Impatient and Idiotic.

[Aldous]

I really can't believe I forgot this. It was about 30 minutes before closing, and it was dead. Because it was dead, I had the responsibility of cleaning the soda machine. It's a good way of killing the last thirty minutes of working without dealing with customers. So I'm scrubbing away and I here from this from behind me:
"Yeah, I'll take a number X, with a coke, a number Y with a sprite and a number Z with a sprite."
I pay no heed, until I hear it again. I turn around and some asshat is right there, ordering. I'm about 30 feet from the register, and my manager is on register helping a customer. So he thought it wise to order from me. Me, with soapy wet hands, and 30 feet from the register, which I'm not allowed to touch as long as my hands are soapy and wet.
I told him the I couldn't take his order and he tells me it's to go. Like that's gonna change my mind. Oh, it's to go? Would you like me to take your order out of the register I'm about to pull from my ass, since both are taken? Right away sir, would you like me to drive you home in a limo as well?
My manager and I had a wonderful laugh after closing about him. Yes, he finally got the sense to go to the front and order, since thee was no register near me, none the less, only the one open, and the Drive-Thru which was in use already. I really want to know what he expected.

[Demonoid Phenomenon]

"Hey, why does this burger taste like soap?"

[Shabo]

Well you see, you "weren't doing anything" at the time. So obviously, you were free to serve him.

[aurelemsrealm]

I always loved drive-thru duty when I worked at Wendy's for this reason. It'd never fail that I'd be elbow deep in dish water. So, I'd tell them that I'll take the order in just a moment.

Customer: "Okay, I'll have a...."

Me: "I'll be with you in a minute!"

Then, there was this one woman on a particularly busy night. I had a brief lull, so I was working furiously to catch up on dishes.

Beep.

Me: "I'll be with you in a minute."

Woman: "Yeah, I'll have a....."

Me: "I'll be with you in a minute!" Slightly louder.

Woman: "Yeah, I'll have a....."

Me: "I said wait a minute!"

She finally got the point, or so I thought.

I get to the register. "Can I take your order, please?"

I still hear her car, but dead silence........

Me: "CAN I TAKE YOUR ORDER, PLEASE?" *Thinking that she now decides to pause and think it over. GRRRRREEEEEEAAAAAATTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*

Finally, she places her order after a few moments. I did apologize for the delay when she got to the window, and explained that I was stuck up to my elbows in dishwater, and had to wash them first. She just had this blank stare as I took her money and handed out her order. I don't know if she ever got a clue.

[Sonoma]

I had those all the time when I'd work drive thru. I'd ask them to wait twice. After that, if they insisted on ordering, I'd just let them talk. Then, when I was ready, I'd thank them for their patience, then ask for their order.

Loved the stunned silence when they realized that I hadn't gotten a word they had said.

[Sableonblonde]

That is hilarious. I hate when people do that.

Kind of related, but I hate when I'm preparing an order and someone comes up to one of the closed windows and asks for a cup of water. I don't know why people think that just because they want water that means they shouldn't wait in line like everybody else. Or when they try to flag down someone who is cooking or spinning cotton candy and try to get water from them. Wait in line, damn you.

[HawaiianShirts]

Well you see, you "weren't doing anything" at the time. So obviously, you were free to serve him.

Ooh! Those people burn me up.

I worked at a pizza place in high school as a delivery driver. One particularly busy Friday night in the dead of winter, I had to take four deliver orders out at once. I had to have a co-worker open the door for me to get out of the shop. On one arm, I had four pizza warming bags, each with a pizza and something else (another pizza, breadsticks, wings, etc) inside, which meant they were not exactly the most stable construction in the world. On top of that pile were two brown paper bags with salads (in their plastic containers) inside, which I kept balanced on top of the warming bags with my face. Under my other arm I had two two-liter sodas, and in the other hand I had an 8-cup drink carrier with seven drinks and straws in it and the four change bags. And I had a pen clutched between my teeth (because I had nowhere else to put it at the time) for a credit card order. I'm lucky there wasn't ice on the sidewalk that night.

So, on my way out to my car, laden down with all this food, some doofus rolls down his window and sticks his head out of his car to ask: "Hey, do you know if my order is ready yet? It's for Johnson." He's parked right outside the store, a mere 30 feet (if that) from the main door. Lazy! I blinked for a moment, slightly stunned, then said, "Mo," (which is I-have-a-pen-in-my-mouth-ese for "no"). He asked if I would go in and ask for him. I managed to mumble around the pen: "Goh im am athk them yoh-theff." And I stumbled off to my car.

Are these people selectively blind or just plain stupid?

[Boozy]

Are these people selectively blind or just plain stupid?

Neither. They are arrogant. They can't fathom someone or something else coming between them and their immediate needs.

I find it especially amusing that in several of these stories, the customer is told that that "I'm busy, I can't help you right now, I'll be just a minute" or something along those lines and the customer just ignores it entirely and keeps yammering on. Like no one else in the world even exists.

[Becks]

I find it especially amusing that in several of these stories, the customer is told that that "I'm busy, I can't help you right now, I'll be just a minute" or something along those lines and the customer just ignores it entirely and keeps yammering on. Like no one else in the world even exists.

It's not so much that no one else in the world even exists...it's that we're robots, or some other superhuman type deal (which is funny, since retail jobs are considered inferior. I'm still trying to figure it all out).

Or maybe they just like to have the opportunity to hear themselves talk.

[Andara Bledin]

Finally, she places her order after a few moments. I did apologize for the delay when she got to the window, and explained that I was stuck up to my elbows in dishwater, and had to wash them first. She just had this blank stare as I took her money and handed out her order. I don't know if she ever got a clue.

Actually, that woman sounds autistic, to me. She knew how it was supposed to work, and when it didn't work the way it was supposed to, it took her a long time to process that fact.

We had a woman with Asperger's come in to buy some stuff from my boss. Since he's a schmoozer and the parts were fairly rinky-dink to us, when she asked the price, he said "free, take 'em." She wasn't prepared for that answer, so it took another half dozen iterations of the parts being free before she could absorb the concept and leave with them.

^-.-^

[sms001]

Neither. They are arrogant. They can't fathom someone or something else coming between them and their immediate needs.

Like no one else in the world even exists.

My co-worker Dorothy and I had an in joke about these folk - when we encountered one we would sing casually "There's no one in the world but me, there's no one in the world but me..." as though it were a real song we were speaking aloud. Eventually we could just hum it to each other, which was as effective in strain relief. (Although, for obvious reasons, none of the customers we sang it about ever noticed the song.)

[aurelemsrealm]

If only it was the autistic blank stare, I could have understood. You know what's funny, I'm horribly impatient with blatantly stupid and obnoxious people, but I have a great deal of tolerance and empathy for people with conditions like autism or other such conditions which change the nature of interpersonal interaction. I guess it's hard to swallow when someone is capable of knowing better or doing better, but just refuses to make the effort. Sometimes, people just infuriate me with traits like laziness, stupidity, or rudeness.