Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think most people wouldn't carry on speaking on their mobile while being served in a shop?

255 replies

angelos02 · 03/07/2013 09:14

On Lorraine (sorry) this morning they were talking about a case in which a cashier refused to serve someone until they finished their mobile phone conversation. What kind of person would carry on speaking on their mobile while being served. I've never seen it happen but clearly it does. Manners? Anyone?

OP posts:
JRmumma · 03/07/2013 17:59

Is it bad that im typing this whilst at the checkout? Just kidding Grin

Thumbwitch · 03/07/2013 18:00

Amusedcolleague - I read the DM article on this (I know, it was linked to on FB though, what can you do) and apparently she had called her boyfriend. So not an important business call, no.

I have to say I appreciated the comments on the DM page though - heavily weighted in favour of the checkout operator rather than the client (who must really have her knickers in a knot to have created such a fuss over this!).

She also hadn't perfected her DMSadface? in the photo in front of Sainsbo's. Grin

PralinesWithExtraCream · 03/07/2013 18:18

Last week a customer came in the shop whilst on their mobile, came up to the counter (whilst still on their mobile) and snapped his fingers at my colleague and pointed to what he wanted. He then carried on talking (about YouTube so hardly an important call) until he left the shopShock

I have also been in the bank with one person serving and the person in front me went outside with his phonecall mid transaction so the poor woman couldn't serve anyone else! Luckily another lady started serving and he was still outside on his phone when i left!

Rude. Rude

PralinesWithExtraCream · 03/07/2013 18:34

Also 9 times out of 10 the person on the phone will apologise to the person they are talking to on the phone for interupting the conversation and don't bother apologising to the person serving them.

Plus the majority of phone calls are drivel and could wait. It just depends how self important the person thinks they are and how little they think of the shop sales person.

I don't know what people did 20 years ago!

rottentomatoes · 03/07/2013 19:04

ladybryan

"It was a genuine suggestion that may make life easier for you, goodness!"

Oh thanks it was a suggestion? Gosh I would never have thought of that myself!

rottentomatoes · 03/07/2013 19:06

Usualsuspect

"So,your job and work call is so much more important than the checkout persons job then?"

WTF!

crashdoll · 03/07/2013 19:09

I don't always agree with usual but I do today! What it says to me (not a checkout person btw) is "I'm just too important and busy to say hello to you, lowly less important human being".

Crowler · 03/07/2013 19:13

I agree 100% with crashdoll. It's just so fucking rude, that you can't be bothered to interact with the human being who is serving you.

usualsuspect · 03/07/2013 19:14

You do know check out people get paid to chat to you,don't you?

If they put your shopping through in silence,they would get sacked.

But their jobs are not as important as yours, obviously.

Crowler · 03/07/2013 19:15

I don't think it's OK for a cashier to demand the customer's attention, however. If they want to be rude, they're within their rights to be rude.

rottentomatoes · 03/07/2013 19:17

usual suspect
"You do know check out people get paid to chat to you,don't you?
If they put your shopping through in silence,they would get sacked.
But their jobs are not as important as yours, obviously."

So it's my responsibility to listen to sales patter or it's my fault they'll get sacked? That is hilarious.

schoolgovernor · 03/07/2013 19:19

Someone miles up thread mentioned hands free... Yes, I wish people made more use of them. When driving and when attempting to run their businesses at the same time as completing mundane shopping tasks. I might not get as p'd off at checkouts if they did.
And I'm not belittling anyone who needs to make a living, I'm pointing out that we all know that there are times in our lives when we simply can't answer a mobile and do business. (Or would anyone really try to conduct a business call while having a shit? Or at the dentist with tools in our gobs? Just for example). So why get so wound up that we need to grab a phone and natter away when we're already engaged in another task and probably as a result inconvenience others? And actually, some of this proves my point - some people DO think that their need and their time is more important than mine.

My clients aren't stupid. They understand that I'm a one-man-band and that sometimes I won't be able to grab the phone up straight away to speak to them. For one thing, would they like me to do that if someone rang my mobile while I was speaking to them on the landline? Or when I was in a meeting with them? Of course not. So they understand that sometimes they need to leave a message.
Having said that, most of the checkout phone chats I listen to have nothing to do with business.

usualsuspect · 03/07/2013 19:21

You want your shopping in silence, use a robot. There's plenty of them. They are called self service tills.

