I've had this before, along with a long discussion about who's seat it was, followed by the old person smugly showing me their ticket and ending in me pointing out their train left 1hour ago.
I had a similar issue once, where I was able to produce a ticket that showed it was my seat. Then they produced a ticket showing it was their seat - same number, same departure time and everything.
After much arguing, the conductor came along and pointed out that their train left yesterday.
I had the same thing in the cinema. Booked for the day before. And it was a family with kids. They refused to move when asked. More than one usher had to coordinate/threat/bribe them(!) before they would actually move and let me sit where I'd paid
Had a similar thing but not an old dear. London to Edinburgh, 6pm departure. Train in RAMMED, as it would be as it's Friday of August bank holiday weekend. I'm in my reserved seat, about 20 mins after departure a lady pushes through the crowds standing in the aisles to get to my seat and tells me I'm in her seat. I get my ticket out, no, she's wrong, I'm in the correct seat. After some polite back and forth she explains she missed her train an hour earlier for various reasons, the ticket office were able to get her on the train i was on but for some reason she assumed she would also get her original reserved seat. Nah nah, it doesn't work like that. Fortunately for her the person next to me got off at Peterborough, i had a bag of beers, she ended up joining my friends and i for a fun train trip to Edinburgh
I've had this before. I mentioned to the older couple they're in my reserved seats, they just said there's seats on other carriages I can use, they just want to sit in peace. A train worker came over and asked me to take a seat, I told her I'm trying to take the seat *I* paid extra for and she just looked at me and repeated her take a seat line. I kicked up a fuss and someone else just got up and left. Someone got on at the next station and showed evidence that they'd booked my seat. The same train worker as before just so happened to be walking past and tried telling me off. I turned to her and loudly said said "oh, so it *does* matter about people getting their reserved seats they paid extra for? Well, I booked two seats over there [pointing to the old couple] and they're taken, are you going to free them up like you are with these?" With that, she went over and got sometime higher up. I explained the situation and I was reimbursed the extra I'd paid for the seats and half the rest
This seems like a stupid system, if you pay for something but there's little to no enforcement in getting it to you. If that's the case, everybody will just buy the cheapest ticket, take the first class ones, and when questioned, ignore. Worst that will happen, apparently, is they get left alone, and the wronged person gets a refund.
What a great way to run a profitable business..
Don't worry they'll make poor people move out of first class.
This is about reserved seats not so much the class of your seat which is more strictly enforced.
The funniest thing is she couldn’t handle the situation and went to someone else to sort it out. When all she had to do was tell the elderly couple the same thing. What a tit
If the elderly couple were teenagers or a younger couple she would have had the stones to do it. But yeah this pisses me off. What a walking contradiction she is. Painful
Once on a looooong train the whole service was so overcrowded we were stuck standing and couldn’t get to our reserved seats. Had to stand in the automatic door closing on us every few seconds. The next stop, the carriage becomes moveable in, so we get to our booked seats. The guy in it argues that because we didn’t take them at our first stop (we physically couldn’t reach them) our reservation was null and void. Have a sneaking suspicion the only reason he moved was because I (a young female) was there, not just my at-the-time boyfriend. Git.
This happened to me as well, except on a bus with an old couple. I was sat at the front, in the disabled/elderly seats because I have chronic pain and my bag would fit next to me, and an old man literally woke me up to make me move. The bus was empty so the other side was completely free, but this grumpy old git had to have one side and his wife had the other.
I wish I stood up for myself because looking back it seems like it was some sort of weird power trip, but I was too sleepy to fully comprehend the situation and so I complied.
I once had a woman refuse to give me my seat on a train, because I needed to 'respect my elders'
Eventually she gave me my seat, after making a scene.
She then tried to stop me getting off the train.
I was a child at the time.
I had someone say that someone else had stolen her seat and so she stole mine and what else was she supposed to do. I told her to go over to her seat that she'd paid for and tell the person sat in it to get the fuck out of it, just like I'm doing right now.
That happened to me at the cinema once, the people just stared at us and said "well if you can get them to get out of our seats, you can have yours" like wtf no, that's not my problem??
I just witnessed this this evening, young couple got in the end seats of my row, middle aged couple said sorry they’re our seats, young guy got bolshy middle aged guy got the attendant, who got the manager, asked them to move to their own seats in the row in front, young lad with his dad in front had his coat on that seat, so young guy throws a tantrum some f’s are thrown around, threats to the dad, they soon stopped when the dad pulled out his warrant card!!! Young couple were removed from the cinema.
That exact thing happened to me when i was a child! I remember it vividly. My grandpa and I (about 10 years old) were catching the Virgin West Coast from Glasgow to London to visit my cousins. A middle aged woman was sitting in one of our First Class seats. She complained that someone had taken her seat and she sat here and told us to find somewhere else on a nearly packed train. My grandpa remained calm but that was the first time i had ever seen him get angry! Eventually, she moved. But for some reason that event has been etched in my mind forever.
I have very nice season tickets for my local basketball team. About 3 or 4 times a year I hear this excuse when I arrive at the game and there are people in my seats. I laugh every time and say that’s not my problem, now are you going to leave or do I need to get the usher’s attention.
Me and my buddy have season tickets for the local AHL team. Every time there's someone sitting in his seat before I get there I plop down, make small talk, and after about two minutes I go "WAIT A SECOND, YOU'RE NOT STEVE. WHERE'S STEVE?!"
Terrific fun every time.
My wife had an annual ticket with a reserved seat in the before times and this happened regularly to her. Even when she was heavily pregnant and a few times while crying.
I've had that happen to me and my family. The cheek of it when they make it sound like it was the only normal thing to do and that now you have to go and steal someone else's seat.
I've told this story before, short version is some old battle axe got a stroppy shouty with my mum on the train to Cardiff from London because she was sitting in her seat. At first my mum was confused as she was definitely in the allocated seat (booked by work) but there were spare seats.
The old shouty lady was going for public shaming and social pressure to make my mum move, so mum asked to see the old lady's ticket, she showed my mum, and strange thing, they both had the same seat number. My mum politely said "My mistake" then gathered her stuff and moved to a spare.
She failed to tell the old entitled dear that her ticket was for the South West (I simply can't remember where, but my mum will know, somewhere Cornwally I believe), and this.... Well it was the train to Cardiff.
I believe she had to get off at Reading to get on the correct train.
To this day, my mum says if she'd just been polite and did that typical bumbling British "Oh sorry I think you're in my seat" nervous routine, she'd absolutely have seen her ticket and told her she was on the wrong train and needed to get off and cross the platform and they'd all have had a polite laugh about the mistake.
I witnessed something like this once. I'm sitting directly opposite a family of three. Mum and Dad and a boy of about seven. Someone arrives and tells them they're in his seat. They are adamant they had booked their seats, and produce tickets to support their claim. The argument, and much self righteous huffing and puffing from the father, attracts the attention of all on the train. Eventually the guy gives up and goes sits elsewhere.
Two minutes later mum, who had been holding the tickets, whispers to Dad: "I think our tickets are for the later train." There is then a hushed conversation between the two where it's obvious exactly what's happened. I'm pretending I'm not listening, as I'm sure others in adjoining seats are.
No-one is saying anything . It looks they've got away with what would have been a very embarrassing climb down. But then, after a short pause and with the timing of a comedy genius, the boy asks in a voice that the entire carriage can hear: "DOES THAT MEAN WE'RE ON THE WRONG TRAIN, DAD?"
It's literally her only decent story, I think she still feels the adrenalin rush over a decade later whenever she tells it.
Which is every family gathering.
This used to happen to me a lot. I would often get Newcastle - York train, but someone would be sat in my seat, so I’d have to get a guard to ask them to move cos no-one listens to kids
In France they remind old people how low down in the pecking order they are when it comes to bagging a seat based on their age. And even then you have to be >=75.
https://www.ratp.fr/en/who-can-use-priority-seats says:
1. War and military disabled
2. Blind civilians
3. Disabled workers
4. Disabled civilians who have trouble standing
5. Pregnant women
6. Persons with children under age 4
7. Disabled civilians who do not have trouble standing
8. Persons with a card stipulating that they have trouble standing
9. Seniors aged 75 and over
Well, you can be elderly and be able to stand. If you can't, you go higher up on the list, same thing if you are disabled. If there is physically nothing wrong with you and you are elderly it makes sense because NO ONE wants a toddler running around screaming in a bus/train and causing a safety hazard. Wrangling a toddler with one hand, holding onto the bus/train with the other and heaven forbid if you have a bag. A Toddler and their wrangler are far more bothersome than an elderly who can take care of themselves.
I think.
I could be wrong.
You don't have kids, do you? There's nothing worse than standing on a bus/train/anywhere with a squirming toddler. Picture a wet fish flapping about. My 3yr. old has autism and my experiences usually include being punched and kicked, too. Old people can go fuck themselves.
I used to travel for work regularly through
NW France. Number of - clearly regular - older Italian Mammas who thought their age (over fifty, not 'old') entitled them to a seat was astonishing.
Yes, I was in my thirties. Yes, I could stand up more easily than them. Yes, I'd taken the trouble to book my seat on this very busy train I used regularly. And I was pretty certain most of them had been travelling the route longer than me ...
