Slow clueless people holding up queues

[AuntyMargeAuntyFlora]

What is it with these people?

My latest experience was at a walk-in centre. Only two women ahead of me in the queue to book in. Goodness knows what they were doing, most of it seemed to be standing there looking at each other before saying a few quiet words to the receptionist who had to keep explaining the same things to them (that they had missed their appointment and needed to go immediately to another hospital if they wanted to see x department). Then they'd stare at each other again. Occasionally one would half-heartedly search in a bag or look at their phone. Absolutely no sense of urgency at all, and apparently oblivious (despite glancing in our direction several times) to the massive queue gradually building up behind them. By the time the queue had almost reached the door, another member of staff was called to come and help book everyone else in, and these two women were still slowly doing nothing.

I don't mind if someone has genuinely got a difficult query/situation that takes ages to unpick, or if they are perhaps elderly/overwhelmed/etc and these things take longer. But its usually these people who are first to apologise for holding up the queue or even suggest others go ahead!

What I'm talking about is the entitled people who don't seem to register that other people exist, and who ponder and confer at a snail's pace, oblivious to any sense of urgency of the queue building up. I can imagine someone coming in with a serious injury, and these two women glancing over periodically as the person bleeds everywhere and slowly collapses, as they carry on with their inane time wasting non-query...

Ha I had this on the Tube in London the other week. Train was very full so was taking a while for people to get off. Young chap who'd already decided to stand in front of me on the platform tried to barge on so I told him to wait and that he was impatient at which point he said excuse me and I said you're impatient - just wait your turn, whereupon he told me to relax. Oh well I suppose I was "lucky" not to be told to suck his prick or similar.

I often think people who take ages at counters are attention seeking. Especially when it comes to things like checking in for flights. I hand over my passport, they ask me if I have bags to check in, I do or I don't, they deal with them if I do and give me my boarding pass (this is where I can't check in online, to be clear). Takes all of two minutes but somehow some people take 15!

But despite being impatient, I realise that people only have two hands and if they are in a queue with a bag in each hand, or a basket, they can't get their wallets/purses out every easily.

What about the people who think a good place to meet up and chat is right in front of the shelves in the supermarket so you have say a loud excuse me to get them to move and they give you funny looks.

@TulipOH i agree - people seem to leave sense at home when they travel and the security queue is exasperating. People standing in the queue for half an hour with plenty of time to prepare ,past all the signage explaining what to do yet STILL only decide to remove jackets,belts, coats, liquids when they get to the front and hold everyone else up.
I don’t know how the security staff manage to keep their tempers.

Well Said

My late Dad, who was in his 90s when he died, was punctilious about not holding up other people. He always had his card ready in the supermarket and to board the bus. In fact he used to grumble about the ‘silly old fools who wait ages for the bus then fumble in their bags for their purse and then fumble in their purse for their pass. Why couldn’t they have done it in the time they were waiting for the bus?’ He was nearly always older than they were.

Even when he was old and frail and slow and partially sighted, Dad retained an excellent sense of time and was always punctual. He’d always think in advance what to say in any situation like receptionists, ordering anything, at a medical appointment, making a complaint, making sure he got to the point efficiently. That’s the difference, I think, knowing how time can be well spent and used to prepare for the next stage of a situation, whatever it is.

People either have that skill or they don’t, but it can be learned. And it helps if you’re aware and mindful of others and just have good manners generally! It should be taught as part of good citizenship actually . . .

A lot of this would be solved if women’s clothes had adequate pockets - thanks for fleeces that also have zips -I’ve just travelled half way across the country with ticket safely in pocket.

kfc the self serving out. Had to queue, the amount of people texting etc become very surprised when it’s their turn. then it’s the oh um let me think what do I fancy? . Ffs you have had ten minutes in a queue with the menu in front of you , twunts.
Asda this lady was using it as a library reading all the labels. People chatting in aisles blocking the aisle. Chatting to the self service people on their way out, I’m waiting to get my wine approved delaying me.

The looking for payment card/cash after waiting for ages drives me nuts!

also - popped into Tesco at 715am on the way to work for some treats for tea break. Only the self scanner checkouts on and because I’d got an energy drink, needed the assistant to approve me. Two women at the other self serve hogging the assistant over a bottle of bloody oven cleaner!! Wanting the assistant to go over the contents, was there a cheaper one that was just as good, could the assistant go and get the other one off the shelf to show them - which she did then further questions blah blah blah. I was stood a good 10 minutes before taking a strop and taking the stuff to customer service to pay. Ideally the assistant would have clocked me waiting, said to the women she was just going to assist me for 2 seconds!

it’s the sheer lack of awareness that some people have and they must have so much time on their hands!!

People who drive me mad are the ones who stand in the Greggs queue for ten minutes, full view of all the food, only to wonder what they want to buy when asked. Whole families do it. Honestly just fuck off. Your 18 kids have had 20 minutes to decide.

