To ask for an appropriate response/reaction to pass agg queuer?

[JennyWren5]

Klaxon warning - light hearted and unimportant

I was queueing for a coach this afternoon. The guy immediately in front of me was on his phone and fiddling with his suitcase whilst the queue was moving quite quickly. I wanted to go ahead of him, but stopped as soon as I saw him move again. He then resumed playing with his phone and fiddling with his bag, and I just thought, oh stuff it, I’ll just go in front of him.

He then turned around and said, ‘Excuse me? Do we not queue up anymore?’ He then said he’d let me go ahead if it was that important to me.

I wanted the ground to swallow me up. I didn’t say anything in return, as I didn’t think I needed to, I never ever queue-jump, but he was irritating me so I did. Should I have said anything in return?

Sorry?

It depends. If he was actually holding up the queue you could have said yes we do providing everyone in the queue is moving along. But, are you a queue harasser? There’s nothing worse than moving along at a normal pace and having the person behind you crowding and harassing you to move on when there really isn’t anywhere to go. You’ll all end up on the bus in the same amount of time.

You were unreasonable.

You should have waited. I hate people pushing in

You were faffing with your phone while the queue was moving without you. I will go ahead of you, thanks for offering. Very kind of you.

Is what I would have wished I'd said when I had thought of it an hour after the interaction!

I agree with everything you’ve said.

I genuinely don’t think I’m a queue harasser and I am generally a patient person.

I just got wound up that he was taking his time with his phone and his bag, as I saw it as him not respecting my time. There was loads of space between him and the person in front, who was already boarding the coach. I thought he was being rude.

Although we’re all on the coach for the same amount of time, I wanted to get on in good time to find a good seat, which I think is fair.

You could've said, "Excuse me can you catch up a bit?"

Or anything really rather than nothing and just bobbing in front of him.

Fair enough.

That’s what I wish I’d said!

If he had genuinely held me up - i.e. the coach driver was waiting for him to board - then I would have tapped him on the shoulder and said: "Excuse me, I think the driver is ready for you to board." But if he's just being a bit slow then I would be patient. And I would never jump the queue, it's so rude.

Thanks, everyone. I completely understand I was rude. His behaviour was annoying me, and I never wueue-jump, so that helped me justify to myself thaf I was fine to queue-jump. I can see it was rude though.

Just to add, I would never do what he did, so that’s probably also clouding my judgement. I just found what he did so rude.

Would you have been on the coach any quicker if he had moved? It’s like when I go for my click and collect. I’ll often turn the engine Off and stay where I am for a while instead of moving forward every few minutes. Off course if the people behind me need the space I’ll move but if not then why not stay still. I always feel I should move but there’s no real reason to.

YABU

what you did was worse than what he did .

Maybe. I don’t think it’s possible to compare a person queue to a car queue.

Okay, that’s fair.

Eh he told you off quite rightly

Should I have said anything in return?

Yes, you should have apologised.

Thank you. What do you mean by your previous post? Do you mean I should’ve said ‘sorry?’ to him?

‘I didn’t want to hold things up’

Very fair

Thanks.

Do you genuinely think that? I can’t tell!

“I assumed you weren’t in the queue as you didn’t move along when the queue was moving forwards. There’s no need to be so rude about it”
is the sort of thing I would’ve said.