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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Prams and lifts in Peter Jones

63 replies

Binkybix · 13/10/2013 09:52

Interested to get views.

I was in Peter Jones yesterday with 4mo in buggy. I was on the first floor and needed to get down and was asked not to put pram on escalator but to get the lift. Fine.

I waited for the lift and every single one was full of people standing. I waited for about ten minutes then resolved myself to ask the next lot if a couple of people would mind using the escalator (approx 10 seconds away) instead. The next lift was full. Doors opened and opened for some time - long enough to explain situation in full, and that staff had stopped us using escalator.

I was amazed that not one person offered to get out and use escalator. The majority ignored me, one woman just shrugged. To be honest, I would have offered without being asked if I'd been in an earlier lift, so I was really surprised.

I also know in a few cases people would not have been able to have used escalators - but a whole lift full? Unlikely surely.

I know that I didn't have any more right than them to use the lift, but surely common courtesy would imply people would be willing to help, even if not obliged to.

AIBU?

OP posts:
meditrina · 13/10/2013 10:47

Peter Jones is the only one of the John Lewis shops to have kept its original name officially (though many are still called by their original names in practice). It's because there are two in central London, and it saves confusion with the Oxford Street one.

And yes, there are a lot of overseas visitors in that area, and no, not all speak English.

Original poster
Binkybix · 13/10/2013 10:51

Yep, that's a good point about possible language barrier for some (prob not all). Although I need to clarify that I wasn't thinking of foreign visitors/ex pats when I said about demographic!

Also, language barrier would not be a reason to use lift unnecessarily

OP posts:
NoComet · 13/10/2013 10:53

Having a very rigid, go anywhere mountain buggy, I sometimes and DH always used the escalator. Never had the staff say anything anywhere.

Strumpetron · 13/10/2013 11:01

YANBU at all.

People haven't got a shred off decency sometimes. It's vet unlikely they all had a disability or health problem that prevented them from using the stairs, so you'd think some of them would use their noggins and allow you the only option you have.

BeScarefulWhatYouWitchFor · 13/10/2013 11:02

I don't think you were unreasonable to ask, to demand yes, but not to ask. Barging in with the pushchair would have been out of order, as someone could have been hurt, I appreciate you didn't do this OP but a couple of posters have suggested it.

VinegarDrinker · 13/10/2013 11:02

I rake our buggy on escalators loads too but it seems the OP was told not to initially by staff?

coldwinter · 13/10/2013 11:02

You may be BU, you may not. Lots of people have invisible disabilities you can't see. I have been glared at by mums with prams when I am in a lift. I only use it when I can't physically use an escalator.

Katienana · 13/10/2013 11:03

I wouldn't use escalators with a pram because its dangerous. Often now they have barriers to stop you doing it.

meditrina · 13/10/2013 11:08

Lifts are however essentially first come first served.

If you'd got on the lift on 5th floor, what would you have done if a random other person had said at an intermediate floor "Get off, my need's greater than yours"?

And I'm trying to imagine what an onlooker would make of someone trying to barge into a full lift, or attempting to physically remove occupants (for that's what insisting would mean in practice - words wouldn't be enough).

Original poster
Binkybix · 13/10/2013 11:19

I didn't demand - I asked, but was surprised that no one offered once I'd explained (tbh I thought it was people being thoughtless rather than selfish hence the surprise).

Again, I agree it is first come first served and I didn't have the right to demand someone get off, but I was just surprised at least a couple of people didn't OFFER to help. I understand they didn't HAVE to.

OP posts:
Sirzy · 13/10/2013 11:23

You say you agree it's first come first serve but then you ask, and expect, people to move for you so really you think it's first come first served as long as you don't have to wait your turn!

hardboiledpossum · 13/10/2013 11:23

I have never had this problem in peter Jones but I have in the Tate modern, the staff are normally great in peter Jones so next time I would ask one of them to help you. it is really inconsiderate.

candycoatedwaterdrops · 13/10/2013 11:33

I do think YANBU but I also agree with Sirzy. Waiting is a PITA but there was no reason that you couldn't have waited. If you had a disability that meant standing and waiting caused you distress or pain, then that would be different but otherwise, why couldn't you wait?

