Buying my dog and cat supplies elsewhere

Talking on the phone without the simple basic human curtesy of sitting
the phone aside for a few moments to greet the employee and complete
your transaction will not result in you being treated the best.

I wished stores ignored people talking on the phone while checking out
and instead would serve those not on the phone ready to interact and
pay attention to what they're doing.

The employee sounds fed of of dealing with rude customers. You
"thanking" her for being rude - not cool.

The fact that you were too busy on the phone conducting business with
a business associate contributed to your entering your debit card
information incorrectly.

If you were NOT on your cell phone, this would not have happened. You
would have been able to focus all of your attention on the business at
hand at PetsMart.

So because you were on your cell phone, the entire process took longer
than usual.

This is another valid reason why it is not a good idea to be speaking
on your cell phone while doing business unless it is really an
emergency.

Kay G

I do feel that both of you were in the wrong.

First, you were on your cell phone the entire time during the
transaction. I understand that you were talking to a business
associate about an impt. project, but it would have been better if you
would have told the business associate that you would get back to
him/her & focus on the transaction instead.

Second, the cashier should not have given you dirty look & shook her
head after you asked her if she needed your PetPerks card.

If none of that happened, your shopping experience would have been
positive, & you would not have had to post this complaint.

Corporate has to make the decision whether or not to fire the "moron".

It could have been handled better by both of you.

I understand you are on the phone but couldn't you have told your
business associate to hold for a few minutes or offer to call him
back? I can understand why the cashier didn't talk to you, your focus
was elsewhere.

The cashier should not have argued with you, if you haven't been
taught manners by your parents and you're now an adult it's too late.
She should have just appeased you and sent you on your way, now you
will be some other store/cashiers problem.

I almost always side with the customer but I will not excuse bad
manners nor should anyone else have to.

OMG, why are comments being pulled on this thread? There is no way
that saying "Being on the phone while someone is trying to conduct
business with you is rude" is violation of even THIS site's strict
TOS.

Where I work at I deal with customers at least on a weekly basis who
drive up to the Visitor parking booth while on their cell phone.

There are customers who will not acknowledge me & continue speaking on
their cell phone. But then there are customers who will tell the
person they are speaking to that they have to get back to them, & they
acknowledge me.

Those customers I enjoy doing business with.

http://tinyurl.com/6tzozkr


This way there's no confusion or miscommunication between the employee
and the customer.

I've worked as a cashier. Once, a man came through my line talking on
his cell phone, and he had thrown down a check on the counter behind
his items. I needed more information for the check. For several
minutes, I simply stood quietly, but he wouldn't even look at me.
Finally, I simply said, "Sir?" to get his attention. He was extremely
angry and told me to shut up because he was talking.

While anyone working with customers needs to be polite, the cashier
deserves the same respect.

Let's address basic manners. I would never address, or try to engage a
customer while he/she is on the phone. I assume their business must be
pressing. Multi tasking is a double edged sword. While on the phone
you conveyed that the cashier was not worth your time. Are you unable
to say to your receiver "sorry", give me thirty seconds to acknowledge
a human being and complete the transaction. Distractions, attitude,
whatever. Make the connection, and I don't mean over the phone.

I work as a visitor parking attendant.

This incident happened last year while I was working inside the
visitor parking booth. A male customer drives up to the booth while
talking on his cell phone. He tells me "please hold", & he continues
to talk on his cell phone. Meanwhile a line of cars forms behind him.
I sat there inside the booth hoping he would notice this by looking in
his rear view mirror, but he did not. I did not mention this to him
because he was too busy talking on his cell phone. So I raised the
gate. That was when he got the message & drove up to the entrance gate
to the Visitor parking garage. He had a surprised look on his face
when I raised the gate. I did not say anything to him while he was
busy talking on his cell phone.