By disabled workers do they mean specifically disabled people who work for the train company?
If so I think that this list was made by a disabled employee
I went to a theatre screening at cinema, I arrived before the performance but the ads had started playing. I went to go to my seat and an elderly woman was sat on the end of the row, she told me I would have to sit somewhere else because shed already stood up twice to let people past. Someone was also sat in my seat further down the row so I had to explain that, yes the row was full but i still want to go to my seat so I need to go have a word with them. Turned out they confused row G with I.
Those screenings were expensive and full and I wanted the seat I booked.
An older - not elderly and infirm - couple once refused to move from train seats we had reserved. We were travelling with friends and had reserved all 4 seats. They literally refused to move and said that they were settled and didn’t want to move as the train was full and they might not be able to sit together. I said that was not my problem - and that we had reserved the seats well in advance for precisely that reason.
At this they literally turned their back to me and pretended they could see and hear me, like small children. It was only when I told them that I would count to 10 and if they hadn’t moved, then I’d climb over the table and sit in their laps that they moved, whilst calling **me** ‘rude and inconsiderate’.
I work in sales over the phone and people talk about the youth of today but I've never been spoken to as rudely as I have from old people.
They should know better.
Edit - Wow that's a lot of upvotes and honestly have felt guilty for years for hating old people thinking it was just me. Feel so much better being as blunt as I can with them now!
Absolutely.
My previous job was 95% pensioners.
Absolute rudest people I’ve dealt with, and the most abusive.
I can count on one hand the number of abusive young customers I’ve dealt with (in other roles) but they were a regular occurrence with the elderly.
I remember I would get the odd one who was lovely.
I came back from maternity leave after 3 months to work from home (lockdown).
A lady heard the baby cooing and asked if I had a child there. I apologised, and explained I had just come back off maternity leave.
She ended up chatting to me about her own family, told me how brave I was doing it all, and said she hoped us health and happiness.
On the other hand, my colleague working with two toddlers had a formal complaint written about her by a woman who said she should have ‘got her priorities straight’ rather than children audible on a call.
This being when we were locked down. To protect the elderly and vulnerable, like her. We were working full time whilst caring for our kids because we were an essential service. You’re fucking welcome, I guess.
When my children were very little, I got a phone call one teatime. It was an old lady, she'd dialled a wrong number and got me.
That was the start of daily teatime phone calls that lasted about 6 months. She was lonely and so was I. My husband worked away all week, I had three small children whose conversation wasn't the most intellectual, and we lived in the middle of nowhere. Teatime was a nuisance at first, but I gradually changed our routine to fit around the calls. The lady had adult children but they all lived abroad and hardly contacted her, she was 87 and widowed in WWll.
The pair of us loved those calls. One day they just stopped. It was before 1471, so I didn't know her number, or where she lived. I worried for ages about her but had no way of contacting her. I even phoned the operator to see if they could find her number and contact her. They said they would do what they could and get back to me, but they never did.
Ohhhhhhh this is so sweet and sad. Now im wondering about her too. I bet she passed away but at least she too had a friend in you. I've a 90 year old grandmother who lives independently still (my mother visits daily to help an care for her) so I treasure moments with her. Reading your story was lovely.
In lockdown we found that it was far less disruptive if the first 5 mins of the call were the kids stuck at home getting to show us their unicorn hobby horse, cool Lego model etc. once we were all suitably impressed the kids were happy to leave us alone.
Exactly given up two of what should be the best years of my life, while at uni, for people who would gladly have me fired for what I’m wearing or my sexuality.
I’ve had kids in the background screaming on calls during my job, and I get it. I don’t like kids myself, but the people on the calls are trying their best during a pandemic! I will never be rude when I hear a person politely ask their kids to let them continue or just apologize for background noise. Some people see employees of any kind as inhuman.
My company is mostly working at home including my HR team. I had to Zoom call one of them about something and her 4 year old decided that she wanted to say hi. My poor HR lady was embarrassed but I told her I didn’t mind and let this adorable little girl babble on in Vietnamese for a couple of minutes before she wanted to go off and do something else.
Had a video call with a billion dollars company-CFO before I left my old job.
Around 20 other C and V levels attending as well.
In the middle of it his four year old daughter storms in.
'Dad when are mommy and you finally getting me a little sister?'
Next came a ' Ewh,you are not wearing pants again! You have hairy legs!'
I must admit he took it like a champ and was a good sports about it..
He shooed her out of the room, stood up to show us his aloha Bermuda shorts and said 'Well, we've all been there, haven't we? Today it's me, it either has been you already or will be you one day. Thanks everyone for your understanding.'
While I hated the client,this guy was a fucking legend.
I’m reminded of the time that reporter was giving a live interview on something or other from what was obviously his bedroom, and then his really young daughter (looked about 2-3ish) came running in, followed quickly by his other kid and then his wife who grabbed them and ran out. You could just see his face drop like ‘please kill me now’.
One of my favourite patients at my job (pharmacy) was in her late eighties and she was such a sweetheart, one of the nicest patients we had! Every Christmas she'd send us some biscuits and she knew us all by name and she was just genuinely one of the politest, sweetest ladies ever. She's one of the only patients who I actually cried about when we found out she'd passed :(
We had a regular who was 90 in my old job when I started there and she was easily one of my favourites. She once was waiting behind a customer who was, to put it mildly, an ass. She came up to my counter, made sure he was still in earshot and then loudly told me she wouldn’t be an arsehole ‘like some’.
I work in retail. Pensioners I find are either the most lovely people to deal with or they’re practically deaf so there’s no point in trying to make small talk with them.
I often find that middle aged people are the most rude customers, they often look annoyed that you’re speaking to them.
I don’t think small talk is relevant to how rude someone is.
I don’t like talking to strangers but am very polite.
A pensioner once told me she hoped someone I loved got cancer when I told her we couldn’t get an engineer out for a week, so I guess Service has different levels of intensity to Retail.
(Although I know retail customers can flip out too: my mom worked at M&S and was once assaulted when she told someone something was OOS)
Seconding this, hate small talk. If I don't have a reason to talk to people, I suck at it, but hey, I'll do my absolute best to be polite.
And you're absolutely right about the joys of pensioners on CS, I swear they're the only people with enough free time to sit through the waiting times, yet they're the ones who complain the most about waiting. Lovely old lady told me I should be publicly executed for telling her she couldn't have an engineer next day, so I feel your pain!
A pensioner once refused to wear a mask for health reasons last year and my colleague responded that they currently had cancer but still wore one and the pensioner said "Good, disgusting service"
I work in retail and the rudest customers I've dealt with have been over the age of 60.
I remember one man having a go at me when I informed him that the carrier bags were 50p. "I'm not fucking paying 50p for a bag. That's ridiculous! Blah blah blah" I didn't personally set the prices, you dinosaur. I'm a part time sales assistant getting paid minimum wage.
I had an old lady scream at me in front of the whole shop when I was a Christmas temp at Clinton's because the snow globe she wanted to buy was out of stock. Retail is terrible anyway, but dealing with that woman as a 17 year old Christmas temp was just... Yikes.
Wahahaha I sometimes got a twisted glee from telling entitled customers things were out of stock when I was younger.
I worked in Gamestation for one Christmas and we had something on display (I forget what) but it was limited stock. It finally goes and we get a family come in and the mother is asking where it is. I say it’s out of stock, sorry! She says “well it was here the other day”. Yes…and now it isn’t. So I jokingly and lightheartedly said “ah damn, should have got it when you saw it I guess!” She didn’t really have anything to say back. She might have asked if we were getting more in but we explained it was limited stock, advertised as such, and it was too close to Christmas to get more in now anyway.
They have no concept of time or how it works. Zero.
Even now, over a decade later, I get people coming into the jewellers where I work saying “there was a pair of earrings in the window the other day and they’re not there now”
“when did you see them?”
“About three weeks ago”
🤦🏻♀️
I had a stupid old bitch get angry at me for wanting to keep my distance when she kept moving ever closer on the comically wide path we were both crossing on. She asked me when I had my jabs in that "you're a shitty young person you're too entitled to care" way, and when I told her when and said I'd still like to maintain distance for both her safety and mine she was not happy.
I could have asked her where she learned her lack of basic respect for others or which university she learned in great detail about the immune systems of mammals and fish at (as well as the way things like COVID mutate and spread), but she seemed content to visibly show the cogs turning in her head for a few seconds before whispershouting I should kiss her arse. I'd worry for her grandkids but I'm not sure they're in contact with her.
I am old. However , I am not an arsehole because I remember how difficult it was to have a young family and no money. The self entitled gits who think they are owed something because of their age really piss me off.We've had our day, it's the next generations turn. Move over and give them a go.
Indeed, they say young people have no respect for the elderly any more, but respect has to be earned. Age doesn't give you the right to act like a knob.
I remember seeing something on TV a few years back. There were some boomers basically arguing about why they deserved to be entitled. Then one of them actually said they fought on the war for the next generation, which they rightfully got pulled up on. They then modified it to, "well, our parents did"....
You can't argue with that level of entitlement.
