| QuestionPro Survey

You are waiting in a cafeteria line to pay for lunch. The cashier rings up the price for the woman ahead of you. Only after the price is displayed does this person start to inventory her pocketbook to find her wallet, and, separately, her change purse, and of course she will use both to summon the exact change, as your soup cools. This 15 second delay:

Doesn't bother me much.

Angers me, and I feel a little bad about that.

Angers me. No guilt.

Same situation. This time the person pays promptly, but engages the cashier in a few moments of cheerful banter about the weather, their kids, upcoming holidays, or whatnot. This 15-second delay:

Doesn't bother me much.

Angers me, and I feel a little bad about that.

Angers me. No guilt.

You dial a phone number, and get voicemail. The vet student whom you are calling says, succinctly, "Hey, this is Molly, leave a message." Then there is a delay. THEN comes the familiar robot voice: "At the tone, please record your message. When you finish recording, you may hang up or press 1 for more options. To leave a callback number, press five. Record at the tone." This nine-second delay:

Doesn't bother me much.

Angers me, and I feel a little bad about it.

Angers me. No guilt.

You are in your car, wanting to turn left. The light is green, but a steady stream of oncoming traffic is making your left turn impossible. There is a car ahead of you, also wanting to turn left, but this car has not moved out into the intersection, preparatory to the turn. You realize that this means that once the light changes, only that car will be able to make the left turn and you will have to wait another light cycle. This potential delay:

Doesn't bother me much.

Angers me, and I feel a little bad about that.

Angers me. No guilt.

In the previous situation, would you honk your horn and maybe make a hand gesture, so the person in front of you knows he or she is supposed to ease out into the intersection?

No, honking is rude.

Yes, but I'd feel a little bad about it.

Yes. No guilt. He or she is the one being rude.

Would you EVER honk your horn at another driver over a matter of delay -- say, if the other driver doesn't seem to realize the light has changed?

No, honking is rude.

Yes.

You find yourself trapped behind a gaggle of able-bodied slow walkers on a city street. This:

Doesn't bother me much at all.

Angers me, but I feel a little bad about it.

Angers me. No guilt.

To make sure you get a good seat, you arrive 15 minutes before the movie's published starting time. But you wind up having to wait 40 minutes, sitting through ads for various household products, features on how some movies were made, and six coming attractions for movies you would never see. This:

Doesn't bother me much at all.

Angers me a little.

Really frosts my shorts.

You are at the checkout line at the supermarket, the fifth cart back. You are looking at a 15-minute wait. There are 10 checkout lanes, but only five are staffed by cashiers. You feel:

Okay. Waiting is part of life, and I know it's not always possible for companies to correctly anticipate customer flow.

Angry, but I feel a little bad about that.

Angry. No guilt. If they cared about customers, they'd have some sort of flex system to open new lanes when lines build.

This week's survey brought to you by ACE Inhibitors.