About a decade ago, the protagonist received a notice from their local public library informing them of $40 in overdue fines, with a warning that the fines would double if not paid promptly. Despite the library being conveniently located near their workplace downtown, the individual faced logistical challenges as they only had their driver’s license, credit card, and bus pass in their phone case—no cash or checks. With the bank closed and no means to pay, they requested leniency, but the library refused, resulting in their fine doubling despite their attempt to settle it on time.
Feeling frustrated by the lack of flexibility, the protagonist decided on a course of malicious compliance. Since their fine had already doubled, they saw no urgency in paying it off immediately. Instead, they calculated that paying $1.56 per week over 52 weeks would settle the debt. They set up their bank’s automatic bill payment system to send weekly checks to the library.
Over the course of a year, the library diligently mailed them receipts for each weekly payment, a policy likely contributing to the administrative workload. Each envelope bore handwritten addresses, suggesting manual processing. Ultimately, the library incurred additional costs in manpower to process the doubled fine, all stemming from the protagonist’s act of petty retaliation.
The protagonist acknowledges the pettiness of their actions and accepts responsibility for procrastinating payment until it was too late. They don’t claim any moral high ground but merely share their experience of engaging in unjust malicious compliance against an otherwise beneficial institution, albeit one with an outdated payment process.
Receiving a notification about a library fine is never a pleasant experience. Unfortunately for this individual, resolving the issue wasn’t a simple matter of clicking a button online.
When faced with this inconvenience, let’s explore how they navigated the situation…
Things didn’t go as planned…
One Reddit user sees this act of malicious compliance as completely justified.
However, this commenter doesn’t think it’s a great move.
Another commenter has some life experience with this kind of thing.
Others, like this person, really didn’t like this person’s choices.
Hopefully stories like this make it so there are no more library fees!