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megan
December 0, 0000 12:00 AM
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Ugh! There's nothing worse in the entire world than having to deal with listening to someone else's cell phone prattle. Add to that the pain of having to serve the person in a retail establishment and the annoyance is 100 times worse. Who are these people and haven't they heard of cell phone etiquette? They're all over the place!

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Amy Alkon
December 0, 0000 12:00 AM
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I photograph loud cell phoners and put their conversations on my blog. I also like to call them when they give out their numbers: \"Barry, I heard you in Starbucks the other day!\"

\"Who is this? Who is this?\"

\"I'm not telling, but I know EVERYTHING about you! All your private details, and you name and phone number!...\"

It's such fun.

My favorite is when people you've asked to pipe down say, \"It's a public place.\"

\"Yes, it is (you assclown) which means you share it with other people, and should be considerate of their desire not to hear about your loud, dull life.\"

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airship
December 0, 0000 12:00 AM
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Bah! This is why Tasers were invented. No digg.

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RandomHookup
December 0, 0000 12:00 AM
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Is it okay to use a cellphone if the cashier isn't going to say a single frigging word to me... just look at me with upturned eyes and a slight tilt of the head to the digital display?

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Papercutninja
December 0, 0000 12:00 AM
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When i was a retail drone, i'd ask quietly if they needed any help from behind the register and just stare at them (without ringing their items) until they either hung up or told the other person to hold on. It worked pretty well. Or if they didn't i would keep asking them questions in the middle of their conversation:

\"Did anyone help you with this today? Did you find everything you were looking for? Can i interest you in a Banana Republic Credit Card? It only takes a few minutes and you can save 10% on your first purchase in-store and online. You're going to use your AMEX? Did you need a gift receipt? Do you need a box for this?\"

That usually annoyed them enough that they'd get pissed, BUT i was perfectly within company regulations to ask those questions at the cashwrap.

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The Unicorn
December 0, 0000 12:00 AM
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Why have you sullied the reputation of unicorns by associating them with this woman? That's what *I* want to know.

Seriously though, if you are on a cellphone while checking out somewhere, you are pissing off the cashier. The only time I would forgive it when I was at Borders was if someone was only buying one thing and obviously doing a run in/run out thing (still rude, but tolerable), or if they were paying attention tothe transaction and only tangentially participating in the phone call (rude to their caller, but that's not my problem). Or if they apologized, sincerely, which was uber-rare.

But barring those instances, I just stood there, maintained my flawless veneer of friendliness, and silently condemned their incurable obnoxiousness.

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kerry
December 0, 0000 12:00 AM
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Back when I was a barista I'd frequently get customers who refused to quit their conversations and ended up not paying attention to either what they were ordering or what they were paying. I've had people complain that we made the drink wrong when they never actually ordered it the way they wanted it, they were too distracted. The worst was when some woman handed me this bizarre handful of change to pay for her order. I figured she was trying to pay with an amount to round out the change she'd receive (i.e. paying $1.02 for a $0.77 bill to get a quarter back) but wasn't paying attention and handed me pennies where she'd intended dimes. Boy howdy was she pissed when she got her correct change back, insisted I'd given her the wrong change. The guy behind her backed me up, and noted that if she'd gotten off the phone maybe she would have been paying more attention.

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Bubba Barney
December 0, 0000 12:00 AM
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How about this? I work in a cube farm and my two cube neighbors always answer their cell [at work] in their cubes.

If I didn't have headphones on listening to music, I would know every detail of the real estate transaction one is doing , and the in's and out's of the other one's family.

Blegh.

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it.goes.there
December 0, 0000 12:00 AM
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This article says she's a \"professional stylist.\" Guess what: ain't no such thing as a professional stylist in Kansas City, MO. Bored housewife who like to shop is more like it.

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Yozzie
December 0, 0000 12:00 AM
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Actually there IS something worse than being forced to listen to cell chatter - it's being subjected to some asshole's Nextel conversation. Then you get not just both sides of the conversation, but that annoying beep to signify another incoming bit of dribble from the slack-jawed yokel on the other end.

When I was a customer service slave and had a customer gabbing away on their phone and ignoring me, I'd just stare at them. Either they'd hang up, or I'd move the next person in line ahead of them, which would piss 'em off enough to get off the phone and start squawking at me. Which was always fine, because I'm foreign-raised and hence not cowed by the superior attitudes of the \"customer is always right\" crowd (and I was a great salesman, so in the eyes of management, I could do no wrong...)

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