People using up your time

Pollycat

MegS wrote: »

Those of you that don't like the cashier in the shop or teller at the bank talking to customers don't ever move to Canada, it's expected. First thing they ask is how you are. Also for anything monetary you have to make an appointment, it's like the UK 30 years ago. I've certainly learnt patience living here.

Pollycat wrote: »

It's not the sales assistant to customer exchange that annoys me.
It's the sales assistants talking to each other when customers are waiting to be served.

and not paying attention to the person they are serving.

I was in a small local shop one Christmas Eve and the 2 assistants were having a right old chat about something.
The sales assistant asked me what I wanted.
I told her.
She asked me again.
I told her.
Still talking to her workmate, she gave me the wrong type of sausage.

I told her she'd got my order wrong.
Huffing & puffing (how dare a customer interrupt my so important conversation?), she changed it.
I gave her a £5 note.
She gave me change for £20.
I opened my mouth to tell her she'd got it wrong then thought, 'Do you know what? It's your fault you got it wrong'.
I put the extra £15 in our local hospice charity shop collecting tin.

Indie_Kid

Pollycat wrote: »

and not paying attention to the person they are serving.

I was in a small local shop one Christmas Eve and the 2 assistants were having a right old chat about something.
The sales assistant asked me what I wanted.
I told her.
She asked me again.
I told her.
Still talking to her workmate, she gave me the wrong type of sausage.

I told her she'd got my order wrong.
Huffing & puffing (how dare a customer interrupt my so important conversation?), she changed it.
I gave her a £5 note.
She gave me change for £20.
I opened my mouth to tell her she'd got it wrong then thought, 'Do you know what? It's your fault you got it wrong'.
I put the extra £15 in our local hospice charity shop collecting tin.

How rude. I wouldn't go back there again.

Pollycat

Indie_Kid wrote: »

How rude. I wouldn't go back there again.

TBH, it was a few years ago and they did do fab sausage.
That and black pudding was my Christmas Day breakfast treat.

They've closed down now.

Pixie5740

tesuhoha wrote: »

I know this woman who makes out she is my friend but she goes out socially with other people and I am never invited. I used to work with her and I am retired. Not that I am bothered. The thing is she is always asking for my help with job applications and forms because she is completely unable to do this kind of thing by herself. She rings me up and I go round to her house and do the whole thing for her.

The reason I help her is that she has had a very tough time with jobs and redundancies but now as it goes on its wearing very thin. The last time I was round there all evening and I wasn't even offered a cup of tea. She always promises bottles of wine etc but it never materialises. I am supposed to be going round next week to help with an application form but I am starting to resent my time being taken up. She has phoned me 4 times about this and not taken any hints. I think she thinks as I am retired I have nothing better to do but it is so deadly boring and long winded.

This woman sounds like a total user. I'm not surprised you feel resentful about her taking up your time. In the words of Grangehill, just say no. Easier said than done though.

Dizzy_Ditzy

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

The bus I use most often is cluttered with school children ... pensioners don't stand a chance!

I actually changed my job to get away from the school kid ridden buses! I got fed up of sometimes taking two hours to get home on a 5 mile trip. I got fed up of the kids refusing to get up for very elderly frail people. My life is a lot less stressful because I don't have to use the bus now

Dizzy_Ditzy

A patient rang me once demanding that I swap his appointment with someone else's on the same clinic. That would have meant phoning all the patients on that list to ask if they'd mind swapping with that patient. He was really quite rude and horrible and in the end I told him that it was a hospital not a hairdressers and if he wanted a slot at a particular time I'd be happy to change it for him but he'd have to wait another two months as I wasn't going to swap him round with anyone else.

Mr_Toad

I've enjoyed reading this thread, however, it does seem a little one sided.

I like punctuality and am rarely late without good reason and some things are just plain rude and thoughtless.

However, reading the long list of complaints I think a lot of the frustration is self inflicted.

When did we become a society without patience? A society where chatting and taking time were wrong?

I can well imagine some people who've posted their frustration spending an extra 10 minutes in bed rather than get up then rushing to catch up and getting frustrated with people driving slowly or holding them up in any way. Why should they suffer your frustration because they have time and you don't?

Life isn't precise, there are going to be hold ups, you can leave at the last minute and take your chances or leave a few minutes earlier and it doesn't matter if some takes longer than you'd like to do something.

I've been guilty of the above myself, rushing about in the morning, coffee in one hand, toast in the other. Leaving late for a meeting because I just did one more email or made one more call.

nwc389

My take on time stealers

When you are on holiday excursions and it's always the same ones who stroll back to the bus late while everyone else is waiting seething

When I worked in the bank , people who turned up for their appointments late were a nightmare . Each appointment had a set amount of time for what was to be done so if they showed up late it could over run and have a knock on effect , we used to give them 10 minutes then they would have to rebook . There were also people who never showed up leaving you with a dilemma of did you take another customer and run the risk of that over running . Then there were the people who got booked in incorrectly usually by the contact centre who failed to allocate them to the right person or book the appointment with the right amount of time for what they wanted to do so their appointments could over run . It really was a nightmare to keep it under control.
I was the cause of of a dentist over running once , I was booked in for an extraction and the tooth came out bit by tiny bit :eek: , it wasn't very nice but my son who was waiting for me said that the receptionist did keep apologising and explained the dentist had a difficult extraction.

peaceandfreedom

Mr_Toad wrote: »

When did we become a society without patience? A society where chatting and taking time were wrong?

I can well imagine some people who've posted their frustration spending an extra 10 minutes in bed rather than get up then rushing to catch up and getting frustrated with people driving slowly or holding them up in any way. Why should they suffer your frustration because they have time and you don't?

Life isn't precise, there are going to be hold ups, you can leave at the last minute and take your chances or leave a few minutes earlier and it doesn't matter if some takes longer than you'd like to do something.

Indeed very true, and I have been guilty of the same behaviour myself - particularly getting wound up with a slow driver in front of me (or actually shouting at traffic lights for having the audacity to turn red ) when I'm the one that left the house too late.

I can also vouch for the relaxation that comes with the opposite approach - leave yourself plenty of time and have a relaxing journey knowing you have plenty of leeway if things go wrong. I always do this when travelling to an airport, for example, and it's a good idea to always do it. I have a Kindle in my bag so if I find I am somewhere way too early, I can sit and read for while, which is always a treat.

As for chatting - I am always up for a chat but there is a time and a place for this. If you've been queuing at a checkout, it is very annoying for the person in front to be having a lengthy chat with the cashier - often this is a fellow staff member in fact, getting their shopping before going home.

I don't begrudge lonely people having a chat when out and about and in fact I have often had rather long chats with random elderly people when I am out for my lunchtime walk. All it takes is a friendly smile and a comment about something, and we're off .

Indie_Kid

peaceandfreedom wrote: »

As for chatting - I am always up for a chat but there is a time and a place for this. If you've been queuing at a checkout, it is very annoying for the person in front to be having a lengthy chat with the cashier - often this is a fellow staff member in fact, getting their shopping before going home.

I agree. I was in a shop on Friday. It was just me, the cashier and another customer. The cashier was talking to the other customer and I was having a look to see if I could find what I wanted. I was not in a rush; so didn't see this as being held up, nor a waste of my time. I then stopped and had a chat. Of course, if there was a queue of people behind me / I had things to do, I wouldn't have stopped and had a chat.