Get off the phone!

[Anakah]

It was about midnight when I went into subway. I had just gotten off of work and on my sixth day. I was tired and hungry. By the way, the subway is 24/7.

I got there and there was no line and the girl was behind the counter and she very politely told me she'd be right back after washing her hands. I was like okay.

SC: A customer just walked up. (I thought maybe she had another worker back there too)

When she came to the counter she was talking to a headset and I figured maybe she was talking to her boss or something....

SC (Subway chick)

SC: What would you like? (She mouthed it!)

Me, being too understanding that she was on the phone told her what I wanted.

SC: What kind of cheese? What? Oh, I'm talking to the customer.

Me: Man, if I ever stayed on the phone or did that I would be so fired. I know its not that bad but it is REALLy rude.

There were times where she would ignore me and talk. She's lucky I stayed patient. I was very annoyed though.

I told her what I wanted and she kept a full on conversation with whomever she was talking to. Which with some of her sentences I don't think it was the boss. Sounded more like girl talk.

I so badly wanted to tell her to get off the phone but I didn't want to cause any problems.

SC: Have a good night. What? NO! I was talking to THE customer.

Me: *sigh*

She proceeded to stay on the phone for the people behind me too. Okay, she did do her job but I think she should've kept the gossip off the clock. Made me feel insignificant! I didn't want to be a sucky customer so I didn't say anything. Should I have said anything? I even tipped her a dollar. Grrr.

[tropicsgoddess]

I'm surprised nobody else complained about that or that management got wind of it. Her behavior was nothing short of rude and unprofessional.

[edible_hat]

I'd have said "I can see your phone call is more important than your customers, so I'll go somewhere else" and walked out.

[powerboy]

I would not have a problem if she was talking to her boss or a coworker and was asking a few questions. But if it was just chit chat. I would have gotten my food and complained to her

[rerant]

Ok I have to admit, sometimes I'm on the phone at work about non-work related things, but when I need to help a customer I do keep the phone held against my ear (because there's really nowhere else to put it) but at least I stop my conversation.

[marasbaras]

Folks, it is NOT sucky to expect reasonable service and to comment about it. When you go to a business, you pay THEM money and expect them to deliver whatever it is that they do.

I was once at Lowe's trying to buy some paint. I waited in line and am finally at the front at the paint mixing counter. The phone rings, the lady answers. OK, couple minutes.

She gets back to me for about 10 seconds ... phone rings again. She answers again. Another couple of minutes on the phone answering questions for some customer.

Finally, she gets back and is starting the color match process for what I want, phone rings a THIRD time. She picks it up ... I push down the button and hang up the call. I then unplug the phone.

She looks at me like I'd just killed the Baby Jesus. I said "I'm here, they're not. Please finish my order or at least get it into the shakers."

You could see the light turn on in her head as to how maybe I had a point.

As soon as my cans of paint got into the giant shaking machines, I plugged her phone back in. She resumed answering the calls while ignoring the customers who were in line behind me.

I never bought paint there again.

[draftermatt]

I push down the button and hang up the call. I then unplug the phone.

Man, if I were the paint department worker I would have thrown you out. That's seriously not cool. Now you got her in trouble because I guarantee that the person you hung up on complained to management, not to mention the people who couldn't get through.

You should have waited, or walked away and complained to a manager about how they need more help since the phone won't stop ringing.

That was just rude, and overstepping all kinds of lines.

[iradney]

Man, if I were the paint department worker I would have thrown you out. That's seriously not cool. Now you got her in trouble because I guarantee that the person you hung up on complained to management, not to mention the people who couldn't get through.

You should have waited, or walked away and complained to a manager about how they need more help since the phone won't stop ringing.

That was just rude, and overstepping all kinds of lines.

I dunno. masbaras was there first, and from the post, it didn't even sound as if the worker said "excuse me, do you mind if I take this call?"
The worker showed the customer no courtesy, and was, in fact, wasting their time.
At the very least, they could've called in a co-worker to either answer the phones or take the orders of the customers that were standing at the counter, ready to spend cold hard cash.

