For the Love of Cheese, Speak UP

[DGoddessChardonnay]

How many more times must I ask this simple question before I die? It is so unbelievably simple, yet 9 out of 10 customers just can't bring themselves to do this.

Speak loud enough and clear enough for the cashier to be able to hear him/her and know what they want.

I just came off a 7 1/2 hour shift on a register - on Easter Sunday - and I'm still wound up. I know I sounded like a broken record today . . . "Please speak up, I can't hear very well at all."

How hard is this to grasp?????? If I thought people would actually read and pay attention, I would have posted a sign at my register reading:

Please speak up when talking to the cashier . . . she can't hear you otherwise.

I know I need my hearing checked . . . I've been whining about it for several years, but it has grown noticeably worse. I can see lips move, yet I can't hear what's being said . . . especially when there's a lot of noise around me. Then you might as well be shouting over everything for me to hear you, much less me shouting so I can hear what I'm telling you over all the other noise.

So, if I ask you a second time if you have your store card, don't get snippy with me and tell me you don't have it - it won't do you any good, even after I explain that I couldn't hear you the first time b/c I have a hearing PROBLEM.

And don't look down at the floor or your clothes when speaking to me. I have yet to see a shirt talk back - if I do, I'm out the door and I'm not stopping for anybody.

Same goes for the mumblers . . . I don't know Mumblese - that wasn't a language offered by my high school 20 years ago when I was there.

Oh, and did I forget to tell you to leave your freakin' attitude outside? The only attitude I want to deal with is MINE. And frankly, there's not a thing wrong with mine, thanksverymuch. I've been perfecting it over the last 38 years and it ain't going anywhere. Just because you see my name on my nametag is no reason to repeat it half a dozen times, then get all bent out of shape when I ask your name. All's fair, right? And Mama always told me never talk to strangers . . . so I take it you're name's Mr. Jerkoff, right? You look and act like one in my book, so you must be.

(Besides, my boyfriend likes my attitude just fine. He's got excellent taste, BTW.)

So for the love of all that's holey . . SPEAK THE HELL UP and while you're at it, stuff the attitude. Got what it takes to argue w/a woman? Grow up.

Only a coward would dare argue with me as it is. So stuff it.

Oh, and did I mention SPEAK UP if you actually expect me to hear you?

Sorry if I'm rambling . . . I'm so tired, I think I'll get one more smoke and go to bed.

[bigjimaz]

I know I need my hearing checked . . . I've been whining about it for several years

Please quit blaming your customers. They have no idea that you have a hearing problem when they walk up to you. It's not like a rash that can be seen. Your customers are talking in their normal tone. Go get your hearing checked. My mother has worn a hearing aid since I was small. The first one she got was the size of a pack of cigarettes yet she wore it, clipped to her bra with a wire as thick as an extension cord led from it to the earpiece. It was bulky but she wore it because she liked to hear her kids. The one she wears now can't be seen unless you are looking directly into her left ear. Please don't let vanity or fear keep you from hearing everything around you.

[Special Patrol Group]

It's certainly ok to ask people to speak up if you can't hear them and if they get shirty about it they are sucky customers.

Do get your hearing checked. My Dad has the same sought of problem. He can't hear well when there is background noise. He tried a hearing aid and found it completely useless for this kind of situation (which was the only situation he needed it for really). Maybe they can adjust them to get around this? Dad just asks people to speak up and as he isn't in retail and people therefore don't treat him like dirt, it's not a problem.

Too many customers are not talking in their normal tones they are really mumblimg. It's impossible to hear them, whether you need a haring aid or not. It is SOOOOO FRUSTRATING. I hate how they treat you like dirt because you ask them to repeat themselves. I think they are just too lazy to open their mouths properly.

[bigjimaz]

I in no way meant you any disrespect DGoddess and if you do have customers you can't hear, please ask them to speak up. But please go get your hearing checked. There are radical things they have done with aids and surgeries lately.

I know it's a scary thing when you know there's something wrong. You will not believe the things you are missing out on. If it's just background noise they have directional aids that help you hear things right in front of you and that cancel out background stuff. You may have some type of inner ear problem that can be taken care of medically or surgically.

Go now. Don't put anything off for so long that nothing can be done anymore. Maybe then instead of telling them to speak up you'll be asking them why they're yelling at you!

And please accept my apology for any hurt or anger I caused you in my OP. The last thing I want to do is become what we come here to rant about.

[digilight]

bigjimaz, I think it becomes more then just not being able to hear the customers. Theres people (Like my Dad) who are just naturally soft spoken. I know that I have a hell of a time hearing my dad at times. Granted my hearing's not as good as it used to be at times (but my wife has the same problem with him too).

I think that DG's issue is more that when people are talking to her, they tend to not take into account the location where they are talking. I've got a feeling that where she works tends to be a little on the louder side and that in itself can make it harder to here folks.

[zzapp the witch]

I like chocolate milk.

[ContraCorriente]

I completely know how you feel. I'm almost completely deaf but I can speechread very well. Plus, most cashier-to-customer conversation does not veer off the basics ("How are you?" "Find everything okay?") But for the love of Pete, people, to read your speech I have to see your lips. So you can't turn around, write a check, tie your shoe, have a thick moustache, etc. if you want me to understand what you want. I actually taught one customer a bit of ASL, and it's a nice break for him to come in and be able to convey what I want to convey without worrying about my voice (apparently I talk like I have a jawbreaker on my tongue.)

