Cell phone at checkout

[eltf177]

I just got one of these winners today. During the entire time the checker's ringing up and bagging her groceries she's describing what she's bought to the idiot on the other end of the line. Then, AFTER everything's rung up she starts rummaging around for her coupons. Then after THAT she drags out her checkbook and starts to write a check!

I got lucky as the checker knew this brilliant specimen of humanity would take forever and called for another line to open. I was behind three other people in the new line and STILL beat this old witch out the door!

[auntiem]

I have an answer to that. I carry one of these with me everywhere I go.

Whenever I have someone who can't @#$%ing unplug from their phone I do it for them.

Mongo

If this wasn't illigal here - I would own and use one of those everyday.

[depechemodefan]

That reminds me what happened to me 2x today.

First guy comes up to the desk and looks for his library card. His cell phone rings so he puts down his wallet, answers the phone and has a long conversation. About where a party should be held, how they need security, how he was in law enforcement so he knows how much security should be. And he had a loud voice. Luckily no one else was around, but it was annoying. He was pleasant enough when he got off the phone.

Second cell phone user is talking loud on the phone, but he's not checking out. But he's loud, and when he gets off the phone he's soft spoken. Why do people speak loud on the phone?

But also people call while driving. So they can't get to their library card or write down the phone number they are asking for. One memorable person was driving and then she exclaimed, "OMG! That man almost hit me! And there's a cop there too!". Gee, wonder why she almost got hit?

[Sheldonrs]

...Why do people speak loud on the phone?...

I remember reading about this in a study that was done. They said people talk louder on a cel phone because, unlike a land line phone, when you are speaking, you cannot hear your voice through the ear speaker so you automatically talk louder. Not sure why that is.

[OfficeSlug]

Quoth Mongo Skruddgemire
I have an answer to that. I carry one of these with me everywhere I go.

Whenever I have someone who can't @#$%ing unplug from their phone I do it for them.

Dude, that is AWESOME!!!
As a cashier -- I MUST keep one of those in my pocket!!!

[Boochan]

I had one today, spoke excessively loud (probably because the music in our small store is on reasonably loud) but I'd been attending to her for about 20 Minutes beforehand so it was slightly justified. Wasn't rude about it, apologized profusely before she left and thanked me for been patient with her.

I think its fine, as long as they aren't rude about it and they're not holding up a line or interfering with other customers in any fashion.

[SpyOne]

Every time I get one of these people in line, I am reminded of a comic strip.

The comic was Pearls Before Swine, and if I could just post the comic I would. I really should have cut it out and kept it.

All you need to know is these 2 facts:
1) Rat (one of the characters) is an awful person. Evil, really. Hates people.
2) Rat got a job at Starbucks.

A customer approaches Rat, but is talking on his phone. Rat takes out his own phone, places a call, and then loudly says, "Oh not much. Just standing here waiting for some guy to finish his phone conversation and place his order."
But the best part was the line in the final panel: "And now he's staring at me. Like I'm seriously going to serve him after that."

Oh how I wish I could say that.

[Nyx]

I would have voided her transaction and helped the next person in line if i was your manager.

Exactly what I was thinking! I used to get that at the theater, people would come up and I'd ask how I could help them and they'd put up their finger. I think the penalty for this behavior should be to shove their phone down their throat and call it on vibrate.

Edit: To think about it, I think it's the worst when someone holds a conversation next to me in the bathroom. That p*sses me off beyond belief. I don't need your friends hearing me going to the bathroom. I've always wanted to just start making loud noises like a car alarm. I haven't the guts to do it though. Maybe next time...

[Tito]

One good thing about my retail days is that I got them over with before cell phones became as big as they are today, because I would not have much patience with people like her. I probably would have gotten the manager to void the order & then told her that her order can be rung up again when she is finished.

