Rant! Bløødy Mobile Phone Etiquette!

I've had shop assistants do that to me on corded landline phones too. I just wait until they ask for the money, then if I feel like it walk off.
The worst though was a taxi from Stansted airport. They guy was on his mobile all the way, even when we paid! We don't use airportcarz/chequercars now.

Tony

I'd say he was just being rude.

It's like when you go up to a till in a shop where two assistants are chatting and they just carry on as if you weren't there...... what happened to 'customer is king'???

Happened to me a few times too. Really anoying.

Surely it wouldn't hurt them to say "Hang on minute while I serve this customer".

I think we should have a national - No Mobile Phone Week.

"Customer is King" belongs to the past because it's a bit over the top. I don't expect suppliers, or shop assistants for that matter, to eat dust for me. I do expect them to take me seriously, which is just enough. And admittedly, seems too much to ask as well nowadays.

I always tell the wife that we're not going to places where we're being served while they are talking on the phone, but sadly she doesn't really care since it's just part of reality.

Edo - I don't agree. I work in a very customer service based industry where the customer is king and I would never dare to be as rude as to answer my mobile whilst in their company. But then, maybe that's why they come back

Then of course there is the sight of people driving whilst using their mobile phones...I even saw a woman doing a U-turn on the way home yesterday - all the way through the manoeuvre she had one hand holding the mobile to her ear and could clearly be seen in conversation throughout!

Amazing!

Unfortunately we are in a society where we demand lower prices and with that service drops. Go to Harrods (or John Lewis for that matter) and I bet you don’t see staff using mobiles.

We are old fogies - we were driving on one of the UKs more major highways the other week (more akin to a Texan Farm Road actually) and a driver in a little white van joined the highway and swept in front of us from the left. No significant harm, just eased off the accelerator. Then my wife noticed the driver was on the phone. We followed him for quite a way and as the traffic was moderately busy we kept passing each other etc all the time the driver was holding the phone with one hand and talking away. The little white van had the firm's telephone number on the back. So playing the role of indignant of TW, my wife rang the firm and described what we had seen especially the thoughtless joining of the highway and the continued use of the phone.

The response we got was - "Thank you I will have words with him when he gets back".

Two days later we received half a dozen empty text messages on the mobile that had been used to call the business that owned the little white van - I suppose next time we will prefix the number with 141 to avoid displaying the phone number.

I suppopse the really mean thing to do would be to post the number here and get you all to send him messages - but I will not <g>

quote:

Originally posted by Derek Wright:
Two days later we received half a dozen empty text messages on the mobile that had been used to call the business that owned the little white van - I suppose next time we will prefix the number with 141 to avoid displaying the phone number.

I suppopse the really mean thing to do would be to post the number here and get you all to send him messages - but I will not <g>

Go on - post the number, they deserve a few "enquiries".

Nime,

I agree that mobile phone etiquette is pretty poor, not just in the UK but most places I travel on business.

I resisted for as long as possible but need one for work now, I do concede that it improves productivity and efficiency in the traveling world of business life but it also introduces significant impositions, though it is possible to manage these by not answering the phone.

I have also had the shop assistant on the phone scenario, it has done little to secure future business for that shop. Next time I will probably just walk off...

Matthew

Yeah, go on, I have 500 free texts to use each month!

Tony

I that situation I would have probably left without buying. I had a recent situation whilst queing the sever answered 2 phone calls and dealt with those queries. I said to her when I got the front would I be in my rights to complain/eject some one queue jumping? "Yes" she said. So I asked why she allowed people to queue junp on the phone.
"We have to answer the phone in 5 rings" she said. I replied but you don't have to deal with their query though ask them to hold.
Cue blank look from server.

Howard

I use Bluetooth. If a lone passenger gets in the car (especially if they occupy the front seat) I aim to conclude my call within a minute or so before apologising to them. If two or more passengers get in and they're talking to each other I just continue my conversation - provided it's fairly banal.

With the elderly I just conclude the phone call as quickly as possible as they often get confused by the concept of wireless handsfree and think you're talking to them.

The worst case of bad telephone etiquette I've experienced was my doctor talking on the phone while administering a cardiac stress test. Fortunately the test was normal but the doctor wasn't. I never went back.

quote:

Originally posted by BigH47:
I had a recent situation whilst queing the sever answered 2 phone calls and dealt with those queries.

I had this queueing in a take-away restaurant.

Despite several people queueing, the guy was conatantly answering the phone.

Eventually, I nipped outside, found the number, then dialled in my order, standing about six feet from the guy. He was rather dazed when he realised what was going on. I'm surprised people didn't do it all the time.

cheers, Martin

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Toy:
With the elderly I just conclude the phone call as quickly as possible as they often get confused by the concept of wireless handsfree and think you're talking to them.

...and the partially sighted It takes a while for me to suss if some dork who wants to play Star Trek is actually talking to himself like a loony, or talking to his mate on the mobile (no offence Steve, if you're behind the wheel of a car, hands free is FINE by me ).

As for the shop thing - this REALLY winds me up - it's just plain rude. When I lived in Reading, our local shop (Asian) was a real mixed bag; all the staff were courteous and polite (and good people to talk to when they weren't busy ), barring one, who insisted on yabbering away on the phone and looking almost caustic when she had to deal with your money. I used to pay up because it was a good shop, but mark my words, if I get that "service" while in a different shop, I walk.

If any shop dares say "if you can't see it we haven't got it", well, light blue touch paper and step back, 'cos I go mushroom cloud...