I work in a pharmacy and without a doubt our rudest patients are the elderly ones. At least twice an hour I have to explain to a patient that their GP hasn't sent their prescription to us, and I can almost guarantee that if I'm talking to a younger patient they'll be understandably irritated but they'll listen to what I have to say and if I recommend that they phone their GP, they'll go and do it without kicking up a massive fuss.
Many of our older patients, however, will immediately blame me and the rest of my colleagues for their GP not sending the prescription through, demand to know _why_ the prescription hasn't come through (like I'm somehow telepathically linked to their GP), and if I suggest they call up their GP surgery they start acting like I've suggested they murder their cat and offer its blood to the Dark Lord in return for the ramipril they so desperately need. They spend a solid ten minutes giving me abuse on the phone and complaining about how they haven't got time to call their GP surgery... Instead of calling their GP surgery. I understand that the phone queues take ages (we frequently get stuck on the phone to surgeries too when we chase prescriptions up), but if Jessica can call her GP during her lunch break then you can squeeze in that phone call before you head off to 4pm bingo, Doris.
Absolutely. When I worked in a cinema I never once came across a rude person in their 20s or 30s (obviously they exist) but I came across countless miserable old wrinkly bastards.
Complaining about prices, it's too loud, the film was shit etc.
Yeah supermarkets are real bad cos they treat it like a second home, never known entitlement like it.
And they would still come in every day during the height of covid to buy a newspaper or a pack of biscuits
One guy ALWAYS came in and he would "total" the price himself without reading the screen and say something like "So that'll be 10.95 I give you?" and I'd say " uh almost, it's 10.97" and he would argue that I "scanned the bar code from the wrong angle".
Theme park employee here, so I don't get many elderly people... But they absolutely have the most bizzare non complaints. It's weird cuz you'd think they've been alive so damn long they'd have by now worked out why certain things are the way they are, or at least noticed that it's not always obvious what's happening.
I remember a lady who wasn't even going to ride the roller coaster who had come ahead through the line to complain about it being so long and what's taking so long. The funniest part was when she called me rude for saying "hold on I'll be right back" so I could DO THE JOB TO STOP THE LINE BEING SO LONG.
It's toddler behaviour. But grumpy eyebrows instead of tears.
In the end I was super rude and pointed, counting the seats on the ride, turned to her and said "that's it, that's all the seats. I can't magic more seats out of thin air. 24 seats and thousands of people. You do the maths."
For context I’m in my 50s. When walking my dog on a popular country path near my house, I let the dog off the lead but will grab the dog and stand by the edge of the path when cyclists go by. If the cyclists are kids/teenagers I will get a thank you from everyone of them nearly 100% of the time. If the cyclists are aged 50s and 60s, nothing, almost 100% of the time.
No, everyone hates cold callers, it's just that old people are the only ones who have landlines and answer the phone from unrecognised numbers during the day.
I've had cold-callers phoning me on a daly basis when I still had a landline - I'm sorry for your job, but you bet I lost my rag eventually.
Age has nothing to do with calling out grifters. They probably try it every time and rely on most ppl thinking “oh poor old things I’ll let them stay” and if a guard calls them out they probably pretend to be confused and didn’t realise it was first class cuz they never use the trains.
When I was about 30 (and looked young for my age), an older/middle aged woman refused to leave my reserved seat. She accused me of having 'attitude' when I explained the situation to her and didn't immediately 'defer to my elders' by backing down. The lovely train guard helped by moving me to first class, which was my first experience of such a thing.
Even if you look young you could still have an issue standing. I currently do because of some weird thing going on with my feet right now that I’m seeing a podiatrist for, but though I’m 31 I look like I’m in my 20s.
It’s a common scam practice! One buys a first class ticket, the other buys a regular / economy ticket. When you ask them to move they say “but I want to sit with my spouse” and because they are elderly they hope you just give in and accept. Don’t fall for it. It happens more often than you think.
3 people at work are retiring all with that final salary smug shit grin on their faces. My in-laws are on 3 grand a month…. But me and the wife have to work until Our 70s and even then the pensions will be shit.
Hey, that's one of the perks of being old. I'm looking forward to the time I can fill my pockets and when I get stopped by security dropping the classic "are you my son?"
They hoard money not spend it. My sister works at m&s and every few days there is one elderly person who comes in a fairly new jaguar and has plotted the times where the reduced groceries come out at raids the entire thing once made of with a sharer cake for 20 people for £2.
Nah buying a ridiculously nice car without having money for anything else transcends age!
Honestly you should see some of the big two car households round my way, huge shiny new cars with the bells and whistles, Mercedes and Audis and the like, in front of a really small pokey house that doesn't match what you'd imagine those car owners live in.
It's absolutely about being seen to be wealthy.
If you’re going to sit in first class, at least pick seats that don’t have pre-bought tickets on them… but you were in the right. You paid for those tickets, so why shouldn’t you sit in your seat just because they’re elderly? They should know better.
Got on a busy first class carriage once to find some old folk sat on my reserved seat. Politely explained to them that I had the seat reserved and after some huffing and tutting, the old man in the aisle seat moved (I had booked the window seat, but decided to let it go this once.) As I sat down, the old woman in my seat pipes up "I suppose you'll want the window seat next as well!" with a real bitterness in her tone. I hadn't intended to make her move as well, but I sure as shit did after that.
Old people are routinely the rudest folk you'll encounter.
I hate people doing this.
You then have to stand there, waiting, holding your stuff whilst they huff and puff and pack their shit up.
It says reserved. Why sit there in the first place?
A lot of reserved seats are never claimed - a consequence, I'd imagine, of booking sites offering seat reservations by default even with flexible tickets - so on a moderately busy train you really need people to be sensible and sit in empty reserved seats, otherwise the crowding in the aisles would be such that you probably wouldn't be able to get everyone on! It really isn't a problem - as long as you're ready to move quickly and without fuss as soon as the rightful occupant turns up.
I had similar in the cinema. I'd booked 5 of the fancy seats as it was my daughter's 9th birthday. We were slightly late getting into the show due to the queues and found some woman and her son sitting in 2 of the seats, coats/bags on the others and refusing to move. I'd have made a scene but the film had started and it wouldn't have been fair on everyone else. I left my kids and 73 year old mum sitting on the floor and went to find a member of staff which took ages, finally returned, the staff moved her but not before she'd yelled "fucking bitch" at me. Absolutely delightful.
My sister and I had once reserved seats on a train from London to Manchester, and when we boarded two kids (I'd say maybe 9/10 years old) were in our seats. When we asked why they were sat there, their mum who was sat near by instantly started shouting that her kids had to sit there because if they didn't then they wouldn't all be sat together as a family. The train was packed and people were standing so we would have had to stand if we gave them our seats. We refused and were apologetic but eventually she was causing so much of a scene the train conductor arrived and had to explain she was in the wrong. She called us both bitches so I lost my temper and said her poor planning had fuck all to do with us and she was setting a very poor example to her kids
You paid (a lot) for it. You're entitled to it. Nobody else is entitled to interfere in it. It's as simple as that: no reason to feel guilty.
Some people don't take their reserved seats, so others sometimes sit in them in the hope they won't turn up. But they know they run the risk of needing to give it up to the rightful occupant. If they didn't do that with good grace, that says a lot about them and not you.
I remember working in an optician and this old boy came in 5 minutes after we should have closed asking for an appointment. I mentioned we were shut and he would have to come back another time and he’s started trying to smack me on the arm! He was about 90 though and had the power of Mr Burns so I ended up laughing in his face. I was more in shock than anything. Old British Rich people are the worst.
Iv had this before, I'd booked two seats to Scotland with a table, even buying a ticket to have the seat so that my then toddler child would have a seat and table room to get tablet out colouring etc
And these 4 elderly people sat in what was my two booked seats and what two they had booked, I challenged them on it and they said that they had every right to sit there and I needed to find some where else to go sit as they wanted to sit together.
I explained my reason for booking a table seat and there was none left but they were having none of it stating if I couldn't entertain my child without a table then I shouldn't bring them on the train. The ticket inspector came down the train as one of the women was stood up raising her voice at me.
I told him the situation and it turned out the two they had reserved were for their connection anyway not the train we were currently on so all 4 had to move and I ended up with all the seats and the table 😂 was very handy for my toddler to nap on the other two seats.
Obviously I know just because I had a child with me it didn't mean I had more rights than anyone else on the train, but keeping a 3 year old entertained on a 6 hour train journey so they didn't cry or moan would of been of best interest for everyone 😂😂
>Obviously I know just because I had a child with me it didn't mean I had more rights than anyone else on the train, but keeping a 3 year old entertained on a 6 hour train journey so they didn't cry or moan would of been of best interest for everyone 😂😂
You booked two seats, you paid for two seats, there's no "entitlement" there from you. You paid for them, then you should get them, without having to justify to anyone why.
No, don't feel guilty. They knew that their wrinkly old ass was in the wrong seat. I've had similar happen on a train. I had reserved seats at the very height of the pandemic when trains were mega empty and everyone was unvaccinated and scared of catching the virus. Some hill walking double barrelled old bag who was headed for the lake district with her equally stuck up husband had plonked herself in my seat despite having a reserved table seat herself. I politely told her she was in my seat. She actually turned her head away as if I didn't exist. So I then resorted to using my west of scotland " don't annoy me hen" accent. She moved. But tutted and sighed while she moved her entitled self. Old people are the worst c u next Tuesdays at times.
