WOW! This was more like a short story then a blog post but it is really well done. I too shop at Borders Books and have had horrible customer experience. I dont go to Barnes because it is 25 minutes away and Borders is 2! But, more and more I just go to sites like Amazon since the book will be here the next day and I can order it while I am at work....just don't tell my boss.

I use the Amazon Kindle for almost everything now except magazines where I want to see colored pictures. I prefer not to go to the bookstore anymore as it wasn't the greatest of experiences.

As someone who has worked in various bookstores (privately owned, independent and large corporate), this was pretty spot on. I've always found Borders to be the worst of all bookstore options.
I would disagree with your complaint in point 7, though. It would be an absolutely terrible idea for a store to page over the intercom a lost item. A) Most customers ignore the overhead pages (in my quite vast experience), and B) You're opening yourself up to someone falsely claiming the lost item. When customers lose something (and it happens quite frequently; you'd be hearing pages every 10 minutes), you really can't expect a store to track them down. Working in a small store, we make the effort of answering a lost cellphone when it rings, but other than that, there's really no practical way for a store to track customers down for non-emergency reasons.
Otherwise, spot on post.

I don't disagree with #7 as if I lost my cell phone I would be horrified. What if you were in 10 stores and didn't know where to start to look. As far as other people claiming lost items, stores can make them describe it. As I just said that I realize there is some liability to the stores if they give the item to the wrong person. What a dilemma.

I think the writing was on the wall for Borders Books along time ago. If you go into their stores, you think that they already know they are dying a slow death. I still stop by once in a while but I find myself going back to smaller stores to help support them so that we have something when the big box book stores like Borders are gone.

All I can say is Kindle! Who will go to Borders anymore when you have the Amazon Kindle.

I totally agree with your assessment of Borders. They are in trouble and I think much of it is due to lack of emphasis on customer service (on all levels). Your story of the man in the wheelchair is appalling and heart breaking. Your blog speaks of your character Damien - turning in lost items and going to bat for a man who clearly should have been offered a helping hand instead of a door closed in his face. It's obvious you not only have a kind heart but also an amazing business sense. Your blogs are thought provoking and offer incredible insight. I can't wait to see what you do next.

I read this blog post with great interest. I am a former Borders employee. My position was semi corporate. Half my time was spent in my own store, and the rest was spent flying out to open new locations and train staff. After several years with the company, my base store was closed and I suddenly found myself without a job. Just like that. It was very disappointing that after all my hard work they didn't even attempt to place me in another location. I have since found employment with Barnes and Noble, and can say that it is comforting to know that I am now with a company that is seeing positive growth so I won't lose my job to "downsizing". I think there were a lot of valid points made here, and if Borders doesn't step up their game, many more employees will find themselves in the same position I was. The customer is the Alpha and Omega in retail. If you don't take care of them, they won't take care of you.

Hello great blog entry. I definitely
wanted to put my two cents in
also as a Borders employee. With
regards to the customer service
aspect, I am not so sure about
other stores but when I worked
at the Emeryville location I was
appalled by the how myself and
other employees were treated.
I have worked at many stores,businesses and offices, I
have never had as many complaints
about how a company was run then
Borders. One thing that strikes
me is most people immediately
assume the employee has a bad
attitude, but never understand
that if its one in 20 then
perhaps thats true. But if everyone
working there or a huge majority is
miserable then you know its the
company. I had never worked
alongside so many people who
absolutely hated working there.
Happy during the recession for
actually having a job, but they
were miserable nonetheless.

Has Borders Books corporate read this blog yet? Did you get feedback from them?

I know that our company canceled our Borders account because too many of our employees complained about the customer service at Borders Books as well as the cluttered stores.

I for one hated shopping there and have tried to go back only to ask myself why I am doing it once I get inside and realize the culture has gone from bad to worse and the stores look like a flea market.

I, like many of my colleagues, have just gone to Amazon and life is much easier. If I was a betting person, Borders Books won't be around a year from now.

I too am a Borders employee. I have to agree with the above post completely in that many of us are happy to have a job during the recession, but miserable working for the company we do. Combining a mandated salary freeze, position freeze and a total disregard from the corporate office for its employees, it's no suprise that morale in the company is at rock bottom. You have to understand that as an employee, it is disheartening to know that no matter how hard you work, or how little you care, you are treated equally by the corporate office. Borders is "owned" by investment group, Pershing Square. The current corporate direction appears geared to short term gain, not long term profitability. Thats why there are so many sales and coupons out there I believe. Liquidate the product to return the investment. It is sad to see a once great bookstore turn into what this is today. Enjoy the holiday sales, but please have a heart for us employees who can't afford a Christmas.

Don't know if you read your responses, so this may be whistling in the wind. However, the complaints you have with Borders -- all legitimate, based on my experience as a current bookseller there -- are due to changes Ron Marshall has implemented. You say his changes are taking too long to trickle down? Not so. Whatever he orders is implemented immediately, and you're seeing the results.

