Maybe I’m mistaken, but I’m forming the impression that the problem is not with your Chinese. I think that some things are just, uh, situationally peculiar, and take time to get used to and to learn how to manage.
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True enough. Once I was in Korea and was out shopping with some guy who wasn’t particularly good at communicating with the locals (speaking native English at full speed with complex sentences and muddy enunciation), and whatever he asked of the staff, they always just shook their heads and said “no”, apparently having decided that trying to communicate with the guy was too much trouble and enough repeated "no"s would make him go away.
Anyway, at least from this thread I learned that the equivalent of a generic “no, no” is just 沒有，沒有.
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Maybe she said 不用，不用。
Let’s keep on speculating. Did you buy anything in that shop? Maybe water and cups (at NT$10) are only meant for customers buying things in the shop? My guess for the “mei you, mei you” bit is that the person might have recognized you as someone who is not well versed in the local language so they just used the easiest of words to make sure you understand. Maybe that person is not very good speaking Mandarin themselves could also be a reason. Depends on where that was and what kind of ecucational background, age, etc. that person had.
Did the water machine work? Maybe there was no more water to have, hence “mei you”?
I any case, I would not use this situation as a good opportunity to improve your Chinese.
Seems like in this situation, the 沒有 meant, “We don’t want to deal with you. Go away.”
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“We 沒有 the mental energy to deal with you right now.”
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She thought you couldn’t speak Chinese, so she was just telling you “no”. What it means is you can’t take the cups yourself, you have to tell them you need one, and they’ll get it for you.