Was I in the wrong to push in the queue ?

[crisikrinkles]

Went into the post office in our town.
It’s always packed and they had two serving.
I needed currency and places never normally have it without ordering.
I needed it that day as we were travelling at night (last minute I know )
There was probably 20 people in front of me.
I didn’t want to wait in the queue incase I stood there and they didn’t have it anyway.
So I went to a counter and just said “before I queue can I just check you have this currency “
A woman barked “there’s a queue !”
I explained I wasn’t pushing in,I was just checking they had something before I got to the back of the queue.
She shouted “ no you wait to ask questions “

was i in the wrong ?

We've covered this upthread. It literally was a yes or no, seconds.

You know you really can't say that PP is 'clearly wrong on this' that's just your opinion. FWIW my opinion is that YOUR opinion is wrong. And turns out 50% off people think the same. So its pretty arrogant to state that you know better than half the people posting, end of.
OP I'm sure you've long since let this one go but on the odd chance you're still reading id have been 100% OK with you doing this if I was in the queue. Id have also done the same myself. Its really no different to checking with the person serving that you're in the correct queue. Im sure nobody in their right mind would queue for 20 mins for no reason at all. And if they want to get all irate about something so ridiculously minor, just let them!

But @Sexentric. the figures suggest I do know better than half the people on here, hence the 50/50 split. 😜 BTW, I didn't say "clearly wrong" I said "so wrong". Have a good day 😊

Well that would've just been unfortunate, and that's life. A bit different to waiting in a queue for half an hour to be told "no, we never stock Zloty" unless pre-ordered, so there was never any point in you queuing".

The other day I was scanning a massive shop at Tesco's, at a manned till, when a mother with a crying toddler came up to the cashier and said "sorry, I was just wondering if my daughter dropped her toy elephant when we came through about 5 minutes ago?" The cashier paused her scanning and said "yes, we found it," then asked her colleague to pass it over. The whole interaction took less than 30 seconds and everyone was happy

According to 50% of the nutcases on this thread, she should've joined the back of the queue and waited half an hour while 4 people scanned and paid for their weekly shops before asking the question! I just want to know what planet you are all living on, and how you all manage with everyday life.

That sort of question could easily have been answered by interrogating the website before leaving home-or in the queue on your phone.
Also the example you gave was your toddlers toy for God's sake- you are leaning on sentimentality not common sense in that instance-probably everyone could even see the elephant- rather different than if you just left it too late to get your currency.

Not all questions can be answered on a website. It doesn't matter that it was a toddler's toy, it could have been an adult's glove and the result would be the same, like it's the same for any quick yes-or-no question, anywhere.

I disagree. In the queue in the post office, you have no idea what people are waiting for - could be stamps, currencies, asking a quick question even, let alone postal order, pension, special delivery etc. Your simile is hardly similar. Everyone at the supermarket checkout is having their goods scanned and paid for and you know with 99% certainty what it is they are queueing for!

You can be fairly certain though that even the simplest of transactions at a post office (buying a book of stamps, or posting one small parcel) takes longer than asking a quick yes/no question. That's why the queues always take so long. So no, I don't agree that it is different.

@PorridgeAndSyrup ..and if the answer had been " that depends on how much you want and whether these people in the queue want any ..." I'm guessing the "quick question" is suddenly not quite as quick as one might have thought. I'm slightly surprised on this particular post that half the replies seem to think the well established process of just asking someone if they mind doesn't appear to feature at all! Hardly a gold star imo.

Love this reply I totally agree.

So you accept queues always take a long time in the Post Office, which means it is even less defensible to barge in and ask a "quick question"- you know it takes time so you have to budget for that time rather than being an entitled idiot who thinks your time is more valuable than other peoples- just accept you have lost this one, even if you ask the person at the head of the queue if they mind it is not acceptable because they can't speak for everyone else in the queue.

I don't have " shit manners".

Well if it had turned complicated, the cashier would have sent OP to the back of the queue, but since that didn't happen, you're just making up reasons to be annoyed for no reason.

But you don't that either. You're the one making up the scenario forgetting, it seems, that at least one person in the queue was annoyed by the brazen approach of the OP. Actually, I'm not annoyed either just surprised at people's attitude and lack of manners. I guess it's an age thing. Have a good day

This is not queue jumping and I would be fine with that

I am with you on hating ‘would of’ with a passion. But I need to point out that ‘abit’ is actually two separate words ;-)

I agree completely. I absolutely wouldn't mind if I were at the front of the queue and might well do what OP did myself. I am often in Post Office queues and almost everyone there isn't just queuing to ask a question or speculatively. Most have parcels to post, money to withdraw or other transactions in mind that they are almost certain the Post Office can help with. Asking OP to queue for such a long time just to be told that the currency she needed wasn't available is madness and incredibly unkind!

I'm failing to understand why you are chosing to be personally abusive towards me,

Not in Bavaria then😁.

just supposing two other customers in the queue before OP had wanted currency and taken the lot (our PO only holds a small amount of euros and US dollars anything over £500 needs to ordered in ditto with other currencies), OP would have been really miffed to have been told ‘yes’ queued and then found it had run out. Very unlikely of course, but yes you are effectively interrupting the cashier and customer being served, that is rude. Then again it seems no one teaches kids not to interrupt these days, so it’s not surprising we have adults with a disregard for social etiquette.

Or maybe we have some adults who dont understand current "etiquette". Ie that urs ride to make someone wait for 20 minutes for no reason, and polite to let them ask a 20 second question to avoid that happening ?

I think this question is less about etiquette and more about common sense. It’s common sense that a quick polite question is not a problem. The thread has gone round and round in circles because of various posters saying things along the lines of ‘but what if it wasn’t quick’. This is infuriating, as it’s a total derailment of the thread. If for some reason the answer to the question could not be given instantly, then how that progressed from there would depend entirely on the approach taken to that specific situation by the OP and the cashier. A situation that did not arise and is therefore not what the thread is about.

If you think intervening for 5 seconds is rude, fine, own that point of view. But please give over with the ‘but what if it hadn’t been 5 seconds’ nonsense.

In our post office there is one counter on the end that does travel money. You can just walk up to it and skip the massive queue.

Either way, you weren’t out of order. The woman was being a twat.