I don't know how I feel about this..

[bean]

There's a younger regular customer that's been in the store, well, regularly for quite awhile. I'd say he's 16, maybe 18 tops.

Yesterday, when I got to work, I noticed he had his laptop and was using our wifi. No problem with that, we have open wifi specifically for customers in the dining area, that router is on its own DSL connection and not tied to any company network.

8 hours later... he's still in the same spot, except now he's playing World of Warcraft. The opening manager told me he'd been there allllll day, and I was leaving pretty close to closing time.

I opened today, and he showed up again around 9. Once again, fired up WoW, camped out in the same spot, and was still there when I left about 30 minutes ago.

On one hand, he's not bothering anyone, and he's buying all his meals for the day from us. He's sitting in the far corner of the dining area, well out of the way, using headphones, and well... mostly wasting his life away on WoW. But on the other hand, he's apparently taken up residence for all day gaming sessions. Our wifi is only 1.5mbit, and when you get several people with laptops in there, it gets slowwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

And how the hell can you sit on a wooden chair for 12+ hours straight?

edit: keep in mind this is in a grocery store, not a restaurant, so he's not taking up someone's table or anything..

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

That's a tough one. One the one hand he's not freeloading on you and buying meals, you're making some money off him, but if his constant drag on your connection is slowing it down for others that's a problem. I might request he limit his WoW playing to slower times rather than ban him completely.

Oh and btw, MANY people can play WoW for hours on end. There was a guy in China I think who played it for like 40 hours straight before DYING of exhaustion.

[HYHYBT]

If it's not causing a problem, ignore him... if it isn't leaving enough bandwidth for your other customers during a rush, but you don't actually have any policy that would let you kick him out, try power-cycling the modem every five-ten minutes. It won't bother the other customers much (they probably won't even realize you've done it) but it sure will mess up the game.

[bean]

The modem is locked in a closet that only management has access to (since the same closet houses the servers for our registers), and the access point is way up in the ceiling, zip tied to the rafters.

Yeah, no easy way to do it.

Nobody has complained about the bandwidth, to be honest I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who's noticed - my mobile phone connects to wifi and I use it when I'm on break. WoW doesn't really use that much bandwidth to begin with.

I'm also worried someone is going to snag his laptop - he leaves it unattended while he's paying for a meal. And it's a damn nice laptop. I'm pretty sure the supervisors wouldn't mind if he just asked them if he could leave it at the service desk while he's paying for meals.

[HYHYBT]

Oh, that's different...

[Darkforge]

he's probably just using it as a temp way of getting an internet connection if his has gone down.

If so he prob won't be there for too many more days.

I'd mention the risk of theft to them and ask about why they chose here instead of a cafe or somewhere with better seating.

[HYHYBT]

Cafes tend to be crowded with people using the wi-fi; the few times I've tried to use one for that purpose, either there were so many others doing the same that it was too slow to be enjoyable (and I was just surfing) or there was a time limit per day. If you can get reasonably comfortable somewhere that has a public wi-fi nobody much uses, it makes sense to do so if you want to use it all day. And crowds can be distracting, too.

[bean]

There's not a real "internet cafe" within a half hour of the store. Used to be, but it went under.

I went up there today on my day off. Sure enough, he was there. I did sit down in the dining area with my phone on wifi, during peak hours, and everything I pulled up on my phone seemed to come up fairly quick. Even ran a speed test, and it was reasonable for a free hotspot.

There is indeed a Starbucks with its own wifi hotspot in the same building, though you have to pay them to use it. The few times I've used wifi at work, I get cut off after awhile, so I'm gonna guess he's switching between us and Starbucks.

[MergedLoki]

That's a tough one. One the one hand he's not freeloading on you and buying meals, you're making some money off him, but if his constant drag on your connection is slowing it down for others that's a problem. I might request he limit his WoW playing to slower times rather than ban him completely.

Oh and btw, MANY people can play WoW for hours on end. There was a guy in China I think who played it for like 40 hours straight before DYING of exhaustion.

