I've been using an LHS near my home for almost 10 years now. It's a mom and pop shop, with lots of character. Lately, however, I've been a bit miffed with it.

They know me well there. When I first got into this hobby, I would take various older locos in there for servicing or repair. Occasionally, I would trade some in and buy more things from their shop. In more recent years, I often run in there to buy track or any misc odds and ends. About 1-2 times a year I will buy something substantial from them, such as a loco.

The shop is quirky in that it's often crowded with boxes and unsorted items, but they've always given me good, friendly service. They also put a monthly MRR magazine aside for me which I assume they do simply to keep me coming back, since stores make very little profit from magazines...

About 3 weeks ago, however, I went in & only the owner was there. He stayed on the phone so long that I gave up and left. It sounded as if it was a casual call.

Then I went in again yesterday and the same thing happened. I patiently waited for 10 minutes before he got off the phone. Still, I left feeling frustrated, thinking that they're not following a good business model!

I don't expect the world to revolve around me & I try to be patient but I was annoyed that this happened two times in a row. I also realize that the seond guy could have been handling an urgent or serious call.

So, am I over-reacting or maybe I've worn out my welcome there? Just curious if anyone has experienced anything similar.

Thanks,
Rob

Well, let's assume is was tough luck only. Give them a third chance.
I would ask them to terminate the phone call and serve me immediately the next time. May be they did it unintentionally or you will look for another LHS.

I had a similar situation in a shop some weeks ago. I talk so loud to the lady she could not proceed with her cellular conversation

Just to let you know that this type of behavior isn't confined to hobby shops, we went into a rather large local western store a while back. We couldn't find what we were looking for and couldn't find a floor person so we went up front. There were very few shopper in the store, and they weren't busy, but the store manager was on his cell phone and the checkout clerk was on the store's land-line. We stood there for a few minutes, but neither one wanted to stop talking long enough to find out what we wanted, so we just left. Without customers, the stores might just as well close shop, that's true in any business.

Thanks Rheinhard & Don,

Yes, I'll give them a third chance. I try hard to be reasonable because, after all, trains are just a hobby. Still, I'm often in a hurry and, what with work and looking after my kids, I often only have a few minutes to dash in and out.

I also realize that many other stores follow the same practice, yacking on their phones, ignoring customers, even when they're not busy. That is annoying.

I agree completely , Rob , that phone and texting use is out of hand in the service world but I think it will only continue to get worse . Like the others here have said , give them another chance but this time let them know ...." if you want to carry on casual conversation instead of waiting on me , I'm gone " !!!

I work in a sales and service industry ( RV's ) and see a couple of our workers on their cell and/or text machine every opportunity they get . I've mentioned it to the management but nothing changes . I don't have-use-need-want such devices . Most of the time they are used for meaningless small talk .

T

teejay Wrote:I agree completely , Rob , that phone and texting use is out of hand in the service world but I think it will only continue to get worse . Like the others here have said , give them another chance but this time let them know ...." if you want to carry on casual conversation instead of waiting on me , I'm gone " !!!

I work in a sales and service industry ( RV's ) and see a couple of our workers on their cell and/or text machine every opportunity they get . I've mentioned it to the management but nothing changes . I don't have-use-need-want such devices . Most of the time they are used for meaningless small talk .

T

Yes, the cellphone / iPhone world of texting and easy phone-calling gets crazy. Having said that, I use my iPhone a lot for work (checking emails and getting phone calls). I also text my wife a lot and 1-2 friends, so I can easily get addicted to it. But if I worked for a company or in a store, I would never ignore customers because of texting, phoning or web surfing. Just seems bizarre to me and goes against the nature of running a business.

You got it good..!!

My "local" HS is about 50 miles away, and it's more like a fancy toy shop rather than a "true" HS....

So I get all my stuff online...

Welcome to 2013, where most people are so addicted to their phones they can't go 5 minutes without checking them.

I work in a cubicle office, and I can pretty much guarantee I will be hearing a personal phone ring or buzz every 2-3 minutes. They are on the phone while they are in the restroom stall. If I go on a date, she will be checking her facebook in the middle of conversations. Half the people in line in front of you in the store will be in the phone, and probably 75% of the morning commuters are on the phone.

I hate it, but I accept it. People are addicted.

Back in my days (somewhere between the cro-magnon and stone ages) , there were signs everywhere saying that, "the customer is always right", add to that, "even if they aren't". To catch a clerk ignoring or being rude to a customer would call for dismissal. It is bad enough to find a clerk on the phone, but it's appalling if it's a manager or owner. Some act like they have their market cornered... they don't. Not in this age of being able to shop on the Internet for just about anything at any time and usually at a better price.

