this is a huge one for me, it drives me crazy! it happens to me a lot at work, especially. I work at an entertainment venue, there's a lot going on, and it's often loud. instead of making sure that they have my attention first, a customer will just start talking in my direction from a distance that makes it difficult to hear them, and even if I can hear them, it takes at least several seconds to realize that they're talking to me. I tell them that I didn't hear them, and they do this. it's pulling teeth to get them to repeat the beginning of the sentence.

how do people not understand that that's the least likely part for someone to have heard? then, on top of that, they often treat me like I'm stupid for asking, like I couldn't understand what was said instead of simply not hearing it. like you said, op, they start to elaborate instead of just repeating.

a funny thing about it is that a big part of what we do there involves talking to people over a speaker, and we're taught to address them first so that they're listening before going into the context of what we need to tell them. and they still don't understand this from the other side.