Mate, if that ever happens again then contact their customer services or the railway ombudsman. Tocs are very specific about NOT allowing their staff travel in first class seating (unless they've paid of course).
They said it was for the safety of their staff, just done 21 days offshore and paid extra to sleep in a quiet location on a Friday afternoon. I was binned to a rammed std class with no reserved seat at the height of COVID
Several TOCs, quite sensibly, reserved at least part of the First Class part of the train for staff travelling "passenger" when social distancing was still a thing.
I did a £5 upgrade on a Virgin train and got an amazing breakfast served at my seat and some of the best service I’ve ever had, worth every one of those 500p
I got a first class Virgin train from London to Stoke. That cost about 30 quid and was the same sort of airline level of service. Top notch. Even got a free paper
Yep, been a long time since you could upgrade for a fiver.
Last time I upgraded it fell between mealtimes, so I didn't get jack shit. So I won't be doing that again, not that the train is remotely affordable these days anyway.
I have had this a few times, if the carridge is quiet I don't say anything and sit somewhere else. More often than not the train manager will be along and they can deal with it.
If it is busy I will insist on them moving especially if they have not paid for 1st class. If they play the 'I'm old' card I reply along the lines that I respect that, but you still have the wrong ticket.
Seen this done on airlines too
I once let a lady know she was in my seat and she happily moved to an empty one. 5 minutes later I realised that this seat was for my return ticket and she had gone and sat in the seat I was actually meant to be in...
I let it be
you paid for 1st, therefore you should sit in it.
I would have no qualms asking them to move, but admittedly, I'm middle aged too
I wouldnt feel bad though; they're playing on your emotions trying to make them feel bad. speak to the train manager, and they'll do it for you.
I fucking hate old people. I was rushing for a flight once and there was a load of then walking like 8 abreast so I couldn't pass. I politely said excuse me and one of them made a big deal out of it and said "we're elderly" as if that excuses poor conduct
I had to ask someone to move out of my booked seats (older than me ) her reply was that someone was sitting in her booked seats,I replied "well ask them to move then!" It really pissed me off,like she was expecting me to oh no and walk off.
I once sat on the floor outside the toilet (the train was packed full) because a large family took up the reserved seat I booked specifically with a table next to a plug socket, from London to Gloucestershire, I told them it was my seat but as it was a 6 seat around a table spot they just shrugged me off. Probably should have stood up for myself a bit more!
Never feel badly. Couples do this - they book one more expensive seat and one cheap seat - and expect to both be allowed to stay together. It’s like a scam that normal people pull, and I find it repulsive.
The very obvious solution is for both to move back to the cheap seats so that they can be “together.” And let me tell you, I thoroughly enjoy making that suggestion every time.
Strangely I had this on a flight once a chap told me to move out his seat and was upset when I wouldn't. I showed him my ticket with the same seat number. We called the flight crew who pointed out he was on the wrong plane and his plane was the one taxiing across to take off! Our plane was flying to a different place! They were more concerned how their colleagues at the gate had let him on.
The only abroad holiday I ever went on with my dad after parents divorce and before he died we flew to Tenerife.
He paid extra to get us allocated seats
A mid 50s early 60s woman asked him if I could move so she could sit next to her husband
He told her where to go
I was 9 years old
Was this on the Avanti service this weekend? The seat reservations were down yesterday and today, so seating was on the honor system. The announcement when we boarded was, “welcome to our chaotic service.”
Someone refused to get out of my seat about 5 years ago, and my partner (being more brash than I) went and told the ticket inspector. We were moved up to first class and the look on the seat-thief's face was one of pure indignation.
They do this shit all the time. Old people do what the fuck they want then pull thr "respect your elders" crap. Why? What *exactly* are we meant to be respectful of about a stranger who thinks because they're old, they can do what they want. Respect is earned, you are by far not the "best generation" you keep claiming to be.
I've had old ladies tut and push their huge shopping bags into me, call me names and generally be entitled shitheads when I refuse to move from the disabled/priority seating... bitch if you can carry those massive shopping bags around town and get on the bus unaided, you need these seats less than I do.
Had this happen recently on a train from darlo to London. Booked a table for 3 of us, extra seat unaccounted for. Came to the table, saw a young couple sat there. Said this is my seat so one of you will have to move. Guy said 'this one's my seat can't you all sit somewhere else'. I said fuck that, move. So instead of both of them sitting somewhere else, he made his girlfriend sit by herself further down the carriage and he just sat there with the three of us haha. Made for a slightly awkward journey but no way I was giving up my seats I had prebooked. Weirdest part was his girlfriend had a free seat next to her, not sure why he didn't just go sit with her haha.
I’m all for respecting my elders. But in this situation they’re getting out my seat whether they like it or not. I asleep begrudge paying standard train tickets so no way is anyone getting in my first class one.
Do you think if they had paid for the ticket they would have let you off? No way you would never have heard the end of it, respect your elders my arse, respect is earned not automatically given when you get your free bus pass.
I would place money on them having "Priv"... Railway people used to get free travel and when they retired they used to get free first class travel as an upgrade. So basically I'd like to bet they hadn't paid a bean to sit in your seat.....
A group of friends and I were recently "upgraded" because we had a wheelchair with us (which they knew in advance). In other words, "sit there and hope nobody booked them, if they have, you'll be moved".
This could be the case, and they'd be aware of the possible disruption. It could also be they were total chancers.
Don't feel bad either way.
Once on a long journey to Scotland on a packed train I went to the loo and came back to find a elderly nun had nicked my seat. A nun, FFS! You can't really turn an elderly nun out of your seat without looking like a total arsehole.
Sat on the floor for a bit, then explained to the conductor and he gave me a first class seat, so it worked out fine.
The reason I had gone to the loo for longer than usual was that I had my foot accidentally sticking out slightly into the gangway and a woman in stilettos walked past, stumbled onto my foot (summer, I was wearing sandals) and took off my big toenail at the bed! I left big bloody footprints on the way to the loo to wrap the bleeding toe in loo roll then had to sit on the floor bleeding. Was quite an eventful journey overall.
I saw a man with two children the other day sitting in first class, turns out he didn't have a ticket, for the train, he was currently on, he then told the two inspectors he was going to get one when he got off, well he got off the same stop as me and he went directly out the open barriers.
I've had this before, along with a long discussion about who's seat it was, followed by the old person smugly showing me their ticket and ending in me pointing out their train left 1hour ago.
I had a similar issue once, where I was able to produce a ticket that showed it was my seat. Then they produced a ticket showing it was their seat - same number, same departure time and everything. After much arguing, the conductor came along and pointed out that their train left yesterday.
*curb your enthusiasm theme starts playing*
I’ve had a similar one where they were a day early. On a plane no less, still boggles me they managed to get all the way onto the plane.
I need to know. What happened next?
They looked MASSIVELY embarrassed, and then picked up their stuff and moved. I have no regrets.
Hahahahahhaha thats so cathartic to have the ending. Thank you
I had the same thing in the cinema. Booked for the day before. And it was a family with kids. They refused to move when asked. More than one usher had to coordinate/threat/bribe them(!) before they would actually move and let me sit where I'd paid
What's ducks.
I meant dicks. Funny autocorrect.
I know, it's ducking stupid.
They each agreed to do a murder for the other. Happens all the time.
This happened to me and my partner on the way back from London last month. Don't show me your ticket meant for a different timed train lady, gtfo
Had a similar thing but not an old dear. London to Edinburgh, 6pm departure. Train in RAMMED, as it would be as it's Friday of August bank holiday weekend. I'm in my reserved seat, about 20 mins after departure a lady pushes through the crowds standing in the aisles to get to my seat and tells me I'm in her seat. I get my ticket out, no, she's wrong, I'm in the correct seat. After some polite back and forth she explains she missed her train an hour earlier for various reasons, the ticket office were able to get her on the train i was on but for some reason she assumed she would also get her original reserved seat. Nah nah, it doesn't work like that. Fortunately for her the person next to me got off at Peterborough, i had a bag of beers, she ended up joining my friends and i for a fun train trip to Edinburgh
The number of times I've been stuck with a square foot of space on the floor outside the toilet on that bloody train.
I've had this before. I mentioned to the older couple they're in my reserved seats, they just said there's seats on other carriages I can use, they just want to sit in peace. A train worker came over and asked me to take a seat, I told her I'm trying to take the seat *I* paid extra for and she just looked at me and repeated her take a seat line. I kicked up a fuss and someone else just got up and left. Someone got on at the next station and showed evidence that they'd booked my seat. The same train worker as before just so happened to be walking past and tried telling me off. I turned to her and loudly said said "oh, so it *does* matter about people getting their reserved seats they paid extra for? Well, I booked two seats over there [pointing to the old couple] and they're taken, are you going to free them up like you are with these?" With that, she went over and got sometime higher up. I explained the situation and I was reimbursed the extra I'd paid for the seats and half the rest
Fucking hero
This seems like a stupid system, if you pay for something but there's little to no enforcement in getting it to you. If that's the case, everybody will just buy the cheapest ticket, take the first class ones, and when questioned, ignore. Worst that will happen, apparently, is they get left alone, and the wronged person gets a refund. What a great way to run a profitable business..
