I enjoy your blog but often find myself disagreeing with you. I prefer to go places where I'm free to use my phone if I like. If I had been there I would have just left, or maybe say something to the staff, and then leave. The guy yelling into his iPad was being rude, but so was the person harassing him for it. I doubt he was just yelling for the fun of it, he had a reason which happens to be none of your business.
If I were in a place with no cell policy I would ignore it if I needed to take a call and if the staff of the place had a problem with it I would leave and not come back. I just wanted to point out that there are paying customers on both sides of this issue with strong opinions.

I fall somewhere in the middle on this. If the conversation is brief (as in under a minute) and the person is making an effort to keep the volume down, then I don't think it's rude to handle it inside the shop. But too many people completely lose their senses when they have a device in front of them. That's one of the reasons why I'm glad texting is becoming more and more popular.

The guy yelling into his iPad was being rude, but so was the person harassing him for it.

You really believe that? Maybe Amy should have just pulled out her phone, and started TALKING REALLY LOUDLY ABOUT THIS RUDE FRENCHY IN STARBUCkS. You'd have been ok with that, right?

Now, if Amy had wanted to be mean, she might have peered over his shoulder and in French inquired who is this woman you're speaking to? I thought I was the love of your life?

That would have been rude. Google offers up this as the translation:

Qui est cette femme? Je croyais l'amour de votre vissé?

Me? when I get a phone call I need to take, I answer it while getting up and ask the party to hang on for a second as I duck outside. There's no expectation of quiet on the street.

Amy, if all coffee shops had a no cell phones rule, my favorite posts here would disappear. Please start patronizing Starbucks again... and not just for the online rants, I need support to rail against the assholes.

I need a "like" or "agree" button for David Markland's comment. Mind, I don't go to coffee shops very often, as I don't drink coffee. Still, these same people do it in other places they shouldn't (like the library).

I am somebody who has trouble hearing over background noise. I'm also have noticed that when i have trouble hearing myself, I get louder. I'm often too loud in public places with background noise... that's one of the reasons I don't talk on my phone in public if I can avoid it.

When somebody points out politely, that I'm being rather loud, I tend to say something like "oh! Sorry. Didn't realize how loud I'd gotten."

Mistakes happen. Rude is hammering somebody for it or being obnoxious for somebody politely asking you to fix whatever is bugging them.

Amy, why no picture of this guy for public humiliation?

Yeah, dude, I'm sure you're a Hollywood mogul with a call that's just too important not to take -- while you're looking over the broken thermoses.

Maybe he was doing research for his planned TV series:
Game of Therms.

"he had a reason which happens to be none of your business."

Your business becomes my business when you are handling it loud enough for me to clearly hear.

I do my best not to take cell calls in enclosed public places. If I do, I will generally head for the front entrance.

My boss had a private number, so it would not display on the caller id when he called. It would come as a private number. And on top of it, his number kept changing every few months and I would never get updated with the new number. I once got a call saying private number on my cellphone when I was at the checkout counter. It was a good thing I attended it though I was at the checkout and handling my credit card and grocery etc etc. It might have been rude, but there was no way I could avoid it. And it was for an issue for which he wanted me to work in the same day within an hour. If I hadn't picked up the call and waited till I got home or tried calling up the last number which I had of my boss and found that it was no longer his, I probably would have got a big firing the next day at the office.

And on top of it, his number kept changing every few months and I would never get updated with the new number.

Not that I question this, but how did you ever manage to contact your boss when you needed to speak with him? And you mean he would have fired you if you had, say, been on the toilet when he called?

Redrajesh, I dont know what you do for a living r if it really is all that important, but in a situation like that you should request your company pay to issue you a phone that only people in the office have the number to

As someone who works at a place that discourages loud phone conversations, this is what struck me the most:
"If I were in a place with no cell policy I would ignore it if I needed to take a call and if the staff of the place had a problem with it I would leave and not come back."
So, wait... you're telling me you would ignore the rule because the rules don't apply to you? Seriously? You're special and even though you knowingly walked into a place that says "No Cell Phones", you'll do what you like? That's RUDE. That's rude to the customers who go there. It's rude to the staff, who now have to get into a confrontation with you. I don't understand why you think rules don't apply to you.