Clerk refuses to wait on customer on cellphone. Drama ensues.

[Peppergirl]

So, a grocery clerk in the UK refused to wait on this entitled bitch on a phone. Of course, the management of the grocery store apologized to her.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz2YeGq12dY

Whatever happened to common courtesy?

Edited to add: I feel for the cashier, but she probably shouldn't have done this. On a personal level I'm glad she stood up for herself. However, on a professional level it was stupid. She had to know she'd get in trouble. I can't tell you how many times at work (in a call center) where I have to deal with someone not only talking to me, but also having a cell conversation on their other ear. It sucks and it's infuriating, but I have to deal with it because I know I won't get backed up by management if I call them out on it.

[Pixilated]

Oh my dear, you are delusional! Don't you know it's only the CUSTOMER who deserves courtesy! And not just scruffy "common" courtesy, but grovelling, smarming, here's-a-gift-card-for-our-staff's-temerity-in-wanting-to-be-treated-as-human-beings courtesy!

[Andara Bledin]

Ok, the situation isn't what one might expect at first blush, and this clerk is no champion of courtesy.

Sure, the customer should have waited until after the shopping was paid for before starting her call, but the clerk reportedly out-ruded her by first just ignoring her and her shopping rather than, say, requesting that she end her call prior to the start of the transaction, and then getting smug/superior in her little act of forcing the other to be civil while also misrepresenting the store's own policies.

So, woman was carelessly rude for not waiting until the transaction was over to make a phone call.

The clerk, however, was rude back at the woman in several different ways that completely invalidate her entire point about courtesy.

[bara]

A local convenience store has a sign up that clearly states 'we will be happy to help you after you put the cellphone away'.

I love that sign and feel all stores should adopt that policy.

[Andara Bledin]

I think it's a great policy for smaller shops and not at all worth trying to enforce at larger ones just due to logistics alone.

[Peppergirl]

I would love to see it instituted in all stores, big and small but sadly, I think Andara is correct.

Logistically, it would be a nightmare to enforce. It would just make the entitled assholes on their phones dig their heels in more more and make it worse for the rest of us somehow.

There's a few small stores and restaurants that I frequented back home in Cincinnati that had these signs up. I was always sure to advise them that I appreciated the sign and approved of the policy.

[Ginger Tea]

I was on the phone with Captain Dickhead years ago whilst he was in the queue for burger king, he was on a Bluetooth, I cant recall who called who, but probably him calling me.
But he mentioned his battery was low and he might disappear, so I don't know he's actually being served now and not picking up background chatter as I could hear the cashiers whilst he was further back in line.

So I ask him a question or he asks me one and I can hear the rather confused BK employees answer.
I am not a fan of hands free phones, an xkcd comic illustrates this, but I would have to search the site.

But I for one would rather give my shopping my fullest attention, seeing that 'full' or undivided with me are never 100% to begin with, I'm not taking my chances multitasking where money is involved.
I have truthfully entered the £xx.yy as my pin at least once this year and have come close more than that.

[bara]

I agree that in large retail it would be difficult to enforce, just saying it would be nice.

[Sarah Valentine]

When I still worked for Terrance and Kevin we had a couple huge signs up that said you won't be served if you were on your phone, the signs were all in plain sight and were there before I started working there about 90% of the customers understood but the others complained.

[aurelemsrealm]

When customers are on their phones, I don't bother speaking to them unless it's necessary to complete their transaction. I just ring up their stuff without a word, tell them their total, tell them their change, and go back to whatever I was doing. I'm not wasting extra effort of pretending friendliness on deaf ears, but I don't go out of my way to be rude either. I figure it doesn't matter if they're not willing to pay attention anyway. I just want to get them through the line so I can get through the line. Seems to work for me, anyway.

[anakhouri]

I just talk to them normally. If I interrupt their conversation or distract them, too bad. If I have to repeat myself 3 times, too bad, they're the ones who look like idiots. I don't change my spiel one bit. I don't raise my voice to get their attention, but I don't pretend I'm a robot and stay silent either.

Although a few years back at my old bookstore, a co-worker was calling people down from the line (there were several registers, all on the same counter; customers would line up and wait at the corner of the counter until a cashier was free and called them down). The next customer was yapping away on her cell phone, so after calling her four times, the customer behind her just shrugged, stepped around her, and went to check out. At that point the cell customer realized she'd been skipped and threw a hissy fit. A few minutes later the phone rang and I answered and it was the same woman (she was rude on the phone too) wanting to complain to a manager. I transferred her to one but only after filling them in on what I'd seen. Apparently she went outside and called the store from the parking lot to bitch. I guess she just couldn't talk to people face-to-face, she no longer remembered how to talk unless she was on the phone!

[Ginger Tea]

I would probably go the motions of just scanning

"would you like any help bagging?" no answer, ok down the belt it goes.
If I were a bagger as well by default, then I would bag how I saw fit, if they wanted x packed with y then they should have said so.

The only way I would do the keep on talking (unless it was corp policy) would be so that the other person could hear me ask them all the questions, they might prompt the caller that maybe they should be listening in on what is happening in front of them.
But I cant think of anything off the top of my head that can be said at a normal level and tone as I don't work in a customer facing role and have not done so since the early 90's after leaving school.

I have to admit, when the phone ban came into effect for drivers (hands free were still new and also perhaps due to fall under the ban) when I found out Captain dickhead was calling me whilst driving, I would occasionally blurt out "OMG watch out for that tree!"
Mind you he normally called just cos he was driving around and wanted a chat about nothing, so if it's not a vital conversation to be having, I felt free to dick around knowing full well I could cause an accident with my outbursts.

I tried many times I tried.
Bastard is still alive.