BTW - I *loathe* mobile phones at work (and in general) - personal phones at work is a BIG no-no imo - it should be a sackable offence if you're not using it in your break time or lunch hour, as it disturbs everyone else and makes you less productive. People who leave their phones on the desk and go for a download in the toilet or whathaveyou are not even worthy of my contempt - the number of phones here I've switched off in my time, due to their selfish owners...

quote:

Originally posted by domfjbrown:
BTW - I *loathe* mobile phones at work (and in general) - personal phones at work is a BIG no-no imo - it should be a sackable offence if you're not using it in your break time or lunch hour, as it disturbs everyone else and makes you less productive.

I don't see any special reason why a mobile shouldn't be considerate to co-workers. With a subtle/quiet ringtone, then it shouldn't cause any more nuisance than a landline call, as long as the user is able to avoid that "it's a mobile, I must shout" thing.

quote:

People who leave their phones on the desk and go for a download in the toilet or whathaveyou are not even worthy of my contempt - the number of phones here I've switched off in my time, due to their selfish owners...

At the height of the "frog" ringtone blitz, many (unattended) ringing phones in our office were apparently set to that ringtone. The entry on the bill would also have caused some hassle to the phone owner. (**)

Just deserts.

cheers, Martin


(**) Sorry if this story sounds familiar. I think it bears re-telling!

I know a very fine pub where ther is NO piped music, which sells the nicest kept beer I have come across, and where any punter who even has his mobile ring in the place gets banned. Producing one is considered the height of bad manners, and again will swiftly get the landlord's attention. It is the "Bell at Pesax," near Crows Top in Worcestershire. Between Crows Top and Abberley where the Clock Tower is, in the grounds of a very expensive Prep-school.

Maybe this should be a recomendation consideration in any Good Pub Guide?

Fredrik

I just hope the pub has asked for an extension to, say, midnight at least, because such pubs are the ones in which I'd like to drink my beer and hold conversation at a leisurely pace without having to watch the bloody clock before the bell rings. Most village pubs round our way ignore the law anyway, and the landlord even comes round to the seated drinkers to ask if they'd like another beer as late as 11.45pm.

As for the phones, whilst we can all put them on "silent" I hope the landlord accepts at least that you can say, "excuse me" as it rings before I cut it off.

Mine rings very infrequently, but I never switch it off. However, if it rings, say, at my Dad's golf club where phones are not allowed as such, I cut the annoying tone off pretty damn quckly before returning the call outside.

quote:

It is the "Bell at Pesax," near Crows Top in Worcestershire. Between Crows Top and Abberley where the Clock Tower is, in the grounds of a very expensive Prep-school.

Maybe this should be a recomendation consideration in any Good Pub Guide?

Fredrik

I think you mean the Bell at Pensax near Clows Top - I used to live quite close by.

quote:

Originally posted by TheRedHerring:
Edo - I don't agree. I work in a very customer service based industry where the customer is king and I would never dare to be as rude as to answer my mobile whilst in their company.

That's not what I was saying.

Cheers,

Edo

Worst one I ever had was in a Taxi near Heathrow - the driver was texting someone the whole time! To cap it all, I later found he'd gone the long way round & ripped me off for a tenner extra

quote:

Originally posted by Fredrik H:
I know a very fine pub where ther is NO piped music, which sells the nicest kept beer I have come across, and where any punter who even has his mobile ring in the place gets banned.

That's also the same as the Hobgoblin in Reading - BLISSFUL lack of blinkin' mobiles.

quote:

Originally posted by Martin Payne:
I don't see any special reason why a mobile shouldn't be considerate to co-workers. With a subtle/quiet ringtone, then it shouldn't cause any more nuisance than a landline call

Sorry - you misunderstand me. I *loathe* landlines at work as well, as our open-plan office has around 100 people on it, and both my bosses have this really annoying landline tone (and their phones ring almost every minute), and they are never at their desks, so you look like a tit when you answer, since you don't know who's is who's.

Then there's the asshole down the corridor who doesn't use voicemail, and has the MOST PERSISTANT AND PAITIENT caller ever - at least once a day this caller will ring up and wait for over 30 rings for the guy to answer. Surely it's evident after 7 or so rings that he's not there?

And let's not even mention that this same asshole answers in a voice that would make the Titanic's fog horn sound like a whisper. ...and then Miss Motormouth across the floor, not to be outdone, will BOOM EVEN LOUDER when hers rings (as if her horrible boomy loud voice isn't enough when she's talking to colleagues as if in an Atlantic storm, when they're facing her 3 feet away.

Bloody phones - Alexander Graham Bell has a lot to answer for (even managed to cram in an awful pun there!)

quote:

Originally posted by Nigel Cavendish:

I think you mean the Bell at Pensax near Clows Top - I used to live quite close by.

Dear Nigel,

It is not that I don't aim with my spelling! But I would never make a typist - it might even appear from my typo-c--p that I am pissed most of the time. Not often enough I'd say, and you are dead right in your editing! Would you like to spoof read (sorry was that supposed to proof read?) all my posts. It would have saved me a lot of anguish!

Fredrik [Loony old git!]

PS: I ised to live at Aymestrey (another very fine and rather less expensive Prep-school) in Crown East, so driving back was not on, but a mate and I used to wander up from Abberley, about one and half miles and as he used to work there, we never got the heave ho! Bloody fine sessions in the olden days! Then we used to play pissed-up chess till it was more or less light, and be totally useles all next day.