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!

Anyone working in customer service must be an absolute angel because it could never be me. After 2 minutes of her faffing about I'd have told her to fucking pack it in and got myself fired.

The cashier should have controlled the situation from the get go.
"You are welcome to download the app which is called x although I cannot help download it, but if you want to try please step aside for other customers until you are ready to complete your transaction"

I would personally email the companies customer services. The petrol station staff need to be given this simple directive to prevent future repeat instances.

Oh wow, I don't think I would have even waited 8-10 minutes to say anything! She was so rude, thinks the world revolves around her because she's old. It wasn't anything urgent that she needed help with anything, she should have let you and the others in front of you.

That would be me and the reason I’ve never dove a public facing role. I have zero patience with faffers.

In fact if I was the OP I would have probably shouted ‘ffs love there’s a queue get on with it’

Even if I'm going to be a minute extra I'll always step to one side to allow others to get served, there's no point holding everybody up.

If you are not exaggerating and it was 10 minutes the cashier is shockingly poor at their job. After 1 minute she should have said please step aside and I will help you once the queue is gone.

i can understand your perspectives, in this case the company should have two people serving rather than one

What rubbish, no-one is forced to use these apps and store cards, you may be surprised to learn that cash still exists!

I think it was the cashier's place to say something but as she didn't I agree something did need to be said.

I agree with pp though that it's unlikely that 6 people would stand there for 10 mins with nobody except you saying anything.

I can't comment on how "old" she was, but clearly she was being useless...

Not exactly "vile" to ask a dodderer to move over though is it - @Tontostitis must have a chip on her shoulder

This (and the stories about subway/Greggs) is why I only ever get petrol from asda and Costco because there isn't a shop!!
God bless pay at pump

Tbf even when I asked, nobody behind me said anything as she was calling me rude. No one even said thank you as I walked past, which added to me wondering whether I’d been in the wrong. However, it definitely was 10 minutes or thereabouts; as I mentioned, the 6 behind me didn’t just queue up the moment I did, they came in one by one so the guy behind me was a couple of minutes less than me, behind him a minute or so less and then I stopped noticing until I walked past them to leave.

Also it wasn’t a case of ‘I can’t find my card, how do I download the app’. It was rummage around for card, ask about other options, try to figure out whether she had a smart phone, rummage some more whilst talking about what a pain it was that she’d left it. Then finding the google play app on her phone, trying and failing to put the password in, getting to the point of wanting to reset and deciding whether it was worth getting a new form(?) to fill out. It was a LOT of faffing

I think it depends on whether you were paying for the gas before or after you pumped. If you were paying before you pumped (unlikely) then you could have left the line and picked up your child then come back later to get gas. However it's more likely you were paying after you pumped, in which case I think you were fine and she was rude, because you could not leave the station without paying for your gas otherwise that would be theft. So she was presumptuous in thinking she had the right to hold up people for an indefinite period in that circumstance.

I think the default here is, if you want to use store points, it's your responsibility to have the materials to use them when you are in line. Not the store's responsibility to hold up the line for an indefinite period while you work out how to set up Google Play and download the app. You are in line to pay your bill, not to set up your phone. I agree that stores should have a way to help people who are not tech savvy use their tech features, but I think it's reasonable to say that if you need tech help, you need to go to the Customer Service section of the actual store, and not try to get the person in the checkout line at the gas station to work it out for you. You don't even know if the checkout person can do it, maybe they are just as tech naive as you are!

Not rude at all. The cashier should have asked her to download her card and come back when she was ready.

Bloody rude to hold up a queue of people for ten minutes while she dithers around!!

Oh god, and I get frustrated after two minutes of waiting. I think you guys were practically saintly! 😂.

I would have huffed and puffed behind her and very obviously kept looking from my watch to my car out the window with a worried expression on my face, dancing from foot to foot while occasionally catching the cashier’s eye. Then started muttering to myself about being late to nursery, probably just too low for anyone to actually hear.

I think you probably handled it FAR better than I would have in your shoes!

I work at a supermarket petrol station and we have this all the time as people want to get the points they’ve earned for their fuel as it’s usually a decent amount. I think it was the cashiers job to manage the situation better and to move the lady elsewhere whilst she serve everyone else. That being said you can’t get the staff! 😉

It is a shame there was only one cashier. If someone else was on shift they could have dealt with her while
cashier got on with their job

yanbu. Petrol stations need to keep it moving otherwise queues will build up at the pumps.

Neither of you was rude - she (elderly?) was frustrated and you were anxious to pick up dc’s.

Also, I am told that when I am stressed even when I think I am being polite the stress makes my tone seem rude.

Not rude at all. What's rude is her deliberately causing a delay and giving zeros effs about it. The cashier should have had them step aside. And if getting her card downloaded was such an important thing, which it clearly wasnt, she should have sorted it before getting petrol there. I'm sure the other customers were grateful for you speaking up.

YANBU, OP. She was very inconsiderate to hold up the cashier like that. Particularly in a petrol station where it isn’t possible to pay at the pump.

Not rude at all OP and I would've been hopping about with worry about being late after 5 minutes. It's very unfair of her to make others wait so long.
@aloris I don't think any petrol stations in the UK, presumably where OP is as she was using Morrisons, allow you to pay before fuelling. How could you because you don't know exactly how much the cost will be?!

I'll get shot down in flames for saying this....

I think I might be 'that' person. (I must say not frequently), but on the odd occasion where the checkout assistant was out to beat their own personal best, throwing items down the belt at a speed like shit off a shovel, I have been known to complete my packing before getting my card out. I'm a hypocrite, because I hate it when someone in front of me does the same. I hate it even more when they also produce a Jenga-sized wadge of coupons out of nowhere. The (by now 10 deep) queue is then entertained by the customer and cashier going head to head in a game of 'Let's see which ones work and which ones expired in 1987'. Eventually, the winner is the one left holding fewer coupons at the end. Then everyone claps and shuffles along.

Anyway, I digress. It might have been me and I'm sorry.

So true! We love a good faff about absolutely everything, including how to go about being terribly nice whilst trying to tell the utterly lovely person in front of one, to get a fucking move on 😂

Short on time?

You'd be happy spending 20 minutes plus in a petrol queue?

No matter how much time I have, I'm not doing that shit!

She was the rude one OP. You don't have to be young to know that making others wait behind you when you could stand to one side is bloody rude.