CMV: If I have to stop my car for two minutes because I accidentally drove up to the front of the line too soon, it is NOT "the worst customer service I have ever had"!

Context: We have a holiday open house event at the nursery where I work, and the way we get everything out to people's cars is by having them drive up to a "station" (a cone in the road with a tree on it) where we have someone asking how many trees (and how large they are) they purchased, we get the tree(s) and bring them out to the station where we then put them on the car. The way our line is set up due to the lack of space on the property we have is there is a lawn area where cars can pull up to park. There is a large pine tree at the top of the lawn, and nine times out of ten, people will park and go inside, then when they are ready to go, they drive around the tree in the lawn and pull up to the station where we are working. This lawn area is probably roughly the size of a basketball court. <br><br>The full story is that a middle aged lady pulled up to the station and drove her car up against the cone and into the tree we were standing next to. This is a full grown tree, not a sapling, but it's probably one of the two smallest trees we have set up there, but it is a holiday event, and she's about to put a full grown tree on her car, so how she thought she could fit into that spot is beyond me, but she tries to, hits the cone, and gets out and starts yelling at us. I try to explain that she can't park there, and she tells me that she is going to park where she wants and that I need to bring her tree up to her. I politely tell her that I am not leaving my station to do that, because I am not going to leave the other employee by themselves while he waits for me to get back to the lawn, then I have to walk back to the point we were at, so two minutes have passed, and someone else has driven up to the station, and this point we have realized we don't know what kind of tree she got, so I am using my time to go ask the person she came with what she bought. I come back nine minutes later, and she is blowing her horn, and waving her money in the window at the person working the station. When I come back, I realized she has left, and the other employee is angry with me for leaving. <br><br>I told him I was sorry, but I had to figure out what she had bought, and that she was being unreasonable for thinking we should move the tree to where she wanted to park, when we explained to her where she COULD park... <br><br>This is a holiday event, and we were running behind schedule because we were short staffed. She gets back into her car and starts blasting her horn, and drives through the lawn to get to the station, and doesn't even put her car in park before she gets out at the station. She's waving her money around, yelling at us, and waving her arms around like a crazy woman. The other employee is angry at me for leaving my post, and starts telling me to do what she says because I am the reason she is mad. I'm angry, but she hands me the money, and I take it and thank her, and start to put the tree on her car. She doesn't even say anything to me, so I say "Have a good day, and MERRY CHRISTMAS!" She slowly gets into her car and looks at me and says "This is the WORST customer service I have EVER had!"<br><br>Now, I'm not looking for you to just pat me on the back and tell me I did nothing wrong, but I really want to hear from the other side. Was I wrong for leaving my station? Should I have told the lady she needs to let me know what she bought, or how large the tree was, and wait for her to get the information to tell me? Should I have gone to go get her tree, and left my station unmanned? <br><br>I guess I understand why she was mad... but maybe I made a mistake! Tell me! <br><br>EDIT: I should have probably changed the phrase "If I have to stop my car for two minutes because I accidentally drove up to the front of the line too soon, it is NOT 'the worst customer service I have ever had'!" to "If I have to stop my car for two minutes because I accidentally drove up to the front of the line too soon, it's NOT 'the worst customer service I have EVER had'!"<br><br>(She didn't say "I have ever had" though, I added that part... <br><br>I guess some people just hate reading, and can't be bothered with the details. <br><br>EDIT 2: I should have guessed that people would assume this was a for profit nursery... we are actually a church run nursery! We take care of all of the holiday decorating and setup in exchange for getting to run it as a nine day fundraiser for the church. We are all volunteers, and ushers in training, and don't have any real training in the customer service field. <br><br>I have been working here for ten years, and have NEVER had a customer complain, but I have never had a holiday open house event where we were short staffed either... so there's that! <br><br>Anyway, I am grateful for all of the insight, and I will make sure to think about these things the next time I am in a similar situation. Thank you all for helping me find some perspective, even if we don't necessarily see eye to eye. <br><br>EDIT 3: I had no idea this was going to get so much traction... I am not a high post count guy, and have never posted here before. <br><br>Thank you all for taking the time to read this post and give me your thoughts. Yes, there are some not so nice comments... but that comes with the internet, I guess. <br><br>I am pretty shocked at how many people are convinced (without even reading the post) that I told her to get out of her car and get the tree herself... I don't know where people are getting that from. <br><br>I am also surprised at how many people think it's okay for her to call me "the worst customer service she's ever had" for doing absolutely nothing wrong, while she (oh so clearly) drove up to the station too soon, parked in a no parking zone, parked in a tree, blew her horn for two minutes straight, waved her money around, didn't set her parking brake, and cursed at me for politely trying to help her!<br><br>It's not like I had done anything wrong... I didn't yell at her, cuss at her, touch her car, or even get mad at her for how she was acting...<br><br>I even got a few comments saying "You should have moved the tree and made her happy!" Yeah, no thanks! I'm not in the customer satisfaction business, and I don't think I should have to go out of my way to satisfy someone who thinks they can just park wherever they want... <br><br>Oh well! Thanks for all the comments, everyone! It's been fun reading through this thread... and if you are the lady who called me "the worst customer service she's ever had," then fuck off!