**Disappointing experience at PBS** PBS is big, no doubt, but when it comes to buying books for my IAL, my experience was honestly pretty bad. It's totally fine if certain books are unavailable right now. I understand that. But instead of just saying “this book is unavailable”, they could simply tell me that the book is currently unavailable but they might bring it within a few days or something. At least then I would know when to come back. The staff were also giving me different books with similar content, but I specifically needed a **chapter-wise booklet**, not a year-wise one. And another thing I noticed is that there seems to be a shortage of staff in PBS. Literally, I had to look around different corners of the store just to find someone. And when I finally found someone, most of the staff seemed like they were too busy to even ask me properly what book I was looking for. At the end, one of the staff members suggested that I could just purchase the book online. I politely said okay and came home. But then I was thinking, **WHY THE HELL would I purchase it online when the physical bookstore is literally near me?** 😭 The whole reason I went there was to buy the book from the store. And this wasn't even my first visit. I visited the store three times. On my second visit, I asked a staff member if the book was available, and they told me it was. I didn't have enough money with me at that time, so I said okay, I'll come back in a few days and buy it. Then I came back for the third time, and that's when all of this happened. I know PBS is a huge bookstore and obviously every book can't be available all the time. That's not really my problem. My problem is the communication and customer service. If a book isn't available, just tell me clearly. If it will arrive in a few days, tell me that. And if you don't have the exact book I need, at least listen to what I'm asking for before suggesting something completely different. Hopefully PBS improves this because honestly, I expected better.

Date of experience: August 12, 2026