Get off your phone

Complete non-story, but I think everyone is jumping the gun here calling the woman rude.

I don't understand how people can assume that being on your phone means you have to be either rude or unresponsive. It's perfectly possible to hold a mobile phone conversation AND be polite to shop staff. I've done it before, I'm quite capable of diverting my attention from the call to respond to the shop assistant, hand over payment, take my change and it's never been a problem as far as I can tell, and I've always managed to smile and be pleasant.

If the shop assistant a question and got nothing but a derisory sneer from the customer while she carried on with her call then yeah, fine, she's rude. But it seems like the checkout assistant made the decision not to serve the customer as soon as she saw her approaching with a phone. Did she really need the customer's undivided attention to run her items through the till so much that she made up a policy of her own to enforce?
 
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Conscript said:
Complete non-story, but I think everyone is jumping the gun here calling the woman rude.

I don't understand how people can assume that being on your phone means you have to be either rude or unresponsive. It's perfectly possible to hold a mobile phone conversation AND be polite to shop staff. I've done it before, I'm quite capable of diverting my attention from the call to respond to the shop assistant, hand over payment, take my change and it's never been a problem as far as I can tell, and I've always managed to smile and be pleasant.

If the shop assistant a question and got nothing but a derisory sneer from the customer while she carried on with her call then yeah, fine, she's rude. But it seems like the checkout assistant made the decision not to serve the customer as soon as she saw her approaching with a phone. Did she really need the customer's undivided attention to run her items through the till so much that she made up a policy of her own to enforce?
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Whilst you may feel you can multitask, you are still putting both the person on the other end of line and the till assistant in awkward positions and slowing everything down for everyone else. If the assistant needs to talk to you they have to wait until a natural break in your conversation occurs (delay) then you have tell the person on the other end of the line to hold whilst they listen to the staff member. Furthermore the person you are talking to on the phone has to endure a broken conversation with large gaps in.

Even if you think it's possible to do both things at the same time, it still doesn't answer why you can't (as me and all my mates do) tell whoever you are on the phone with that you'll call them back in 5 minutes when you get to the till.

99% of the time the customer on the phone at the checkout isn't in the middle of UN peace treaty declaration or talking a junior sergeon through their first open heart surgery, it's nearly always what Mrs Jones at number 5 did last week or checking who's going out later and what they're wearing.
 
Conscript said:
Complete non-story, but I think everyone is jumping the gun here calling the woman rude.

I don't understand how people can assume that being on your phone means you have to be either rude or unresponsive. It's perfectly possible to hold a mobile phone conversation AND be polite to shop staff. I've done it before, I'm quite capable of diverting my attention from the call to respond to the shop assistant, hand over payment, take my change and it's never been a problem as far as I can tell, and I've always managed to smile and be pleasant.

If the shop assistant a question and got nothing but a derisory sneer from the customer while she carried on with her call then yeah, fine, she's rude. But it seems like the checkout assistant made the decision not to serve the customer as soon as she saw her approaching with a phone. Did she really need the customer's undivided attention to run her items through the till so much that she made up a policy of her own to enforce?
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You would say that your Majesty especially when you're picking up some goodies from the Duchy of Cornwalls' farm shop
 
Tbh i think it's rude if it was the other way around. People don't go to the shop for social interaction like someone said above... they go there to purchase goods. I wouldn't care less if one customer was on their phone as long as they weren't holding things up, I tell them the total, they pay, we both say thanks or whatever, next customer. Now if the checkout assistant was on the phone and saying something like "i'll serve you after i finish this call" that's rude and completely not on.
 
estebanrey said:
Whilst you may feel you can multitask, you are still putting both the person on the other end of line and the till assistant in awkward positions and slowing everything down for everyone else. If the assistant needs to talk to you they have to wait until a natural break in your conversation occurs (delay) then you have tell the person on the other end of the line to hold whilst they listen to the staff member. Furthermore the person you are talking to on the phone has to endure a broken conversation with large gaps in.
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I really don't see the problem. I worked in retail for several years and served hundreds of customers on their phone - not once did it slow things down, cause me to feel like I was being rude to, or cause unnecessary delay. I just treat them like I would any other customer, smile, scan/wrap/bag their goods as quickly as possible. Mainly because I think shopping is a complete pain in the arse anyway, so I always try to complete it as quickly as possible, so I carried on that mantra on the other side of the till :D

Also, what interaction is really required at a till point past being told how much the items are (which you can usually see on the till in most cases) and hello/goodbye pleasantries (which can be achieved with a smile and by mouthing the words)? If were talking about transactions that require an actual conversation or advice then sure, but were talking about using the till at Sainsburys. I just don't see the big deal.

estebanrey said:
Even if you think it's possible to do both things at the same time, it still doesn't answer why you can't (as me and all my mates do) tell whoever you are on the phone with that you'll call them back in 5 minutes when you get to the till.
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Well if I'm standing in the queue at the supermarket then I wouldn't make a call myself. But if someone called me whilst I was queueing then I would probably be happy to answer it - because as I explained above, I can't really see the transaction being complicated enough that I can't do both things at once without being polite and courteous.

estebanrey said:
99% of the time the customer on the phone at the checkout isn't in the middle of UN peace treaty declaration or talking a junior sergeon through their first open heart surgery, it's nearly always what Mrs Jones at number 5 did last week or checking who's going out later and what they're wearing.
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Granted, but in both cases and given my responses above (and as someone said earlier in the thread) I probably wouldn't say to someone on the other end of the phone "can I ring you back in five minutes, as I need to give undivided attention to watching someone scan the barcodes on my items". I may not be discussing the Middle east peace process, but I'd still wager the conversation is more interesting/important than a mundane shopping transaction.