You can take your important calls all you like then.

rottentomatoes · 03/07/2013 19:23

usualsuspect

There aren't where I go shopping btw.

SoTiredAgain · 03/07/2013 19:27

The other day at Tesco, the (young) girl at the checkout took her mobile out to text whilst DP was struggling with packing and DS. Shock. He complained.

TheSecondComing · 03/07/2013 19:44

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Alisvolatpropiis · 03/07/2013 19:53

TSC

There is a difference between not treating shop workers like hired help and having cringeworthy conversation though. It's amazing what a bit of eye contact can do for somebody else's day.

PralinesWithExtraCream · 03/07/2013 20:11

schoolgoverner you have summed it up nicely there. When you run a business there will always be times when you cannot answer the phone and the person has to leave a message. Some people are just trying to make excuses for their rudeness.
In a supermarket people should just use the self service checkout if they want to chat on the phone.

IneedAsockamnesty · 03/07/2013 20:12

Treating strangers who are doing you a service as if they are not important enough to warrant basic civilised patter (hello,please,thank you, goodbye) is quite like clicking your fingers at waiters.

Its rude.

PralinesWithExtraCream · 03/07/2013 20:20

I wonder how the person who doesn't think it's rude to talk on the phone whilst being served would feel if the "important" person they were speaking to on the phone suddenly said "hold on I just have to take a call on my landline phone, it is "really important" and cannot wait"? I wonder indeed. . .

HappyYoni · 03/07/2013 20:27

I once got on the bus whilst on the phone, I had the phone tucked under my ear but pushed it to one side and said to the person I was speaking to "could you bear with me a minute I'm just getting on the bus" I then said to the bus driver, " hi, please could I have a single to xxxx" he responded by shouting at me that he wouldn't give me a bus ticket until I put the phone down, I explained that I wasn't actually talking but didn't want to hang up on ther person on the other end ( a call centre I'd waited ages to get thru to)
I apologised and asked again if I could buy a ticket. He started properly shouting at me that I was rude and that he wasn't going to serve me. I asked where it stated anywhere that this was company policy as I wasn't aware of it, he jus kept shouting at me. During this whole nteraction that lasted about 5 minutes I never said one word to the person on the phone, I really wasn't conversing with them I had just asked them to wait for me.

Anyway eventually he served me and when I finally returned to my phone call the first thing the person on the other end said was that they couldn't believe how rude the bus driver was, they had heard the whole exchange and said that they were shocked at how I was yelled at.

So it's not always the person on the phone who's rude!

And for those who honk I shouldn't have rung the call centre from the bus stop...I had limited time Neil they closed, I needed to speak to hem and he bus was 20 mins late, so if I hadn't have called from there they would have been closed by the time I got home.

biological · 03/07/2013 20:38

I work in a shop and it really doesn't bother me if a customer happens to be making or taking a phone call while I'm processing a till transaction. They usually manage to smile, make brief eye contact and say thank you to me while they're doing it. Occasionally customers are rude but it's not usually the phone that makes them rude. The vast majority of my colleagues disagree with me of course. I quite enjoy a few moments respite from social interaction during my shift.

Crowler · 03/07/2013 20:46

It's not that you should not speak on your phone so as to have idle chit chat with the cashier. Rather, it's rude to assume that someone's role is so insignificant that they could possibly expect to have your attention when you're transacting.

dreamingofsun · 03/07/2013 21:04

pralines - they do this all the time. I realise that i am not the most important person in the world to most people, so totally understand if they have to deal with something else more pressing.

briany · 03/07/2013 21:56

i've worked on checkouts and i don't now. i sometimes answer the phone if it's ringing because usually it's someone at home saying they want something else from the shop. so I'll answer, say I'm paying now so talk later.

I never found this a problem when I worked on checkouts. if someone was on the phone, they'd still pack their shopping and make eye contact.

I find it more annoying that you're waiting in a queue on the checkout and the person on the checkout is talking to her friend or colleague behind her, stopping to say something, stopping to listen and largely ignoring you completely. This is far worse to me because they are being paid to do a job and they're not doing it. I work in a small business now. Some customers are polite, some are not. it doesn't affect me. my job is to provide a service and collect their money.