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!

YWNBU!

She should have stepped to one side.

While we’re on the subject of petrol stations, the MOST annoying thing at our newly refurbished and expanded one is the utter arseholes who fill up and then pop to Gregs, then saunter around the store, THEN pay for their fuel and then move their car!

I’ve been parked behind someone for around 20 minutes before now, especially when it’s been busy!

Fill up, pay and move your bloody car to the ample car park, THEN do your shopping! That’s what I do!

I wish they'd start a) a basket only queue and b) a "I want to use the app but don't have it downloaded yet" queue so that those of us who want to buy a loaf of bread before school pick up can do so without being stuck behind dithering twats and their full trolleys.

Can I add a controverdial (c), remove any space at the checkout for packing bags, everything goes back into a trolley and the customer packs at their own rate on the packing bench! Places like Aldi and Lidl never used to have packing space by the till in Germany,

1willgetthere has this right

this was a situation poorly managed by the store. The cashier should have called for help.

I don’t think it was rude but it was a pity there wasn’t another cashier as being rushed like this is the reason the old fashioned ‘stop and chat’ brigade don’t feel they’re able to in shops anymore and eg older people don’t feel they can ask for help. There’s a guy that comes into us and aside from the hospital the only places he goes to are us and Tesco. He says the people in Tesco don’t chat anymore and we’d be the only people he’s talked to for days. But they should have had a second cashier in your case if a six deep queue happened!

The issue is that she wasn’t actually ready to be served so I wouldn’t find it rude at all asking her to wait until she had everything she needed. The cashier is unable to help her with passwords or her personal device so their job at that point with this customer was done!

No you weren’t rude. I agree about not being pushy if someone is actually in the process of being served but she wasn’t , she was trying to download the app that’s not what the till is for .

The cashier should have been firmer and said I’m happy to help just step to the side and I’ll just serve these customers x

The woman was rude for not stepping to the side and allowing other people to carry on paying.

Oh the melodrama 🤦‍♀️

Good for you for saying something, I would have too. Lady was taking the mickey and the cashier should have dealt with it better.

@Fahhgedaboutit "She called me rude, ranted about young peoples manners (I’m 34!)"

Tell everyone you're ageist without actually saying anything ageist"🤣🤣🤣🤣

I would have been rude and bypassed the woman to tell the cashier directly I'm on the school run so I need to pay. You were being polite asking.

It's that woman's fault for losing her Morrisons card to begin with. What kind of self entitled person holds up a queue while they try and install an app when they've lost their password.. Ffs. Be funny if someone blocked her in for 10 mins while looking for their car keys...

"Im sorry, Would you mind terribly if I went in front of you to pay, I'm worried I will be late to collect my son" is not putting the 'blame' on her and making her feel helpful to say yes.

This is so very British All this terribly this and terribly that and going into great lengths trying not to offend some stranger when it's you who is being inconvenienced.. In my Scandinavian home country someone would have just shouted "Hey can you move aside" and that would have been that.
(This is not meant as a criticism, stuff like this is why I love you Brits!)

TBF though, us retail cashier's aren't free therapy either, nobody ever asks us whether we want to be talked at all day but because we work in a service industry we are supposed to just sit and listen to anyone who wants to chat. It would be nice if customers occasionally remembered that just because they want to talk about something doesn't mean we are willing conversation participants.

I was always happy to have a chit chat with customers when I worked on the checkouts but some people would tell you all kinds of stuff that either was boring as hell or totally inappropriate and we were just expected to sit there, smile, nod and pretend we cared because "you might be the only person Doris speaks to today".

I appreciate that Doris might be lonely and want some human interaction but that doesn't mean a poor cashier should have to listen to the ins and outs of an OAPs day? I get paid just over NMW, I'm not a therapist so why do people assume we have nothing better to do than listen to them tell you whatever is on their mind?

I've had people try to engage me in discussion about all kinds of conversations, some of which are harmless bit others have made me very uncomfortable due to the customer themselves or just the topic thet are trying to get a discussion going about.

