AIBU to feel this angry about queue jumpers?

[LeggyLinda]

This is my first AIBU question (though I’ve been here a while) so please forgive me if I don’t make sense - this is my first started thread.

We have a bus stop. Busses stop there (obviously). People wait in line for bus. All works perfectly in normal situations.

Bus service is unreliable and sometimes a service is missed which results in a big queue. But recently I’ve noticed that people see the queue and decide to stand at the front (pretending to look at the timetable( and then make the beginnings of a new queue going the other direction.

The “fake” queue then grows as more arrivals are encouraged to join it by the queue jumpers (to give it credibility I suppose).

This is half term week and I assume that visitors do not know the protocol (despite signs). But I get really angry when I’ve been waiting for a bus for 45 mins and someone who’s been there 5 mins gets on board and I have to wait for the next one (which could be ages).

I know this is a first world problem. I am not disabled, nor do I have young children with me (usually). But I get so uncharacteristically annoyed by this.

For the first time (that I’ve seen) someone challenged one of these queue jumpers today and it got quite aggressive. I wish I could’ve stood up and supported them, but I’m obviously too weak 😢

IABU to be upset so much about this?
I probably am.
Considering everything that’s going on in the world, for this to anger me so much is unreasonable surely?

No YANBU! Queue jumpers are appalling, what makes them so special that they feel they can push past people!?

a whole load of people formed a rogue queue to push into the passport queue the last time I flew. I turned around and shouted at them en masse. There a queue. It ends there. You've just queue jumped all these other people. I gesticulated too.

Then my husband told me off for embarrassing him.

Then he did the same a month or two later when we were queue jumped elsewhere.

You're darned right I reminded him he thought it wasn't ok for me to do it. If these one thing worse than queue jumpers it double standards from menfolk.

Still queue jumpers grrrrrrr. Totally with you OP but don't try to fight them all at once.

Yes, some folks are just cheeky twats. I have had this situation, and when the bus arrives, the only thing you can do is go to the head of the queue and push in to the jumpers.

Remember old-fashioned bus stops that used to have a sign saying 'queue this side?'
These days people seem to queue in all directions and then surge when the bus comes.

There still is one of those bus stops at Waterloo Station that tells you which side to queue for which bus. Saves a lot of confusion and bad feeling.

Totally feel for you. My father does something similar - pretends he doesn’t know how ticket machines work.
Gets special assistance and walks through with a smug look.

I’ve told him he’s a twat and that everyone knows he’s a twat. Doesn’t stop him though as British people are more likely to tut than do anything about it.

YANBU at all but if it bothers you that much (which I’m sure it does to the others in the line too!) you are totally justified in saying something to the queue jumpers!

Busses here are difficult, here are some where everyone stands happily in a queue eg if a train is cancelled. Others are free for all and I've never known how to deal with it!

I find raising my arm in an imperious way at request stops seems to get the bus driver lining up with me, when I have been the first in the queue. Otherwise they stop at the furthest person which does irritate me. On the other hand though, there's a strict queuing protocol at work for the lifts which is equally annoying when the lift goes off half full because the person at the front decides they're not taking that one .

This has given me the rage - they know there’s a queue, they can see the direction of the queue, I have no doubt they have been part of said queue before.
However, a new protocol has been developed. You need to start a third queue. Drift away from first queue as soon as second queue has reach equal distance to your own position in queue 1. Mosey back up to timetable with a quizzical look on your face and your wrist watch proudly displayed for comparison (your phone won’t do).

Linger.

As soon as bus comes stake your claim at its door and block the entire queue 2 until the whole of queue 1 has boarded, then allow queue 3 on just to make your point.
Lots of passive aggressive ‘haha sorry guys, I think these lovely people were here first...’.

Be brave. They need to learn.

Yabu if when they are challenged you dont back up the challenger. Good on them for having the bottle, if enough people followed them queue jumping would stop if they shy away they are more likely to keep taking the piss.

I challenge queue jumpers every single time. Some pretend that they don’t realise, but I guarantee most know exactly what they’re doing. I think the UK are ocd about queues. I went to Paris Disneyland last year and realised most of the rest of Europe just aren’t as bothered. Queue jumping there was rampant!

