Buying a smartphone was an unpleasant experience

I don’t like waiting in lines. I have no gripe waiting a reasonable amount of time. Fifteen minutes; 20 minutes at the outside. Mostly, I don’t like private or public entities acting as if my time doesn’t matter.

I drove recently to two cell phone carrier stores, on a snowy, freezing day, with a friend wanting to buy her first smartphone. We drove first to her current cell phone carrier store. A sales clerk dressed in clothes clearly identifying her as a store employee greeted us, asked how she could help, and immediately escorted my friend to someone who answered all our questions politely, thoroughly, and with humor.

To compare deals, my friend and I then drove to a competitor cell phone carrier store.

Bundled up in our winter clothes we reluctantly stepped from our warm car and made our way toward the store. We were almost there when, inside, a guy with scruffy hair and beard, wearing a t-shirt and shorts, opened the door. I thought, “This is a customer heading out.”

Wrong! Scruffy was an employee, maybe the manager. We couldn’t tell, and Scruffy never said.

We were barely inside when Scruffy stood in front of us and said, “Hi. Why are you here?” He was clutching a stylus and electronic tablet, poised to jot down our answer.

We told him we were shopping for a smartphone. “Do you know what kind?” he asked. Either an iPhone or an Android phone. My friend wanted to compare phones, prices, and cell phone plans before deciding.

“Okay. What is your name?” asked Scruffy.

“Scott,” I said. Jotting my name onto his tablet, Scruffy asked for my email address. Wanting to get on with it, and since my email address is public, I gave it to him.

“Do you have an account with us?”

“Why do you need all this information?” I asked. “We don’t even know if we’re going to buy a phone here.”

“We need this information to get you in the queue,” Scruffy said.

Scruffy entered my account number, then said there were “a few names” ahead of us, but the “wait shouldn’t be too long.” From previous experience with this store, I knew Scruffy was blowing smoke. The small store had a half-dozen customers milling about, with one small two-seater bench for customers, occupied by two of the “names” ahead of us.

My friend and I milled about, looked at smartphones she might want to buy, and others she would never buy. We looked at other items we’d never buy: tablets, smartphone cases, battery chargers, headphones, earbuds — anything to help pass the time. By then, Scruffy had cleared even more people for their place in the “queue.”

I couldn’t help thinking of my years in retail. We always hustled to help customers, to make sure they knew we appreciated them, and would help them asap. And we meant it.

One key problem with this cell phone carrier store — there was no triage. The customer who just wanted to buy an off-the-rack pair of earbuds, had to wait in line behind the customer having a cell phone fixed.

Finally, with no other phone products to look at, I became acutely aware of bass-heavy non-stop music coming from a red plastic tubular portable wi-fi speaker in the center of the store, playing music used by everyone who plays songs in public places too loud, for too long.

My friend did buy a phone and service from that cell phone carrier that day. But it’s not a long-term win for that store. The next time we need “service” from that carrier, we will find a place where the salespeople understand that they are retailing electronics to flesh-and-blood customers.

Scott K. Fish has served as a communications staffer for Maine Senate and House Republican caucuses, and was communications director for Senate President Kevin Raye. He founded and edited AsMaineGoes.com and served as director of communications/public relations for Maine’s Department of Corrections until 2015. He is now using his communications skills to serve clients in the private sector.