Borders Bookshops and their definition of Fiction [Multiple Post part 1 of however many....]

[crunch]

Last weeks borders bookshop discount voucher was for "30% off all Fiction Books".

On Saturday I went past Borders in Melbourne Central and brought a couple of books that I had been trying to find for a while. They were Science Fiction books, as is my taste in books, I used the "30% Discount on Fiction Book" voucher I had.

On Sunday I went past Borders Knox to get another book that I have been Trying to find. (Idiot me brought book four but not book three of a billion book series that I have started reading. (No.. not a name you would normally associate with long series)) . i walked up to the counter with my book and my voucher and said "I would like to buy this please" Their response was "I'm sorry but thats not a fiction book"

Hello? Science Fiction is a Non Fiction book? WTF!? So it turns out that the discount voucher was badly worded. The girl called her manager over who told me the same thing. I said "that sucks... " and left my purchase on the counter and walked out.

So.. .Melbourne Central Accepted the voucher with no questions asked because obviously Science Fiction IS Fiction. But Knox wont. There must be a different definition of whats Fact and whats Fiction for those people who live in the outer suburbs.

Comments

[andricongirl.livejournal.com]

hehe

[mortonhall.livejournal.com]

is it possible the book wasn't full price? They often don't honour the vouchers on discounted books

[dcrisp.livejournal.com]

No.. it was a full price book.

and TWO staff definatly said "thats not fiction, the fiction discount doesnt apply" not "theres already a discount on that book"

[jeds.livejournal.com]

"If this book is non-fiction, where can I book my flight to Alpha Centauri?"

[majicke.livejournal.com]

hehe.. You should've gone to the Non-Fiction section and grabbed the dictionary. :)

[pink-kan.livejournal.com]

Did they specify what category the book was?

[mireille21.livejournal.com]

I like this suggestion :)
But seriously, did they have *any* explanation as to why it was not fiction?

[dcrisp.livejournal.com]

No.. They just said It wasnt fiction. I didnt feel like getting into a huge argument with them. So instead I came home, ranted about it on LJ and hope other people refuse to shop at the Knox Borders store.

[dcrisp.livejournal.com]

They said it was Science Fiction / Fantasy

[dcrisp.livejournal.com]

"I'm sorry sir, Boarding for that flight closed 20 minutes ago"

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

I mean a hell of a pain that your time was wasted, but damn that's funny.

You should write a brief letter of complaint, making it as funny as hell, and send it to Borders Knox.

And cc it to Borders Melbourne Central as well, just so they can have a good laugh.

Who knows, they may even send you a discount voucher in response.

[pink-kan.livejournal.com]

Can we not see the contradiction of terms here????

[(Anonymous)]

As a Borders employee, I can explain...

Borders has a section of their store called "Fiction/Literature," and a section devoted to a number of genres, such as "Science Fiction." Clearly, most science fiction is, as the name implies, fiction. The employees in your store were ignoramuses who did not understand the English language. However, the voucher you had applies only to those books found in the "Fiction/Literature" section.

For further information, or if this is ever a concern of yours again, feel free to look at the back of the book. Notice the sticker which contains a bar code -- we call it a "binc sticker" (for reasons I will not explain here). Beneath the bar code, on the right-hand side, is the "genre" where that book is to be shelved. This may range from "Other Animals" to "Science Fiction" to "Fiction/Lit" to "Erotica." Your voucher, I believe, applied to any of the books shelved in the "Fiction/Lit" section of the store.

[dcrisp.livejournal.com]

Oh I got that much, but the voucher I had was really unclear. It didnt say Fiction/Lit. It said Any Fiction. And Sci Fi is fiction. The thing that annoyed me was the inconsistancy of the use of the english language between stores.

I can totally agree with a store saying "This voucher is only available for use on the following types of books" but if they do then it would be nice if they were 1) actually correctly (and obviously) defined the books it was available for. and 2) Were consistent about it.

Leaving the books and leaving the store was just a principle thing.