Was I in the wrong with this customer

[Jungledrinks]

2 of us working in a shop college goes to the stock room and a customer asks me to help her with an item. I walk the customer and item back to the till to pay and there is a lady in front of the till who should I of served first. I served the lady I had been dealing with but the other lady got all grumpy and said she was here first. I did say I was dealing with this lady before she even entered the shop but my college would be along in a second to serve her but she walked out.

I’ve had both happen to me and not really been fussed either way, think it depends on the situation.

I queued for ages in Mac for the till once, got to the till, mentioned I hadn’t been able to find something. The girl took me off to help me find it and straight back to the till. I wouldn’t have been impressed if I’d had to queue again that time I guess.

shoe shops especially they help you and put it behind the till and you join the back of the queue.

I’ve also been the person waiting at the empty till when the assistant appears with a customer and an item and they finish serving that customer before me and I’m ok with that. Certainly wouldn’t flounce out the shop.

The person queuing first is the person OP was already helping, they'd just moved away from the queue (with the cashier) for some help. That doesn't mean they then go to the back of queue
We don't know they were queuing in the first place. They might have just come straight to OP and asked for help which would indeed be rude already.

It would be the same as someone cutting in front of a queue because they arrived in the shop first but spent more time looking around.

Or someone queuing, then deciding they wanted more things, leaves the queue, go browsing for 15mns and think they can go back at the start of the queue.

We don't know they were queuing in the first place

we do because the OP said so.

Op did not say the person she helped was quieinh

she said they came into the store

have none of you shopped in JD, Nike, office, schu? They all do same. You ask for help on shop floor, item is taken to the till and you join queue to pay.

helping on shop floor and till queues are separate

op has not said this person came to the till first at all or queued before in any way

Maybe read all of the OP's posts....?

Pretty sure op said about the box after this post

No they didn't. It was before the posts I quoted.

No other shop really? that's a bold claim. You're wrong though, they definitely do

I would have called colleague through to serve lady waiting at the till.

If you were just helping with the transaction, by picking out the box, then yes, finishing the purchase makes sense. I thought initially op was helping the customer shop in general, not pausing the initial checkout process because the item customer was buying came with an add-on.

As this thread shows, each individual has a different view on what is 'right', sometimes opposing views, yet the saying the customer is always right means that both of those views are right, however with shop staff being unable to defy the laws of physics and be in two places at once, someone has got to wait.
The only certainty here is that the shop assistant will have been the one in the wrong, regardless of who she served first, because automatically both customers are right.
We seem to have lost any expectations that people think for themselves, use rational thought, not expect the impossible or behave like decent human beings in situations where we are being served in some way.

I don't personally think the OP was wrong in what she did, I'm pointing out that when you work with the great general public, you're wrong no matter what you do in the eyes of someone else because all too often 'The customer is always right' translates to 'The staff are always wrong'.

If the first customer could have worked out for herself that her item came in a box that was available next to the item she chose and she should have brought it up to the till with her when she came to pay in the first place, but missed that fact, then she was not ready to pay when she came to the till, so should have gone to the back of the queue when she got back. The irony, of course, would be if the 2nd customer also turned out to be unobservant… then she should after all wait for the first lady, who was now ready, to pay, before the shop assistant then spoonfed her, too…