Kinko's is the Devil!!
Kinko's (the Copy Center) is run by the devil. Here is my story and you make your own decision. On Tuesday I came into school after a thanksgiving long weekend. I worked on the final rough copy of thesis until around 6:30 when I went over to Kinko's to print out my 154 page document. That didn't seem like such a daunting task. I only needed one copy and it was in Black and White. No big deal. Should be simple. It really wasn't.
I walk into Kinko's and there are at least 7 people working. I think to myself "This shouldn't be too bad, lots of workers, not very many people needing help, I should be out of here quickly". I stand around for a couple of minutes in the computer line with only one person working it. Eventually I ask him what I need to do to print of something from a Word file. He gives me two options. The first is to use the Self-Serve printer which would cost about 10 cents per page plus 25 cents per minute for computer use (which is an exorbant amount of money for computer use). The second option was to get the other guys in the place to do it, it would cost a minimum of 15 bucks but it seemed to be the way to go. So I go over and stand in line for a minute or so. The guy explains that he will log me on to a computer and then I can send the file over to the full-serve printer. At this point I was under the impression that I wouldn't be paying for the computer time. Little did I know I was wrong. The guy that showed me the computer and logged me on told me to get him just before printing. So I open my files and get ready to print them. I then go over and stand in line for 10 minutes before someone else tells me all I have to do is send it to the Full Serve B&W printer. So I do that. I then go back to get my printouts. I stand in line for about 15 minutes watching to attract someones attention. I final get someones attention and get the stuff I had just printed. Everything looks good. Now I want to get it bound. I quickly grab one of the employees and he set about binding it. It takes him roughly 10 minutes to punch holes in the paper and wind this plastic thing into the holes. He then informs me that I would be have to get my receipt from the computer so I could finish my transaction. Now if you recall I didn't think I had to pay for the computer time so I hadn't logged off. The reciept said I was online for 42 minutes (which would have been a little over 10 bucks). The guy decided that he would be "nice" and drop the usage time to 27 minutes, when I know that what I did on the machine would have taken me 5 minutes at the most. I end up paying around 8 bucks for computer time (which could have been just over a dollar) but wasn't do to a misunderstanding and the fact that I had to stand in line for over 25 minutes.
I think that all Kinko employees are taught to "pretend like your doing something important at all times and don't make eye contact with the customers or they will expect you to do something". I also think that they believe "if 7 people are in the store only 2 should actually be doing work and the rest of you should be wanking off". I know I'll never go back to Kinko's for anything else. This isn't the first crappy experience I've had but I'm sure it will be the last.
