TIL a customer almost ruined my press with a stack of old books

I was working a booth at a craft fair in Portland last fall, and this older guy walks up and plops a pile of vintage paperbacks on my table. He says "these need rebinding, they're family heirlooms." I flipped through one and the pages were brittle, the glue was dust, and the spines were held on with packing tape. I had to tell him straight up that any work would destroy them further, and he got pretty upset. Has anyone else had to turn down a job like that and deal with a customer who just won't listen?

2 comments

2 Comments

andrew_wood7213d ago

Explain the condition issues upfront and give them a referral to a rare book conservator instead. That way it's their call then, not yours when the thing falls apart.

brookebailey13d ago

That's smart advice, really. Reminds me of the time a customer asked me if I could fix a water stain on a 1920s novel they'd found in their grandma's attic. I just looked at it, said "that's not a stain, that's active mold" and handed them the number for a conservator two towns over. They got mad for a second, thanked me later when the guy saved the whole book. People don't always know what they're holding until you spell it out for them.