To think they should have kept serving me?

[itsotoy]

Went to collect 4 parcels from my local shop. I told her I had 4, she gave me 1 and said “thanks, bye” … I informed it again it was 4. It was taking ages and she claimed she couldn’t find it - but she’d already scanned my code and signed it in the book that it had been collected.

She said “yeah I can’t find it” and then the guy with her told me I would need to wait whilst they served the queue behind me.

Sorry I get there was a queue of 2 people but I was there first and was in the middle of being served and had already been patiently waiting. I don’t think I should have to wait even longer because they couldn’t find my parcel.

Honestly the conversation was painful, I said I had 4 to collect and that 2 had arrived this morning. She said I’ll take the code from this morning - then seemed really perplexed when I said erm there’s 3 more.

And the thing is it is there. It’s on the tracking system and that particular shops writes all the orders in a book and I could literally see my name.

Did one person keep looking and the other person start serving the other customers? If so fair enough. Or did they just make you wait while they served the queue and then got back to looking for yours, might be OK, but irritating.

So they shouldn't offer the service then

So many funny comments, if only there was a laughing emoji…

Me too!!

but @itsotoy you are right, they should have fully served you first (or at least one of the rude, badly trained pair)

How ridiculous people are sometimes. Of course they should have served you until they find your packages! Other people's packages are no more important than yours.
It sounds like they were faffing, not you!

She was receiving them though?

Look, they were prioritising other paying customers who may just walk out and go spend their money elsewhere. Those queuing to spend £20 on cigs and beers probably won’t want to wait for someone faffing on parcels. I’ve had this a million times and had to wait. It’s annoying but they had no urgency to OP who couldn’t really walk out at that moment . If you were a business owner would you worry about a 20p parcel, which was already paid for and the person would have to just be patient, or would you try and prioritise a £20 sale that may walk out any moment? I know what I would do, even though it’s annoying for OP. This is why I try not to get things delivered to my local newsagent where I can. There are loads of options on Vinted. And if you must. Then just be prepared to be patient and wait 🤣

Unless I was in a terrible rush I’d have asked for the two behind me to be served and then they have time to sort me out

What do you mean? They also get paid to hold them?

DID YOU GET THE OTHER PARCELS OP?

They probably make less money from the parcel hub than paying customers.

@Peaceandquietandacuppa but how long should the OP have to wait while they serve the queue - which could have people joining it constantly ?
Should she wait 5 minutes, 15 minutes.....3 hours?
She is a customer too.

She wasn't faffing around or messing about did you not read the post? she was stood waiting for her parcel. She wasn't arguing the toss or moaning. It sounds like there was more than 1 person behind the counter so don't really understand the issue from their perspective. The op could have been waiting there all day if other customers arrived. One of the little outlets I go to for parcel collection stuffs all the parcels in a cupboard and the staff always seem to have a devil of a job raking through all the packages, usually accompanied by a lot of sighing and eye rolling. If it's such a faff they shouldn't offer the service.

The staff member is at fault here.

She did not listen to what you were saying when you mentioned that you were collecting 4 parcels and when you told her she had made a mistake by handing you one parcel only, she should have got on with looking for your stuff and getting another member of staff to deal with the rest of the queue.

If they commit to providing parcel collection as a business they have to be able to do it properly...

Bizarre that so many people are blaming the OP...

If there’s 2 people serving and 2 people behind op in the queue, how long do you think it takes to serve 1 person? Surely 1 of the staff could easily and quickly serve 2 people whilst the other kept looking for the parcel. No one will walk out a shop and travel to another shop because they have to wait 30 seconds for the transaction in front to be completed

If they commit to providing parcel collection as a business they have to be able to do it properly...

Exactly this.

No wonder they get into a faff about it in these newsagents. They never have any system (or even space to implement a system) from what I can see. Everything's just all piled into a box like they're Santa Claus and they hold up the queue looking through 40+ parcels at random for yours.

Rule 1 of AIBU
Never let the facts get in the way of deciding an OP is at fault.

85% agree YANBU so I’d ignore the idiots posting stupid replies, OP.

Because threads like this run and run for pages, everything gets away from the original post, so much is repeated and someone will say ltb at least once. Mil, sulking dh and toxic ils.
BUT, it does bring out some funny posts too so I usually read the twaddle regardless😀As you were OP.

If I have a parcel/envelope to send when I go to the Post Office, I expect them to deal with that.
If I have 4 parcels, then I expect them to take them all at the same time. It’s a pretty common occurence around Christmas anyway.

In the same way, if there are 4 parcels to collect, I’d expect to be able to have all 4 wo having to let everyone go first. If they can’t find the parcel, I’d expecting one of them to go and look for it/them. I feel if it’s clear it’s going to take time, it’s ok to serve other customers during that time. But it’s not me giving my turn to others. It’s just efficiency to see people as quickly iyswim.
It would be the same with one parcel they can’t find either.

If I'm in that queue behind you I am 100% getting annoyed at the situation.

The right thing to do would be to say to you I can't find the other three, I'll just serve these other customers and then continue looking for your parcels as not to inconvenience everybody in the shop. Perfectly acceptable.

Exactly. I wouldn’t care. Yanbu.

It has the makings of a prize winning literary short story!

@EllyRoff have you read the OP properly? They weren’t ‘faffing’ they went to pick up 4 parcels, only 1 came out, they asked for the other 3. Not unreasonable.