Boycott

I am so completely disgusted with our bookstore right now. They send us very urgent messages pleading with us to submit our book orders for spring classes (which start at the beginning of February or end of January) before Halloween. In an effort to be a good citizen, I tried submitting my form, but kept getting an error message. Hence the following exchange, which reveals how incredibly little they care about making it possible for us to do what they so badly want us to do:

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From: Me
To: Bookbuyer
Sent: Monday, October 27, 2008 1:49 PM
Subject: Book adoption form

Hi Bookbuyer,

I've tried several times (8? 10?) to add books to my adoption form for next spring, but after I enter all of the information and try to submit it, I get an error message. The message says that the page has a programming error. Just wanted to let you know there may be some kind of problem with the page . . .

Best,
Me

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From: Bookbuyer
To: Me
Sent: Monday, October 27, 2008 2:22 PM

It is probably a problem on your end as I have received numerous book orders on the online form. You should call IT and let them know so that they can fix the problem on your end and you can submit your orders online.

Thank you,
Bookbuyer

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From: Me
To: Bookbuyer
Sent: Monday, October 27, 2008 2:31 PM

Bookbuyer, the problem isn't with sending the form in--that I could do fine if I had entered all of the books at once, or if I had only one book. But I can't continue adding books to the form by clicking on the "add book" button. It's definitely not on my end--the error message says that it is a programming error on the page itself.

Me

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From: Bookbuyer
To: Me
Sent: Monday, October 27, 2008 2:31 PM

OK, but you still need to call IT. The bookstore has nothing to do with the actual web page that you use to submit them. I can only retrieve them on my end so I don't know what could be wrong.

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So I get that Bookbuyer is not a web developer, but doesn't she even care? Is it really true that the bookstore has "nothing to do" with the website they tell us to use (that is, do they have less to do with it than I do)? I'm so disgusted that I'm considering joining my husband on his bookstore boycott and just having my students order all their books online. The prices are better, as is apparently the service.