To think they should have kept serving me?

And by the same token how long before they realise that if the queue is consistently this long, they are not employing enough staff ? Happens all the time. The customer is presented with shit service and made to feel like a nuisance because the business is trying to cheapskate it to save money.

Some ridiculous posts in this thread, for those bemoaning the 'good old days' what happened to the customer always being right? I think someone even suggested that OP should have meekly slipped off home and came back later when the shop was quiet, so as not to disturb the imaginary queue or that she should be worried about how much the shop is making from a service that they have decided to offer. How is that any of OP's concern? If the shop aren't concerned about the service that they are offering I don't think OP should be expected to worry about their profit margin. OP I think YANBU they should have continued to serve you or at the very least one could have looked for your parcels while the other served other customers. I assume that as they had been scanned they would have been marked collected. I can only imagine how that would have went when you came back later and another member of staff was on.

And again, if you can’t offer a decent and prompt service, why offer it at all ?

Yes OP, IMO they should have kept serving you.

How long does the queue get before they start serving other people? The door? The street? Four doors down?

My irritant used to be back in the days of landlines.
Being served or attended to in an office, the phone would ring and I'd be left standing there, while they dealt with the caller.
I've left shops due to it. Stick your sale!

How is this OP’s fault when it’s the shop - who are charged with receiving OP’s parcels and keeping the safe until collection - have messed up ?

In some shops though the queue can be never ending.
People join it constantly.
At what point should the assistant decide that the serving of the "other customers" has finished?

Remember life before mobile phones and the internet, when you'd have to pick up a writing pad and pen, jot off a letter, place it in an envelope, pop a stamp on it , then trot off to the nearest postbox to send it to your local rag, or "Points Of View" on the telly, or something like that. How different life was back then. 😅

@EllyRoff have you read the OP properly? They weren’t ‘faffing’ they went to pick up 4 parcels, only 1 came out, they asked for the other 3. Not unreasonable.

It has the makings of a prize winning literary short story!

Exactly. I wouldn’t care. Yanbu.

If I'm in that queue behind you I am 100% getting annoyed at the situation.

The right thing to do would be to say to you I can't find the other three, I'll just serve these other customers and then continue looking for your parcels as not to inconvenience everybody in the shop. Perfectly acceptable.

If I have a parcel/envelope to send when I go to the Post Office, I expect them to deal with that.
If I have 4 parcels, then I expect them to take them all at the same time. It’s a pretty common occurence around Christmas anyway.

In the same way, if there are 4 parcels to collect, I’d expect to be able to have all 4 wo having to let everyone go first. If they can’t find the parcel, I’d expecting one of them to go and look for it/them. I feel if it’s clear it’s going to take time, it’s ok to serve other customers during that time. But it’s not me giving my turn to others. It’s just efficiency to see people as quickly iyswim.
It would be the same with one parcel they can’t find either.

Because threads like this run and run for pages, everything gets away from the original post, so much is repeated and someone will say ltb at least once. Mil, sulking dh and toxic ils.
BUT, it does bring out some funny posts too so I usually read the twaddle regardless😀As you were OP.

85% agree YANBU so I’d ignore the idiots posting stupid replies, OP.

Rule 1 of AIBU
Never let the facts get in the way of deciding an OP is at fault.

If they commit to providing parcel collection as a business they have to be able to do it properly...

Exactly this.

No wonder they get into a faff about it in these newsagents. They never have any system (or even space to implement a system) from what I can see. Everything's just all piled into a box like they're Santa Claus and they hold up the queue looking through 40+ parcels at random for yours.

If there’s 2 people serving and 2 people behind op in the queue, how long do you think it takes to serve 1 person? Surely 1 of the staff could easily and quickly serve 2 people whilst the other kept looking for the parcel. No one will walk out a shop and travel to another shop because they have to wait 30 seconds for the transaction in front to be completed

The staff member is at fault here.

She did not listen to what you were saying when you mentioned that you were collecting 4 parcels and when you told her she had made a mistake by handing you one parcel only, she should have got on with looking for your stuff and getting another member of staff to deal with the rest of the queue.

If they commit to providing parcel collection as a business they have to be able to do it properly...

Bizarre that so many people are blaming the OP...

She wasn't faffing around or messing about did you not read the post? she was stood waiting for her parcel. She wasn't arguing the toss or moaning. It sounds like there was more than 1 person behind the counter so don't really understand the issue from their perspective. The op could have been waiting there all day if other customers arrived. One of the little outlets I go to for parcel collection stuffs all the parcels in a cupboard and the staff always seem to have a devil of a job raking through all the packages, usually accompanied by a lot of sighing and eye rolling. If it's such a faff they shouldn't offer the service.

@Peaceandquietandacuppa but how long should the OP have to wait while they serve the queue - which could have people joining it constantly ?
Should she wait 5 minutes, 15 minutes.....3 hours?
She is a customer too.

They probably make less money from the parcel hub than paying customers.

DID YOU GET THE OTHER PARCELS OP?

What do you mean? They also get paid to hold them?