January 13, 2005
Don't be so rude, businesses telling cell phone users
More and more businesses are asking their customers to switch off their phone while they are being attended, reports Post Gazette.
A flurry of signs, have popped up in restaurants, stores, banks, post offices, car wash and other service-oriented businesses requesting that customers stop chatting.
"It gets difficult to do business when people are arguing over the phone or making plans for the evening -- loudly," said assistant treasurer Samuel Milliner.
Some even believe that customers who need to remain connected while being serviced should just be ignored.
"If someone's talking on their cell phone, I just skip to the next person in line," explained a sales clerk at Subway Sandwiches.
Other restaurants, especially those trying to serve food quickly to waiting lines of customers, have similar warnings.
One clerk, Kathleen Ciganik often pulled out a toy cell phone and began talking on it if a customer would approach her while immersed in a conversation. "My toy phone actually rang and I would say, 'Hello, may I help you?' " She'd then serve the customer once the cell phone was put away.
But growing cell phone sales and wireless service plans that allow people to be reached at anytime, anyplace and at a low cost, will go on fuelling the legions of users who will talk about anything, anywhere.
The Permanent Link to this page is: http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/2005/01/006733.htm
| Tweet |