I actually had a customer complain once because the cashier initially said she didn't want to talk about the big crash on the local A road that had happened the previous weekend that the customer was insisting on telling her about as it had made her late for an important appointment etc. Then when the customer continued regardless, telling her all about the crash site that she'd seen driving past and all the rumours that had been going around about the cause of the crash etc the cashier tried to move the conversation to a different topic but the customer just kept on about it so the cashier stopped the transaction (called over headset for someone to take over) and told the lady she would have to wait for someone else to finish her transaction and walked away.

The customer was incensed that the cashier was so rude as to walk away mid transaction but she had no choice - the cashier's teenage nephew (who the customer was unwittingly berating for reckless behaviour) had been involved in the crash and, at that moment, was still in intensive care and she had walked away from the customer to go to a staff area to absolutely bawl her eyes out.

The cashier had tried politely to change the conversation because she didn't want to tell the customers about her personal business but the customer gave her no choice ... once the customer was informed that the cashier had a family member involved in the crash the light dawned on her as to why she didn't want to talk about it and she even said "If I had known I wouldn't have said anything" which is rather the point - you didn't know but cashiers should not have to disclose personal information in order not to be forced to listen to whatever customers want to say at them.

You were polite. The woman was rude. The cashier should have used her initiative and asked for another till to be opened to deal with the queue of 6 that was forming. I'm sure the other people in the queue were silently delighted you said something.

Omg yes!!! I was waiting behind a pump a few weeks ago as the couple in the car who had just filled up went in so I thought they’d only be a couple of minutes. They went into the subways that was in the petrol station and I huffed away to myself but then they sat down and started eating in subways!! I had to do an awkward manoeuvre to get to another pump.

That annoyed me even more than the lady in Morrisons!

I was quite flattered about that one tbh!

Some people appear to be completely oblivious to their surroundings and what is and is not reasonable.

It is NOT reasonable to expect a cashier to help with this sort of thing when there is a queue backing up and no other staff available.

A few years back I was at the petrol station (no pay at the pump service available). I went inside to pay and joined a long queue with at least 7/8 people in front of me. Then more people came in behind me.

There was only one till/cashier and the man at the front was faffing around. He perused the confectionary counter then picked out some sweets which he put on the counter. He then slowly ordered an excessive number of scratch cards (3 of number 7s, 4 number 10s etc) which took some time for the cashier to organise. Then, he proceeded to pull out a massive pile of lottery tickets and asked the cashier to check them all incase he'd won!

At this point one of the men in front of me, who had obviously been waiting for some time, expressed his dismay and a verbal altercation broke out with the man at the front shouting "I'm first in line she has to serve me first!".

This made me (probably unintentionally) laugh- why would she want a stranger to help her with her passwords etc?? I’ve forgotten my card before and just accepted I won’t get points on that transaction.

also, even if I’d had the time to help, there were 6 other people behind me who may have also been in a rush. But I do agree that it would’ve been helpful to have another member of staff around that could have helped.

The six other people behind you were like thank f for that! I’d be second guessing myself in a scenario like this - but really I think only the lady trying to download the app was being rude!

*And that’s with spending 15 minutes trying to get the nectar app working at an empty till chuntering to myself the whole time the other day because I object to a 2 tier price system

All 6 behind are probably still thanking you

I might be mistaken by a minute or two but it honestly was there or thereabouts. The queue of 6 wasn’t behind me as soon as I came in, they wandered in one by one. I spent 5 of those 10 minutes trying to pluck up the courage to say something!

The older person should then have apologised for holding everyone up and willingly let OP go before her with a valid reason. Not had a go.
Entitled, condescending and completely unaware of other people's needs.

You were not rude.

YANBU - I probably would have tutted and huffed behind her for before building up the courage to ask her to step aside! She was incredibly selfish to hold everyone else up……

melj1213
Retail here too, and on minimum wage but I do engage anyone that needs a chat, as does everyone in our shop. Yes you get cranky people but you can turn a lot of them around. You can also have a moderately fast transaction and still have someone leaving laughing. People pick our shop because they know this, and it’s kind of well known about that we’ll help or chat where we can. (Sorry I do know I sound preachy but it is something I’m proud of-our manager said there’s enough places about doing the minimum expected for the customer and she’ll always value a good experience over speed)