Would you think I was a queue jumper?

[luluxxx]

So I walk in the post office and there’s a big queue,I would say around 10 people in front.
A lady was in front of me…so I walked to the back of the shop and sat down on a chair.
When the lady was next to be served I walked into the queue and told the woman behind her that I was behind this lady and that I had just been sitting down as I didn’t want to stand …am I jumping a queue here ?
Is this acceptable ?
Obviously I wasn’t this person..I was the woman in the queue being told that I needed to let her in front of me…I wasn’t happy at all.
The man behind me said “well I can’t be bothered to queue either,shall I go for a coffee and come back in a hour and walk to the front”
It made me laugh ….

This thread is a brilliant example of how little reading comprehension some have.

I’d have told her to do one OP.

I don’t think it’s unreasonable thing to do - some people can’t stand for periods of time for a variety of reasons.
But I think she should have let people know, probably by telling the person behind her in the queue as soon as they joined “excuse me, I’m actually queueing and am next behind that man, I just can’t stand up for that long so am waiting here”

It relies on the other people in the queue to have faith that the person who says that they were queuing while seated is being honest about their place in the queue. Problem is I don't think many people have that level of faith in others so it's a bad strategy.

It’s mad isn’t it! It’s not even like the post is very long either

Where I live in Spain people sit and stand all over the place to wait their turn – when you come into a shop you ask "who's last?", and whoever was last in waves, so everyone knows who they're 'behind' in the queue no matter where you happen to be loitering.

It seemed really strange when I first moved here, but now I far prefer it to the rigidity of the queueing rules in the UK.

And you can’t read.

Ah! This is a thing in Spain and Portugal that I love! It’s very confusing at first if you are English though. You’ll go somewhere and there is what looks like a general melee instead of a queue up to the counter. However the way it works is that whenever someone arrives to join the queue they greet everyone and then ask “Quién es el último?” - Who is the last in the queue? - that person says “Me!” so you only have to remember the person who is in front of you and keep a loose eye on things but you are free to browse/ drink a coffee outside from the next door bar/ chat in a huddle until your turn. Many places with queues formalise this with a ticket system which achieves a similar thing, you take a ticket off a dispenser and there is a digital display showing the ticket number and the counter.

It’s really very civilised. The woman in your queue didn’t delay you or the queue, she just waited somewhere more comfortable until her turn.

Snap!

That sounds really civilized!

As previous posters have said,I suppose it depends on whether you have a disability that makes it necessary for you to sit down. I have a visible disability (I use crutches) so if I'm faced with standing up for ages in a long queue and there's a seat available,I will sit down. But,I have got into disputes by doing this. So many people will not accept that I need to sit down rather than standing for 10 minutes and take the attitude that if I sit down,I will lose my place in the queue. There are so many unsympathetic people around unfortunately.

am I jumping a queue here ?

Yes

Is this acceptable ?

No

You have to physically be in the queue- people who have joined it after you sat down would see it as you just going to the head of the queue. You could tell the people around you in the queue you are going to sit down- but it might not work.

What?

Some people need to sit down and can’t stand for so long for example due to invisible disability.

If I’ve understood correctly YABU and the man and you laughing is deeply unpleasant.

She should have waited until someone queued up behind her, and then explained the situation, and then sat down.

I felt like a queue jumper last week. Was shopping and noticed an empty till, apart from person being served, So I started unloading my shopping. On the floor at the shop-end of the till, were 3-4 baskets with stuff in. I presumed someone had dumped their shopping and gone. However, half way through unloading, a mother and child returned and glared at me, and started unloading the baskets onto the conveyor belt as I was still unloading my trolley. I now presume they’d gone to get something else, and by putting their baskets in the floor, had ‘claimed’ the till. However I knew I wasn’t in the wrong. The mum wasn’t English so I wondered if it was a thing done abroad.

This has reminded me of a very strong memory from childhood of going to the doctors’ surgery with my mum, she’d get a numbered ticket, colour coded for each GP, go into a waiting room and everyone would ask who was before them. So ‘who’s number 43 for Dr Morris?’. Thinking about it now it must have been because there was no system for calling the number so people needed to know who was before them. I seem to remember a buzzer on the wall which showed which Dr was now free, but not who was next. All makes sense!