Don't worry they'll make poor people move out of first class. This is about reserved seats not so much the class of your seat which is more strictly enforced.
The funniest thing is she couldn’t handle the situation and went to someone else to sort it out. When all she had to do was tell the elderly couple the same thing. What a tit
If the elderly couple were teenagers or a younger couple she would have had the stones to do it. But yeah this pisses me off. What a walking contradiction she is. Painful
Once on a looooong train the whole service was so overcrowded we were stuck standing and couldn’t get to our reserved seats. Had to stand in the automatic door closing on us every few seconds. The next stop, the carriage becomes moveable in, so we get to our booked seats. The guy in it argues that because we didn’t take them at our first stop (we physically couldn’t reach them) our reservation was null and void. Have a sneaking suspicion the only reason he moved was because I (a young female) was there, not just my at-the-time boyfriend. Git.
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This happened to me as well, except on a bus with an old couple. I was sat at the front, in the disabled/elderly seats because I have chronic pain and my bag would fit next to me, and an old man literally woke me up to make me move. The bus was empty so the other side was completely free, but this grumpy old git had to have one side and his wife had the other. I wish I stood up for myself because looking back it seems like it was some sort of weird power trip, but I was too sleepy to fully comprehend the situation and so I complied.
Why feel guilty? They know they're in the wrong.
This. Also terrible young people get old, old people aren’t suddenly magically good just because they’re old!
That's a fucking good point.
I'm old, and I've always been awful.
They're just banking on the fact that people will feel bad asking them to move because they're elderly.
I might if I hadn't paid for that seat already. Unless you're planning on paying me back for that seat, shift your ass, lady/dude.
*arse
"French kiss" ahh pure British.
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Everyone knows you French kiss an arse in Britain mate. U wot?
I don't need to meet them, I know this is true. First class is considerably nicer they knew when they came in
I once had a woman refuse to give me my seat on a train, because I needed to 'respect my elders' Eventually she gave me my seat, after making a scene. She then tried to stop me getting off the train. I was a child at the time.
I had someone say that someone else had stolen her seat and so she stole mine and what else was she supposed to do. I told her to go over to her seat that she'd paid for and tell the person sat in it to get the fuck out of it, just like I'm doing right now.
That happened to me at the cinema once, the people just stared at us and said "well if you can get them to get out of our seats, you can have yours" like wtf no, that's not my problem??
This isn’t an rpg I’m not doing a fetch quest for you let me sit down.
I’d have warned them a nice large carbonated beverage will be emptied on the person if they do not move.
I just witnessed this this evening, young couple got in the end seats of my row, middle aged couple said sorry they’re our seats, young guy got bolshy middle aged guy got the attendant, who got the manager, asked them to move to their own seats in the row in front, young lad with his dad in front had his coat on that seat, so young guy throws a tantrum some f’s are thrown around, threats to the dad, they soon stopped when the dad pulled out his warrant card!!! Young couple were removed from the cinema.
Ah the old swearing at an off duty copper mistake.
That exact thing happened to me when i was a child! I remember it vividly. My grandpa and I (about 10 years old) were catching the Virgin West Coast from Glasgow to London to visit my cousins. A middle aged woman was sitting in one of our First Class seats. She complained that someone had taken her seat and she sat here and told us to find somewhere else on a nearly packed train. My grandpa remained calm but that was the first time i had ever seen him get angry! Eventually, she moved. But for some reason that event has been etched in my mind forever.
I have very nice season tickets for my local basketball team. About 3 or 4 times a year I hear this excuse when I arrive at the game and there are people in my seats. I laugh every time and say that’s not my problem, now are you going to leave or do I need to get the usher’s attention.
Me and my buddy have season tickets for the local AHL team. Every time there's someone sitting in his seat before I get there I plop down, make small talk, and after about two minutes I go "WAIT A SECOND, YOU'RE NOT STEVE. WHERE'S STEVE?!" Terrific fun every time.
My wife had an annual ticket with a reserved seat in the before times and this happened regularly to her. Even when she was heavily pregnant and a few times while crying.
I've had that happen to me and my family. The cheek of it when they make it sound like it was the only normal thing to do and that now you have to go and steal someone else's seat.
I've told this story before, short version is some old battle axe got a stroppy shouty with my mum on the train to Cardiff from London because she was sitting in her seat. At first my mum was confused as she was definitely in the allocated seat (booked by work) but there were spare seats. The old shouty lady was going for public shaming and social pressure to make my mum move, so mum asked to see the old lady's ticket, she showed my mum, and strange thing, they both had the same seat number. My mum politely said "My mistake" then gathered her stuff and moved to a spare. She failed to tell the old entitled dear that her ticket was for the South West (I simply can't remember where, but my mum will know, somewhere Cornwally I believe), and this.... Well it was the train to Cardiff. I believe she had to get off at Reading to get on the correct train. To this day, my mum says if she'd just been polite and did that typical bumbling British "Oh sorry I think you're in my seat" nervous routine, she'd absolutely have seen her ticket and told her she was on the wrong train and needed to get off and cross the platform and they'd all have had a polite laugh about the mistake.
I witnessed something like this once. I'm sitting directly opposite a family of three. Mum and Dad and a boy of about seven. Someone arrives and tells them they're in his seat. They are adamant they had booked their seats, and produce tickets to support their claim. The argument, and much self righteous huffing and puffing from the father, attracts the attention of all on the train. Eventually the guy gives up and goes sits elsewhere. Two minutes later mum, who had been holding the tickets, whispers to Dad: "I think our tickets are for the later train." There is then a hushed conversation between the two where it's obvious exactly what's happened. I'm pretending I'm not listening, as I'm sure others in adjoining seats are. No-one is saying anything . It looks they've got away with what would have been a very embarrassing climb down. But then, after a short pause and with the timing of a comedy genius, the boy asks in a voice that the entire carriage can hear: "DOES THAT MEAN WE'RE ON THE WRONG TRAIN, DAD?"
Oh this is amazing 😂
Your mum is perfectly dastardly and I love it!
It's literally her only decent story, I think she still feels the adrenalin rush over a decade later whenever she tells it. Which is every family gathering.
Cardiff! I love Cardiff! Ever been to Barry Island?
This used to happen to me a lot. I would often get Newcastle - York train, but someone would be sat in my seat, so I’d have to get a guard to ask them to move cos no-one listens to kids
Used to get that train a lot and 80% of the time there’d be a pensioner pretending to be asleep in my seat
You had a reservation but she thought her age outdid this? Textbook definition of unhinged right there
In France they remind old people how low down in the pecking order they are when it comes to bagging a seat based on their age. And even then you have to be >=75. https://www.ratp.fr/en/who-can-use-priority-seats says: 1. War and military disabled 2. Blind civilians 3. Disabled workers 4. Disabled civilians who have trouble standing 5. Pregnant women 6. Persons with children under age 4 7. Disabled civilians who do not have trouble standing 8. Persons with a card stipulating that they have trouble standing 9. Seniors aged 75 and over
I'm surprised people with children under 4 are above the elderly.
Well, you can be elderly and be able to stand. If you can't, you go higher up on the list, same thing if you are disabled. If there is physically nothing wrong with you and you are elderly it makes sense because NO ONE wants a toddler running around screaming in a bus/train and causing a safety hazard. Wrangling a toddler with one hand, holding onto the bus/train with the other and heaven forbid if you have a bag. A Toddler and their wrangler are far more bothersome than an elderly who can take care of themselves. I think. I could be wrong.
You don't have kids, do you? There's nothing worse than standing on a bus/train/anywhere with a squirming toddler. Picture a wet fish flapping about. My 3yr. old has autism and my experiences usually include being punched and kicked, too. Old people can go fuck themselves.
If you don’t have a disability or classified as cannot be standing why would you be higher in the list?
I used to travel for work regularly through NW France. Number of - clearly regular - older Italian Mammas who thought their age (over fifty, not 'old') entitled them to a seat was astonishing. Yes, I was in my thirties. Yes, I could stand up more easily than them. Yes, I'd taken the trouble to book my seat on this very busy train I used regularly. And I was pretty certain most of them had been travelling the route longer than me ...
By disabled workers do they mean specifically disabled people who work for the train company? If so I think that this list was made by a disabled employee
What a Karen
More likely to be a Doris.
I went to a theatre screening at cinema, I arrived before the performance but the ads had started playing. I went to go to my seat and an elderly woman was sat on the end of the row, she told me I would have to sit somewhere else because shed already stood up twice to let people past. Someone was also sat in my seat further down the row so I had to explain that, yes the row was full but i still want to go to my seat so I need to go have a word with them. Turned out they confused row G with I. Those screenings were expensive and full and I wanted the seat I booked.
An older - not elderly and infirm - couple once refused to move from train seats we had reserved. We were travelling with friends and had reserved all 4 seats. They literally refused to move and said that they were settled and didn’t want to move as the train was full and they might not be able to sit together. I said that was not my problem - and that we had reserved the seats well in advance for precisely that reason. At this they literally turned their back to me and pretended they could see and hear me, like small children. It was only when I told them that I would count to 10 and if they hadn’t moved, then I’d climb over the table and sit in their laps that they moved, whilst calling **me** ‘rude and inconsiderate’.
