Has anyone had problems like this?

[Agrippa]

I was trying to renew my library books over the phone, but I can't remember my password. Of course there's no way to ask what you old password is online, because you need your password to email the library. That's the only way to get your password online. So now I'm going to have to pay a 75 cent fine for overdue books when I return them tomorrow. Does this make any sense to anyone here?

[Anxe]

Well... Yeah. They have a system and you didn't follow it. You could've renewed them earlier when you could've called them to figure something out.

[Aedilred]

Catch-22 systems like that are always irritating: usually they were set up in a pre-internet age when people were only trying to remember one or two passwords rather than eight squillion, so not every system bothered to set up a regular failsafe.

Even now the systems don't always work. Having been persuaded to register my transport card a few years ago I tried to log in to top up a few weeks ago. Of course I couldn't remember which password I'd used, because I haven't visited the site in ages. In order to reset the password you need not only your email address but also your postcode - not the postcode of my permanent or current address but, it turns out, the postcode of the temporary accommodation I was staying in when I registered. Which I can't remember. Doh.

Your best bet in such situations is just to ignore the system and speak to the people directly. Email them at the "wrong" address letting them know the situation. Go into the library in person and explain. Call them up and don't take no for an answer. If necessary get them to send your password to your address, or even set up a new account.

[Agrippa]

The extra catches are that there's no other Moline library email address and their phone service is entirely automated. By the way, yes I did try to renew my books earlier over the phone, with the exact same problems. I should mention that the over the phone renewal service is only open during library business hours. Oh I did have a four digit passcode before with my old library card. It was the last four digits of my old card, and it's still me passcode even though they've given me a library card with a new barcode.

[scurv]

meh, I kinda view that as the library's version of a locality tax on the people who transverse the locality. It is a system that Should be easy to adhere to, but it is quite easy to have mishaps with.

Kinda like my mishap of doing 45 in a 20 due to having never seen the plainly posted speed sign. Although the fossilized tow-truck and the overhanging branches might of had something to do with that and the curve of the road and the two 45 mph speed signs that were less then a mile apart from each other.....

Although You could bring that issue up to them, I would pay it first and ask for a receipt so not to look like a cheep-scate. But You can provide them feedback about your situation And ask them for assistance in acquiring a new password....And if you feel like a jerk you could always report them to the BBB,

[The Second]

Last time I tried to use my debit card.

I don't use it often as I prefer to use cash, and didn't realize that there was a negative balance of one dollar and something cents. Also didn't realize that if you leave a negative balance on your card for over three months, your account gets suspended until you call the office and request to have your account reopened.

First call the the company, I'm asked eighty bajillion personal questions, including the date I opened the account. Having no idea of the date (I'm horrible at remembering such things), I was denied access to my account.

Go home (I had been calling from the supermarket where I had been trying to put money on the card), search for an hour or two to try and find the paperwork that came with the card when I opened the account, call the office, answer the eighty bajillion questions a second time to be told that I have to call back on Monday because all of the people who could reactivate my account had gone home for the weekend. Cue me flying into a raging fit at the poor operator who was only trying to do his job.

[Totally Guy]

I'm going on holiday to the USA soon and I'd planned to go there when the clocks go back so that I'd have an extra hour of holiday. But I didn't realise the clocks go back a week later over there! The world is so unfair!

[JoshL]

On the other hand, libraries are AWESOME. Don't think of it as a 75 cent late fee. Think of it as a 75 cent donation.

[Agrippa]

Make that a $2.25 fine, "donation" because I was three days late. I put quotation marks around donation because a donation is something voluntarily give and feel ennobled for benefitting some greater good. A fee or fine is something you fell like an idiot for ending up in the situation you have to pay the fine for, otherwise they wouldn't be fines.