Original poster
Binkybix · 13/10/2013 11:42

I agree it's technically first come first served, but my point was I think it doesn't hurt people to use a different option (escalator) if that option is also easily available to them. So, assuming others could use the escalator, both them and I could have got down.

I suppose I mean why wouldn't you help someone out if it's little or no trouble to you, but makes a difference to them?

I did wait, but since approx ten mins had passed I didn't know if there was going to be a free one. Maybe I should have been more patient in terms of time I waited.

OP posts:
candycoatedwaterdrops · 13/10/2013 11:55

Maybe they were thinking that it wouldn't hurt you to wait. I'm not saying I agree with that mentality but just that if it is first come, first served, maybe they were thinking that...?

OldRoan · 13/10/2013 12:01

Maybe they are fed up of getting electric shocks from the escalators? Or is it just me who finds that in Peter Jones?

Original poster
Binkybix · 13/10/2013 13:38

I got a shock several times when I pressed the button, which was often!

OP posts:
Original poster
Binkybix · 13/10/2013 13:40

candy I'm sure they were thinking that. I suppose I just wonder why you would make people wait when a quicker option is available to you too.

OP posts:
CaptainUndercrackers · 13/10/2013 14:24

YANBU. Drives me crackers when perfectly able-bodied people bung up lifts and make it difficult for others to move around. Lifts are there for when you can't use the escalator or stairs people!!! And you're absolutely right, the kind thing would have been for someone to offer to get out. It's not all about 'rights' or 'waiting your turn', kindness and politeness are important too.

coldwinter · 13/10/2013 15:47

Captain - how do you know they are able bodied?

SHarri13 · 13/10/2013 15:57

The bentalls centre in Kingston is like this ALL te time. I just get in regardless of if it is going in the direction I want to,

coldwinter · 13/10/2013 16:00

As I said up thread, I get glares from mums with prams waiting to get into lifts. I can't take the escalator at times. You would never know looking at me.

I appreciate this is not the case with everyone, and some people are just lazy. But people do make an awful lot of assumptions.

CaptainUndercrackers · 13/10/2013 23:11

Coldwinter- I suppose I wouldn't know for sure. I would be very surprised if I was waiting in a shop and several packed lifts went by, all full of people with hidden disabilities which made them unable to use an escalator though. But I guess it's possible. I wouldn't glare at anyone though.

Lilacroses · 13/10/2013 23:20

This is very interesting! The very first flaming of a poor OP when I joined MN was a new mum asking this exact question. Nearly every person that responded hounded the poor woman and said that probably everyone who had pushed her out of the way had an unseen health problem that meant they could not do stairs! While I know many of us do have such health issues I think it is ridiculous to suggest that most people do! I agree OP. If you are abled bodied, take the stairs especially if there is a queue.

MrsMook · 14/10/2013 06:11

I had a pram-in-lift moment today. Crowd of people go into lift, there's a spot left big enough for me to nip into with the pram (single pram containing 6m old and a seat on top for 2yr old). I reach to press the button for my floor as it wasn't pressed and a person in the lift snaps that her daughter's not in yet, so I press the door open button. (No one was hanging around by the doors as I entered, it all looked clear). Woman and daughter then bellow a conversation about getting in the lift inculding daughter yelling "I'm no' tha' skinny!". Woman asks me if I can move up, and I reply "this is as far as I can go without running other people over" (her tone of voice riled me). The lift was delayed for a minute or two while this drags out, before the woman gets out to join her daughter (who was never in sight through the whole exchange). The stairs would have been much quicker! Unfortuntately despite using baby carriers (I had a sling with me) there's just no way I can manage to carry a young baby, manage a toddler when he's reached the end of his tether, a baby changing bag and any purchases without use of a pram, so lifts it is.

I have no idea why people would choose to use a lift if there is no particular need as they're so irritatingly slow, and often awkwardly placed. Priority should go to people who don't have other options avaliable, and I doubt very much that all the other people in the OP's incident needed the lift over the escalator in the first place. Unfortunately if they are of that mindset (to take a slow lift over another method), few would be willing to get out partway through.

Sorry for my hijack, it just stirred up my moment.