Is my pekin bantam male or female?

[soapdragon]

Why are these automated tills supposed to make things quicker when, very clearly, they don't? Normally I avoid them like the plague but did succumb last week as I had just 3 items and thought nothing could go wrong..oh silly me!

 

All I had was a newspaper, potted plant and pre packed ham. Doh- big mistake. The ham - tho pre packed - came up as 'weigh'....noooooooo. The newspaper failed to register at all and the small plant at £3 came up on the screen as £40.83!!!!!!!

 

Then the till told me that I had an unexplained item in the bagging area in spite of me following all instructions ...shame it wasn't a bomb! Technology!It worries me greatly that so called ' basic technology' can get very things so very wrong It took me just over 11 minutes to get this all resolved...surely would have been quicker going through a 'normal' till?!

 

Off to lie down in a darkened room.

[Alis girls]

I know they are soooo annoying. OH had the "unexpected etc etc......." it was YS sitting waiting for dad to Finnish and he was sitting on the bit where you pack your bag. Assistant wasn't too impressed

[Blackrocksrock]

My bag in the bagging area was too heavy!! - I avoid them like the plague!

[The Dogmother]

Me too; I would much rather interact with a human.

[mullethunter]

By bags are always too heavy and have to be 'verified'. I however, don't like interacting with people and would rather put up with the machine!

[Cat tails]

We have self scanners, were you carry around your own handheld scanner around the store and in the end pay by handing the scanner in.

 

But never tried it. I pay for interaction with that human! It's not like my groceries are cheaper when doing all the work myself....

[mullethunter]

Some supermarkets here have those too Cattails

[Blackrocksrock]

I love the self scanners - easy to keep a note of what you are spending too but the machines with bagging areas are the pits.

[Valkyrie]

Ugh, yes, Sainsbury's in Reading had no manned tills early in the morning - it was use the machines or go without and as it was likely to be our last day on jury service I wanted to give everyone a choccy bunny as a farewell present. I also bought some fluffy chicks and fluffy bunnies for my daughter's birthday cake. So I'm following instructions and beep away and then no beep. Refused to beep and I panicked. Lady came over (nice one thankfully) and helped me so off I went again and then same thing happened, she came over - this time no repeat choccy bunny to scan twice - she sorted me out again. Then it wouldn't let me pay. So she had to come over again. By this time I was so flustered - I hate the machines at the best of times but really 3 times!!!! It would have been so much quicker and easier to go to the checkout, bung things on the belt and then bung it all in a bag at the end and pay while having a pleasant person to say good morning to.

 

Hubby had a similar scenario with Asda where he works - he gets milk, soup, water, and other bulky stuff for the staff really early. Again just the machines and with the amount of stuff that he was purchasing the person had to keep swiping the machine because he'd filled his bags - although unlucky for him he had a tutting supervisor. He said well he wasn't going in later and it wasn't his fault that this was his only option!

[kinsk]

Our little local sainsburys drives me mad. They only ever have on person on the till and 5 self checkouts. Last night I was queing up and was told to use the self check out, I explained that I had wine and didn't fancy waiting an age for someone to appear to authorise it, the look I got you'd have thought I'd purposly knocked a display stand over.

[WitchHazel]

I love the hand scanners in Waitrose, it means I can shop and pack at the same time, so it's much quicker.

 

I'm not so keen on self-scan tills, although they are OK when you get used to them. We always go for self scan at B&Q, but I don't like it so much in the supermarket. I can see that it is efficient for the supermarket because they can have one person manning many self-scanning tills, and most transactions seem to be problem free. It is frustrating and annoying when they are not though, whether it's me doing the scanning or me in the queue waiting for a self scan till to become available.

 

I don't like the self scn in my local M&S, because there's no where sensible to put down my other shopping. The area allocated to each place is very narrow, so I end up with a sea of bags around me, encroaching on the neighbouring self scan tills.

[Cinnamon]

I love the hand scanners in Waitrose, it means I can shop and pack at the same time, so it's much quicker.

 

 

Yes, Quick Check is awesome - in & out in half the time

 

Somewhat ironically given the job that I have, I actually like self serve tills

[sjp]

I use the self service tills all the time now I get through the check out in half the time

[Egluntyne]

Me too. The ones with the hand scanners.

[Daphne]

It's 7pm, I am back from Sainsburys. I pour myself a glass of wine to relax and switch to the forum, and this is the first topic I see. I am having a glass of wine as I have just done battle with a self service till. 9 items and 4 of them required assistance it didn't help that the charming assistant was quite short and couldn't see me past other customers. I've had to shout 'excuse me' more times than I'm comfortable with, there is not enough space in the rude word bagging area, I couldn't pay for a newspaper with a voucher, my handbag was unattended as I didn't have enough hands to stop the bagging area bag falling over and scan stuff at the same time, and to cap it all I get home to be told my mother has had a snack and doesn't require any dinner, so why did I go shopping......grrrrrrrrr........

[Luvachicken]

I prefer people so avoid the self scan things at all times.

I find the machines rude - they always shout at me and don't give me a chance to do what it is asking.

 

I agree with Cat tails though, that if we are doing the job of a till person, then our shopping should be cheaper

[Olly]

Self-service tills are the invention of Satan - if they worked they'd be brilliant, but they never do.

 

Waitrose QuickCheck (self scanning) on the other hand is fabulous- as someone else said you can pack your stuff while you shop, and at Christmas it's a real hoot to whiz through the checkout while the staffed tills all have long queues. The only annoying thing is that you have to have someone approve alcohol or painkillers - even Lemsip.

 

I quite like not having to interact with human beings ... sorry!

[soapdragon]

I never go to our local Tesco self scan for the simple reason that the staff on duty always seem to be chatting away to each other and its really hard to catch their attention; maybe our local branch is particularly bad as they also seem to have an 'eyes raised heavenward' attitude at these stupid customers who cannot even operate a self scan till properly

 

Sainsbury's is better as staff are actually keeping an eye on all the tills and are really quick to come and help. I do love the Waitrose self scan/pack thing but sadly Waitrose is beyond our means as well as there not being one as near as the other two 'biggies' and Lidl (which is a NIGHTMARE for customer service but cheap! I always have a wry grin to myself as I park up at Lidl; there is a sign saying that there is a max 2 hour stay in the car park before you get fined. Quite honestly you could spend that 2 hours in the huge queues

 

Personally, I see the whole 'self scan' thing as an evil plot to cut costs to the bone and phase out manned tills altogether (but then maybe I am paranoid - although that doesn't mean I' wrong )