The Geezer said:
You would say that your Majesty especially when you're picking up some goodies from the Duchy of Cornwalls' farm shop
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Are you serious?
 
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Conscript said:
Well if I'm standing in the queue at the supermarket then I wouldn't make a call myself. But if someone called me whilst I was queueing then I would probably be happy to answer it - because as I explained above, I can't really see the transaction being complicated enough that I can't do both things at once without being polite and courteous.
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But it's not about you, it's about the two people who are tooing and froing with for your attention (even if that is limited to a couple of sentences). If the cashier says "Do you have your clubcard" and the person on the phone says "What are you doing later" at the same time then you will have to ignore one and answer the other. either way you are being rude (or at best confusing) to one of the people you are conversing with.


Conscript said:
Granted, but in both cases and given my responses above (and as someone said earlier in the thread) I probably wouldn't say to someone on the other end of the phone "can I ring you back in five minutes, as I need to give undivided attention to watching someone scan the barcodes on my items".
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Maybe because that's not why we end calls when we interact with other people, we do it because of manners and basic human courtesy.

Conscript said:
I may not be discussing the Middle east peace process, but I'd still wager the conversation is more interesting/important than a mundane shopping transaction.
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Again, you need to stop thinking about you in this process. Your conversation will be just as interesting on your way to the car or waiting for the bus won't it?

Till workers already are low paid and seen as failures by large parts of society (a lot in GD), so why make that worse by effectively ignoring them completely.
 
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estebanrey said:
But it's not about you, it's about the two people who are tooing and froing with for your attention (even if that is limited to a couple of sentences). If the cashier says "Do you have your clubcard" and the person on the phone says "What are you doing later" at the same time then you will have to ignore one and answer the other. either way you are being rude (or at best confusing) to one of the people you are conversing with.
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Being a man, I spend most of my time in the queue preparing myself. So I would probably have my Clubcard ready to hand to them anyway.

But I can't really see a cashier getting confused if, after asking me for my Clubcard while I had a phone pressed to my ear, I looked at them, smiled and handed them a Clubcard while answering an unheard question on the phone, OR if they did the same but instead I smiled and shook my head to indicate "no". Neither can I see them getting particularly offended unless they are incredibly sensitive - and if you were that sensitive, then retail isn't for you anyway - people in general are stupid and annoying in shops. In fact, I can think of a few times that I'd wished the customer I was serving was talking to someone else on the phone :p

estebanrey said:
Till workers already are low paid and seen as failures by large parts of society (a lot in GD), so why make that worse by effectively ignoring them completely.
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I just explained that I don't ignore them!

Also, I don't know about anyone else's retail experience, but I was always trained to serve customers as best I could, and I always thought part of that wasn't asking them to stop their phone conversations whilst I dealt with them, unless necessary to complete the transaction. I'm just there primarily to process transactions as efficiently as possible - making small talk/conversation with customers was encouraged, but only to make the customer feel more comfortable. If they are on the phone, they've already decided to sacrifice that element of the service in favour of their other conversation, so I just got on with the primary reason for being there - taking their money :)

I think you're actually doing retail workers a bit of a disservice if you think that a few transactions where the customer talked to the phone more than to them would be enough to ruin their day. I also don't think they are "failures" -there are plenty of worse ways to make a living and having worked in retail for a long while (and not liked it personally) I say well done.
 
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It sounds like the checkout person has a bit of an attitude tbh, probably someone off the governments enslavement scheme as they didn't know company policy. It's their job to serve people as efficiently as possible with a smile not converse with them, so what does it matter if the customer is on the phone.
 
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Well done to the person on the checkout, I hope she wasn't made to personally apologies to this rude woman.

Similar situation recently myself, was at the co-op picking up a few things to bring home. Was on the phone to the GF, soon as I got to the check out I quickly said bye and apologised to the assistant.

He thanked me and said that lots of people don't even bother doing this when being served.
 
Morba said:
I think the woman should have just got on with her bloody job tbh. She has no right to refuse custom, there is no need for any interaction other than an acknowledgement and payment.

Do the bloody job you stupid woman.
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It implies quite a sense of self importance from the cashier doesn't it?
 
I don't know if it's standard in all post offices but quite a few I've been in have signs to say they won't serve you if you're on the phone. If it's clearly set out like that then it doesn't seem all that unreasonable to me - if it's just a "policy" that the particular store worker has implemented then it's a bit more difficult to justify.

I do think it's a bit rude to continue a conversation with someone else while you're in the middle of a transaction. It's normally avoidable even if it just means hanging up for a few minutes and then calling back.
 
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