I want to charge my cell phone

[pssorens]

This happened last week and as we are still talking about it at work, figured it might be worth posting here. We were busy getting electronics set up for black friday. I had a guest walk up to me and asked me to let her plug in a cell phone in at our service center. I told her no right away for 3 reasons.
1. Liability. We would be responsible if any thing happened to her phone.

2. trip hazard. Where the Phone would have to be plugged in would be in the way of every single team member trying to use the registers, answer calls from customers, or help costumers with camera's.

3. why should we incur a cost that is not our responsibility. It is I admit a minor cost, but it's not our fault that you forgot to charge your phone.

I told her no, She wanted to speak to a manager and has since been in twice to complain that we wouldn't let her charge her cell phone.

[Crime Scene Scarf]

"I want to charge my phone here."
"Sure, that will be (large cost), please!"
"What, why?"
"Well, (list problems)."

Yes, I am mean.

[just_me]

Has she not ever heard of a car charger?

[Green_Fairy]

"I want to charge my phone here."
"Sure, that will be (large cost), please!"
"What, why?"
"Well, (list problems)."

Yes, I am mean.

psh. that's not mean. that's entrepreneurial!

[Mnemjian]

Wow, that sounds just like a lady we had to deal with a few months ago. She just went ahead and plugged her phone into our outlet and then got upset when I told her that she couldn't. Then my boss came out and she tried to complain that I was rude to her and wouldn't let her charge her phone. Boss agreed with me and was actually pretty rude to her about it when I hadn't been She left all huffy after that.

SCs just assume that they are allowed to do anything in a store that they could do at home, even more so probably because they are the customer

[tropicsgoddess]

"I want to charge my phone here."
"Sure, that will be (large cost), please!"
"What, why?"
"Well, (list problems)."

Yes, I am mean.

What would be mean is if you can tack on the SC tax, which would be much higher than your sales/state tax.

psh. that's not mean. that's entrepreneurial!

Agreed!

[jjllbb]

The sad thing is, I'm sure one of my managers would have said "yes! of course you can!"

[Ironclad Alibi]

I recall reading several times, probably on this forum, about customers surreptitiously plugging in their cell phone chargers. They would hide it, leaving it unattended while charging, and be upset when they came back and found it gone.

[Anthony K. S.]

I totally understand where you're coming from on this.

At my store, it wasn't so much cell phone chargers as customers plugging their laptop computers into the store's electrical outlets.

It was even worse when they would do this and then sit down to use their computers in front of either (1) the door to the Receiving area or (2) the Emergency Exit, blocking either door.

On another thread, I mentioned one time in particular, that a customer got really steamed when I told her that she wasn't allowed to plug her laptop computer into the store's electrical outlet.

She railed on and on, for a while, saying :

1. She had bought a cup of coffee in our cafe . . . and she seemed to believe that this obviously entitled her to use our electrical outlet and probably do whatever else she wanted as well.

2. She was going to call our Corporate office, and that I should tell my managers that they could expect a phone call about this. I got a strong sense that she was one of those SCs who are arrogant enough to believe that they are not only right, but that they are so obviously right that anybody (meaning Corporate) would automatically side with her.

3. She threw out a number of statements like, "This reflects very badly on your store!," "You should be ashamed of yourself!," and "I'm not some vagabond off the street, you know!"

As BookstoreEscapee said on that other thread :

"I'm not some vagabond off the street, you know!"

Well, if she was, I could understand her needing to borrow some electricity...but since she's not...GO HOME AND USE YOUR OWN ELECTRICITY!!!

It's one thing if they strictly need to use the store's electrical outlet, like if their own home's power is out, or something of that nature . . . But even then, they should understand that they're asking a favor, and it's not something that they're entitled to.

They would hide it, leaving it unattended while charging, and be upset when they came back and found it gone.

Wow . . . That is all different kinds of stupid.

[infinitemonkies]

I suspect/predict that as pay phones disappear we'll start seeing quick-charge vending machine for cell phones in large public areas like malls, hospitals, universities, etc. Pop in a couple quarters, plug you phone in for a minute, get an hours worth of charge.
This probably already exists, I'm just not aware of it.

[Bunny the Veggie Slayer]

I suspect/predict that as pay phones disappear we'll start seeing quick-charge vending machine for cell phones in large public areas like malls, hospitals, universities, etc. Pop in a couple quarters, plug you phone in for a minute, get an hours worth of charge.
This probably already exists, I'm just not aware of it.

The major difficulty with that presently is the many different connectors used by the various manufacturors. Now that they've agreed on a standard based on micro USB, it would be a

Oooh, why not have one powered by a treadmill or exercise bike. Give theSC's what they deserve.

[Tigerpounce]

The major difficulty with that presently is the many different connectors used by the various manufacturors. Now that they've agreed on a standard based on micro USB, it would be a

Oooh, why not have one powered by a treadmill or exercise bike. Give theSC's what they deserve.

They exist already! In international airports and big malls you'll find these kiosks with a couple dozen different dongles for phones. Nifty as hell.

And seriously, MALL. When Ike hit, everyone and their dog was at the Galleria camped out by the plugs. The mall was totally cool and even advertised that people could come and brush their teeth in the bathrooms and charge their electronics and grab something to eat at the food court, etc. Stores opened early to take advantage of it, which gave people something to do and boosted sales.

I love this town. <3

[Kogarashi]

Oooh, why not have one powered by a treadmill or exercise bike. Give theSC's what they deserve.

I actually think this would be awesome. Sure, SCs probably wouldn't agree with me, but whatever.

But yeah, I've seen the charging stations in some airports. I don't think they cost, either. Just plug and go. The ones I've seen included AC outlets for laptops.

[BlaqueKatt]

They exist already! In international airports and big malls you'll find these kiosks with a couple dozen different dongles for phones. Nifty as hell.

heck not even big malls-we have them in our malls-like 3 per mall i think it's like a dollar to charge and you can also buy ringtones/wallpaper etc

[Peppergirl]

People crack me up. And she's been in twice more to complain about it.




Bwahahahaha. I want her life. She clearly has wayy too much time on her hands.

The *only* time I've ever asked to plug in my cell phone was when I was at the T-Mobile store trying to upgrade and work on my plan. My phone was dying and beeping loudly, and just as I asked, the salesperson was pulling out a charger to offer me. It was great timing, so I didn't feel like a total shitheel.