WIBU to ask this lady to move?

[Fahhgedaboutit]

I needed petrol yesterday so after work, just before picking up DS from nursery, I stopped at the Morrisons petrol station near his nursery and had about 20 minutes before I was due to pick him up. I didn’t pay at pump as I rarely carry a bank card around, I use Apple Pay for most things. I went to pay and there was a lady in front of me talking to the cashier about the Morrisons more card- she was looking through her purse but couldn’t find it. Anyway, she asked the cashier how to download it off her phone but clearly wasn’t very technically able; first she was trying to figure out if she had a smart phone, then she didn’t know her password for the google play store etc. anyway about 10 minutes had passed of waiting and there was a queue of about 6 people behind me at this point and I was starting to panic i’d be late for DS so I asked (politely!), if she could step to the side to sort her app out and the people behind could pay until she was ready.

She called me rude, ranted about young peoples manners (I’m 34!). I said I didn’t think I was being rude, but I had to pick up DS from nursery in less than 10 minutes and then my elder DS from school and I was going to be late. She got angry at me for replying and just paid and left without finishing her more card downloading, huffing away the whole time about manners.

WIBU? I felt a bit shitty but I also wouldn’t have stood there trying to sort my phone out whilst there was a queue of people waiting to pay at a clearly busy time!

S

This.

The cashier was surely the rude really. It's their job to manage the situation and serve you in a timely manner.

They almost always ask people to step aside so they can serve others if they are trying to find/download stuff and its taking a while.

Then you get the odd cashiers though that just think sitting round having a chat is their job with zero actual work being done. I have notice many of them don't seem to stay employed long here. There's a difference between being friendly (most are) and basically having a tea break every other customer to gossip.

I don't tend to blame the customer because its not their job to be cashing out my purchase. Its often little old men that just seem lonely and want a chat round here. Yes its mildly irritating that they are in the way when you are in a hurry but basic empathy makes me understand they just want to be social. Most long term cashiers here tend just be 'yeah John can you just step to the side and let me serve this customer, I'll just be a minute' and it doesn't hold up the line.

I don't agree. I would have been embarrassed holding a queue up like that. People have busy lives and I don't expect them to wait while I faff about.

YANBU. I've done the same at a railway station when people were queueing to buy tickets for the train coming in and departing in a few minutes, and someone at the front was asking about buying tickets for a train departing next week!

Ideally the staff should do it but sometimes you have to take matters into your own hands. So yes, not rude as long as you said it politely.

No. I wish everyone was less thoughtless but people wander around like in a trance

This is why I buy mine online as I walk to the station as I’m not waiting for the muppets in the machine queue. They are queued up on the platform whereas my phone holds my ticket.

You weren’t rude at all. Who wants to wait that length of time behind someone dithering around. I was held up in the queue in M&S while a customer told the cashier all about her latest holiday - I finally butted in and said I had somewhere to be and got a lot of huffing and puffing from the holidaymaker. I don’t care - your time is just as precious as hers - she was the one being rude.

Ergh the train people are the worst
..the ones applying for a pass with their photo at 8am ffs

No, you definitely weren’t rude. Making people wit in a queue that long is rude and it will also cause delays on the forecourt with people waiting to use the pumps.

You were fine and it wasn’t rude to ask. If I’m ever in a queue for anything and I think I might hold people up for more than a couple of minutes, I will step aside and wait. Better one person is held up than 6.

I was just going to type the exact same thing.

YANBU.

A petrol station isn’t the place to faff about with your apps and hold people up. People have places to be.

It’s not just those in store she’s holding up. Those people in store are blocking the pumps from being used and as such, causing a further queue outside. All because she wanted to use her app.

For those saying that it’s not her fault that OP was in a hurry- how many people go to the petrol station just for shits and giggles? None. We all have places to be.

If she’s having issues with the app she needs to go into the supermarket and sort it there.

no you're not rude and the cashier should've done it first!

I work in retail and I would have asked her to step aside to 'flap ' . She was rude and people do that and are oblivious so it's up to me to guide them . I let them jump back in when they are ready .

If you carry your card and pay at pump then you'll never have to queue again, plus you'll never make anyone have to wait for you to be served either.

You expect the turnaround time for paying for petrol to be about three minutes max. The woman was being a pain in the arse and the cashier should have said ‘let me just serve these six people as the queue is backing up and then I’ll help you.’

Yep as it didn’t occur to them that it would be busy! ScotRail is really good to use online. I buy my tickets from my phone all the time, load up my season ticket etc.

This was incredibly rude of her to hold everyone up, it would have driven me mad too esp if I was trying to pick kids up. You did right thing, she was in the wrong!

Sanctimonious much? Time perhaps to get off your high horse.

It's not a cashiers job to help download the morrisons card. 🙄

It comes across as rude but in reality she knew what she was doing and didn’t care about anyone else. This is the reason why doctors appointments are timed now to stop this from happening. The trouble being there are people whose symptoms don’t fit into the allocated time. People like this are the reason why the time slot exists and it never affects them when measures are taken.

What I really don't understand (not relevant in the OP's case but queuing in general) is why people in the supermarket queue will put all their stuff away in their bags in their trolley and only then get their purse out, then have to wait while the cashier does their thing, thus holding everyone up? When the cashier has finished I give them my card (which I've usually got out ready while in the queue, and put down by the till) and then carry on packing. But it seems they're incapable of switching tasks and don't care if they hold everyone up.

Nope, any more than about 20 seconds and she needs to get out of the way and rejoin the queue when she's ready

You can use ApplePay at the pumps, I am sure.