As a long-term Borders employee who once loved their job and now sticks around because of the economy, customers and coworkers, I apologize. Here are a few reasons why Borders is failing and causing staff to fail customers:

- Long-term leases in suburbs financed by sub-prime loans to former customers who are now bankrupt, unemployed and foreclosed on
- Borrowed to expand
- Inadequate supply chain and inventory management
- Botched internet and digital businesses
- Too dependent on CDs and DVDs.
- Cut or reduced events
- Cut employee benefits
- Expecting "100% Flawless Execution" from the store staff but not from HQ
- Shilling for publishers
- Seattle's Best Cafe
- Paperchase
- T-mobile Hot Spots
- Cut store staff
- #1 Asset = Borders Rewards members' e-mail addresses
- Coupons
- Inconsistency
- Identity crisis
- Our management are frauds

When I left the company in June - we were allowed 400 hours of payroll a week. This included Salaried Management, Seattles Best Coffee Cafe, and the entire rest of the store staff. Figure out the math on that - and you'll understand what you see Borders Stores. Cutting hours is the number one way to reduce expenses and make things look a little better on paper - as does continuing to return huge chunks of store stock.

As a former employee, I will agree that I have seen your points in action. If I may, many of them stem not from the stores, but from Ron Marshall's systemic stripping of Borders of what was once its most valuable asset: trained, enthusiastic booksellers, all to try to earn back a few pennies on the dollar for Pershing Square.

In general, most of your points can boil down to the fact that stores are dramatically understaffed, and management equally overworked. With no more than 3 staff working at any time in most stores, there are no people to organize shelves, return lost property, train on internal systems, or be visible to help you find something.

I would bet you any money that the manager who closed the store in point 7, in the past week, has worked 6 days at 12 hours/day. In that same week, he has received three threatening emails from his district manager and has been screamed at by 15 customers.
It doesn't excuse rudeness, but it makes it a bit more understandable.

What you are seeing is a direct result of Mr. Marshall's actions. The combination of drastic hours reductions & a punitive, aggressive atmosphere has crippled the stores. Forget about 3 threatening emails a week- try 3-10 a day.These come from Marshall on down. There are over 50 Gen. Mgr positions going now because GMs are either jumping ship or being fired for being unable to meet increasingly impossible demands. Our store used to run on 800+ hrs now runs on 550. That's 1 cafe, 1 cashier, 1 seller.Think about it. How can they possibly shelve, organize-much less help you?The focus from corp. is on meeting quotas for books THEY choose(not you the customer) & items like glitter balls.The employees are under almost unbearable pressure to meet these quotas. Again-how can that possibly translate to good cust. service? I can tell you the employees are as frustrated by being unable to provide good cust. service as you are by not receiving it.

Let me expand a bit on Bills remarks. He says a bit over 500 hours to man a store open probably 150 hours a week. That's approx. 3 persons in the store...of how many acres..., less if they want to add someone at the busy times. That's not enough manpower to maintain the store (stock, alpha, etc) much less provide greeters etc.

The reason you can't find employees is that there aren't any to find. And that accounts for your #4 too.

#2 & 3 are related, and your comments are spot-on. It costs money to invest in effective and efficient data systems, and having gone through several CEOs (and their assorted entourages) the past decade, the money which should have been invested in that has been diverted to a broad variety of golden parachutes, (which unlike employee wages) are for some odd reason are not considered a cost by modern business culture.

WILL THE CUSTOMER WHO LOST THEIR $200 BLACKBERRY AND A WALLET FILLED WITH MONEY PLEASE COME TO THE INFORMATION DESK.

"Fortunate opportunity to meet Ron Marshall"? He's the tempermental, out of touch CEO who's running Borders into the ground. Employees are persecuted, staff is cut or eliminated, and he gets a bunch of financial perks in exchange. As for missing items, perhaps campers and the occasional actual customer could take responsibility for their own items?
You're not qualified to make judgements on Borders, Floor Boy!

Words well said by kaybie, Bill & Larry- Ron Marshall was not hired to turn Borders around rather he was brought on to put the final nail in the coffin. As a 'business consultant' you need only examine his previous failures to come to the conclusion that Mr. Marshall is by no means qualified to restore this company to its' former fortune 500 standings. Marshall has brought nothing to the table to Borders in terms of innovation, restoration and profit. Many of the issues you note are a direct result of his leadership or lack there of. Maybe next time you have time on your hands, try talking to the people who know and understand this company & this industry beyond what you think you know-if you can actually find any long term staff left, they'll straighten you out for sure and help fill in the blanks to your 'research'.

As a current Borders employee, I gotta take some umbrage with this guy. I could go through points 1-6, but there's a twittery limit here, so here's what I have to say re: 7 and 8.

7: Don't leave anything at Borders.

That's good advice. But leave out the "at Borders" part. Don't leave things that are important to you lying around in stores. Chances are extremely good that the staff at given store have found/been handed 10 cellphones this week. It's old news to them. Hang on to your shit.

