Talking on the phone whilst at tills

[EgyptianSnow]

Is this rude? Lady at a store refused to serve me until I got off the phone
I was only buying slippers
I wasn't talking loud or even talking at the counter and my phone rang whilst I was in line
Was I rude? Is this rude?

When I used to work on a checkout mobile phones were just starting to become ubiquitous, and I would refuse to serve anyone who was on one. I didn't care enough about my crappy boring job on crappy pay to put up with people being wankers to me.

The person serving you is a human being. It's basic manners to actually acknowledge their existence.

I worked in Tesco and i wouldnt serve anybody on a phone either.They are not giving you their full attention so when something happens its the cashiers fault.

You try to engage and be polite and all you get are grunts and hand waving.Plus it holds up other people in the queue.
The amount of people on their phones who used to leave stuff behind was gas.Wallets,trolleys,kids.Only to come back and give out tto you cause they left stuff behind because they where to busy gassing on their phones.
Arseniclatte Stupid Bitches* is an awful way to talk about someone and says a hell of a lot more about you than them.

You don't really know until you answer the phone ,do you?
I suppose it's a balancing act if it's a small shop and one person has to serve customers and answer the phone. It's not good to keave a phone ringing for long, and also it's annoying to have to listen to a phone ringing.

You don't have to immediately answer a call or text you know?

I've been the person on both sides of the counter.

I think it's got to be chalked up by the sales assistant.

If I greeted a customer with "Hello" and they didn't reply or just grimaced at me I wouldn't be sending them to the back of the queue for lack of manners. I'm not their bloody mother to be teaching them social etiquette!

And if they're on the phone, it's because it's important to them. As MY customer, if it's important to them then it's important to me. Why is it such a crime to allow your customer to feel like VIP from time to time. As a sales assistant, you don't get paid to pass judgement on other people's social skills. You get paid to provide efficient and quality service. Give the customer the choice, would they like to take a step back or just continue?!

And why prolong the agony of having to deal with them for even longer if you send them to the back of the queue? You'll have potentially made them feel awkward and will probably not have the best face to face interaction anyway.

Over the past couple of weeks I've been taking/making what feels like a million phone calls everyday due to a family member passing away, I've HAD to take calls whilst at the shops getting groceries for my grandmother. I'm not going explain myself to strangers. Besides one person's definition of important may different to someone else's.

Where I worked, us staff did not ever have a chat while serving customers. That was rule number 1.
If the shop phone rang whilst serving a customer, you either got the attention of another member of staff to answer it or simply ignored the call. There was every chance it was a customer on the phone wanting to buy something and therefore we would lose a sale, but we would take that risk to avoid pissing off the one stood in front of us.

We took manners and politeness very seriously, yet despite that myself and all of my colleagues at some point or another were shouted at, sworn at, barked orders at, had personal insults made, been called stupid and other nasty names, I've been physically grabbed at one point. You'll struggle to find anyone in customer service or retail who hasn't been at the least, verbally abused at some point, I know people who have been attacked, and I know one woman who was sexually assaulted while working in a toy shop.

All of that for minimum wage, and people wonder why shop workers become complacent and grumpy. Customer service in Britain might not be what it was once, but generally speaking, the behaviour of customers as a whole is appalling. At best you get people like on this thread who can't put a call on hold for 10 seconds to quickly engage with the person serving them.

The customers I had who would be kind enough to actually speak to me, listen and say thank you afterwards would make my day. That's literally how bad it is - basic manners are not the norm.

It's about as rude as a cashier chatting to his/her colleague and they do that plenty...
Am I allowed to chat to my husband whilst we pay for the shopping or is that not allowed too? When he asks which card to use do I have to shush him?
I don't care if you chat to your colleague as long as you are doing your job and I don't see why I can't talk on the phone at the till it's no different to if I was stood with someone and was chatting to them.

If people are on the phone in a queue, they can either ask the person on the other end of the line to hold on for a minute or they can step out of the queue.

If it goes off whilst they are being served, well, that is what voicemail and missed call messages are for.

It's not difficult.

arsenic is a pbp, ignore the goady twat.

Sorry stayingclassy did you say something? I was on my phone...

I don't see a problem with it if it doesn't interfere with the transaction. So if you can hand over your money in one hand while talking into the phone with the other thats ok. Sometimes its just hard luck that you will get a call at the most inconvenient moment. But if it slows everyone down then it is unreasonable.

Interesting thread. Not RTFT, but felt like mentioning the reverse (would it be AIBU) when you are at a shop counter, their phone rings, and all of a sudden you - the customer who got off their arse takes second place to the caller.

Tends to be worst at customer services desks ....

I wouldn't chat to an adult while at the till either. For the very brief time I'm going through the till my full attention is on the transaction and on being polite to the member of staff I'm dealing with. I hope for the same courtesy from them and I usually get it.

It's different if you have a small child with you as they may not yet have grasped all the social niceties and be demanding attention or doing something stupid which has to be attended to immediately. Not many other valid reasons for not putting 100% attention on the member of staff.

yes I'd talk to dh in a "have you got the loyalty card?" "Did we remember milk?" Way but wouldn't chat about what happened on the episode of prison break last night.