Most folks who shop at Petsmart know that if you have a Pet Perks card
then you need to show it or mention that you have one but don't have
it with you. Being that you went to make a payment with your debit
card without inquiring about the Pet Perks card prior to that probably
gave the cashier the impression that you did not have one.

Out of curiosity, during your phone call, did you even address the
cashier? Did you even look at her? If you didn't say a word to her and
were completely involved in your conversation, I can see why she
didn't speak to you. She didn't want to rudely interrupt your very
important phone call. If you refused to acknowledge her and were
carrying on a conversation on the phone, she probably figured you
weren't interested in speaking with her and she proceeded to do her
job which was ring up your items.

Quite honestly, it sounds like the cashier was treating you as you
were treating her. You basically ignored her and she decided to
basically ignore you. I have a feeling that if you would've told the
person you were on the phone with to hold on a minute, said hi to the
cashier and were involved in the checkout process, it would've been a
much more positive experience.

OP

Firing the "moron" is up to the corprate office. Corprate needs to be
contacted regarding this. It would be up to them whether or not the
"moron" needs to be fired or not. This would be based on the
information they receive & what the company policy is.

This is only the 4th post I have read on this site, and the responses,
which always seem to criticize the letter writer, are already getting
tiresome. The cashier should have asked for the perks #, that's part
of her job. Rather than going on the offense, she should have
apologized.

I also think the previous low quality of service just got to be too
much for this particular customer--but characterizing the cashier as a
"moron" and asking for her to be fired is a bit over the top.

Just wow.

I don't greet or interject when someone is on the phone while in my
line either. It would be RUDE for me to interupt!

And I would say that 90% of the time, while someone is yakking away on
their phone, they manage to screw up the transaction somehow (not
paying attention to the debit screen, forgetting coupons, forgetting
their savings card etc). Like I said, I could interject, but I wont...


A couple have complained but guess what? I still have my job and I
wont lose it over good manners.

How would YOU like it if your "business associate" was engaged in
another conversation while you were trying to talk about a deadline?

And no, being involved in the transaction is more than the amount
debited from your account. Thats your bank.

Kay G.,

Stores need to adopt a "You have our attention now we want your's" at
the checkout. This would reduce items being misrang, items not getting
in the bag and the like.

There are exceptions, though I doubt any of these fit this case:

Your patient you thought was going to deliver tomorrow has
contractions a few minutes apart.

The Lear Jet just landed with the transplant heart. As lead surgeon
please return to the surgery suite.

BillR.

If you were so worried about giving the cashier your perks number, why
didn't you just speak up? You were on the phone. Presumably if the
phone conversation was so important you couldn't hang up prior to
checking out, it was too important for the cashier to interrupt.

You chose to go to PetSmart during your lunch break while on your cell
phone with a business associate. Instead of spending your time on your
cell phone with the business associate while checking out at PetSmart,
could you have not gone after work?

I have read on the Internet that a pet peeve of people working in any
customer service position is people talking on their cell phone while
doing any kind of business transaction. This also includes business
owners. Dealing with customers talking on their cell phone can cause
stress & frustration for both parties. To prevent that, it is best for
neither party not to be on the phone during the transaction.

How would have felt if the cashier was talking on the phone while
completing your transaction?

Your the one on the phone, personally I would have sat and stared at
you til you got off the phone so that you would have your full
attention on the business you were attempting to do.

As for asking for your pet smart card, maybe if you weren't on the
phone you would have had it ready to hand it to her.

you're going through the transaction, then call her rude? Why is she a
moron? Because she couldn't guess exactly how one customer out of all
the customers who insist on talking on the phone during check-out
wanted her to be? Like the poster below me says, she was in a
lose-lose situation - and that's entirely due to you.

I'm sorry, I don't think the cashier could have won either way. Did
you want the cashier to continually interrupt your phone call with
greetings, etc? When you go the register on the phone you put the
cashier in a difficult place of either interrupting the customer (and
being told she is rude for interrupting) or not saying anything to the
customer (and then being rude for not interacting). It's a no win