AtomicPumpkin · Today 11:57

5128gap · Today 11:53

Same. I'd rather have a slow person than one of these full of their own self importance, huffing and puffing like a fool as though the loss to them of a couple of a few minutes is the end of the world. Slower people, like heavy traffic, exist and may cost you time. Allow more time.
Show quote history
That is easily said if you have no deadlines or nowhere particular to be. It's a privilege to have that luxury.

Exactly this. If you want to spend ages doing something that can be done really quickly, why go at a busy time?

Another one re shops and loyalty cards.
I've actually had people say "Oh, l can't find it/don't have it with me (the dog ate it) but l thought you'd be able to find it on there...." waving their hand airily at the card reader*. It's a checkout. Not a computer terminal with internet access.

The best/worst one was a woman who held up the queue for a good while arguing with me because she (when she didn't have her loyalty card with her) wouldn't have it that we weren't able to "take her name and address and send her the money she would have saved if she'd had it with her." She wouldn't have it that we weren't able to do that. I had to get a manager in the end.

It just the tube, or London in general, many people rarely if ever go anywhere near London and many tourists don't live where they need to use an Escalator or have British rules of standing to one side. The only escalator anywhere near me for many miles is M&S and no one stands to one side.

Ha me too, though it’s even worse when it’s a long queue in a cafe and then they get to the front to the seemingly shocking question of ‘what would you like to order’.

Personal favourite last week of the woman asked this question then taking out her phone and calling someone to ask what he wanted! We’d been queuing for at least ten minutes by this point

The one that drives me insane with despair for the human condition is oblivious couples who insist on walking hand in hand on narrow pavements, forcing anyone else into the road.

Not quite the same but I travel a lot on London public transport. The people that drive me mad are the ones who place their luggage on the seat next to them while the train aisles fill up with standing passengers. They always look so amazed when I ask them (politely) to move their stuff so I can have a seat.

You're welcome to try and keep my DH with Parkinson's safe on an escalator without standing next to him. Good luck.

This kind of thing is very annoying even though there may be some medical reason for it. The real fault lies with service providers - banks, rail ticket offices, coffee shops, etc., - who use queuing to save the costs of providing a better service. Providers should provide multiple service points to allow bypassing a slow customer/client but it's not in their economic interest to do so.

Add the people who stand behind a faffer, get frustrated and annoyed and then spend a good few minutes moaning to the person serving about said wait, because they have an audience and need some attention because they've been inconvenienced a bit, thus increasing the wait they're already complaining about.

Or go to the bar for a round for their group, take 14 trips back to the table for orders because they don't actually know what people want, leaving you stood there with half an order on the till and a queue building, and then order their own Guinness or other time consuming drink last, and refuse your offer to take it over when it's done "I'll wait while you make it" and then trot back to the table because they've forgotten their method of payment.

Or order a round, then fuck off to the toilet and kick off when they come back and have to wait to pay because you've moved on to serve someone else in their absence.

There has been a lot of posts like this on MN recently and a lot of comments such as "manners are gone these days", "standards are away", "what are these people thinking?!"

Y'know what I think is gone? Tolerance.

So many people whinging about the "selfishness" of others but fail to see the irony in their outrage.

This^

I share your frustrations and it annoys me when desks or counters are short staffed or it takes the only two staff, one of whom could continue serving, to sort out an issue.

We never know what life is going to hand us so as you grow older or life gets less frantic for you, maybe you'll see things through a more tolerant lense.

In your shoes I might have kindly and politely interrupted and said something. I have been know to do it. 🙄

They were hoping the receptionist would say they would be squeezed in if they stood their long enough.

*People at traffic lights who aren't ready when the light turns green and then it's turning amber by the time they actually go aghhhh
*People when paying who take 10 years to pack up their change, shuffle around their cards, put their purse in their bag, open the bag again to get their keys, slowly lift the rest of their bags.....just leave!! (This is obviously after the 10 minutes to pay and ask a thousand qs)
*People who stand in a que for 10 minutes then don't know what they want in their sandwich when they get to the top
*People who send you work email with million qs but you've already replied to them with what you need but they want you to spoon-feed their job to them
I love a rant sometimes lol these are mine from today so far

Omg yes, this x 1000!! Get out of the fucking way ffs! 🤬

OP I am with you.

People who stop to talk in front of doors are my pet hate.

Completely oblivious to the rest of the world around them. I normally just stop two feet in front of them and stare til they get out of the way.

Normally they move with an apologetic comment. Don't apologise. Just don't do it in the first place !

Actually I got that wrong.

Supermarket faffers are my pet hate. People who block off access to entire ranges of product with themselves and their trolley while picking up various products, scrutinising them for minutes then putting them back only to choose another.

The world is full of them.

The most annoying are those who are taken by complete surprise by the ticket barrier at railway stations and on the underground, then spend minutes faffing about in their bag for their ticket.

Likewise the people at cash machines who wait until they’re at the front of the queue to look for their card (back when people used cash machines).

I also can’t do with people who are hopelessly confused by train seating arrangements. You get a carriage letter and a seat number, what’s all the confusion about? Depending on the station you can even find out where the door to your carriage will open on the platform and stand there.