Try getting a bigger sign, or getting a pin for your shirt with 'ILY' in ASL on it. I got one awhile back and it's surprising how many people see it and then make an effort to look at me when they're speaking and speak clearly.

[BusyBee]

I'm so used to both sides of this problem. I'm part deaf in one ear (the ear that is always on the side to the customers as luck has it -_- ), and I'm also very soft spoken. I tend to forget that my voice level is generally a third what most people talk at and I often get told to speak up, I have no problem with it.
Asking other people to speak up for me is another bucket of fish. When I do ask people what they said/to speak up, most of them seem to just repeat themselves at the same volume In my experience, asking anyone - even friends - to repeat themselves again even once in a conversation REALLY bugs them. And it bugs me having to ask too, but hey, I'm trying to participate in this dialogue too ya know?
Anyhoo. In my experience, yeah, customers get so bent out of shape when you ask them to repeat themselves. Not surprising really, when a lot of them seem to think you should be psychic enough not to ask in the first place. Whenever people say something I don't need to know - like making some asinine joke - that I don't hear, I just sort of smile and give the slighest chuckle. Works for me

By the way D, if you can afford it, definitely check out hearing aids. My grandma is just about deaf - without the aids in we have to YELL for her to hear. With them in, she hears creaks in the floor and everything and we can have normal conversations again. So much better than her always getting upset about us yelling at her

[trunks2k]

I like chocolate milk.

That was the first thing that popped into my mind when I read the OP title.

[RichS]

I have tinnitus in both ears from a car accident, so sometimes it's hard to hear clearly.

Add to that my wife's very soft-spoken voice, and sometimes I have to say "What?" a couple of times...

One thing happened a couple of weeks ago that still has me upset. My wife took the kids to a Sunday breakfast at the church hall. They get their food, and get to the end of the line to pay. The person who collects the money asks how many.

Note: My wife is the secretary for the church mentioned, goes to to Sunday breakfast almost every day with the kids, and the same people always work on the breakfast.

My wife says "Four."

The person then says,"SPEAK UP!!! YOU HAVE TO USE THAT VOICE OF YOURS!!!"

That's all she told me - she was in our room .

Methinks I'll go with her at the next breakfast...

[Noelegy]

I feel the pain of the hearing-impaired, although my impairment isn't so bad.

I have about a 10% hearing loss in both ears, worse on the right, from chronic ear infections as a child. Nobody ever told my mom I needed ear tubes, and the buildup of scar tissue means that I don't hear the greatest.

We have telephone headsets where I work, and they sucketh most mightily. It's a boom mike with an earphone that doesn't fit snugly enough against your ear, and a single volume control. Which means that if I turn it up loud enough where I can hear the earphone, it simultaneously turns up the microphone volume to the point where the mike picks up EVERYTHING in the background, and as I've posted before, there is beaucoup background noise here. Plus, I start getting feedback.

We have many of these crappy old headsets. If I ask for a new one, all I get is a replacement of this same POS. Yet, mysteriously, there are people here and there who have a nifty little boom mike that fits over the back of the ear. I asked our supplies person about that this morning, and she said she was only allowed to order those (she has one) if we don't have any of the Crappy Mikes (tm) left. Yet how do some people have those?

Sorry, didn't mean to threadjack. My boss says there's a headset available with two earpieces, and the supplies person says she'll try to get hold of one of those for me.

[42_42_42]

A LOT of people just don't know how to speak clearly. When I worked the phones taking catalog orders I had so much trouble understanding our customers that I went and had my hearing checked. The audiologist reported that my hearing is better than perfect (apparently I hear better than whatever score is considered "perfect" -- I know that's wierd) and that if I'm having trouble understanding anyone, it's not due to my hearing but to their speaking! It really is hard for me to understand people who don't enunciate, and I'm constantly surprised by how many people talk like they have a mouth full of mashed potatoes and peanut butter.

[zzapp the witch]

Sorry Nightangel. Its a VERY oblique connection.

Cheese is a cartoon character on Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, so I first thought of him when I read the thread title.

But then, when I read the thread, I thought to myself that poor OP's customers must all talk like Cheese, cause when that damned guy (I love/hate him) comes on the TV, I have to turn it up to hear him, and sometimes replay certain parts to figure out what the hell the guy is saying.

Yeah, I know, REALLY out there, but that's where my mind goes. God help you all.

[ArenaBoy]

Imagine customers who are already stating their situation as they're opening their car window. It drives me nuts.

[Primer]

I have about a 10% hearing loss in both ears, worse on the right, from chronic ear infections as a child. Nobody ever told my mom I needed ear tubes, and the buildup of scar tissue means that I don't hear the greatest.

We have many of these crappy old headsets. If I ask for a new one, all I get is a replacement of this same POS. Yet, mysteriously, there are people here and there who have a nifty little boom mike that fits over the back of the ear. I asked our supplies person about that this morning, and she said she was only allowed to order those (she has one) if we don't have any of the Crappy Mikes (tm) left.

My boss says there's a headset available with two earpieces, and the supplies person says she'll try to get hold of one of those for me.

"Reasonable Accomodations"

If other people who do not NEED the better headsets have them, then they need to get you, who HAS a need, a better headset, too.