Pizza Place cell phone ban

[Racket_Man]

normally I would have posted this in the Check It Out forum, but a link to the audio is not on CBC's web site. if the Mod's feel this is the wrong place for this fell free to move it to the appropreiate forum

a program from CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Company) called As It Happens featured a story from London in the Soho (sp??) district. those of you who live in Canada or get the program on your local US NPR station might have heard this peice

there a pizza take away place has banned all cell phone usage inside the store. It is run by a native Italian and is really busy during the lunch time hours of 10a - 3p. the menu contains an extensive variety of pizzas and pastas.;

the trouble started when people (and we know them sooooo welll) whilst talking on their cell phones would try and order while carrying on conversaions. the usual SC behavior ensued ie. wrong orders missing items from orders, totally misunderstood orders, lots of complaints, etc. you know the routine

according to the owner they serve 300 customers during the lunch time period. and the problem arrises when people are talking on their cells. he said it really really slowed down the line because people would take their sweet time when ordering AND yapping on a call. this in turn would slow down the line and cause things to seriously back up.

a couple of weeks ago he put out a sign on the front door that said in effect "Please finish up your phone conversation BEFORE you order OR YOU WILL NOT BE SERVED". Then he began to enforce this rule by politely shunting cell talkers off to the side to keep his line moving. when people still did not get the message he put big signs all over the inside and REALLY enforced the rule. once people saw that he ment business, they started to comply.

later in the interview he was asked who were the biggest offenders. the second worst offenders were (his words) the uppity American lawyers. according to him the worst offenders were women.

nice to see someone taking a stand on this. this used to bug the crap outta me at the gas station.

[MergedLoki]

nice going for him.

Thing that bugs me is people in the hospital here using their cell phones.

Yes the equipment we have is newer so cell phone waves/signals will NOT interfere with anything (as they would 10 years ago or so).

and I can see the point if you're calling someone to say 'hey joe i'm in the hospital come here and get me' etc. etc.

but (and this is what bugs me) i've went to get people for their xrays and plenty of times they'll be talking on their cell phones. AHH.

If I have more than one patient then it's fine. I just call the next patient and let Patient A wait (seeing as they were busy w/their conversation that they COULD have made at any point in the 1 - 4 hours BEFORE they got over to my xray dept).

Worst i've seen is I had to xray a kids hand an wrist (i say kid i mean someone about... 15 or 16). I go out to get him and he's TEXTING away with his 'injured' hand.

news flash if you can text on those lil keypads just fine your HAND IS FINE get the hell outta the hospital people like you are the reason we get 4+ hour wait times!

[brucetiki]

He's not the only one. A couple of places in Australia have done the same.

I always, as a matter of courtesy, make sure I'm off the phone when I'm ordering something - may mean I go hungry for an extra 5-10 minutes but it's simple politeness.

[customersruinmylife]

I don't serve people who are on phones at all. They get ignored, and then start waving their arms or clicking their fingers at me. But until that phone goes down, I will not serve them, it is unbelieveably ignorant, so I will treat them with the same respect.

[Mikkel]

I don't serve people who are on phones at all. They get ignored, and then start waving their arms or clicking their fingers at me. But until that phone goes down, I will not serve them, it is unbelieveably ignorant, so I will treat them with the same respect.

If I don't have other customers waiting and the customer take a call I can hear is urgent, I'm willing to finish in pantomime. If the customer come into the shop talking to the phone they can wait until they're finished (and then for me to finish whatever I'm doing).

[Darkforge]

I'll be honest, every so often I'll end up on the phone when I'm ordering food (short lunchbreaks don't help), but I'll always say "give us a min, I'm getting some food" to the person on the phone, then order and do everything I need to get my lunch and then get back on the phone.

Simple fact is either the phonecall is more important, or the purchase is more important, decide which and act accordingly.

[Boozy]

We don't have an official policy or anything, but we also don't serve those who are one their phones. If they complain, we feign shock. "We were trying to be courteous! It would have been rude of us to interrupt your phone conversation. Please step up to the cash whenever you are ready."

[Soulstealer]

I know what you mean, I was in line at Subway today behind someone talking on her cellphone. There was a bit of wait and she was talking on her phone while waiting which I was fine with and she even finished her conversation before ordering. Once it was her turn though she finally glanced at the menu and proceeded to hold up the line while she was trying to decide what to get. You'd have thought that while she was talking on the phone she could spare a minute or two to decide what she was going to get.

[tamezin]

later in the interview he was asked who were the biggest offenders. the second worst offenders were (his words) the uppity American lawyers. according to him the worst offenders were women.

I think maybe he is just looking at women more than he is men and happens to notice them more. Because honestly I see more men with the plastic twig sticking out of their ear than women.

My husband and I got into a huge blowout when we were on vacation and he couldn't put his phone down for more than 5 minutes. Btw he doesn't use it for business, he was talking to his brothers. We get our bill every month and his usage doubles our teenage daughter's usage.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I would shunt customers off to the side when I was taking orders at Kinko's. I'd just go to the next person in line if someone came up to the counter and I heard anything other than "Look, I'll call you back, bye" come out of their mouth.

[poofy_puff]

The food must be really good at that place.

[EricKei]

You'd have thought that while she was talking on the phone she could spare a minute or two to decide what she was going to get.

I've seen plenty of people who do that even WITHOUT a phone in their ear. If I really don't know what I want, I'll step aside and let the next person go...

[Pagan]

I think maybe he is just looking at women more than he is men and happens to notice them more. Because honestly I see more men with the plastic twig sticking out of their ear than women.

You need to come by the pharmacy I work at sometime. It's definitely more women than men doing this. And they have the nerve to get mad at us for interrupting their coversation. Out of 10, 9 will apologize to whomever it is that they're talking to. Every once in a great while will they apologize to us.

And you haven't seen one of my upstairs neighbors. I swear, I think that thing is surgically implanted in her ear! And I'm always aware of when her or her mother are coming or going because they stomp up and down the stairs.

She woke me up at 4am today. Stomp, yak, stomp, yak, stomp, yak. I just want to know who the hell she was talking to at 4am?

[draggar]

Its good to see someone has the cohones to do this and it looks like his business is not suffering because of it. Good job to them.

I see it every day - cell phone courtsey is gone (well, except towards the person on the other end of the call). I've seen people get huffy in the grocerey store line (to the other person) "(sigh) hold on, the cashier wants me to pay now" like their conversation is more important than paying.

People need to realize that they are much slower when they are talking on the phone - including making decisions and reacting.

[wolfie]

Worst i've seen is I had to xray a kids hand an wrist (i say kid i mean someone about... 15 or 16). I go out to get him and he's TEXTING away with his 'injured' hand.

news flash if you can text on those lil keypads just fine your HAND IS FINE get the hell outta the hospital people like you are the reason we get 4+ hour wait times!

I've heard that patients like that get the nickname "Gomer", an acronym for "Get Out of My Emergency Room".