Pushing the Call Button
i. Re-pushing
NEVER re-push the call button after someone has already pushed it. This indicates that you either do not understand how the button works, or you do not trust the person that has already pushed the button to do an adequate job of it.
ii. Wait for the door
If you arrive as a door is closing, regardless of how many people are in the car, DO NOT press the button. The people in the car are already prepared mentally for their trip and do not need to be interrupted. WAIT for the door to close completely before pressing the button.
If you press the button by mistake, and a door stops closing, do not board unless asked. Politely apologize and wait for their car to leave.
iii. Ok to ask
If pressing the call button would require you to push through someone, it is acceptable to ask someone else to push the call button for you as long as they are not further away from it or unable to reach the button for you (i.e. coffee in their hands, etc.)
>> Continue to: Calling and Waiting – Oversize Packages …
December 16th, 2005 at 1:28 pm
It is a proven fact that pressing the elevator button many times makes it go faster.
December 16th, 2005 at 3:19 pm
If you want to go up, push the up button. If you want to go down, push the down button. If you press both buttons, you will burn in Hell for all eternity.
I’m surprised this wasn’t covered already.
December 20th, 2005 at 2:23 pm
In the building where I work, once the door starts closing, pushing the button will not make it open again. Rather, the button will call the next elevator.
December 24th, 2005 at 1:56 pm
Sometimes the person who got there before you and seems to be waiting for the elevator is, rather, just standing there and waiting for whatever, whomever and not for the elevator. One time I practiced your elevator ettiquette until I finally realized the elevator wasn’t coming because the other “waiting” person hadn’t pressed. It doesn’t damage the elevator to press the button a few extra times and I don’t feel insulted if someone presses it after I already have.
January 19th, 2006 at 8:49 am
The lift where I work will only work if the button inide the lift is pushed twice, so so much for the rule about pushing the button once only.
January 19th, 2006 at 10:16 am
ONCE AGAIN AS THE FIRST COMMENT/DOES IT REALLY MATTER?/PEOPLE ARE GONNA DO WHAT THERE GOING TO DO/CAN’T CONTROL SOMEONES ACTIONS/I LIKE TO SAY, “YOU DO YOUR THING, AND I’LL DO MY THING”/NOW IF SOMEONE WOULD VOICE OUT SOME SORT OF REQUEST, I WILL JUST DO IT AND PROBALY HAVE SOME COMMENT GOING THRU MY HEAD AND SMILE/WHETHER I’M IN THE ADVANTAGE OR DISADVANTAGE POSITION/
January 19th, 2006 at 2:50 pm
I like SNCHZ’s poem the best, with the line breaks and all.
January 19th, 2006 at 3:39 pm
Interesting statistic: Of any subjects involved in testing, only pigeons and humans will push a button twice to get a reward, the rest of the animals will wait.
January 19th, 2006 at 4:09 pm
What do you do when the elevator doesn’t want to come even after you press the button once?
Advice:
You go up to 10th flor and press the button “Down” than run to the first flor and there is your elevator.
January 20th, 2006 at 1:22 pm
Here’s a funny elevator story from Clientcopia.
http://www.clientcopia.com/quotes.php?id=3803
January 20th, 2006 at 4:51 pm
(Sigh). Is there anyone else out there who remembers the days when elevators were run by live human beings, usually older men, often amputees or otherwise disabled? When you got on, you told them what floor you wanted and they could remember a dozen if that many people got on. When elevators first became automated, buildings with a large bank of them had a matronly lady spendidly uniformed, called the “starter” who had a switch that controlled the elevators and could send them up or down. Both these old systems worked far better than what we have now.
January 21st, 2006 at 8:30 pm
Why would a pigeon ride an elevator?
January 22nd, 2006 at 12:42 pm
Who was it that said the truest definition of insanity is performing the same task repeatedly and expecting a different result? That being said, I waited behind this guy to use the bathroom at a bar last night for a solid five minutes before asking if he had confirmed no one was using it. He had not, it was empty, and we both had a good chuckle. To this day we are the best of friends.
