Que skipping

[Cellardoor23]

Would you say something if someone jumped in front of you? Or would you wait quietly until someone served you?

It's happened to me a few times. I'm never sure whether to speak up because I don't want to be rude, but I've also stood quietly and been ignored.

What would you do?

littledrummersgirl... that sounds like very good advice. I just stand there and smile - and seethe inwardly. Next time it happens I will say something because it happens quite often. I suppose the cashier is a bit stuck, she can't just ignore the interrupting customer.

I was stuck in a traffic and late to pick up my DD but desperately had to fill my car. I did so, quickly ran to the garage to pay. She seemed to have no customers so I went in to pay when I turned my head (probably responding to some evil stares) and saw a queue waiting there. Fortunately they must have seen my distress and I quickly apologised so they were nice enough to let me pay first.

Some spanish lady tried to bump dh and me when we were waiting to check in to a hotel...a couple of folks had been checking out and she'd been milling about (arriving from the lift AFTER us) and was a bit peeved as she had already missed her chance between checkout guy one and two and was blatantly ignoring us

I think she thought she'd get away with it until I said "it's STILL not your turn, so just wait!" as she tried to dive up to the desk as guy two left. He actually snickered and then the receptionist was very chatty and conversational as we booked in!

Generally I go with "in a hurry were you???" for queue jumpers

I remember queuing at a bar for ages once and due to the general melee and the fact that I'm shortI had been already skipped several times.

I was pretty annoyed already due to the fact someone had pinched my backside several times when this guy strode up to the bar pushed in next to me and started ordering just as I finally had caught the Barman's eye.

I said "Excuse me I was first"

He said "Don't be ridiculous sweetheart" and carried on ordering.

I somewhat lost my cool at this point. He seemed to think that he could just flick me off and I'd go away. He was incredibly rude and condescending.

In the end I won. The guy seemed to be particularly aggravated that I was ordering 8 diet cokes (hen night we'd been dancing lots)

He realised his mistake when he passed by our table on the way back from the bar and 20 women laughed and jeered at him.

The worst queue jumping I've ever seen was at an all-inc hotel in Sharm. The culprits were Russian. It was horrendous. They also piled their plates high with food, including desserts like cake would be put on the same plates as salad so as not to miss out. It was really off putting. we were in Greece earlier in the year in a resort favoured by russian guests and oh god I got the rage every single meal time at the buffet, not just the barging in but the sheer amount of food piled onto plates, before even having dinner people were ransacking the fresh strawberries and cherries and filling huge dinner plates really really high leaving hardly any left, they would do the same with the other fruit so a family of four would have on a table about 3 piled plates of strawbs or cherries, 6 or 7 pears, 6or 7 apples and oranges and a few bananas too, they would all carry huge bags to put the unripe fruit in but would leave plates full of dinner and vast amount of cakes on the table barely touched. DH got fed up of me tutting and saying OMG just LOOK at the amount of food they are wasting, made me sick it did, he reckoned a load of fruit made its way home with them as perhaps it is expensive / rarely available there, fair enough but no excuse for the vast amount of food taken and not touched. and don't get me started on the pancake queueing.... arggghhh

I tend to pick my battles, ie if an empty bus rocks up and someone jumps the queue but there is no risk of anyone actually not getting onboard I will let it slide even if i do think it is a bit twatty. If there is serious risk of me missing out on something or having to wait way longer I will take no prisoners and happily tell someone to fuck off to the back of the queue.

In my non scientific purely ancedotal observations it is mostly young women who try it on with regards to queue jumping, especially when waiting to get served at a bar, even heard some women quote 'ladies first' as they try and worm their way ahead of me. That rarely solicites a positive response from me.

Good spot Maddie

I was in sharm for a few days and to put it bluntly the Russians were absolute cunts. Rude, aggressive, permanently drunk and a seeming inability to wear anything other then just speedos. The resort I was at had the usual buffet system but instead of loading up their plates one group of Russians picked up the entire trays of food and took them to their table literally leaving nothing for the 100 plus people behind them. The staff were too scared to do anything so I took on the challenge of asking for the trays to be returned to the serving area and the speedo clad gent without even looking up from his overloaded plate said in a thick accent as I approached the table "I fucking kill you". I did not want to call his bluff and backed away. They were absolute animals, at one stage they did not even bother with plates they were just spooning food straight from the large trays into their mouths while spilling half of it onto the table or themselves. I am astonished they are not banned.

Amalfimamma I didn't know that about pregnant queuing rights in France. how stupid is that.
Well if ever I needed an excuse not to go to Sharm I've got one now. Sounds horrendous.

so I also need to make sure I don't go on holiday where the Russians go.

bigbuttons yep I used to think it was crap until I actually got to use the excuse LOL Never used it in shops though because like you I thought if I'm fit enough to traipse around the shops I can wait in a bloody queue.

Sharm used to be lovely. Then the Russians came and took over. If you need to go to Sharm check out the hotel on TA before booking to make sure the Russians are few and far between

Cyprus and Sharm are hugely popular with Russians.

I tend to be a bit passive aggressive and say something like 'oh no, how inconvenient, today of all days!' They turn and look at me as if I am ga ga with a questioning look on their face and I say 'I must have turned invisible again or I'm sure you wouldn't have pushed in front of me' silly sweet old lady smile on my face. They have looked embarrassed and moved back the couple of occasions I have used it.

I hate queue jumpers and i am very vocal about it.

What pisses me off more though is the staff behind the checkout/desk etc. When someone jumps in front of me i always say 'EXCUSE ME, i was next' the staff member looks at me like i am in the wrong. What they should be doing is telling the queue jumper to get to the end of the queue.