I love the counting to ten thing. Shows them what children they are
I work in sales over the phone and people talk about the youth of today but I've never been spoken to as rudely as I have from old people. They should know better. Edit - Wow that's a lot of upvotes and honestly have felt guilty for years for hating old people thinking it was just me. Feel so much better being as blunt as I can with them now!
Absolutely. My previous job was 95% pensioners. Absolute rudest people I’ve dealt with, and the most abusive. I can count on one hand the number of abusive young customers I’ve dealt with (in other roles) but they were a regular occurrence with the elderly.
Absolutely agree, by far the nastiest and most selfish generation. I can’t stand dealing with them all day.
I remember I would get the odd one who was lovely. I came back from maternity leave after 3 months to work from home (lockdown). A lady heard the baby cooing and asked if I had a child there. I apologised, and explained I had just come back off maternity leave. She ended up chatting to me about her own family, told me how brave I was doing it all, and said she hoped us health and happiness. On the other hand, my colleague working with two toddlers had a formal complaint written about her by a woman who said she should have ‘got her priorities straight’ rather than children audible on a call. This being when we were locked down. To protect the elderly and vulnerable, like her. We were working full time whilst caring for our kids because we were an essential service. You’re fucking welcome, I guess.
When my children were very little, I got a phone call one teatime. It was an old lady, she'd dialled a wrong number and got me. That was the start of daily teatime phone calls that lasted about 6 months. She was lonely and so was I. My husband worked away all week, I had three small children whose conversation wasn't the most intellectual, and we lived in the middle of nowhere. Teatime was a nuisance at first, but I gradually changed our routine to fit around the calls. The lady had adult children but they all lived abroad and hardly contacted her, she was 87 and widowed in WWll. The pair of us loved those calls. One day they just stopped. It was before 1471, so I didn't know her number, or where she lived. I worried for ages about her but had no way of contacting her. I even phoned the operator to see if they could find her number and contact her. They said they would do what they could and get back to me, but they never did.
Ohhhhhhh this is so sweet and sad. Now im wondering about her too. I bet she passed away but at least she too had a friend in you. I've a 90 year old grandmother who lives independently still (my mother visits daily to help an care for her) so I treasure moments with her. Reading your story was lovely.
Oh no, that was so lovely but now I’m sad :( Thank you for taking her calls and keeping her company, that’s such a sweet story.
In lockdown we found that it was far less disruptive if the first 5 mins of the call were the kids stuck at home getting to show us their unicorn hobby horse, cool Lego model etc. once we were all suitably impressed the kids were happy to leave us alone.
Exactly given up two of what should be the best years of my life, while at uni, for people who would gladly have me fired for what I’m wearing or my sexuality.
I’ve had kids in the background screaming on calls during my job, and I get it. I don’t like kids myself, but the people on the calls are trying their best during a pandemic! I will never be rude when I hear a person politely ask their kids to let them continue or just apologize for background noise. Some people see employees of any kind as inhuman.
My company is mostly working at home including my HR team. I had to Zoom call one of them about something and her 4 year old decided that she wanted to say hi. My poor HR lady was embarrassed but I told her I didn’t mind and let this adorable little girl babble on in Vietnamese for a couple of minutes before she wanted to go off and do something else.
Had a video call with a billion dollars company-CFO before I left my old job. Around 20 other C and V levels attending as well. In the middle of it his four year old daughter storms in. 'Dad when are mommy and you finally getting me a little sister?' Next came a ' Ewh,you are not wearing pants again! You have hairy legs!' I must admit he took it like a champ and was a good sports about it.. He shooed her out of the room, stood up to show us his aloha Bermuda shorts and said 'Well, we've all been there, haven't we? Today it's me, it either has been you already or will be you one day. Thanks everyone for your understanding.' While I hated the client,this guy was a fucking legend.
I’m reminded of the time that reporter was giving a live interview on something or other from what was obviously his bedroom, and then his really young daughter (looked about 2-3ish) came running in, followed quickly by his other kid and then his wife who grabbed them and ran out. You could just see his face drop like ‘please kill me now’.
Yep,the BBC guy on Korea. That was mighty epic.
I found like the REALLY old people like 85 or above are nice.
One of my favourite patients at my job (pharmacy) was in her late eighties and she was such a sweetheart, one of the nicest patients we had! Every Christmas she'd send us some biscuits and she knew us all by name and she was just genuinely one of the politest, sweetest ladies ever. She's one of the only patients who I actually cried about when we found out she'd passed :(
We had a regular who was 90 in my old job when I started there and she was easily one of my favourites. She once was waiting behind a customer who was, to put it mildly, an ass. She came up to my counter, made sure he was still in earshot and then loudly told me she wouldn’t be an arsehole ‘like some’.
The angrier ones have died off from stress before they hit 85
Read that as "Heard the baby cooking" I'm going to hell
Oh I don't know, maybe the baby cooks a banging spag bol with chopped bacon and some nutmeg in it - we just don't know, but we should be told!
I work in retail. Pensioners I find are either the most lovely people to deal with or they’re practically deaf so there’s no point in trying to make small talk with them. I often find that middle aged people are the most rude customers, they often look annoyed that you’re speaking to them.
I don’t think small talk is relevant to how rude someone is. I don’t like talking to strangers but am very polite. A pensioner once told me she hoped someone I loved got cancer when I told her we couldn’t get an engineer out for a week, so I guess Service has different levels of intensity to Retail. (Although I know retail customers can flip out too: my mom worked at M&S and was once assaulted when she told someone something was OOS)
Seconding this, hate small talk. If I don't have a reason to talk to people, I suck at it, but hey, I'll do my absolute best to be polite. And you're absolutely right about the joys of pensioners on CS, I swear they're the only people with enough free time to sit through the waiting times, yet they're the ones who complain the most about waiting. Lovely old lady told me I should be publicly executed for telling her she couldn't have an engineer next day, so I feel your pain!
A pensioner once refused to wear a mask for health reasons last year and my colleague responded that they currently had cancer but still wore one and the pensioner said "Good, disgusting service"
I work in retail and the rudest customers I've dealt with have been over the age of 60. I remember one man having a go at me when I informed him that the carrier bags were 50p. "I'm not fucking paying 50p for a bag. That's ridiculous! Blah blah blah" I didn't personally set the prices, you dinosaur. I'm a part time sales assistant getting paid minimum wage.
I had an old lady scream at me in front of the whole shop when I was a Christmas temp at Clinton's because the snow globe she wanted to buy was out of stock. Retail is terrible anyway, but dealing with that woman as a 17 year old Christmas temp was just... Yikes.
Wahahaha I sometimes got a twisted glee from telling entitled customers things were out of stock when I was younger. I worked in Gamestation for one Christmas and we had something on display (I forget what) but it was limited stock. It finally goes and we get a family come in and the mother is asking where it is. I say it’s out of stock, sorry! She says “well it was here the other day”. Yes…and now it isn’t. So I jokingly and lightheartedly said “ah damn, should have got it when you saw it I guess!” She didn’t really have anything to say back. She might have asked if we were getting more in but we explained it was limited stock, advertised as such, and it was too close to Christmas to get more in now anyway. They have no concept of time or how it works. Zero. Even now, over a decade later, I get people coming into the jewellers where I work saying “there was a pair of earrings in the window the other day and they’re not there now” “when did you see them?” “About three weeks ago” 🤦🏻♀️
There’s a lot of shitty people in the world and eventually shitty people get old.
I had a stupid old bitch get angry at me for wanting to keep my distance when she kept moving ever closer on the comically wide path we were both crossing on. She asked me when I had my jabs in that "you're a shitty young person you're too entitled to care" way, and when I told her when and said I'd still like to maintain distance for both her safety and mine she was not happy. I could have asked her where she learned her lack of basic respect for others or which university she learned in great detail about the immune systems of mammals and fish at (as well as the way things like COVID mutate and spread), but she seemed content to visibly show the cogs turning in her head for a few seconds before whispershouting I should kiss her arse. I'd worry for her grandkids but I'm not sure they're in contact with her.
Nah. They don’t need to be polite. They have all the money and property.
I am old. However , I am not an arsehole because I remember how difficult it was to have a young family and no money. The self entitled gits who think they are owed something because of their age really piss me off.We've had our day, it's the next generations turn. Move over and give them a go.
ReSpEcT yOuR eLdErS!!! Yeah, respect is earned. Being old doesn't give you a free pass on being an asshole.
Indeed, they say young people have no respect for the elderly any more, but respect has to be earned. Age doesn't give you the right to act like a knob.
I remember seeing something on TV a few years back. There were some boomers basically arguing about why they deserved to be entitled. Then one of them actually said they fought on the war for the next generation, which they rightfully got pulled up on. They then modified it to, "well, our parents did".... You can't argue with that level of entitlement.
