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 ..

Post Offices really are the worst. You can easily wait 20-30 mins in queues at both our local ones (no self service machines). So pensioners/disabled people who struggle to walk, parents with babies/toddlers, anyone and everyone just left there with no seating and often no option to go anywhere else.

Ironically both are located in supermarkets who would very quickly go out of business if their queues were anything like the PO ones.

*"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*

Well the appropriate response would be to apologise and get on with serving the customers, ie the job for what she is being paid to do.

But the expected response would be the one the poster received.

I agree, @Satsuamaeater - you have said exactly what I was thinking.

I'm absolutely with you, OP.

I had a recent experience in our village post office, within a newsagents. I was behind 3 older ladies in the queue who were all talking to the cashier about something going on locally. She stopped to talk, rather than talk and serve at the same time. Queue growing ever longer, me (disabled, standing using a crutch, in terrible pain) waiting for 15 mins or so. She finally got to me and, when she realised I had parcels, told me to stand aside as others in the queue probably only wanted stamps and she needed to get the queue down. I flatly refused and said maybe the queue wouldn't be so bad if she hadn't been chatting so much! I dont usually stand up for myself and it felt fabulous.

I refuse to use self service tills on principle. They are just replacing people. Where ever possible I stand in a normal queue

People do this in my local Tesco Express. There is one queue and you sort of peel off to go to self-checkout.

The number of people who refuse to use self-checkout but then mutter after I've politely asked if they want to use it is ridiculous!

The number of people who refuse to use self-checkout but then mutter after I've politely asked if they want to use it is ridiculous!

When I cover the self scan tills at work I hate how the self scan will be empty and all the tills have a queue when someone comes along with one or two items and joins a queue.

I will then (as is my job) ask them if they want to come over and use the self scan machine so that they dont have to wait behind the two people doing big shops ... I will either get ignored or a "No, I hate those machines" so I back off. If it is quiet and someone (usually an older person) says they dont want to use it because they don't know how I will offer to help and talk them through it so they know for next time and they often take up the offer but if not then that is the stage I back off.

5 minutes later when the customer who didn't want to use self scan is still in the queue they will start complaining because they have had to wait and then are either rude to the cashier or go and complain at customer services! The only reason they have had to wait is because they chose to.

There was a viable option that was offered but it was refused so don't complain about a situation of your own making!

5 minutes later when the customer who didn't want to use self scan is still in the queue they will start complaining because they have had to wait and then are either rude to the cashier or go and complain at customer services! The only reason they have had to wait is because they chose to.

I get annoyed with people who do that, i.e. make the queues longer when they refuse to do self service, meaning me and others are behind them and have to queue longer, because we can't use the self service machines for whatever reason. People who refuse to use self service as a point of principle are a pain in the arse.

"
Well the appropriate response would be to apologise and get on with serving the customers, ie the job for what she is being paid to do.

But the expected response would be the one the poster received."

Wouldn't it have been better to complain the supervisor that they were having this conversation with, rather than making passiive aggressive comments to the assistant?

YANBU. They do this so that they can upsell you 24/48 hour delivery and other premium products

"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?

'Yes, sorry madam, now how can I help you?' would be the professional reaction. We all have to put our game face on sometimes. We can go and bitch to our friends/partner/cat/the internet afterwards to get it off our chests.

^and the person being served can't do that either?

I was in the Post Office on my lunch break over the summer (I get half an hour) and while I was queueing, having been there 10 minutes, the 4 staff all wandered into the corner, proceeded to sing happy birthday to Brenda, do her a presentation, and cut the cake. We were all gobsmacked. A) do not do that at lunch and B) if you must have a 15 minute jolly, close the doors for a few minutes so customers can't get it and start queueing!

Bum, the key here is that the person serving is the one in the professional position. Sometimes you have to rise above customers being snappy etc and just be the bigger person. God knows I've done it plenty in my own work life.

^ I get that, I just don't think that excuses people to be snippy. Since these people clearly have mouths and aren't afraid to use them, a simple "excuse me", usually gets their attention.

Absolutely not! Im a stickler for good customer service and would have been asking for the manager. Perhaps it was his (or her) 50th birthday?

Some people are so rude and unpleasant though - not necessary.

Superdrug staff are awful for talking to each other whilst serving and it drives me it’s as it’s so rude.

Fluffyears, I was in Superdrug last week and the staff called her manager a 'fucking idiot' and then looked at me if she wanted me to collude her. I gave her look and she apologised. It's so unprofessional and leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

Way up the thread a retail worker called me 'entitled'. I repeat. We are your customers therefore obviously entitled. We're not your friends, we're not interested in your chats with your staff friends. We just want you to do your job, take our money for whatever, so we can leave. As soon as possible. Why does that require an argument?

That was me a retail worker ?
I definitely hold my opinion that you are entitled!
You are the kind of customer who thinks they’ve received a ‘good service’ - when ( to get you out of the shop) we do the bare minimum.
Some customers have no idea how much nicer things could be, if they treated the humans who work in retail as humans!
I actually have nice customers check on me to make sure l am ok,after they’ve witnessed some horrendous behaviour from other shoppers!

having been there 10 minutes, the 4 staff all wandered into the corner, proceeded to sing happy birthday to Brenda, do her a presentation, and cut the cake

That's British customer service for you - we're known all over the world for it

Some customers have no idea how much nicer things could be, if they treated the humans who work in retail as humans!

Conversely, some retail workers have no idea how much nicer things could be, if they treated the customers as humans! It works both ways.

Well pacer
Where l work l am renowned for my excellent customer service skills. As l said earlier, l’ve stillbeen sworn at, shouted at and generally just treated like a piece of shit...
What gives eh?
Oh,and l can add spat at, as of last week!
It doesn’t take much to set off the general public, especially if you work for a ‘big name ‘
Some people see you as the target for why everything has gone wrong with their shopping trip!
I don’t see it so much abroad and l’ve lives in a few different countries!