If the staff member did that & the queue jumper complained all management need to say is that queues are there to keep the peace. Instead of everyone pandering to the queue jumper.

I was in Sainsbury's, returning a laptop with a fault and looking at my options for the new one. Found a lovely chap from the electrical deal to help me and off we trotted to discuss them, obviously busy and unavailable.

A woman came over and interrupted is to ask a question. The chap looked at me, I said "go on, don't worry" so he dealt with her very quickly and returned to me. As we were closer to making the decision, another, very rude woman, came over saying "is anyone else serving, I need help?" Chap replied good colleague was back at the desk, but rude woman said there was a queue and she just needs to find something.

At this point, I looked at her and said "excuse me, but what makes you more important than me?" They both looked (nice chap trying not to grin) s and RW said what do you mean? I said "what makes you more important than me, that you want him to stop serving me, to look after you - don't you think that's very rude?" With an MN head tilt. . . She scuttled off and the nice chap was in stitches - sorted out my new laptop and told me he would love more people to say stuff like that!

I wasn't born in the uk but have lived here for 30 years. Brits are so well mannered compared to what I've seen. Where I'm originally from people are actually really welcoming but very very blunt. I've seen people have punch ups when they've seen someone push in. Massive arguments that go on for ages. It's actually really funny to watch. So when I'm in a queue here I pick my battles. If I'm not in a hurry I will let it go.

reboot That's how I felt yesterday. Both the customer and the server looked at me as though I was in the wrong. I got served but they made me feel very uncormfortable. The customer was just glaring at me the whole time. Made me wish I hadn't said anything in the first place.

As someone who works in retail, I hate queue jumpers, and I do often tell
people "actually x was in front of you". I will also quite often be with a customer (I work on a cosmetics counter) when people ask if I can serve them (with maybe three or so people in front of them). I always say no!

I work in a university with a large international community. It's always rather amusing watching them navigate the whys and wherefores of British queuing etiquette while waiting to get served in the cafes or getting on a bus. Some look terrified, so fearful they'll get it wrong!

We usually get them licked into shape by the start of the Spring term

When I was doing bar work I was very good at clocking who was queuing first. Anyone who tried to push in was met with 'this gentleman/woman was here first' and any argument was met with them having to wait a very long time.

Foreign queuing may not always be as chaotic as it appears, I used to feel anxious about ever getting served in Spanish shops and small
bars where it isn't self-service as there was no queue and lots of chat and people would move in front of me talking to the staff, I did notice people seems to know it was my turn and would nod or gesture me to the counter when it was my turn.
Then I found out on a podcast that there is a custom of not physically queuing, but when they enter a shop, small bar, asking "Who's last?" (Quien es la ultima?) and that person identifies themselves, so everyone knows their place in the non-queue. It's true, I've heard it a lot and now follow suit where helpful, I think it's a really neat system. It's so quick and low key you might not pick up on it as a foreigner. Wouldn't work on a big scale of course, like airports or theme parks.

I suppose that's the same as when a member of staff asks 'who is next' Sometimes people are polite enough to say 'oh he/she is' More often than not especially in busy establishments it seems to be a free for all of who can shout their order the loudest. In the UK anyway. It's just bad manners.

I had similar on a ferry once Cellar - there was a little cafe in the corner, and as I wanted to buy sandwiches and crisps and drinks for the family I walked round the counter from the end where the trays were, past the refrigerated displays, taking what I wanted and then round to the till.

When I got to the till there was what turned out to be a queue going in the opposite direction, along a wall, but it just looked like a big gaggle of people, so when the person being served left with their food, I stepped up to pay.

"Scuse me love, queues this way!" Gets shouted at me. I tried to reason that I'd followed the logical way around, but he'd decided to make his own queue as he "only wanted a tea and didn't need to look at the food" and others had joined behind him. I refused to budge and told the server they needed a sign to make it clear which way the queue was. By this point bloke and his family are swearing at me and calling me rude. I walked off with my food and promptly cried my eyes out. As I left the server apologised to the bloke for his wait! No apology for the abuse I got. I know it was because she didn't want him to kick off at her, but really?!

Now I'd just tell him to make a fucking sign if it was so important to him.

A few weeks ago returning home from holiday a family obviously wanted to check in quickly and barged me out of the way as the line was moving up (it was free flowing and moving quick at this point as we'd just arrived and check in just opened). I'd already been split from the rest of my family by another family of queue jumpers (because of course I'm struggling with DS case as well as my own whilst he skips ahead and everyone else only has 1 case, yay Mums!), so I just unclipped the ribbon barrier, stepped through, clipped it behind me and called out loudly as the rest of my family joined me 'We got split up because people barged me out of the way! Never mind, sorted now" tinkley laugh.

Once again I apologise for the bad spelling in the title thread. I was still seething when I wrote it. I didn't realise my mistake until after I posted

Had this a couple of days ago, asked staff member for help and was getting rathe mediocre advice when woman interrupts asking for some bubble bath she liked. Staff member says to me 'wait a minute' and goes off to help her. I stand waiting for nearly ten minutes as they faff around. Staff member comes back without a word of apology and continues her rathe poor sales technique.

Shame I was there assessing her customer service skills and have put a report in on what happened.

My worst ever hormonal rage was when I was late for a meeting at work and stuck in a long car park queue near the university. A car full of students drove through the exit and sailed past the huge obvious queue. By the time they had parked I was still queuing next to the entrance when they came to pay. I wound my window down and called then fucking privileged twats and said for them not to be surprised if their tyres were flat when they returned! I am normally very mild mannered and don't know what came over me!