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I use the self scanner stresscoes have.You know the type, you have the scanning gun and you scan as you go.
I am thinking of not using them any more as nearly everytime I get to the checkout up comes a message saying that a spot check by a member of staff is needed.
well if they dont trust people to scan their own shopping then why have the service in the first place?

I have regular arguments with the people in my local Tescos about the self service tills.

I'm in a queue at a checkout and a staff member will suggest I use the self service till as it will be quicker, and in case I don't know how to use it, he/she will show me how it's done. I reply, well if you've got all this time on your hands to show me and others how these tills work, why don't you just open up another checkout? And by the way, if I do decide to use the self-service till, do I get a discount for doing the job myself?

Answer there comes none!

When I further point out that, the more customers use the self service checkouts, the nearer they become to making themselves redundant, they come out with the usual "I'm just doing my job" Can't they see that "their job" is ultimately doing away with "their job"???

When I have to use a check out with a actual person there I love asking for a discount if I pay cash, the poor person at the check out never knows what to say and calls their manager, who 9 times out of 10 also looks panicked and says they have never heard of this before.

I love to follow it up with but you gave me a discount for cash last time, why not now? Cue much confusion, I then say look I pay full price this time as I am in a hurry, but you guys owe me one alright. The look of relief on their faces as I leave brings a smile to my face every time. Best time to do it is when the wife is by my side as she also dies of embarrassment, greatly reduces the amount of times she asks me to do the food shopping with her.

I agree with everything you say but........

In defence of the checkout operator who is encouraging you to use the self service checkout, like most of us the options open to her are "I can do something I don't like doing, or I can go on the dole".

What would you do?

I agree the thing to do is to boycott the self service checkouts, but I don't see the value in giving the checkout operators a hard time. The supermarket manager maybe, but not the poor grunt on the shop floor.

spider wrote:

> I agree with everything you say but........
>
> In defence of the checkout operator who is encouraging you to
> use the self service checkout, like most of us the options open
> to her are "I can do something I don't like doing, or I can go
> on the dole".
>
> What would you do?
>
> I agree the thing to do is to boycott the self service
> checkouts, but I don't see the value in giving the checkout
> operators a hard time. The supermarket manager maybe, but not
> the poor grunt on the shop floor.
>


The "poor grunt" on the shop floor is usually a supervisor who has it in their power to open new checkouts. I make a point of not being rude to the people on the checkouts themselves... indeed I enjoy having a chat with those who start conversations.

As for the manager, he/she (it seems to change every 6 to 9 months) gets plenty of letters from me (as does Head Office!) on this very subject.

But she won't have the authority to open new checkouts if the company policy is to encourage / force people to the self service checkouts.

The way forward is to boycott the self service checkouts and complain like you're doing.

I have this vision of 21st century shopping in which people trudge round all the shops, fill their trolleys and then go to a self service till to scan and pay for their goods. No alternative is offered.

If you get stuck at the self service, you have to phone an Indian-based help desk team who read off from a screen standard explanations for what to do for certain problems e.g. not scanning etc.

Whilst they do this, a phalanx of security men watch a bank of CCTVs to try and spot anyone shoplifting.

A soulless, inhuman experience.

Cheers
D

The rush to the bottom has been going on for decades and all its done is really stripped away a lot of the working conditions gained by unions over the passed 100 years simply to sustain profit growth

I'm pretty sure the big boys like Tescos think their bottom line isnt effected by customer service because people only shop there for cheap prices

So they'll keep ramming it down your throat that you can do it yourself and be out of the store to the point where they'll start reducing staff hours so queue
waiting times increase

Its a simple equation

buy expensive technology = make your customers use it =
chance to reduce staffing hours & make positions redundant
= bigger profits

Next step is to become a dominant wholesaler who can influence what your competition pays for its goods as Coles and Woolworths have done in Australia

Hate them and refuse to use them. The human interactivity works for me all the time. For better or worse. Even if the bitch is old and grumpy. i'd sooner have her character than some cold ass automaton terminator with a womans voice checking me out.

David,

I've seen people get away without paying for every item when using those things. They'll have 2 of something and put them both through together, one top of the other, etc. Those things are just asking to be taken advantage of - I wouldn't, I'm honest but I've seen people do it.

You say that you are effectively an unpaid check-out assistant. You are, but there is not as much annoyance over this as there apparently was a few decades ago when supermarkets became self-service. A while back there was always an assistant in a tie and apron getting the stuff for you from behind a large counter and bagging it. The first time you touched the items were after you had paid and been handed them. The concept of lanes with rows of items left and right of you started - and you had to get them yourself. We accept this as the norm now, but when it first began it irritated lots of people and apparently led to many complaints.