Serving People With Mobiles

I wasn't sure where this would go, but I thought here considering it's to do with work.
I work at Toys R Us and I'm a register girl. At least 3 or 4 times a shift, I serve people who are on their mobile phone. I find it really rude, to be honest. I know sometimes they can't help it, but you can't greet them (which makes me feel bad) and it's hard to tell them the total of their products and many things like that.
Has this ever happened to you?
Do you agree that it's rude?

Wow, that is a bit rude, but there's not a lot you can do about it. At least they're not actually doing any harm...

You get rude people everywhere:

Firstly, there's the people who make a mess, etc, and leave it for you to clean up. I have a friend who works at a cafe, and one time a child was shaking the pepper shaker like a rattle so that pepper went everywhere. She tried politely to remove the shaker from the child, and the mother went off at her, telling her to leave her kid alone because it was having fun. Now, the mother knew full well that my friend would have to clean it all up later- THAT was rude. Some people don't even try to control their children, but this one was worse. Seriously, encouraging your kid to make a mess?

I also live in the city, and all the public servants come into the mall on their breaks. A lot of them are really rude in that they expect to skip the line for coffee, and try to butt in front of non-public servants and people in casual clothes. It's not because they're in a hurry- they just think they're more important.

Where I work (as a phone salesman) the same public servants talk down to me, because they get a proper office and I get a kind of shop. The funny thing is, they act so superior, but I probably earn more than most of them and are better qualified. You don't need university to become a public servant- they just act better because it's an office job.

^ That's definately very rude. I think it's horrible!
A lot of the time we have parents who let their kids play with things in the store which we have to clean up also. It's so hard sometimes, and especially during the holidays, it's so busy and so messy.

I get that a lot too. I work part-time in a restaurant at the front desk, and we constantly have people come in, talking on the phone whilst I attempt to serve 'em.

ChemicallyImbalanced:

That would probably just get her in trouble.

Yeah, you would be a martyr for good etiquette if you got fired.

Grrr... you know what also annoys me? When people yell at you for being out of stock on something. In the phone business, stock is limited so you can't just consistently order it. It's not our fault- stock sells, we didn't know your highness was coming. It's not like yelling at me will make it magically appear in the store.

You can be as polite as possible, even offer to reserve them one and call when the next shipment arrives, but it's like they just get a kick out of seeing someone stew.

This happens to me all the time, actually. I also find it rude.

I work at McDonalds. It's hard to serve the customer in a good way if they are on their phones. Like, when I'm trying to say, "Would you like to make that a meal? Is that everything? For here or to go?"

I hate it when people complain to me about no-one helping them. I mean, I'm not allowed to leave the registers, and I have to try and serve people and make sure they are happy, answer phones and multiple other things. And I don't mind if someone comes to me and asks me to call someone to help them. That's fine. But I've had so many people come to me and yell at me and ask why no one has helped them and pretty much abuse me, and it's horrible! I've had my manager intervene and protect me from a customer who was becoming fairly angry and quite physical too!

^ Yes. Exactly like at my work, where I am already juggling three clients and people waiting will bitch to each other about how incompetent we are. Is writing three contracts on three computers at once incompetent?! Sheesh.

At the same time, I can understand how people are frustrated when they have to wait in line, but bitching about the staff does no-one any good.

^ Yep. It's horible

And I've had a few people come up to me and complain and they add in racist comments. One of my friends working there is Asian, and I had one lady complain about him and she was like "That stupid Chinese boy is still with that other customer and I need help. Bloody Chinese people!" And I just stood there in shock for a few moments. But we told my manager and she was 'asked to leave'.

The general public are just plain assholes.

I work in HMV and believe me, annoying though it is, people coming to the counter while on their phone is way far down on the list of unpleasantries.

I get blamed for us not having obscure titles in stock, for the length of the queue at busy times, for things being a higher price than people would like (wtf?)...the one that really irks me, and it happens a lot, is people attempting to return things without a receipt. No proof of purchase, no return. You could have bought it anywhere, hell, stolen it for all we know. You may have bought it months ago and the reason it doesn't work now is simple wear and tear. Ha, I've had people try to return 'faulty' games/CDs/DVDs where the disc is clearly badly scratched from it not being looked after properly...then they get aggressive when I politely explain why we can't return it.

My biggest work grievance is the ignorant idiots who come in and then insult my intelligence when they don't get their way ("Can I speak to someone more competent please?" . This is usually coming from the types who look like builders, cleaners...hell, a lot of them probably don't even have jobs. Yet because I work in a shop, they assume I'm stupid. Me looking younger than I am doesn't help either. When I get comments like that, I smile sweetly and explain that I may be young, but I am not stupid, and the reason I work part time in a shop is to help finance my university education, as I am studying a degree in Veterinary Medicine. I also point out that being educated and cultured has taught me not to judge others based on their age or occupation, which is something that they clearly need to learn. That usually shuts them the hell up.

AmyPoptart:

I hate it when people complain to me about no-one helping them. I mean, I'm not allowed to leave the registers, and I have to try and serve people and make sure they are happy, answer phones and multiple other things. And I don't mind if someone comes to me and asks me to call someone to help them. That's fine. But I've had so many people come to me and yell at me and ask why no one has helped them and pretty much abuse me, and it's horrible! I've had my manager intervene and protect me from a customer who was becoming fairly angry and quite physical too!

I feel you sooo hard on the 'can't leave your register.' I'm a cashier, too. And when people complain, or need help, if I can't do it, I have to call someone off the floor. Or when a price is rung up wrong and they do this:

"Well, the sign said it was 60 percent off!"

"Ma'am, I have to call-"

"Can't I just showyou! Walk back there with me!"

It's soooo annoying.

Because most of the time, I close and I'm the ONLY cashier, so obviously if I leave my station...who's gonna check out people?

I have yet to start working, but, I find it really annoying just standing behind them...

One time, I was at the cash register, and this person was texting someone..
That got me rather frustrated; so, I complained about it to the manager..
I don't know what happened to her, but..
Yeah.

It is rude! I honestly hate it. I work at Subway and it is hard to get right what they want on their sub if they are talking to someone else. Luckily, most of the time people stop talking so I can get it right.

This lady waited outside until she was done with her phone conversation the other day and that made me happy.