Writer's Block Bookstore — Local services in Winter Park

Unbelievably bad customer service.

First of all, I love all things books and book-related, so it pains me to write a bad review of my local book shop, but the lady who works here is so awful with customers that I feel obligated to warn them away from her.

I’ve gone in this shop before, and aside from the customer service, it’s a charming little shop. I have observed that the staff doesn’t seem very knowledgeable about books, but that’s okay. I just like to browse and breathe in the delightful smell of pages. I’m in several book clubs and I also love children’s book. I’ve read just about every children’s book out there, but I always like to hear about new one, so one time I went in here with my kids and asked the older lady at the counter what book she would recommend for my 5 year old son. She recommended a popular board book that would be great for a 3 year old. When I mentioned that 5 year olds are usually too old for board books, she didn’t seem to know of any other children’s books. No problem- I made a mental note not to bother her in future, and kept on browsing.

Fast forward a year or so to today. I was in the shop looking for Christmas presents when a sweet old woman came in and asked that same lady what books to get her grandchildren for Christmas. The lady barked at her to go upstairs to the new children’s section, and someone could help her there. The grandmother tried to tell the lady more about her grandchildren, and the lady interrupted her with another command to go upstairs. The woman looked a little lost, so after she stepped away, I smiled at her and asked what kind of books her grandchildren like. (I have worked with children of many ages and can generally figure out what books people will enjoy!) She seemed happy to tell me about them, but just as she began, the lady employee interrupted me with, “No! She doesn’t work here. Go up to the children’s room and they can help you there.” The woman ignored her and continued telling me about her grandchildren. She said she had an 11 year old granddaughter and a 15 year old grandson, and the 11 year old is a straight A student who loves school, but as far as she knows, hasn’t read much fiction. I said in that case, it would be hard to go wrong with the Harry Potter series, featuring Hermione, another straight A student who loves school. I’ve met very few children who don’t love Harry Potter. My only caveat, I told her, was to make sure they hadn’t already read it, because it’s very popular, but she didn’t think they had. I also mentioned that the new children’s room upstairs was indeed lovely, and she might find some other great books there as well. As I turned to go, the lady who worked there took the woman aside and said derisively, “by the way, Harry Potter is much too young for your grandchildren. They won’t be interested. High school students are far too old for Harry Potter.” Um, excuse me? Did she not hear that the granddaughter was 11? And anyway, does she really think high school students don’t like Harry Potter? She must be crazy! Or maybe she’s never met a high school student … or read a book! Also, if she was (as it seemed) only fiercely determined to get the woman to go spend her money in the new children’s room, at the sacrifice of all conversation and customer service, what’s wrong with promoting a lovely hardbound set of 7 books, to be purchased in the children’s room?

This review is only for the customer service and general knowledge of books displayed at this store, not for the store itself, which is nice. I would say that Writers Block should fire the older lady at the counter as soon as they can, but I’m very afraid that she might be the owner, based on the way she was bossing around the other employees as well as the customers. Very...

Two stars, one for the selection of books and one for the young man who made an effort to assist us. While checking out I made a joke BOGO and said heheheh, and the lady standing next to him, and aka Drama Queen says very rudely no sales today. Like did I ask for sales, no I was having a polite convo with the young man, then he asked what the price was for a squishy Pete the Cat and she says there was a register upstairs. Maybe if you had staff upstairs actually helping people then I would have checked out up there but also I had books downstairs waiting on me too, I also had my mom with me who is elderly and not able carry all the books upstairs and back down again. This is the worst customer service, she was extremely rude, her tone and attitude towards elderly folks was the worst I’ve ever seen. Been here tons and now make a point to shop when I’m in town. They just lost my business today, sadly my mom will keep going back, even though they will probably be rude We spent $250 today. Almost forget the younger crowd when we walked in by the register was super loud and obnoxious and customers were rolling their eyes, I had to ask for help for a book and the young man knew exactly where it was, the ladies said he was glad he was leaving, in my opinion, they should have been stationed around the shop dusting and asking what folks what they were interested and let the young man run the front counter. The drama queen needs to be sweeping the sidewalk out front and...

The new location on Park Ave is nice and much less claustrophobic than the previous location off Park. There was a large selection of books and we purchased both an adult nonfiction and a children's book.

My reason for a 3 star rating is because of my customer service experience. I visited the store on Saturday (5/14/21) in the afternoon. We weren't greeted when we entered and they never asked if we needed help looking for a book or wanted a recommendation. Not a requirement, but a basic greeting would have been nice, but the employee was too busy on their phone to say anything.

Once we grabbed our books I went to the counter to pay. The employee made small talk with my daughter, which was nice, but that's as far as it went. As soon as she rang us up, she picked her phone back up and ignored us. I could't even grab my books and go because they were on her side of the plexiglass. Only after several seconds passed did she realize she hadn't given me books, and I had to ask for a bag.

This employee clearly needs an inservice on customer service skills. I drive almost 40 minutes to visit this bookstore to support a locally owned business, but at this rate, it's unlikely I'll be back. I'd rather give my money to Amazon. At least their customer...