Rude Cell Phone Behavior

Have you been the victim of rude cell phone behavior? Well, here's your opportunity to read and to rant and to do something about it. Send your stories to esmesblog@sbcglobal.net

Sunday, April 23, 2006

At The Drive-Up Bank Teller

Miss Manners addresses how to handle rude cell phone behavior at the drive-up bank teller:

Dear Miss Manners,
I am a bank teller at a drive-up bank. People will often come through the drive-up while speaking on their cell phones. When I try to ask a question about a transaction they are trying to make, I feel rude because I have to interrupt the conversation. I also believe the customer to be rude when they motion for me to wait for the conversation to end. It is especially frustrating when there is a long line of cars behind them. What do you suggest?

Gentle Reader,
Politely motioning them to keep moving, so that you can help the next person in line. Of course, they are the rude ones, not you. While they can spend their waiting time talking, the principle of drive-up lines requires them to be ready to do business when it is their turn.

Should these people continue to ignore you, Miss Manners suggests finding a way to signal your helplessness to the next in line, by tossing up your arms if you are visible to the next car, or by using a microphone to announce, "Next, please." If you can manage one of these, you may be sure that the next driver will start honking—which may be rude, but that is not your responsibility.

Mr Really Loud Cellphone Talker

don dokken told me that just days after I started this blog he heard a new Bud Light Real Men of Genius commercial - Mr. Really Loud Cellphone Talker. Since then, I have heard it several times myself. I spent all of last night trying to find the words to this radio ad. I am getting close and am now in a yahoo group called "Bud Light Real Men of Genius." "Good Luck and Good Night" is sitting here waiting to be watched but, no, I spend my night searching for words.)The things I do for my blogs...

The words are hillarious. I should be posting them here any day now.

Thursday, April 20, 2006

Rude Cell Phone Speaker Behavior

It must have taken a year for the speakerphone trend to get from New York to Los Angeles. The article below was published in Business Week in March 2005. The authoer talks about the trend being advanced by people under the age of 30. That was not the case in my situation. The women I refer to in this post were way old enough know better.

March 09, 2005
Can Anyone Elighten Me About The Rudest Cell Phone Behavior of All?
David Kiley

I ride the train from New Jersey to Manhattan on most days, and I have recently become aware of a growing trend of the rudest cell-phone behavior of all.

These are the people who not only talk the whole time, filling the car with blather, but they use the speaker function of the phone to boot. In this case, what we get is a garbled fuzz of blather from the sap we can't see, a beep when they are done blathering, and then our train companion's back-chatter. This is roughly like sitting next to a security guard in a mall for the duration of the trip as he monitors all his checkpoints or monitoring a police channel.

At first, I thought this was an isolated incident. But No. This is a bonafide trend. Here goes another Andy Rooney moment I am having. Can anyone explain to me: What is the attraction of using a cell-phone like a walkie talkie or a speaker phone on a crowded train? And, more importantly, what the hell were you people doing when the creator was handing out sense and manners?

What does this have to do with marketing? Cultural trends are always pertinent to marketing. Rudeness run amok must be some sort of flash point for advertisers and their agencies.

So far, this is a trend advanced mostly by young people under the age of 25 in and around New York City, as I observe. However, I'd peg the last phone-goon doing this on my train at about 30 years old.

Soon, I am going to retaliate, as I did a few months ago when some corporate chieftain was blathering through an entire conference call while standing shoulder to shoulder with me on the train. Trying to read my paper in peace, I became so fed up that I began reading the Times op-ed column aloud into his face. When he stopped, I stopped. That was a good day.

Spa Pedicure Cell Phone Behavior

I was having a pedicure and a woman walked in and loudly announced that it was her birthday. She was seated in the chair next to me and shortly after her arrival said to me "I'm sorry to disturb your relaxation but I'm going to have to get on an important work conference call in a minute."

In case you're interested, she was leaving for Houston the next day and it sounded like she was coordinating some sort of concert event and she was very worried about the weather and having the proper clothes. I am sure there were some details actually pertaining to her work in there too.

But cell phones are great because now people can work while they're getting their toes and nails done and their brows waxed and stuff and it is all very efficient.

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Stupid Cell Phone Behavior

sputnik posted this in the comments but I think it deserves a post of its own:

Talk about rude cell phone behavior . . . a woman was recently arrested (thank goodness) because WHILE SHE WAS ROBBING SOME BANKS she was talking to her boyfriend on a cell phone. Gees! She couldn't just say, "Honey, I gotta hang up--the line moved and I'm at the teller window now." Or, "'Scuse me, I'll call you back; the teller needs to be able to understand exactly what I'm saying. I need to give her my full attention." The calls were traced. Unfortunately, it wasn't the rude cell phone behavior that landed her in jail. Just the robbing while coincidentally talking on the phone.

Perfume Of Life

Joules informs that rude cell phone behavior is a big perfume of life forum topic:

http://perfumeoflife.org/index.php?showtopic=6350

Le Frite Restaurant

Last night I had dinner at a nice French restaurant. I had the choice of sitting in the back or sitting in what they called the patio area. It was an indoor patio, very bright, very pleasant. Until three tables away from me a group of women pulled out a cellphone, turned the speakerphone feature on, and started having a chat. In the middle of a nice French restaurant. Wow. It is bad enough just listening to someone talk on the phone but to have to hear a conference call was a little much. I asked to move to the back. "Do they think they're in their own living room?" I asked the waiter. "This is a RESTAURANT."

The wait staff was totally on my side and they told me that rude cell phone behavior happens all the time. They said that there is a regular who comes in for lunch and just chats the whole time.
I could see the group of women from where I was sitting in the back and they pulled out the cell phone again towards the end of their meal. I don't know if they were having another speakerphone talk or if they were using the camera feature on the phone and documenting their rude obnoxiousness.

After they left, the waiter told me he did not give them premiere service....the food was good and the staff was nice. They need to work on their clientele.

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

The Purpose of This Blog

I am sick of rude cell phone behavior and I am hoping to do something about it. I don't know what the answer is, though. I know there are ways of blocking cell phone reception but I am not necessarily in favor of because the great thing about a cell phone is that you can reach people if there is an emergency. I think that public places definitely need to develop and enforce cell phone policies. For example, there is a drugstore nearby that has a post office with a sign that basically says you will not be helped if you are talking on a cell phone.

So the purpose of this blog is mainly for me and others to vent when they are the victim of rude cell phone behavior. Send me your stories and I will post them. I will, of course, be posting my own stories as well as pertinent cell phone news.