I’m in line in a national chain of auto shop to pick up my car after leaving it for an oil change while I went shopping in the attached store. There are two clerks; one is helping a customer choose tires, and the other is behind the counter on the phone. There’s already a customer waiting, so I go behind him.
While the clerk is on the phone, it rings. He answers.
Phone Clerk: “[Store] Auto Shop, one moment, please.”
And he goes back to the first call.
When the call ends, instead of helping the customer waiting in front of him, he simply picks up the other line. [Customer Ahead Of Me] lets out a sigh, visibly upset. While on that call, we hear a page.
Page: “Auto shop, line three.”
When [Phone Clerk] ends that second call, again, he picks up the third call instead of helping the customer in front of him.
[Customer Ahead Of Me] sighs again, looks behind himself at the line forming, and after a few moments, pulls out his phone. I’m kind of looking everywhere, bored, and slowly getting p*ssed off with the wait.
The phone rings again, followed by, “One moment, please.” I sigh myself. The other clerk is still serving the customer buying tires.
As expected, the clerk picks up the next line. I’m looking down when I hear:
Customer Ahead Of Me: “I’m here to pick up my car.”
I look up. I thought the clerk was on the phone. He still is, but he looks puzzled.
Phone Clerk: “Erm… sorry?”
[Customer Ahead Of Me] approaches the counter and gets very close to the clerk, his phone up to his ear.
Customer Ahead Of Me: “I said I’m here to pick up my car. Since you seem to take phone calls as priority, I figured it was best for me to call instead of standing there, waiting for you to acknowledge my presence.”
I was called by the other clerk, who was done with his customer, so I was unable to follow the rest of the transaction with [Customer Ahead Of Me], but man, the expression on [Phone Clerk]’s face was priceless.