^ I think it was korea not china. (pretty sure anyways)

but yea those WoW gamers can well take any discomfort to get their daily fix of soul sucking grinding :P

I'd say bring it up to a manager or something maybe? I mean as stated he's buying stuff off you so he's not just there to use the 'net.

also... not sure as i dn't play it but does playing WoW really bog down a connection that much. (I have a freind who i haven't seen in about a year now cuz ALL him and his 4 roommates do is play WoW toegther.. so i gotta assume that if 5 people can play it at once off the same connection with no issue 1 person wouldn't bog the net down too bad)

[bean]

Well, his purchases have dwindled to... water and bread. How the hell he survives on this, I don't know. The kid has a really nice laptop, one that's easily $1500 new (probably pushing $2000 judging by how smoothly games run on it, he plays more than just WoW), but wears the same clothes daily and his shoes are literally falling apart. He has, at the least, somewhere to bathe and sleep, since even though he's wearing the same clothes daily, he doesn't smell and goes elsewhere when the store closes. Today all he bought was a 99 cent loaf of bread and a bottle of water.

Several coworkers are annoyed, but management has stated that unless he bothers other customers, we should just ignore him.

He obviously has a nice computer, one that probably puts my "high end 3 years ago" PC to shame. He can afford to pay for a WoW account. The computer he's using can't be very old - widescreen laptop running Windows 7, running very smooth games while also playing videos side by side. He's normally running IRC, WoW, a movie, and whatever Outlook Express is called now at the same time, all smoothly, so it's got a decent CPU and RAM. He has some low to mid level over-ear headphones.

Honestly, I'm more worried about his health than the wifi abuse at this point. He's obviously a minor - I know he's old enough to drive, since I've seen a drivers license in his wallet when he's come through my line before, so he's at least 15. The ID is the sideways style that indicates under 21, just looking at him I'd say he's barely 16.. he's about my height, but his voice still cracks.

[bean]

Well, a couple of coworkers have started picking on him a little bit. Kinda pisses me off, he's not hurting anyone or anything by gaming all day there. Mainly they've been sticking signs on the back of his chair or even on him when he's engrossed in a game. "Weirdo", "Lose weight fast, ask me how!", and "Any question answered" have shown up so far.

The lose weight one is kinda funny especially since he's basically a twig, the weirdo one was just mean. He does notice the signs, reads them, and generally ignores them - today he was in a different part of the cafe looked a bit pissed off though.

Today his diet was sandwiches and coffee, and I swear he's been wearing the same clothes every day for 3 weeks now. Always the same jeans, button up black shirt, and falling apart shoes. But the clothes always look clean... go figure. It's getting to where I go WTF if he's not there.

[elsporko]

You should probably mention your coworkers behavior to your boss before the customers. I think employers like to discourage employees from bullying the customers.

[Treasure]

Next time he's there, while you're on your break, go by, and introduce yourself, take a minute to talk to him - "hey man I've seen you here everyday, I'm Bean, ..."
I would agree talk to management about the signs, and you can let him know that you ..."may have said something to someone about them".. all in all he sounds pretty harmless... thing is, he could be cutting class, but with it being the start of summer... who knows.

keep us posted.

[boxxertrumps]

Today his diet was sandwiches and coffee, and I swear he's been wearing the same clothes every day for 3 weeks now. Always the same jeans, button up black shirt, and falling apart shoes. But the clothes always look clean... go figure.

The man has a closet like Homer Simpson.

[AccountingDrone]

The man has a closet like Homer Simpson.

Or like me - I have [quick rummage to count] 9 pair of the exact same black devacloth palazzo pants. When I find clothing that fits my fat ass, I buy it in multiples. Black goes with every color/pattern <shrug> I have some 8 or 9 assorted colors of polo shirts, and about 4 t shirts with images on them and a red guyabara. I also only own 1 pair black sneakers, 1 pair white sneakers, 1 pair really nice brown leather clogs, 1 pair black sandals and 1 pair black strappy mary janes. The non sneeker shoes are all brand new, and I have only worn the mary janes twice.

[I will amend that I do have other clothing, just I normally dont wear it day to day as it is too dressy, it is semiformalwear.]