[chainedbarista]

not only is it common, they do it frequently where i work (some walk in on it and are on it the entire time); since we're 'peasants,' they can't be bothered to terminate or suspend the call to interact with us.

one did this the other day; ordered his drink (the cashier wasn't thrilled with him, either), then plodded dumbly over to my counter to wait.

i finish the drink (the whole transaction, from order to handoff was no more than two minutes, probably under a minute) and hand it off, calling it out and looking this turd in the eye while i do so.

what does this genius do? ask me if it's his.

um, no, it belongs to that big pink and green martian behind you who plans on beating your dumb ass to a pulp if you touch it.

[simplyanother]

I was stuck behind someone on a cell phone the other day....at the walmart tire--and whatever thing.

So, it wasn't like I could just go "screw this" and leave, because...well, they had my keys. It was so bad that the original cashier actually LEFT and got someone else to finish her up.

And what she was on the phone for had nothing to do with her car. She kept running her card backwards, turning away from the cashier and car-reader--so she didn't realize she was doing it wrong, and saying "it says slide card", over and over.

I about died when she FINALLY finished up getting rung out for her car--and goes "and I'd like to purchase this stuff too", which too another 10 minutes. Not because it was a huge amount of stuff, but because she absolutely refused to hang up the phone, and those registers aren't really set up to ring a great mound of crap.

The man who was trying to ring her up kept giving me looks like "man, I'm sorry, really, I know you want to get the hell out of here".

What makes it worse, is that she does come in the store where I work...and she's just as clueless there. She's got this vibe of "i'm entirely too good to deal with you common folk" that makes me want to beat her with dowels, or pipe cleaners. I didn't actually recognize HER, I recognized her kids. Who are well behaved, actually.

And I had MY kids with me (who are younger than hers), who decided to plop down and sit on the floor in everyones way. Yeah. I got to be THAT mother. But damn, if that woman would have just hurried the hell up, had listened. But noooo.

It took longer for me to get rung out and get my keys back than it actually took them to repair my flat tire.


I think I should have interrupted her and at least made her more aware that she was being a monumental jackass.

Blah. Cell phones are great. But damn, how did these people survive back when all the phones were landlines?

[aurelemsrealm]

Edit: To think about it, I think it's the worst when someone holds a conversation next to me in the bathroom. That p*sses me off beyond belief. I don't need your friends hearing me going to the bathroom. I've always wanted to just start making loud noises like a car alarm. I haven't the guts to do it though. Maybe next time...

This kind of reminds me of an incident I witnessed at the local Barnes & Noble. I was in the restroom washing my hands. This guy bursts in and flies like a bat out of hell for the farthest stall. He's yakking away a mile a minute on his cell phone. It was just one of those bizarre moments I think to myself, "Okay, I was happily in my own world, and now something totally irrelevant has burst that bubble......"

So, I hear him struggle to unfasten and get his pants down or whatever. Almost immediately, he starts sounding off in full explosive diarrheal glory and the associated grunting and noises, all the while yakking to the poor soul on the other end of that conversation. The way it reverberated in the restroom, I had no doubt that person on the other end had to hear it and know.

I just shook my head and thought to myself that I would have hung up on him had I been on the other end. I most definitely would have ended the call as soon as nature started calling if I was him. Whatever floats your boat, I guess, people are shameless idiots. I silently exited the restroom after drying my hands.

My wife was waiting for me by the water fountain. She silently smirked as she recognized the "What an idiot!" look on my face.

[Kyree]

If this wasn't illigal here - I would own and use one of those everyday.

Is it legal in the US? I'm nto sure where to go to find out where those things are legal.

[Andara Bledin]

I'm willing to bet that they aren't legal for personal use anywhere.

But I haven't done any research to check.

^-.-^

[rts]

The pharmacy I use has a sign taped to the counter and both registers:

"We will be happy to help you AFTER you have you finished your call".

Loved it.

Our customers would bitch so hard and long...imagine courtesy and caring for others!

I left one of these bozos at the counter for five minutes today while she finished a call about who her ex boyfriend was grouping in public on Friday night!!! Got upset with me and I just told her, "I was just listening and waitng for you to finish so I could help you WHEN YOU WERE READY!!!!