Sometime though, they can go too far in the other direction. One day we went into a grocery store, and was headed to pick up a cart when a clerk walked up behind us and blurted out, "are you finding everything you're looking for?", and this was before we even got into the store.... Sheesh, "well no, not really, we had our hearts set on a cart with a blue handle but we could only find ones with red handles", would have been an appropriate answer...

You wonder sometimes if they even train these people. No phones while on duty, and don't be too overbearing because in both cases you can have customers walk away.

Hey its not just cell-phones or texting......I can't think of the number of times I've been in the shop actually talking to the clerk about my needs or actually trying to pay when they insist on stopping our conversation to answer the land-line and spend 5 minutes dealing with a phone inquiry. Are these people really that stupid that they ignore a paying flesh and blood customer standing 2-feet away from them in preference to a telephone inquiry??? Yes they are!!!!!! And I have to sadly admit that this kind of stupidity,in my experience, is far more common here in Canada than in the US.....Americans still seem to be far ahead of us up here in the retail business and customer care.

Genetk44 Wrote:...Are these people really that stupid that they ignore a paying flesh and blood customer standing 2-feet away from them in preference to a telephone inquiry?...

That happened in the office multiple times a day. Colleagues without direct external customer contact pick up the ringing phone while I am talking face to face. Many people are so much attracted by a ringing phone they blind out the real world next to them. They wonder why I left their office and postponed their matter to be handled much later.

ps. All dive base staff in Egypt (nationwide average daily income $2) have a cellular phone. I had several times a hard time to get their attention to get the heavy tank from my back when I returned from a dive.

Another point of view. When I worked retail back in the bronze age (I'm a little younger than Dom ) we had explicit instructions from our manager than we were to answer the phone regardless of whether a customer was in our department. The greatest majority (probably 85-90%) of our business came from phone calls, thus they had priority over the living, breathing customer.

Tom

My take, If I am paying your wages, leave the cell phone at home or in the car. If there is an emergency do what we did before cell phones. We survived. I would require any one to be hired to sign a contract that they would not have a personal phone in their possession while in my employ. If they violate that contract it would mean instant dismissal, and I would go to court if need be. Business people could survive without cell phones too. We did for years.
Keep using your phones on the job, and sooner or later someone will get tired of it and you will be fired.
I am tired of seeing flaggers at road construction sites texting and talking on their phones while they should be paying attention to their jobs.
As for me, I would go back to that store one more time to show them all the great buys I got off the internet because they were too busy talking.
I have walked out of many stores that put phones ahead of customers, Just another reason to shop the net, and more and more there is free shipping too.
Just my personal opinion.

I think this goes to the dilemma of brick-and-mortar hobby stores. They can't maintain a big stock of full-price hobby items on display anyhow, because the web stores will beat them on price no matter what. On top of that, the web stores presumably have a better pick of staff -- I've dealt with jerks at web store A, but that was fine, I simply switched to web store B, which doesn't have jerks, or at least jerks who've caused me problems. (Example of jerk at web store A: I order an item the site says is in stock. They turn around and say sorry it's not in stock after all and send the rest of the order. Then two days later they say hey wow, it was in stock, and we just found it! We're sending it on at an extra UPS charge!! I'd have to call and get the UPS charge reversed -- did this two or three times with Store A, sorry, once they mischarged my credit card on top of that, and Store B got all my business. If Trainworld, Caboose Hobbies, and Klein all have the same merchandise at roughly the same discounted price, I can pick and choose the one that doesn't screw up.)

My normal brick and mortar LHS has ticked me off for other reasons: they screw up orders, too, but on top of that, they deal with Walthers (of course), and their orders go in on credit. If for one reason or another they're over their credit limit, Walthers won't send the order until they make their next payment. If I send Walthers an order directly, it's on a prepaid charge off the web, and I'm not rolling the dice on whether they're going to send my LHS the order right away or not. I used to tolerate this problem now and then at the LHS to give them the business -- the problem is that they have a dozen or so employees, and some of them just screw up routinely. So I'm adding the possibility of LHS screwup on an order to Walthers's store credit policies, and it's just gotten to be too iffy on something I want in a reasonable time, gotten right.

I do want to support this LHS, since I can get good custom painting done through them, but I've gotten more and more frustrated -- the guy needs to understand this is the 21st century. I laid down the law to him a month or two ago about the screw-ups who work there, and he did fire someone (whether at my instigation or not I don't know), which may have the others more focused. I hope so, but I'm not sending them routine orders that I can get from Walthers faster and more accurately off the web now.

Steamtrains Wrote:You got it good..!!

My "local" HS is about 50 miles away, and it's more like a fancy toy shop rather than a "true" HS....

So I get all my stuff online...

Yes, I must confess that I often do run out to this LHS as if it were a local convenience store! Mustn't take it for granted.