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  • Get off your phone...

    I believe that SCs who are too busy yakking on their cell phones for a non-emergency to pay any attention to the cashier/server/employee lose the right to complain about anything (if not lose their spot in line entirely).

    I was thrown on register the other night because ASM relies on the computer which thinks Mondays are slow (so there was only me on SCO, shift lead P, and one cashier after 8PM, guess who had to cover 2 breaks in addition to what I was already doing).

    A woman comes into the lane gabbing on her phone. I ask if she has a store card, get the hand-flap. Alrighty then. She tosses a bag of pears across the scanner in such a way that the barcode sticker scans before I can do much more than keep it from hitting the floor or me. She barks "WAITAMINUTE!", tries (and fails) to grab my hand and throws her store card across the scanner.

    The item I had already scanned was pears that are on sale for 99 cents/pound. That sale didn't come up immediately because of the way things were scanned. All the other sale prices came up once the card is in. Wait for it...

    "How much are those? They're nine-nine cents!" I subtotal it, which brings up the sale price for the pears and point to the screen. "Yup, they rang up as 99 cents."

    "Escuse me! I'm talking to you! Hello?"
    Repeat above, multiple times in multiple ways.
    "Hello?" At this point I don't know whether she's talking to me or whoever's on the phone, things are that vague.

    Into her phone: "I talkin to her and she's inoring [sic] me." ...no honey, you are 'inoring' me. The only thing I can do is look at her and repeat the total until she decides she should pay; the customer behind her (a regular) is glaring daggers at SC.

    She gets her change: "Hang on, [name], I gotta count this and make sure this dummy didn't short me."

    Okay, you're done now. Bye. I start ringing up the next customer, who notices that SC dropped a dollar (and her receipt) as she flounced out.

    C: "I don't blame you for giving her the silent treatment. How hard is it to say 'just a minute, I'm checking out'?"
    P: "How much you want to bet that the only people complaining about 'unfriendly cashiers' are the ones who do that shit?"
    C: "I don't take sucker bets. Whoever's freaking out about that sort of thing should be forced to wait on her and her clones for a month."
    P: "That would be ASM, and he doesn't think he should ring if there's someone else to do it."
    "I am quite confident that I do exist."
    "Excuse me, I'm making perfect sense. You're just not keeping up." The Doctor

  • #2
    I went to the mart of k last week and was on the phone while I was shopping. A friend had called and was very distressed and needed to talk/vent/ask advice. When I got to the register I said "hey, I'm gonna put the phone down for a minute while the lady rings me up. Hang on." And then I literally set the phone down. The cashier about fell over in shock. It's awful when somebody being polite is the anomaly.
    At the conclusion of an Irish wedding, the priest said "Everybody please hug the person who has made your life worth living. The bartender was nearly crushed to death.

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    • #3
      I've told this story many times before, but it still remains relevant.

      This was when I was still at the wholesale club. I was cashiering. I decided on this day, after having numerous Warbling Chatterboxes come through my line without breaking their phone conversation, I would not talk to them if they would not talk to me.

      Cue the Sucktomer. She's yammering the whole time, barely acknowledges my presence, so I don't speak a word to her. If I needed her input on something, I would gesture to the screen or as appropriate. Nothing seemed amiss.

      She finished up her phone call just as she was about to sign the credit card slip, and as she handed the slip to me she said: "You know, you're the rudest cashier I've ever had, you didn't say one word to me the entire time."

      She walked off while my brain rebooted from the BSoD it suffered from the sheer irony of her saying that.
      PWNADE(TM) - Serve up a glass today! | PWNZER - An act of pwnage so awesome, it's like the victim got hit by a tank.

      There are only Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse because I choose to walk!

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      • #4
        Personally, if this happened to me I'd tell Chatty Kathy/Kevin to finish their call while waving the next customer up...

        I know you can't do that but boy would things improve (hopefully)!

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        • #5
          I hate getting phone calls when I'm in a shop. I have to answer, as they are customers calling for jobs. But I do what sane people do, if in line, I step out of line to allow others through while I take the call, and if I'm not at checkout yet, I finish the call first.

          There is one exception to that of course, where I am already checking out and the phone rings. Then I excuse myself to the cashier, answer and ask them to hold for a moment, and finish the transaction. I've had more than a few cashiers stare at me in shock when I do that.

          What seriously irks me, though, is when I've finished a job, and am invoicing and obtaining payment. Then their phone rings, and I get to spend the next 10 minutes standing around looking the fool in their house waiting for them while they have a chat to the friend that's just called. On average, only 1 out of 5-6 will actually tell their caller they will call back shortly and then finish up with me.
          Last edited by aulocksmith; 03-04-2015, 07:29 PM.
          Mytical: A SC? Make a mistake? Oh goodness no. Must have been the little pink men from the planet parsley in the butternut galaxy. We all know that SC's could NEVER make mistakes.

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          • #6
            I hate it when customers talk on their phones, completely ignoring you. I had one the other day, but she didn't ignore me. It was funny and kinda awesome because she was talking on her phone, but then relaying what her friend was saying on the other end, and actually involving me in the conversation, like she knew I was an actual person and not some scanning machine. That was a new experience for me! And when she got off the phone, she and I were talking for about ten minutes. I think she just loved to talk!

            I had one a few years ago who was on her phone and yelled "Excuse me can't you see I'm on the phone?!" as I asked her if she needed a bag/total/whatever (can't remember now). Seriously?

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            • #7
              I have noticed with the migration to smart phones, fewer people are gabbing, more people are texting/playing games. They can more easily stop and engage than the gabbers. If I go into an exam room in my clinic and someone is on the phone, or answers a call, I say "I'll give you some privacy" and leave. I'll see the next patient or two then check on them. That usually cures them.

