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!

The cashier was rude. They should have served other customers while the lady figured her stuff out or offered to help her in a more engaged manner. and they definitely should have served other customers while she was messing with stuff on her phone that have nothing to do with that particular business. Poorly trained or not trained at all.

YANBU! What an extremely annoying person she was.

Omg everytime we go shopping these days particularly it seems in one town we are always held up by people talking to the cashiers and the cashiers are no better in realising that people are being held up, then there is lidl who have the tills where u are supposed to throw stuff back into basket or trolley and pack elsewhere but people insist on packing at till gassing away at same time, another day there was a woman in front of us at till thought she'd put her stuff already on conveyer belt only for her husband to pull up with a trolley full , I understand and am reasonably patient when it comes to thr older generation fair enough. but general people of a younger age just chatting away not caring we packed our stuff up and went to another till one day still got through and paid while cashier and customer chatting atvother till

I was reminded about the app in Lidl by staff last week, I picked up my phone and said “ohh it’s not signed in…”
I could see the checkout girl visibly wince.

I said to her that I wasn’t going to bother and put my phone away and said that due to her reaction I guessed she had a lot of people holding up the queue with the app.

She said it’s been a nightmare because they are trained to tell people but then customers want to download it there and then, expect staff to help and log into WiFi etc..

The Asda app can be a pain as well, I’ve heard staff complaining about people struggling to use it. I don’t know why they can’t just give cards out like club card and nectar?
Not everyone is tech savvy but at the moment everyone wants to save money, the Asda app has quite good savings and is worth having. I’ve had problems getting it to load when I’m at the checkout but I shop late on and use the self scan when there is no queue.
If I ever did encounter a queue I’d leave it or step aside, it’s so rude to hold people up and think your time is worth more then theirs.

The problem with all these apps is how quickly they log you out. I understand the need for security but I am an adult and should be able to decide whether I want the app to log me out after one week or one month.

YANBU, the cashier was incompetent by not calling for assistance or asking the lady to wait while she dealt with the queue

You absolutely were not rude! You politely asked her to step aside to others could complete their transactions, there is nothing wrong with that. In fact, she was the one being rude for not being aware of others around her, when she clearly would’ve realised that she was taking up much more time than most other transactions would’ve taken.

If your store card is important then have it ready, someone may have a hospital orvurgent appointment, collecting their children etc.

It wasn't just OP the lady was holding up.

I would feel embarrassed holding a queue up.

People are being hard on the cashier. It's not a well paid job and it sounds like the lady at the front was impervious to social norms or being asked politely to step aside

It does not take years of experience and teaching to say please step aside, and if she does not to then invite the next customer forwards. It does take assertiveness which does not need to be paid a high salary.

But it might be the companies fault too. She evidently did not have the right training or was not confident enough to make use of it. Or possibly was given too much training on "good" customer service and was not empowered to politely tell a customer to bugger off when the situation required.

It's OK waiting a few minutes while someone deals with an App, but 10 minutes is too much, she was rude to hold up the line like that, I would have been mortified if I had held up a q like that. She was the one that was bad mannered

Ah it's just common courtesy to not hold up a queue of people, most people don't have an issue, a few are massively self centred and think the world revolves around their bloody techno failings!

Get your priorities right.

I wouldn't give it a second thought OP. Sometimes people just need to be given a kick up the backside to move along and you just have to accept the reaction as a result. She wasn't being reasonable and the cashier should have asked her to step to the side while she sorted out her app. Someone had to say something and on that occassion that person was you.

You don’t need to be telepathic to know that most people in queues just want to pay and leave, not be held up by someone who seems to have all the time in the world.

if she's just stood there waiting for an app to load then i don't think you were being rude to ask her to step aside and complete your transaction while she was waiting, but can empathise with her situations like that can be stressful especially when you're aware you're holding people up so she was probably just flustered and embarrassed and reacted that way.

That woman was the one being rude by holding up the queue. She was obviously too stupid to download the app and expected the cashier to drop everything to do it for her. I would have asked her to move too

On balance, I don’t think you’re being unreasonable to ask her to do that but obviously it is rude to ask someone to move when they’re being served because you’re in a hurry. The server should obviously have politely requested the lady to stand to one side. Anyway, I think as long as you said it in a polite way then you’re fine and needs must when you have to pick up a nursery child. I wouldn’t sweat it. She was probably flustered because she couldn’t operate her app!

Whilst I totally agree with the sentiment of what you’re saying, usually where older people are concerned it’s better to be a bit more mild about it. They’re just like giant babies after all, life is harder for them and with all the tech it makes it doubly harder. I’m sure you wouldn’t go round tutting at babies or saying they’re ‘so rude’ - I guess this older lady should have realised and seemed pretty oblivious which is weird but it’s best to let these things go

She wasn’t being served though. She lost her card and was unprepared for the transaction. She needs to step aside until she is ready to be served.