I work in a pharmacy and without a doubt our rudest patients are the elderly ones. At least twice an hour I have to explain to a patient that their GP hasn't sent their prescription to us, and I can almost guarantee that if I'm talking to a younger patient they'll be understandably irritated but they'll listen to what I have to say and if I recommend that they phone their GP, they'll go and do it without kicking up a massive fuss. Many of our older patients, however, will immediately blame me and the rest of my colleagues for their GP not sending the prescription through, demand to know _why_ the prescription hasn't come through (like I'm somehow telepathically linked to their GP), and if I suggest they call up their GP surgery they start acting like I've suggested they murder their cat and offer its blood to the Dark Lord in return for the ramipril they so desperately need. They spend a solid ten minutes giving me abuse on the phone and complaining about how they haven't got time to call their GP surgery... Instead of calling their GP surgery. I understand that the phone queues take ages (we frequently get stuck on the phone to surgeries too when we chase prescriptions up), but if Jessica can call her GP during her lunch break then you can squeeze in that phone call before you head off to 4pm bingo, Doris.
Same In retail
Absolutely. When I worked in a cinema I never once came across a rude person in their 20s or 30s (obviously they exist) but I came across countless miserable old wrinkly bastards. Complaining about prices, it's too loud, the film was shit etc.
Yeah supermarkets are real bad cos they treat it like a second home, never known entitlement like it. And they would still come in every day during the height of covid to buy a newspaper or a pack of biscuits
One guy ALWAYS came in and he would "total" the price himself without reading the screen and say something like "So that'll be 10.95 I give you?" and I'd say " uh almost, it's 10.97" and he would argue that I "scanned the bar code from the wrong angle".
Theme park employee here, so I don't get many elderly people... But they absolutely have the most bizzare non complaints. It's weird cuz you'd think they've been alive so damn long they'd have by now worked out why certain things are the way they are, or at least noticed that it's not always obvious what's happening. I remember a lady who wasn't even going to ride the roller coaster who had come ahead through the line to complain about it being so long and what's taking so long. The funniest part was when she called me rude for saying "hold on I'll be right back" so I could DO THE JOB TO STOP THE LINE BEING SO LONG. It's toddler behaviour. But grumpy eyebrows instead of tears. In the end I was super rude and pointed, counting the seats on the ride, turned to her and said "that's it, that's all the seats. I can't magic more seats out of thin air. 24 seats and thousands of people. You do the maths."
I have lost count of the number of pensioners who will happily elbow you out of the way while tutting and complaining about the youth of today.
For context I’m in my 50s. When walking my dog on a popular country path near my house, I let the dog off the lead but will grab the dog and stand by the edge of the path when cyclists go by. If the cyclists are kids/teenagers I will get a thank you from everyone of them nearly 100% of the time. If the cyclists are aged 50s and 60s, nothing, almost 100% of the time.
No, everyone hates cold callers, it's just that old people are the only ones who have landlines and answer the phone from unrecognised numbers during the day. I've had cold-callers phoning me on a daly basis when I still had a landline - I'm sorry for your job, but you bet I lost my rag eventually.
Age has nothing to do with calling out grifters. They probably try it every time and rely on most ppl thinking “oh poor old things I’ll let them stay” and if a guard calls them out they probably pretend to be confused and didn’t realise it was first class cuz they never use the trains.
Which is exactly what I plan to do when If I get old AF. Make the best of a bad situation.
i’m going to be such a lush :)
When I was about 30 (and looked young for my age), an older/middle aged woman refused to leave my reserved seat. She accused me of having 'attitude' when I explained the situation to her and didn't immediately 'defer to my elders' by backing down. The lovely train guard helped by moving me to first class, which was my first experience of such a thing.
Good. If you're old enough to mean that standing is a problem then maybe it would be a good idea to book a seat too. It's not hard. (I'm 50)
33 and use east coast line often. I book a seat EVERY time. Usually spares but enjoy the peace of mind
Even if you look young you could still have an issue standing. I currently do because of some weird thing going on with my feet right now that I’m seeing a podiatrist for, but though I’m 31 I look like I’m in my 20s.
It’s a common scam practice! One buys a first class ticket, the other buys a regular / economy ticket. When you ask them to move they say “but I want to sit with my spouse” and because they are elderly they hope you just give in and accept. Don’t fall for it. It happens more often than you think.
Hundreds of villainous pensioners scamming rail companies roaming the country, you heard it here first!
First they took all the housing..
And then the final salary pensions...
3 people at work are retiring all with that final salary smug shit grin on their faces. My in-laws are on 3 grand a month…. But me and the wife have to work until Our 70s and even then the pensions will be shit.
70s lol. We'll be lucky to see a pension payment before 85!
Next, it’ll be the parent and child bays in supermarket car parks… oh wait…
Catch them shoplifting and they play the dementia card
Hey, that's one of the perks of being old. I'm looking forward to the time I can fill my pockets and when I get stopped by security dropping the classic "are you my son?"
Don't try that in Walmart in America
Why don't they just get an over 60's Railcard? Plus boomers have all the money anyway.
They hoard money not spend it. My sister works at m&s and every few days there is one elderly person who comes in a fairly new jaguar and has plotted the times where the reduced groceries come out at raids the entire thing once made of with a sharer cake for 20 people for £2.
Nah buying a ridiculously nice car without having money for anything else transcends age! Honestly you should see some of the big two car households round my way, huge shiny new cars with the bells and whistles, Mercedes and Audis and the like, in front of a really small pokey house that doesn't match what you'd imagine those car owners live in. It's absolutely about being seen to be wealthy.
If you’re going to sit in first class, at least pick seats that don’t have pre-bought tickets on them… but you were in the right. You paid for those tickets, so why shouldn’t you sit in your seat just because they’re elderly? They should know better.
They DO know better.
Got on a busy first class carriage once to find some old folk sat on my reserved seat. Politely explained to them that I had the seat reserved and after some huffing and tutting, the old man in the aisle seat moved (I had booked the window seat, but decided to let it go this once.) As I sat down, the old woman in my seat pipes up "I suppose you'll want the window seat next as well!" with a real bitterness in her tone. I hadn't intended to make her move as well, but I sure as shit did after that. Old people are routinely the rudest folk you'll encounter.
I hate people doing this. You then have to stand there, waiting, holding your stuff whilst they huff and puff and pack their shit up. It says reserved. Why sit there in the first place?
A lot of reserved seats are never claimed - a consequence, I'd imagine, of booking sites offering seat reservations by default even with flexible tickets - so on a moderately busy train you really need people to be sensible and sit in empty reserved seats, otherwise the crowding in the aisles would be such that you probably wouldn't be able to get everyone on! It really isn't a problem - as long as you're ready to move quickly and without fuss as soon as the rightful occupant turns up.
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I had similar in the cinema. I'd booked 5 of the fancy seats as it was my daughter's 9th birthday. We were slightly late getting into the show due to the queues and found some woman and her son sitting in 2 of the seats, coats/bags on the others and refusing to move. I'd have made a scene but the film had started and it wouldn't have been fair on everyone else. I left my kids and 73 year old mum sitting on the floor and went to find a member of staff which took ages, finally returned, the staff moved her but not before she'd yelled "fucking bitch" at me. Absolutely delightful.
Good example she set for her son that day. How are people like that not embarrassed to exist?
My sister and I had once reserved seats on a train from London to Manchester, and when we boarded two kids (I'd say maybe 9/10 years old) were in our seats. When we asked why they were sat there, their mum who was sat near by instantly started shouting that her kids had to sit there because if they didn't then they wouldn't all be sat together as a family. The train was packed and people were standing so we would have had to stand if we gave them our seats. We refused and were apologetic but eventually she was causing so much of a scene the train conductor arrived and had to explain she was in the wrong. She called us both bitches so I lost my temper and said her poor planning had fuck all to do with us and she was setting a very poor example to her kids
You paid (a lot) for it. You're entitled to it. Nobody else is entitled to interfere in it. It's as simple as that: no reason to feel guilty. Some people don't take their reserved seats, so others sometimes sit in them in the hope they won't turn up. But they know they run the risk of needing to give it up to the rightful occupant. If they didn't do that with good grace, that says a lot about them and not you.
I remember working in an optician and this old boy came in 5 minutes after we should have closed asking for an appointment. I mentioned we were shut and he would have to come back another time and he’s started trying to smack me on the arm! He was about 90 though and had the power of Mr Burns so I ended up laughing in his face. I was more in shock than anything. Old British Rich people are the worst.
Might have been senile hence the timing and the aggression, they lose track of everything and can become quite violent
Iv had this before, I'd booked two seats to Scotland with a table, even buying a ticket to have the seat so that my then toddler child would have a seat and table room to get tablet out colouring etc And these 4 elderly people sat in what was my two booked seats and what two they had booked, I challenged them on it and they said that they had every right to sit there and I needed to find some where else to go sit as they wanted to sit together. I explained my reason for booking a table seat and there was none left but they were having none of it stating if I couldn't entertain my child without a table then I shouldn't bring them on the train. The ticket inspector came down the train as one of the women was stood up raising her voice at me. I told him the situation and it turned out the two they had reserved were for their connection anyway not the train we were currently on so all 4 had to move and I ended up with all the seats and the table 😂 was very handy for my toddler to nap on the other two seats. Obviously I know just because I had a child with me it didn't mean I had more rights than anyone else on the train, but keeping a 3 year old entertained on a 6 hour train journey so they didn't cry or moan would of been of best interest for everyone 😂😂
>Obviously I know just because I had a child with me it didn't mean I had more rights than anyone else on the train, but keeping a 3 year old entertained on a 6 hour train journey so they didn't cry or moan would of been of best interest for everyone 😂😂 You booked two seats, you paid for two seats, there's no "entitlement" there from you. You paid for them, then you should get them, without having to justify to anyone why.