              Back in the day, when the Motorola DynaTac (the "brick" phone) first debuted, the first patient I saw with one was there to see me for flexible sigmoidoscopy. Sigmoidoscopy is a shorter version of a full colonoscopy, a fiberoptic tube is inserted to look at the inside of the lower colon. His phone rang while I had the scope inserted. I said "I double dog dare you to answer it" and HE DID! Back then I was amazed. Nowadays someone answering their cell in the middle of their own wedding vows doesn't surprise me.
              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFJU6g-CVvQ
              Some days, it's just not worth chewing through the restraints...
              TASTE THE LIME JELLO OF DEFEAT! -Gravekeeper

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              • #8
                "Excuse me can't you see I'm on the phone?!"
                Excuse ME, can't you see I'm trying to complete this transaction for you? This what they make HOLD buttons for!
                When you start at zero, everything's progress.

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                • #9
                  I don't say anything to customers who are on their phones when they come through my line, and even if they apologize and/or hang up, I don't say much. If any of them ever says anything to me about it, my planned response is "Well I'm sorry, I was raised not to interrupt a phone conversation" but I haven't had the pleasure of doing that yet
                  Sometimes customers remind me of zombies, but I'm pretty sure that zombies are smarter.

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                  • #10
                    The majority of people will at least pay attention to me and be basically civil. She was just...gah. If you're not even paying attention to the clerk, you have no right to complain if you forget to say/do something. Don't want that pot roast? Say something before I ring it up. No, I can't refund it once you've signed the pad. Go to the desk, and don't even try blaming me because C saw what happened. You do have a store card? Hand it to me please. Oh, it's on your phone? Decision time *Jeopardy music*

                    If someone has a handsfree...I have no clue if you're talking to me or whoever. I'm going to assume the latter (and thus ignore it as much as I can) unless you say something specific to what we're doing.
                    "I am quite confident that I do exist."
                    "Excuse me, I'm making perfect sense. You're just not keeping up." The Doctor

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                    • #11
                      Once at the bookstore called in to bitch that a cashier was rude and ignored her. The cashier was incredibly polite and sweet, so I didn't believe it for a minute. The cashier said the woman was yakking away on her phone while in line (there is one line, multiple registers, we call people up when there is a register free). Well, the cashier called this woman FOUR TIMES, including walking to the end of the counter, looking right at her, and saying, "Ma'am, it's your turn." The woman completely ignored her in favor of her phone conversation. So the cashier shrugged and waved the person behind her over. Instantly Phone Woman started screaming about how rude cashier was and it was HER TURN. So after she checked out she went to her car and called to bitch from inside her car. No idea why she didn't ask for a manager while she was inside. She probably knew everyone still in the store could back up the cashier.

                      When I get a Phone Person I talk to them regularly, do my spiel etc, but I won't repeat anything until they ask me to. If I give a total and they're too busy talking to listen, I just stand and look at them until they have to ask me to repeat myself. I don't know if this teaches them anything or not.
                      https://www.facebook.com/authorpatriciacorrell/

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                      • #12
                        Quoth Evannah View Post
                        "Excuse me can't you see I'm on the phone?!"
                        I remember waiting in a queue in a shop once with an idiot who was like that. The order was as follows; stupid phone bitch at the front, then a bloke wearing a suit, then me, then a middle aged woman. Phone Bitch kept gabbing on her phone nonstop, ignoring the cashier who was desperately trying to attract Phone Bitch's attention so that she could take her money. Eventually, Phone Bitch noticed and, acting as tho the cashier was the rude one, snapped out, "Do you mind? I'm on the phone!"

                        At that point, Suit Bloke reached over, grabbed Phone Bitch's phone out her hand, switched it off then handed it back, saying, "No, you're not. Now, could you please pay the lady and get the fuck out of here so that the rest of us can do likewise?"

                        Phone Bitch went white, paid over her money and then scuttled out. Middle Aged Lady and I both congratulated Suit Bloke on his fantastic action. XD
                        People who don't like cats were probably mice in an earlier life.
                        My DeviantArt.

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                        • #13
                          @Lance Neil Springer. Where is the damn like button when you need it?

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                          • #14
                            Quoth pudddykat View Post
                            @Lance Neil Springer. Where is the damn like button when you need it?
                            Forget like... Where's the "I wanna Do this!" button?
                            I am not an a**hole. I am a hemorrhoid. I irritate a**holes!
                            Procrastination: Forward planning to insure there is something to do tomorrow.
                            Derails threads faster than a pocket nuke.

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                            • #15
                              I've never worked on a register before other than bagging so I've never had to deal with this but I absolutely can't stand it when I see others do it. I don't understand how people think it is an acceptable, polite thing to do. The cashier is a human being, after all. I don't even like to be on the phone when I'm shopping in general. If I absolutely need to take a call I either do it and finish before I enter the store, or if I'm in the store when the call comes I try to find an isolated corner or aisle where I won't be in anyone's way. The only exception is a quick call if I'm picking something up or grocery shopping and need clarification on an item (e.g. "Hey, tomato paste or tomato puree? Paste? Okay thanks. See you in a bit")

                              I used to frequent a popular cafe where there was one barista who had absolutely no tolerance for patrons on their phone. If they were still on the phone when it came their turn in line she would very loudly say "SIR/MISS, THERE ON THE PHONE. What can I start for you?" in the most delicious, passive-aggressive manner. She resembled and was very lovingly called Miss Trunchbull by the rest of the staff, and 95% of the time the customer would instantly shut up and put their phone down. She often joked that she kept an entire chocolate cake underneath the counter just in case.

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