Ever notice how someone always manages to call you when you’re at the checkout counter at a store? In the 20+ minutes that you spent inside the store browsing your phone was silent, but as soon as it’s your turn to have you items rang in, your phone starts to sing it’s merry song.
Now, there are four things you can do at this point, of which two are the wrong thing to do, and two are the right thing to do:
DON’T!
Answer the phone and proceed to have a LOOOONG conversation with whoever is calling you, ignoring the cashier.
The people behind you in line will be very pleased if you freeze the motion of the queue by engaging in a conversation over the phone, especially if there’s just one cash register in use.
Don’t tell me to wait or hold on. I don’t care how slow you are, except that the people behind you will be in a bad mood once it’s their turn, and they might take it out on the cashier. By taking the call and putting that above everything else you ought to be doing, you’re exhibiting extremely selfish and rude behavior.
I’m sorry to tell you this but evolution hasn’t caught on and granted cashiers the ability to read your mind. We do actually need some kind of cooperation from you with the transaction, i.e. you need to give me some form of payment, specify whether it’s bank or credit, and actually sign the little slip or take the change.
There’s typically a little spiel which I HAVE TO shoot off at you, so I’d appreciate it if you’d listen to me. In addition, I might be offering to save you money, so listening to me might be in your best interest. No use in complaining afterwards because hey, you weren’t paying attention!
Oh, and I’d appreciate it if you put away your phone for just a bit so you could pack up and move along. You’re messing up everyone’s groove with this selfish “Hold on, I NEED to take this call” line of behavior.
The only time this is acceptable behavior (kinda) is when you are able to multitask and actually pay attention to what the cashier is trying to ask you or tell you.
Oh, and above all, DON’T TELL ME TO HURRY UP WHEN YOU’RE ON THE PHONE!!! The reason I’m being quote unquote slow is because you’re on the bloody phone instead of listening to me!
DO!
Answer the phone and tell the person calling you to hold on for a minute, have them call you back in a bit, or that you’ll call them back soon.
That wasn’t so difficult, now was it? You just saved everyone some time with this selfless act. If the cashier has your undivided attention, the whole transaction shouldn’t take more than a few minutes tops. I do believe that there aren’t many calls that you would receive which require you to answer the call immediately, calls which can’t wait a minute or two.
If you really do have to take the call, step out of the queue for the duration of the phone call, if possible. If you can’t leave the queue, try to keep your attention on the transaction as well as the call. An apology for speaking on the phone while the cashier is serving you would be nice…
DON’T!
Let your phone keep ringing until you have time to answer it, especially if you have a lot of goods to buy.
A ringing cell phone has the tendency to annoy people. When I’m trying to do my job, say the things I HAVE TO say, and try to sell you more stuff because I HAVE TO, I’d appreciate it if I didn’t have to duke it out with the polyphonic beeping coming from your purse, much less the latest chart topping one-hit wonder.
This especially applies to older people who tend to be slightly hard of hearing. Why? Because they have their phones set on MAXIMUM volume! Everyone else around you is not deaf, so we’d all appreciate not having to stick our fingers into our ears just to drown out the “music” coming from your phone. Thank you.
This runs alongside a recurring theme of this blog. There are many things that you might have to experience just once or for a very short period of time whilst shopping, such as Christmas Carols. Thinking that you can stand letting your phone ring “just for a little bit of time” is really quite selfish. It might be just a minute or two of your time, but for the cashier who’s sitting behind the counter for 8+ hours a day, those minutes accumulate quickly, leading to a nice little headache…
DO!
Press a button to silence the call so it won’t bother anyone. Yes, there is such an option…
Your phone rings while it’s your turn to have your items checked out. You pull it out of your pocket or purse, glance at it, and hit the ‘SILENCE’ button which EVERY SINGLE CELL PHONE HAS NOWADAYS! Piece of pie!
Here’s a hint on how you can prevent yourself from letting your phone keep ringing for a long time: set the ringtone on your phone to an embarrassing song or sound. That’ll definitely get you to rummage through your bag or pockets just to stop the thing from making you look ridiculous! =) Some examples which I’ve seen (heard) recently:
- Britney Spears’ newest “hit” (Man in his late 20’s)
- A Finnish Christmas carol with rude lyrics (10yr old girl)
- Metallica (Middle-aged woman wearing a tracksuit)
- Crazy Frog (Business man in suit)
Each one of the above cases were quite quick to pick up or silence their phones…
Pretty much everyone has a cell phone nowadays. The proper etiquette with cell phone usage in public is a whole different genre in and of itself, so I’ve merely focused on cell phone usage in customer situations. It is really, really annoying to be faced with a customer who’d rather talk on the phone, ignoring the cashier and not allowing them to do their job. It’s disrespectful, and no, you are not that special…
“Hi, hold on, I’ll call you back in a few, I’m at the supermarket right now, paying. Bye.”
If you have a story relating to this post, from either side of the counter, or anything to add to his chapter of The Consumer Etiquette Guide, let’s hear it!
The customer is NOT always right. If you agree with this, or wish to know what to do and not do as a consumer, please subscribe to this blog’s updates by the way of the RSS feed or email subscriptions. Thank you for shopping at The Consumer Etiquette Guide, now go and make someone have a nice day at work!
December 23, 2007 at 9:07 pm |
Lydia Ramsey agrees with you 100%. Her article Cell Phone Chaos at http://www.mannersthatsell.com/articles/cellphone.html is amusing and has some good tips too.