Why I hate our courtesy phone

[depechemodefan]

Maybe I'm an ass for not liking people using our courtesy phone. I get someone calling for a ride home, but it's like they do their business on the phone.

One woman was on the phone for more than 5 min. A guy comes up and wants to use it and since it's been more than 2 min., she should get off the phone. The guard comes up to me and says that she should get off the phone since she's been on it so long and someone needed. The freakin' guard! I told her to tell her (since I was busy helping somone). So it took the woman more than 2 min. to get off the phone.

Latter, a guy gets on the phone. For ten min. Let's call him "H". A woman then comes up, and she has a cell phone in her hand and she asks to use the phone. I imagine either she didn't pay her account or it ran out of juice, though it looked like she had to look up a number on it so it might still have juice.

Anyway, I tell the guy someone needs to use the phone, he had to get off. He looks at me and says, "someone needs to use the phone?" And the woman says, "Yeah, I need to use the phone!" At that time someone needed my help to find a book. I took about 3 min. So I come back and she's still on the phone, and there is one guy waiting and H came back. I tell her people are waiting and she takes about 2 min. to get off. Her conversation mostly was:
Woman: "uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh. Ok I have to get off. OH, you want me to call back in 30min. ok..."
She tells me she is stuck downtown and she was trying to get a ride, and she was being rushed (implied, by me), and the guy is making her call back in 30 min. Then she asked:
Woman: So is there a time limit on the computers? Is someone going to kick me off in 30 min?
To be honest, I was harsh with her about the phone since her tone with H was that he had to give up the phone to her right then. And also the cell phone, which left me wondering why she wanted our phone. Again, it could be out of juice, but if it was out of min. it's her fault. Juice I can understand, because sometimes you dont' notice it was left on.

Anyway next guy uses the phone and H gets on, and spends 10 min. on it. End of his conversation was:
H: I want your name. Your name. I want your name. I know this call is being recorded. I'm going to write to your supervisor.

Ugh.

[tropicsgoddess]

That was just rude. Where the hell do people go off thinking that courtesy phones can be used to have long personal conversations?!!

[Cyphr]

bah courtesy phones are only for confirmation that someone wanted item x from the storefront your in or to call for a ride because yours broke down...

[Hyndis]

The store I work at technically has a courtesy phone set up so customers can use, as the owner of the property has removed all of the public pay phones for some reason. However, I only ever mention this to people who are obviously looking lost and distressed about it, such as their cell phone is FUBAR'd, their ride broke down, or the person coming to pick them up never shows. Such phone calls for those people are quite brief, as they know what they want, who they need to call, and what they need to tell them.

But the fact that a courtesy phone is available to everyone isn't advertised to everyone. A little lie of omission can do wonders for keeping the peace...

[mattm04]

We have two pay phones in both entrances. We will allow the use of one of the custoemr service phones for the express purpose of callign a cab (we have list of local cab companies, the cust. tells us the name, we had the receiver over add dial the number) or for emergencies. Other than that, find 50 cents for the pay phone.

[depechemodefan]

There are no more payphones in the building, something about how to phone company stopped supplying them.

I mentioned the "business man" who is always using our phones to make 2 min. calls to shot the breeze with people. I can't believe a person who runs a business wouldn't have a cell phone.

Though this new courtesy phone doesn't have redial. Being the ass I am, when we were allowing people to use our own business phone for calls, if a person took way to long on a call, I would redial and leave the phone off the hook, hoping the person they called would get pissed.

[rerant]

And also the cell phone, which left me wondering why she wanted our phone. Again, it could be out of juice, but if it was out of min. it's her fault.

I was one of these people recently.
Having lost my job I've cut out luxuries like my cell phone. I've recently added money to it (I'm on a Pay-As-You-Go plan thankfully) but at the time I was just keeping it as sort of a beeper. People would call, leave a message and I would use my home phone (if that's where I was), pay phone or a friend's phone to get back to them.

A few weeks ago I was supposed to see a movie with a friend but stupid us, we didn't specify the theatre.
I KNEW we would be downtown and there are two major theatres in that area and I assumed we would naturally go to the more major one that's been around for much longer - the theatre basically everyone goes to when they go to the movies downtown.
Well I was there, he was at the other theatre.
He was calling and leaving messages and I had just enough change on me for two calls: one to check my messages and one to call him back.
BUT in the call to him all he said was, "I'm upstairs." OK, so I go upstairs, wander around like a doofus and see he's not there.
I had no more money on me to make another call from a payphone so I had to beg the guy at the info desk to let me use their phone.

I could tell he was irritated with me (and seemed even more so when I mis-dialed and, wonder of wonders, knew how to work the magical device of his phone to start over, as though my knowledge of multi-line phones was offensive to him) but I was quick (about a minute and a half), I was polite when asking, and I even said to my friend, "I have to get off the phone because the nice guy at the info desk let me use it and I don't want to tie it up," and I was not sarcastic in the slightest.

He still seemed irritated with me and I can't see why. It was a short call, I was polite, and yes, I whipped out my cell to get the number but just because I had the phone with me didn't mean it was of any practical use.

[Evil Queen]

Yeah, this mess is why we don't have a courtisy phone at the hotel.

Of course it sucks that we don't have pay phones either, but I'm glad we don't because I get tired enough of people trying to call out on the internal only phones and I get REALLY tired of kids playing with the phones.

[LionMan]

I really hated when people would ask to use the phone where I used to work to have personal conversations, as though they can't wait a few hours. I have no problem letting people talk to arrange rides and the such (many of them couldn't afford the 50 cents for a payphone).

As for payphones disappearing, where I worked they got rid of a bunch of them. Where there used to be banks of phones, there's now only one. From advisory board meeting minutes, its because each payphone cost $35/mo to maintain. Needless to say, with the rise of cellphones, even prepaid ones for cheap, there is much less demand for payphones.