sweet husband is ready to fall asleep in the chairs I decide to go up to the counter to find out about how much time we have left until he is finished.
HE WASN'T EVEN AT THE COUNTER.
HE WAS TALKING TO THE CASHIERS.
MY BOOK IS STILL UNFINISHED.
He came over to the counter and said that he is still working on the second book. I wanted to say, "NO, you are socializing and unfocused", but I didn't (which makes me frustrated because this whole thing just feels wrong). He said that he should have it done by the time they close tonight...OMG it is 4:30 and they close at 9.
So I asked if I could just change my order and pick it up tomorrow. He said that would be fine.
So here I am on Memorial Day having to drive back into town to pick up my books.
I DON"T NEED ANYTHING FROM TOWN.
UGH
The thing that frustrated me is that when we pulled into the parking lot I was telling my husband how much I love this store and how I could spend hours in there just looking and planning things for my classroom or for my planners.
Now I don't even want to go back in there.
Is it weird to be so disappointed in how a transaction went down that you decide that you know longer want to visit an establishment again?
