I work in a University library, most of you know this by now but just in case you didn't - yes, I am the she-Giles. Right now I'm maintaining the 10,000 plus electronic journals we currently subscribe to (which sounds dead interesting but really isn't) as well as other things. Most of our subscriptions come through one agent, the reason behind that is that it's supposed to make for less admin work on our end and it's meant to be cheaper (essentially we're bulk buying from them.)

Since I started in the library we've caused four customer service reps at that agents to quit their jobs through stress and/or nervous breakdowns. We're not that mean to them - honest, we're nice people (well I am anyway!). We just want things done the way they should be.

Start of this year, when the fourth contact disappeared, we were told we'd have a dedicated helpdesk team to coordinate with us so that the work load is shared across a bunch of people. Fair enough - we've always said it's too much work for one person. Since then I've only ever had contact with one person from that helpdesk and it looks like she's doing it all herself which is a bit of a shame really.

Anyway, I just got a reply from her about a problem we have with a journal and I think I can see the first signs of cracking on her part...

Yikes.

Our library is going to get a reputation for being nightmare customers but we really aren't, honest!