I hate this! Our local vue has the tills at the end of each stand of food which you queue between so nobody is stood in front of a sales person. Usually there are two or three servers and one queue but sometimes someone comes along and makes their own queue and gets served first. It annoys me so much.

Oh fucking fuck I hate queue jumpers. I go to slimming world and we are supposed to sit in order of arrival. This means you pay and weigh in order of arrival.
Each week some bastard doesn’t move up and a cheeky fucker queue jumper nips in with their mate. I go from 4th to 6th in the line. It’s 7pm and I haven’t eaten since 12pm and that meal will have consisted of boiled water and a sniff of a celery stick in the hopes that I’ve lost just something.
So by the time I get to weigh in, I’m starving I just want to weigh and go home and eat some dinner. But nooooooo fucking queue jumper in their see through leggings nips in and when they get to the desk have a good long chat about their week and purchases 16 boxes of hifi bars. Meanwhile I’m like a massive fat ball of anger, fat, starving and livid.
I never say anything because I don’t want to look like petty one or worse the fat angry person

OP when you're a Brit living abroad you quickly discover your backbone with queue jumpers; politeness and stiff upper lip goes right out of the window!

@Frizzcat
That made me laugh. Thankfully I am home alone and not on a bus or snorting over my keyboard

@Frizzcat 😂😂 You should absolutely lose your shit next time that happens and beat said queue jumper over the head with their hifi bars 🤣

I was in a massive queue for the Vatican and it was a really hot day, i was tired and some bloke pushed infront of me, i was fumming, so i grabbed his backpack and pulled him behind me, not my proudest moment

YANBU. Call them out! I do!

I’m not sure who to batter first tbh, the arsewipe that leaves a gap to allow the queue jumper to jump in. OR the queue jumper for spotting the weakness, nipping in and making me an unhinged mess.

Come the glorious revolution when I become the ruler of all things these cheeky fuckers will be condemned to the back of the queue - life sentence no appeals allowed

I find situations like this so stressful.

We recently were getting a busy but weekend train (so not normal commuters), we were one of the first on the platform and 10 mins before the train arrived I was first waiting at approximately where the doors would open when the train arrived. The number of people who tried to push me out the way was unbelievable.

Coming back I ended up chatting to someone in a wheelchair and her career. They'd not got on the previous train that they were booked on because people pushed past them wouldn't move out of the disabled space.

Some people just don't seem to care or follow the rules!

I saw an Italian couple nearly get battered the other day at train station ticket place for this. The pretended they didnt realise but surely thats one of the first customs you learn about here?

Is the first person in the queue standing really far away? Because if there is room for someone to get to the front of the queue because someone else has chosen not to stand as close to the front as they can then I think it's fair game.

YANBU.

@LeggyLinda

YANBU at ALL. Not much you can do about it though.

Me and the DC were waiting for a train home after a concert one time, and it was the last train back. It went at 11.35pm, and we were on the platform for 11.05pm. There were only about 20 people on the platform waiting... We dashed out of the concert to be one of the first on the platform to ensure we got on the (last) train.

At 11.30pm there were some 220 people waiting. The train rolled in, already about a quarter full, and not enough room for everyone. Only enough room for about 150 people. Everyone barged forward, and knocked me and my kids flying, and we couldn't get on the train.

I was nearly in tears and told the (station) man on the platform that we lived in this certain town 60 miles away and needed to get on the train as it was the last one. 25 or so others who couldn't get on either had the same issue.

Our destination was the last one, and the train called at 8-10 other towns first. There were 3 more trains to the first 4 towns - between midnight and 1pm, (that people only going there could have got,) but noooooo, they had to get on THIS one.

So the conductor told people who were only going to the first 3 or 4 towns to get off and get one of the next 3 trains that were going between midnight at 1pm, as this was the last one for around 25-30 people. No-one moved out of their seats (or off the train at all!)

So he said he is going to make everyone get off, and look at everyone's tickets, and if their ticket is only for the next 3 or 4 towns (and they do have 3 more trains in the next hour,) they WILL NOT be allowed back on and WILL get one of the next trains, as they were being selfish and unfair... (because the people going to the town 8 stops/70 minutes away had only this one train that night!)

Around 50 people sheepishly and reluctantly got off the train..