I work on the other side of the desk and find it very rude - though to degrees. If it is clearly an important call and the person smiles or engages some other way (or even mouths "sorry") then I don't mind. If they turn away and are chatting about their night out and are clearly ignoring me then I mind. There are ways of doing it.
I agree with pp who say that it works both ways too. Neither myself or any of my colleagues will talk to each other when a customer comes to the desk or answer the phone. It's just plain rude. If a colleague tried to talk to me I'll ignore them or else talk to the customer instead until everyone waiting has been served.
A lot of you seem to think it's just a case of scanning, bagging, and taking money. It isn't.
My till works like this:
Customer hands over items. I am required to affirm their purchase in some way. This isn't up to me. If I get caught not doing it too many times I will get called out on it by management. Luckily it is usually something as simple as saying "that's a lovely xxx".
Next, I have to ask if you've found everything you are looking for. Difficult to do if customer is on the phone.
Items scanned, I now have to ask if you have a loyalty card. Last week a colleague had a customer on the phone so colleague couldn't ask him if he had loyalty card. Customer paid for purchases and I served wife who wasn't on the phone. I asked if she had loyalty card. Husband got angry at my colleague for not asking and put in a complaint to management. He was given an informal verbal warning. Completely unfair.
After loyalty card I now need to ask if you need a plastic bag. If so, would you like the receipt?
Next, I have to ask for your money politely. If cash, I have to thank you and tell you what your change is as I hand to you. If card, I point out the machine (not really allowed to put card in ourselves). I have two buttons on my till for card or cash, so I really need to ask you how you are paying.
When all this is done, I thank you and start the process again with the next customer.
You can imagine how much longer and how difficult it is when somebody is on the phone.
I don't refuse service though, I tend to just ask my questions anyway and pretend they aren't on the phone. If I wait then it delays everyone else in the queue and I'm the one they'll complain about.
The main thing to remember though, is that you wouldn't do it in any other situation would you? So why don't we have that courtesy? It is incredibly demoralising and after a while things like this chip away at your confidence.

This thread is getting out of hand, telling people when and how they should grieve and support people? WTF

I couldn't do it, to me it would be like saying to the shop assistant "you are so far beneath me that I can treat you with contempt and not interact effectively with you"

Much the same as when they put their hand out for the money and the customer insists on putting it on the counter often coins as well and counting them out so quite obvious.

Retail staff have enough to put up with what with the verbal abuse,assaults,insults ect there is no need to be rude to them as well.

I am required to affirm their purchase somehow

I know it's completely OT but I bloody hate that. I know you're just doing your job (and it's not personal, I know it comes from above) but it sounds so false and I don't need someone whose job it is to sell the stuff, to validate what I've just bought. (Do you work in New Look coz they're the worst offenders for this.)

Anyway, back on topic, OP Yabu, get off the bloody phone for the two minutes it takes to get served. It is rude!

I am required to affirm their purchase somehow
I hate this too, i'm have to bite my tongue to prevent myself firing back a shitty comment, but it give me the rage and in reply you get a false smile back....M&S do it too.

It is rude to carry on talking on your phone when being served. Even if I get on a bus etc and I am on the phone I ask the person on the phone to wait so that I can get my ticket. Having worked on a check out when I was younger it would really piss me off when people carried on chatting. On the other side it also annoys me when people serving me carry on their conversation with colleagues as well.

It is terribly rude to speak on the phone while at the till. It's a human being; how about a smile, please and thank you.

Titty - no, not new look or m&s. Not even fashion. I've worked for three different companies and all want us to do it. You can tell when we're being honest though. If we are just saying it that's literally the only line we say, if it's genuine we talk a bit more about it. I generally try to talk to customers about other things now (eg asking how your day is going) or say hi to the kids if you have some with you.
There are ways to do it, but yes we hate it too. It just feels forced. Luckily where I work now isn't as strict but one place I worked had it in their training, you were called up on it if you weren't doing it, and it was even in the mystery shop criteria so we had to do it to everyone. Neither one of us wants to talk about the bedroom aid you are buying, trust me.

I believe it is common courtesy to at least acknowledge the person behind the till - you can't do this when you have a phone to your ear, you just can't. It's incredibly rude and basically says to the person serving you 'You are not worth my time.'

Apart from that - why do you think you can't drive a car and be on the phone at the same time? The amount of times people stood there chatting, holding up one finger at me to 'wait' whilst a queue of about 10 people stood behind them, and then not noticing the cues to pay, not noticing their card payment had been accepted. Not taking their bag. People behind would often comment as well at the rudeness and the fact that they were holding everyone else up.
Just as in a store, if you are serving someone you don't answer the phone. You ring the bell for someone else to serve/answer the phone. People deserve to be acknowledged.

Don't get me started on the people that don't say please or thanks. I used to have toddlers that had better manners (coming up with their grandparents and pocket money) than some of the people that used to come into my shop. I know it was my JOB and I was being paid, but don't complain about shitty customer service when you are a shitty customer. Dare you to smile at someone when can't even acknowledge you exist!

If it's life or death, step away from the queue when you get the call. At least then both parties have your full attention. It's very rare that it's life or death.

Plus i found the same people on their phone coming back and trying to blame you on a mistake when they didnt have the decency to answer you in the first place.