[draftermatt]

I dunno. masbaras was there first, and from the post, it didn't even sound as if the worker said "excuse me, do you mind if I take this call?"
The worker showed the customer no courtesy, and was, in fact, wasting their time.
At the very least, they could've called in a co-worker to either answer the phones or take the orders of the customers that were standing at the counter, ready to spend cold hard cash.

Oh, I think the worker was rude, I would have picked up the phone and either asked if I could call them back, or ask them to hold, but having a customer hang up the phone and unplug it like that doesn't sit right with me.

[LemonLad]

I agree that it sounds like sort of an untenable situation, but it also sounds like the sort of thing that the paint employee probably didn't have much control over (considering she likely would have been reprimanded for not answering the phone promptly). Moreover, the customer on the other end of that line has every reason to believe that the employee he was going to be talking to just up and hung up on him, which would certainly prompt a lot of people to complain.

It seems like the sort of thing marasbaras might have complained about, I just don't think the way he went about it was the best of the available options.

[Shangri-laschild]

Oh, I think the worker was rude, I would have picked up the phone and either asked if I could call them back, or ask them to hold, but having a customer hang up the phone and unplug it like that doesn't sit right with me.

The problem with the situation is some managers tell the employees that they are to answer the phone if it rings no matter if you're helping someone at the counter or not. Policy may suck, but following it because you need the job doesn't make it ok for people to do stuff like that.

[Becks]

I'd have said "I can see your phone call is more important than your customers, so I'll go somewhere else" and walked out.

I would've, too.

[ShinyGreenApple]

Man, if I were the paint department worker I would have thrown you out. That's seriously not cool. Now you got her in trouble because I guarantee that the person you hung up on complained to management, not to mention the people who couldn't get through.

You should have waited, or walked away and complained to a manager about how they need more help since the phone won't stop ringing.

That was just rude, and overstepping all kinds of lines.

I dunno, I had something similar happen to me when I was manning the lay-a-way counter at Wallyworld. Solo. My lobby was full, but the customers were generally being great about it, since they saw I was alone and going as fast as I could. However, the phone on the counter would NOT stop ringing, and I wasn't about to face the daggers of a dozen glares just to pick up the phone, likely for someone who wanted me to look up their account, tell me what was on their layaway, and all that jazz.

Phone kept ringing. I kept working. Phone kept ringing, I'm positive I was starting to make a cat-butt face at it. Customers in lobby started verbally stating their annoyance.

The woman I was waiting on stomped over to the phone, picked it up, said "She's with other customers right now, and I am one of them, so she can't help you. Call back later", and hung up.

I was caught somewhere between and

But at least the calls stopped. Still makes me laugh to this day. And by the way, they called back later. It was someone who wanted to go over in detail her nine seperate (and very large) layaways.

EDIT: To add, I do think the employee in the OP was very rude, and I'm almost sure that Subway would have a policy of no personal calls on the clock. I would have made a formal complaint to management.

[STEELMAN]

Man, if I were the paint department worker I would have thrown you out. That's seriously not cool. Now you got her in trouble because I guarantee that the person you hung up on complained to management, not to mention the people who couldn't get through.

You should have waited, or walked away and complained to a manager about how they need more help since the phone won't stop ringing.

That was just rude, and overstepping all kinds of lines.

I completely agree. You can tell people how you think they should do it, complain to management about them, or just leave, but you do not get to force people to do what you want.

[freeatlast]

When I worked at the tobacco store, it was a rule that you were to answer the phone if it rang. This applied even if you were in the middle of assisting a customer. Most of those calls were people who wanted the lottery numbers. I always disagreed with that rule. Why should someone who was too lazy to get off their ass and come in for the lottery numbers be helped before the customer who was standing at my counter. If I was that customer, I would leave and take my business elsewhere.