To loose my temper in post office?

[irritablesally]

So yesterday I get to my local post office.
It's a busy city centre branch.
They have 5 on the counters and 4 "self serve machines"
I go through and do my parcel but at the end it comes up with "please wait for host" who basically confirms you've done it correctly.
All 4 machines were stuck on "please wait for host"and lots of people waiting behind.
The lady who was working (or supposed to be working ) on self serve was going around attaching 50th birthday balloons to everyone's desk and the post office.
I stood for 6 minutes (along with the other 3) waiting for her ..she looked over and continued fannying on with balloons.
I lost my temper and said "instead of messing about with that can you actually help us"
Then she came over ..
Was aibu to say this?
I felt guilty after ..

@Cabochard

That poster must live in the US ?
You can do that there.

Who gives a shit? If OP's in the U.K?

Or maybe there are other places too?

Yes, I can confirm there are other places in the world. But if OP's in the UK, what happens there with their parcels is immaterial.

Not everyone lives in the UK!
Sometimes posters forget / don’t realise.
You don’t have to be so fucking snippy!
Rude actually.

There are few things I hate more than watching customer service assistants ignoring a queue of people while they get on with “behind the scenes” jobs.

My local pharmacy is TERRIBLE for this. It’s completely ingrained into their working culture and they need a kick up the arse. You can have four people behind the counter: one pharmacist (busy), one assistant (busy putting together numerous prescriptions for someone at the front of the queue) and two more assistants wafting around totally ignoring the queue that’s nearly winding out of the door. I waited for five solid minutes before assistant 1 decided to ask assistants 2 and 3 to stop what they’re doing and deal with the queue. I’ve worked in customer facing roles in various places and the rules never change - if there are people waiting, fucking deal with them (although, sadly, I’ve never seen a handbook written in such direct language )

All 4 machines were stuck on "please wait for host"and lots of people waiting behind

This. Self-service machines rarely are, I find. There always seems to be a point in the process at which a real person is needed. Staff need to be aware of that to prevent the queues building up.

The Post Office.

457 reviews = 1 star out of a possible five.

Rating result BAD

uk.trustpilot.com/review/postoffice.co.uk

The reviews about the actual branches make interesting reading.

Haworthia. Had exactly that experience yesterday in a Lloyds pharmacy. 4 staff all doing other stuff. Then some more other stuff. Then a chat between themselves. And they wonder why the high street's on its knees. I was eventually served by Chemist Direct, arrived an hour ago.

@Cabochard

Not everyone lives in the UK!
Sometimes posters forget / don’t realise.
You don’t have to be so fucking snippy!
Rude actually.

Like you weren't being snippy with your 'maybe there are other places' comment. Whatever.

I wasn’t being snippy at.all.
It was more of a wondering...
I’m not blessed with the inside workings of the post office worldwide!

@Cabochard

So what you are saying is that those members of staff replenishing stock cannot use the tills?

@Cabochard I had never worked with the general public before 4 years ago, my god it’s an eye opener! I’ve been sworn at, physicaly threatend, shouted at and most recently a woman came in and spoke to me in such a vile manner I’m still shocked now! It seems that they expect courtesy and good service while speaking to you as if you are subhuman

Calonglas I'm glad you like your post office. I can see your point about having a screen or something so that we cant be seen doing other jobs. We cover one counter the best we can when we have to do other things and when we have our lunch breaks but you would be surprised the amount of times we are disturbed which when on lunch is anoying. There isnt anywhere else to go for lunch either.
Cabochard yes we have lots of other jobs to do and its hard getting it all done when only 2 members of staff.

Sometimes Olivia yes.
Not all staff are till trained.
Also ( not surprisingly) some colleagues are too scared to be trained and work more closely with the public.

Tara absolutely.
Me too!
I’ve been told they will wait for me after work to beat me up,that l’m stupid.
What do l want to do with my life? And on and on...

Interestingly, most people are rude. It really stands out when a customer is pleasant. I’m so shocked that l’m constantly waiting for them to turn too!

I'm sure there's plenty of time in the day when there aren't queues of people waiting to be served. When there are long queues, all possible staff should be serving them, not faffing about. No shop will be so busy that there are long queues all the time!
Really? Ive worked in a place that had a queue from when i would open, until i went home.
Sometimes staff have to leave the tills to do other jobs or you end up having other customers moaning because then there ( for example) no stock...

I got into an argument with the floor woman in Santander. She asked what service I needed and I wanted to pay cash in over the counter. ‘You can use our machine!’ ‘No ta I don’t trust them after a bad experience’ my money went missing then was applied short.’it gives you a receipt’ yes it gave me one last time but I still had the headache of sorting it out. I want the cashier to count it and confirm it and then give me a receipt thank you.

I would hate and dread to work with the public nowadays.

This is coming from someone who used to work in an old man's pub when I was a teen!

Not unreasonable to lose temper, but very unreasonable to spell lose with 2 o!

Of course YANBU.
You were infuriated and rightly so.
Have the courage of your own convictions and don't buy into this millennial guilt of somehow having " upset " someone.

Nope - def NOT unreasonable

This seems typical in many shops, banks etc. Sometimes made to feel that serving customers is an inconvenience to staff. Was waiting in queue to pay in petrol station and staff member was trying to serve while having conversation with colleague about where they were going out to at the weekend. She was so slow with customers in front of me and then when it was my turn she pressed wrong pump button to charge me. When I said to her that she might get on quicker if she paid attention to what she was doing instead of discussing her social life she gave me a very dirty look. Wouldn’t have been so bad but the colleague was actually the Supervisor who was standing with her coat on doing nothing.

Good grief no! You should speak to the manager, that is shocking customer service.

YANBU, our post office is like this and the associated WHSmith self serve, both equally shit. I have left stuff at the self serve and walked out quite a few times. I'll go to tescos and buy envelopes there instead, at least they have someone constantly monitoring their self serve.

"When I said to her that she might get on quicker if she paid attention to what she was doing instead of discussing her social life she gave me a very dirty look. "

How did you expect her to react?

Interestingly the technology within the WHS self serve till, is much superior to most supermarkets!