At least you did the right thing in returning the book.

I'm very curious as to what that argument was about...

Maybe the 100$ fine?

...or the fact that he's had the book for years. O.o

Can't you just say you lost it and then pay the amount needed for the book?

I thought that they'd nullify the late fee if you just replaced whatever is lost at full price.

My understanding is for books that late, the biggest fine they can charge is the price of the book, but still, YDI for returning it several years late. What could have possibly been your excuse?

Probably lost it after throwing it to the floor and mounting piles of clothes and other stuff on top then found it after finally cleaning all the dust bunnies from under his bed and realizing, "Wow! I've been looking for this thing for years!"

Yes. My understanding was that libraries could not charge fines in excess of the cost of replacing the book/dvd etc. in question.

maybe it was a very expensive book?

I currently owe my local library $70. I kept several books for several months overdue. Just dropped the books the bin and left. Went back once after 2 years to see exactly what owed, left as soon as they told me.

Most libraries have special grace days where if you bring in late books you don't have to pay fines. They do it so they can just get their books back because otherwise everyone is too scared to have to pay for the book(s).

Shhhhh!

Is anyone else bothered by 'I've have had'????

I was thinking the same thing 92. It is incorrect, right?

Yes, it's incorrect. It's like saying "I have have had". Auto-correct, maybe?

Also, is OP Brick Heck by any chance? :D

Well you kinda deserve it for having the book for so long...

only if someone invited a button for that, oh wait they do have one.

#19- What are you, FML Queen? It's not like #3 just said "YDI," they actually had a substantial comment. You need to calm down and mind your own business.

At my library, no matter how long you have the book they can only charge as much as the book you had out.

19. I invited the button to my party. It didn't come. :/

You're better off; buttons are absolutely terrible guests

I invited the Easy Button to a party and it turned out to be fanstastic. It was almost as fun as that time I invited the Big Red Button. Oh wait...

And for arguing with them. I wish I could have heard that conversation.

simple solution remember to turn your books in on time.

My library doesn't even have a book returning time limit, they just send out a letter every month asking you to return it at the most convenient time possible. Is mine the only one like that?

This was an old school library.
None of this new age mamby pamby "we only charge the cost of the book"
You taka our book, we breaka yo knees.

The only solution was to pay the fee. You can't fix a past problem that exceeded a solution with an overdue date of completion.

If you had the book for years, what was even the point of returning it?

I can understand I suppose, but you should've retuned it years ago.

And, like everyone else has said, you had the book for YEARS. Do you really expect them to just let you return it after years without a fine?

If you've had a book for years and the library hasn't reminded you to return it in all that time, I think that's a pretty good indication that you should just keep it.

Either that, or offer to pay for a replacement book.

I have accidentally done that before, they just charged me the cost of the book and let me keep it, I think you got ripped off, FYL.

You are exactly right. I've also tried to return late books before and they told me to "just keep it" because they already replaced it. I did however have to pay the value for the replaced book. :P

I don't think the OP got ripped off though. The book was probably worth over the $100s to replace.

"The book was probably worth over the $100 to replace."

Well that's a raging assumption, and one hell of a book too.

Have you tried to buy a new book lately? I have. It was almost as expensive as my first car!

Are we talking regular book or college class necessity type of book here?
Because the costs of the latter one are about 4-5 times as much as for the first one.

In the States, the average softcover would be around 5-10$, the average hardcover would be 15-25$. Since the OP didn't specify, I think it would be logical to assume the book they had was probably your average novel, not worth more than 30$ or so. I don't know why you would assume the book was worth over 100$ when typically the only books that cost anywhere near that much are university texts, reference books, and collector's items.

132- If it were a college book, by the time OP accrued THAT big a fee, it'd already be outdated. It was a few years, after all. I have yet to hear of a particular edition of a textbook that's lasted for more than one year.

Not sure about the cops but you readily say you had the book for years so what's wrong with the fine?

Our library sues you for the book after a year or something. How'd you make it multiple ones?

Because not all library sues.. Mine doesn't..

If you've had it for years, the huge fine surely couldn't have been a surprise.

Sure it could. Even if they had it for years, the library shouldn't need, or be able, to charge them for more than the book was worth. At this point they've probably bought a new copy to replace the book, so they should only be charging OP what it cost them to replace it.

I'm wondering what the argument was about...

What the heck Eliza, stahp

It was a "Where's Waldo book".
OP argued that there was actually a misprint and Waldo was nowhere to be found in the book.
The librarian insisted that Waldo was on page 35, and only an idiot would have taken so long
and not found Waldo. OP was incensed.

Why were you still curious 9 comments later?