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Wednesday, October 2, 2013

What's Worse Than Nail Clipping on Muni? Using Your Speakerphone

The annoying ass perp in pink.
I've blogged in the past about people who have done some annoying stuff on Muni (see questions and thoughts while riding Muni).  Number one was nail clipping because the sound is so irritating, but I think I found my new number one annoyance while riding Muni.

If you've watched the season premiere of South Park, it showed an irritated Kyle who is frustrated at Eric Cartman for having conversations on his cell phone by using his speakerphone everywhere he goes.

But while that happened in the animated television world, it happened on Saturday early afternoon when I was taking the 44 bus going northbound.  When the bus was in Golden Gate Park to stop in front of the Academy of Sciences, I saw a woman pull out her smartphone and was making a phone call.  All seemed normal at that point until I started hearing the automated telephone greeting through her speakerphone.

The entire back half the bus can hear the automated message on her phone and she was able to connect to a telephone operator to ask questions and get responses.  To make matters even more amusing, it was a conversation with the operator that would be confidential or a private matter, such as calling your credit card company or your doctor.  She continued having the conversation back and forth between the operator, and I can hear the conversation while I was listening to music with my headphones.  I snapped a couple of pictures of her so I can humiliate her on my blog, Twitter, and Instagram accounts.

Get off the bus and chat.
The people around me was rolling their eyes at her while the conversation kept going on, and it finally stopped when she exited the bus at 6th Avenue and Geary.  Thank my patience for not outbursting and telling her to shut the hell up or stop using the speakerphone, because I was getting close to doing just that.

Are some people so oblivious these days they'd pull a stunt like that on public transit?  It's a private conversation you fool!  Even the automated message on the bus reminds passengers to refrain from using their cell phones to prevent crime; it should also be a crime to yack on your cell phone with the speaker on.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

After visiting Japan a few times, talking on the phone on any transit is now my pet peeve. It was blissful using the buses or trains around Osaka. I didn't have to listen to anyone else's conversations or problems. I wish that policy gets adopted everywhere.

Anonymous said...

Ha - so I was on the 38 Geary headed downtown when a teenaged girl had her speakerphone one right next to very large fellow seated. He asked her to get it out of his ear. She was utterly clueless how loud her two-way conversation was, esp. at the sleepy hour of 7am. The party she was speaking to could be heard to say, "I will take care of that complaining guy - where are you?" The complaining guy was nobody to mess with and some of us passengers would have been perfectly happy if he tossed the gal off the bus. Ironically, texting is the best thing to happen to people who prefer quiet! I'd rather see them type then hear 'em talk!