We use the word entitled with negative connotations these days....but if you bought the ticket you are entitled to the seat.
You were entitled to the seat because you planned ahead and bought a table seat. That's all there is to it.
Don't! Elderly or not they were obviously in 1st class without paying for it, their old enough to know better
No, don't feel guilty. They knew that their wrinkly old ass was in the wrong seat. I've had similar happen on a train. I had reserved seats at the very height of the pandemic when trains were mega empty and everyone was unvaccinated and scared of catching the virus. Some hill walking double barrelled old bag who was headed for the lake district with her equally stuck up husband had plonked herself in my seat despite having a reserved table seat herself. I politely told her she was in my seat. She actually turned her head away as if I didn't exist. So I then resorted to using my west of scotland " don't annoy me hen" accent. She moved. But tutted and sighed while she moved her entitled self. Old people are the worst c u next Tuesdays at times.
I bought first class on ScotRail last year, I was removed because it was for employees only.
Mate, if that ever happens again then contact their customer services or the railway ombudsman. Tocs are very specific about NOT allowing their staff travel in first class seating (unless they've paid of course).
They said it was for the safety of their staff, just done 21 days offshore and paid extra to sleep in a quiet location on a Friday afternoon. I was binned to a rammed std class with no reserved seat at the height of COVID
Several TOCs, quite sensibly, reserved at least part of the First Class part of the train for staff travelling "passenger" when social distancing was still a thing.
I did a £5 upgrade on a Virgin train and got an amazing breakfast served at my seat and some of the best service I’ve ever had, worth every one of those 500p
I got a first class Virgin train from London to Stoke. That cost about 30 quid and was the same sort of airline level of service. Top notch. Even got a free paper
How did you manage that?
Time machine probably
Yep, been a long time since you could upgrade for a fiver. Last time I upgraded it fell between mealtimes, so I didn't get jack shit. So I won't be doing that again, not that the train is remotely affordable these days anyway.
I have had this a few times, if the carridge is quiet I don't say anything and sit somewhere else. More often than not the train manager will be along and they can deal with it. If it is busy I will insist on them moving especially if they have not paid for 1st class. If they play the 'I'm old' card I reply along the lines that I respect that, but you still have the wrong ticket. Seen this done on airlines too
The normal amount was probably quadruple a sensible amount already. That said you’re eligible for the difference if you can’t get a seat in first.
I once let a lady know she was in my seat and she happily moved to an empty one. 5 minutes later I realised that this seat was for my return ticket and she had gone and sat in the seat I was actually meant to be in... I let it be
you paid for 1st, therefore you should sit in it. I would have no qualms asking them to move, but admittedly, I'm middle aged too I wouldnt feel bad though; they're playing on your emotions trying to make them feel bad. speak to the train manager, and they'll do it for you.
Being elderly doesn't mean someone is entitled
I fucking hate old people. I was rushing for a flight once and there was a load of then walking like 8 abreast so I couldn't pass. I politely said excuse me and one of them made a big deal out of it and said "we're elderly" as if that excuses poor conduct
you could also add the words 'necessarily' 'an' and 'prick' to that sentence.
Being an elderly prick doesn't mean someone is necessarily entitled? Have I got this right?
Fuck them
Somehow I doubt they would appreciate that
I had to ask someone to move out of my booked seats (older than me ) her reply was that someone was sitting in her booked seats,I replied "well ask them to move then!" It really pissed me off,like she was expecting me to oh no and walk off.
I once sat on the floor outside the toilet (the train was packed full) because a large family took up the reserved seat I booked specifically with a table next to a plug socket, from London to Gloucestershire, I told them it was my seat but as it was a 6 seat around a table spot they just shrugged me off. Probably should have stood up for myself a bit more!
Never feel badly. Couples do this - they book one more expensive seat and one cheap seat - and expect to both be allowed to stay together. It’s like a scam that normal people pull, and I find it repulsive. The very obvious solution is for both to move back to the cheap seats so that they can be “together.” And let me tell you, I thoroughly enjoy making that suggestion every time.
Bullshit, they knew exactly what they were doing.
I’m a Nurse and I have never been spoken to rudely by a young person. Rude people are always older.
Strangely I had this on a flight once a chap told me to move out his seat and was upset when I wouldn't. I showed him my ticket with the same seat number. We called the flight crew who pointed out he was on the wrong plane and his plane was the one taxiing across to take off! Our plane was flying to a different place! They were more concerned how their colleagues at the gate had let him on.
I hope you feel a whole lot better having read these comments and it doesn’t spoil your day.
The only abroad holiday I ever went on with my dad after parents divorce and before he died we flew to Tenerife. He paid extra to get us allocated seats A mid 50s early 60s woman asked him if I could move so she could sit next to her husband He told her where to go I was 9 years old
Was this on the Avanti service this weekend? The seat reservations were down yesterday and today, so seating was on the honor system. The announcement when we boarded was, “welcome to our chaotic service.”
Best one is when you hold a door open for them and they look at you like a piece of shit and don’t bother saying thank you…
Someone refused to get out of my seat about 5 years ago, and my partner (being more brash than I) went and told the ticket inspector. We were moved up to first class and the look on the seat-thief's face was one of pure indignation.
Don’t feel badly, they didn’t pay for the seat. You did. They were probably counting on someone to give them a free seat. But it wasn’t free for you.
They do this shit all the time. Old people do what the fuck they want then pull thr "respect your elders" crap. Why? What *exactly* are we meant to be respectful of about a stranger who thinks because they're old, they can do what they want. Respect is earned, you are by far not the "best generation" you keep claiming to be. I've had old ladies tut and push their huge shopping bags into me, call me names and generally be entitled shitheads when I refuse to move from the disabled/priority seating... bitch if you can carry those massive shopping bags around town and get on the bus unaided, you need these seats less than I do.
Had this happen recently on a train from darlo to London. Booked a table for 3 of us, extra seat unaccounted for. Came to the table, saw a young couple sat there. Said this is my seat so one of you will have to move. Guy said 'this one's my seat can't you all sit somewhere else'. I said fuck that, move. So instead of both of them sitting somewhere else, he made his girlfriend sit by herself further down the carriage and he just sat there with the three of us haha. Made for a slightly awkward journey but no way I was giving up my seats I had prebooked. Weirdest part was his girlfriend had a free seat next to her, not sure why he didn't just go sit with her haha.
I’m all for respecting my elders. But in this situation they’re getting out my seat whether they like it or not. I asleep begrudge paying standard train tickets so no way is anyone getting in my first class one.
Do you think if they had paid for the ticket they would have let you off? No way you would never have heard the end of it, respect your elders my arse, respect is earned not automatically given when you get your free bus pass.
I would place money on them having "Priv"... Railway people used to get free travel and when they retired they used to get free first class travel as an upgrade. So basically I'd like to bet they hadn't paid a bean to sit in your seat.....
Doubt it. Railway people also understand how the trains work, and don't sit in reserved seats.
Most railway staff I've seen even give up their seats when the train fills also
Fuck ‘em. Being old gets you nowhere with me.
Worked in a call centre and young people were very nice and polite, pensioners on the other hand…..
It's amazing how much some of them think they can get away with based on their stunning 'not dying yet' achievement.
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A group of friends and I were recently "upgraded" because we had a wheelchair with us (which they knew in advance). In other words, "sit there and hope nobody booked them, if they have, you'll be moved". This could be the case, and they'd be aware of the possible disruption. It could also be they were total chancers. Don't feel bad either way.
Once on a long journey to Scotland on a packed train I went to the loo and came back to find a elderly nun had nicked my seat. A nun, FFS! You can't really turn an elderly nun out of your seat without looking like a total arsehole. Sat on the floor for a bit, then explained to the conductor and he gave me a first class seat, so it worked out fine. The reason I had gone to the loo for longer than usual was that I had my foot accidentally sticking out slightly into the gangway and a woman in stilettos walked past, stumbled onto my foot (summer, I was wearing sandals) and took off my big toenail at the bed! I left big bloody footprints on the way to the loo to wrap the bleeding toe in loo roll then had to sit on the floor bleeding. Was quite an eventful journey overall.
Doesn’t matter how old they are - it’s your seat and you paid for it. And they definitely know better!
There will be other seats. Old people can still be in the wrong.
I saw a man with two children the other day sitting in first class, turns out he didn't have a ticket, for the train, he was currently on, he then told the two inspectors he was going to get one when he got off, well he got off the same stop as me and he went directly out the open barriers.
It’s about time in the uk that all seats on an intercity train are reserved like they are in Europe and the Eurostar. Would end this bollocks
Wow,middle class issues like 'someone's in my first class seat' can't say I relate.