8. Your story about the guy with the wheelchair & the magazine.

I cry no tears. It is a bookstore - people would sit there all night if you let them. At the various Borders stores I've worked at, I've had four wheelchairing regulars who abused our hospitality. We close at X - we might help you out at X:05, but we don't have to. And if we recognize you from last Friday night, when we all had to stay late, and take your abuse ...

I think you have confused the symptoms for the cause here. Borders at one time was a great company with competent leadership, but thanks to Walmart and Amazon undercutting everyone else in the business ($9 new releases?!) at their own expense (what do they care if they lose a few dollars on each book if it brings in more bargain hunters) that is just not the case. A retail bookstore like Borders simply cannot compete with that. So yes as profits have gone down the toilet, so too has customer service. But is that the fault of the company? or could some of the blame perhaps be shared by the "loyal" customers who stopped shopping at Borders (even back when the service was great) because their books could be found slightly cheaper elsewhere. And don't be surprised when B&N and even smaller local bookstores follow Borders to its grave. They already are.

I worked at Borders and left recently. When I left, it was because I was being intimidated and harassed by the management without just cause. I was an excellent employee and having my job threatened because I didn't get someone to sign up for a rewards card in the cafe (I was a barista) is pretty ridiculous, at best.

The staff is tired of being treated like shit. We work long hours (often from open to close) without sufficient breaks. Customers yell at us with no provocation. We are left feeling powerless to help anyone, including ourselves. Just ask a bookseller what's become of Borders.

That man who wanted to come in after close to get a magazine? That happened at my store literally every night. If we let everyone in, we'd never close and corporate would be on us about going over hours. So -- kiss the customer's ass and get chewed out, or just go home? Take a guess.

I came to Borders in 2006 with nearly a decade of bookstore experience, worked there for almost two years, and was laid off in the spring of 2008 as part of a swift downsizing of in-store leadership. This was when George Jones was running the ship, and many of the problems we see here - messy stores, pissed-off (or non-existent) employees, subpar computer systems, too many freaking coupons, and EVERYTHING riding on Borders Rewards - were problems well before Marshall came on. Maybe it's gotten a whole lot worse since then; I don't know, because I haven't set foot in a Borders since I lost my job.

Last fall, I was between moves and an old manager at Barnes & Noble graciously took me on as a bookseller for a couple months. The differences between B&N and Borders couldn't have been clearer. B&N has never had the short-staffing issues, the shelves were well-stocked, and the employees just seemed happier. I'm sure B&N isn't perfect, but at least the culture isn't cancerous.

I was in an airport Borders the other day and went to use my corporate Borders card which was graciously was offered to me by my employer. This allows 20% off most everything. I went to use one of my cool iPhone apps which allows you to input most reward cards and voila...you now have your reward card (barcode) on your phone. Anyway, the girl at the counter REFUSED to accept it. She said she needed to see the actual card in order to give me my discount. COME ON, really!? There is a reason it's called BORDERS!

As an Independent Author, consumer and journalist I think there there are two other issues that Borders needs to address.
First is the practice of dumpstering. When Borders Group closes 250 Waldenbooks stores hundreds of thousands of books will be destroyed. This is not a consumer friendly practice.
Second, Borders should be more receptive to stocking books by Independent Authors.
The book selling industry is changing rapidly and Borders needs to be at the front of the line if they want to survive.
Tim Baker - Palm Coast, Florida

http://www.examiner.com/x-32254-Orlando-Writing-Examiner

I, as a customer of Border's, view some of Mr. Patton's recommendations as customer friendly and constructive. For example,uniform employee clothing may help customers spot sales staff. That being said, the comments of former and current employees of Border's Stores make far more compelling reading. As is usual, retail professionals at the store level are thought to be unfriendly, uncaring or unprofessional because a customer was given less than excellent service. It happens. I see plenty of abuse handed out to store personnel. Many seem to believe yelling at retail workers is their right. It cuts both ways. Customer service necessarily suffers when hours and wages are slashed. Help 'em out. Tip the barista. Get acquainted with the computer system; it works for me. Treat other the way you would like to be treated. The staff at my local Border's are carrying on admirably; B&N are down the street but I prefer Border's (and the excellent Seattle's Best Cafe). I value books and Border's.

I also am a former Borders employee. Although I'll admit technically I worked at the cafe. I left because the change over from being a Borders Cafe to a Seattle's Best was horrible. We were basically told we were no longer able to cater to our regulars b/c Seattle's Best knew what they wanted better than we did, and both Seattle's Best and Starbucks drip coffees are dreadful and over-rated. They started cutting everyone's hours to almost nil despite needing MORE staff at any given time instead of less. Though honestly it seems like the same issues that basically all retail businesses do. Mostly seems to be about corporate being made up of people that have never actually worked at a store level and most likely don't even do their own shopping.