January 22nd, 2006 at 11:50 pm
If you haven’t had the pleasure of a full-service elevator, try Tiffany’s in New York. They still have an elevator operator.
January 23rd, 2006 at 12:04 am
I think a lot of the things that used to be should be reintroduced into modern society oldtimer, our generation is so busy rushing about, avoiding human contact and guzzling junk food because were’re too busy to eat anything else and we just seem to suffer from such extreme disassociation regarding our own life support systems that I think it will drive us to our own doom.
January 23rd, 2006 at 6:58 pm
Hey Elevador, how could you have met this dude “last night” and to this day you are the best of friends? It had only been hours before that you met this guy…
January 23rd, 2006 at 11:05 pm
Actually, we’re no longer on speaking terms.
January 30th, 2006 at 4:52 am
SNCHZ: You should check yor spelling before showing everyone your ignorance
February 14th, 2006 at 3:06 pm
Hi,
It is true that pressing the button a second time could mean that you do not understand how the button works or that you do not trust the preceeding person.
Indeed, it could be better to do only logical things in our life. Thus, we could help poor people dying in the world. It could be an idea to prefer to help these people instead of using lifts.
I know that you could consider that my point of view is sad. But it is not the case.
If a person think I am not respectful because I press the button a second time, we start a bad relationship. So, reading and accepting your rules make our relationship difficult.
If this person want to have good relation with me perhaps the best for him would be to press the button a third time just to see what happens……
Yves, professional lifter
February 14th, 2006 at 7:25 pm
This from the guy with the stunning grasp of both spelling and grammer, not to mention use of slashes and capitalization in his comments… Ignorance is being critical of what someone is doing when you’re doing the same or worse! Ignorant!!
What were we talking about?
February 16th, 2006 at 10:56 am
Does anyone know if there are any paternoster lifts still working in UK. These are the lifts that have no doors, never stop and you have to step on as it passes your floor.
February 23rd, 2006 at 4:44 am
Your all a bunch of nutter isn’t there something better to talk about than the correct use of lifts. Who cares, I mean honestly. I reckon if you spend so much time paying attention to this stuff it has got to mean you aint got lifes to live
June 13th, 2006 at 9:55 pm
How about when you walk up to an elevator with other people waiting there and you push the button..then someone will invariably walk up right behind and push the same button again…Doy! Oh yeah I forgot, there special finger works better than mine..
June 15th, 2006 at 4:15 am
Crazygal – you say we are wasting our time by commenting on such a silly issue, but aren’t you commenting too?
October 5th, 2006 at 9:46 am
Crazygal:
Shouldn’t that be “………………………………………………………………….lives to live.”
April 15th, 2007 at 2:33 pm
I hate the elevator operator. I deliver to highrises in Seattle everyday and use the freight elevator. The freight elevator is not for passengers, it is for freight. Thats why its called the freight elevator. The operator give priority to the passengers and when I tell them they shouldn’t the pretend not to speak english. They wont let me take the pallet jack on the elevator, the make me take the stuff piece by piece. I dont mind doing work, but that is completly unnesesary. Just ley us push the button ourselves, I’m perfectly capable of doing it. The company could save $8 an hour and put the people to work somewhere else.
April 15th, 2007 at 8:15 pm
So you’re supposed to stand there like an idiot as the elevator door closes?
October 12th, 2007 at 8:51 pm
There is absolutely no problem to re-push!!!!!! if theres no indicator light (sometimes it burns) go ahead and push. Jeez, some people actually get offended by re-pushing?! they should get help!
October 12th, 2007 at 8:59 pm
and also theres no problem for pushing the button while the door is closing. Actually its damn rude for anybody in the elevator who is not trying to keep the elevator door open for someone who is trying to get on. I completely disagree on that point. “the people in the car are getting mentally prepared for the ride” pardon me?! are we talking about a ride to the moon or a few floors!
November 7th, 2007 at 2:20 pm
Common at my college the lift usualy goes to every floor anyway since some smart persone has either pressed all the buttons in the lift or all the buttons when walking down the stairs grr it takes like 10 mins for a should be 2mins “ride”