Spill the beans...on your self-service checkout tips (beep)

Beetlemama

I always use these in our ASDA, I like them but they don't much seem to care for me, or anyone else for that matter. I doubt I get more than one in five trips where I don't have to have assistance, and I even say "Thank you for BEING the Fast Lane" when it thanks me, oh well. It absolutely always always does it when that young lad is supervising, I am so embarrassed because he makes comments like "It always does this to you!" and it makes me feel like he thinks I messed it up on purpose so he'd come and talk to me. I'm not Mrs Robinson trying to seduce him via my 5p reduced bakery products.

Top tip - don't try to use them if you have a shopping trolley to take your shopping home in, you can only skip bagging three items and then you have to be supervised...

UNLESS -

...the outside edge of the screen is red, this is some kind of ASDA zombie apocalypse emergency mode when they are too busy to deal with anything. When the screen is edged red you can scan whatever you like and throw it right on the floor if you want, the bagging scale doesn't care what you do with it.


Regarding Coinstar - if you are using Coinstar because you are poor and have scrabbled around for as much loose change as you can find, and not because you are jolly and organised and clear your pockets and purse of shrapnel every time you come home, count it in to 99p amounts before you leave home. It only takes commission on amounts over £1, so if you put in three lots of 99p, you don't pay anything.

charmedlassie

Ok, as some who works as a self scan operator 7 hours a day, 5 days a week, Let me give you some tips because believe me 99% of the problems arise are because customers are doing it wrong.
The biggest issue with these machines is that people DO NOT FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS. The machines audibly tell you what to do, show you what to do via a wee animation on the screen and if you read the screen, it has instructions on what to do. This is for the Morrison's ones as that's where I work.


Tip: The bagging area is a set a scales. It will weigh everything whether you have scanned it or not, including the bags that are already on it so don't remove the bag when trying to open it, you can open a bag without removing it or ask the assistant to do it for you.
Tip 2: You can't take the bag off. Depending on where you are there is either two bag holders or you have to put it behind the bags at the back. If you need more than two bags you've got too many items for self scan ;p






1 Do it yourself. These machines were created to be used by ONE person at a time. If there are too many people around trying to pack or scan it won't work. Don't take a bag off or hold onto the bag as this will affect the weight on the scale causing problems.

2. TAKE YOUR TIME
So this is how it will go. If you have your own bag, touch the screen first and it will ask you if you have your own bag. Press yes, then put your bag down. The screen should then change to the scanning screen.

Tip Two problems can happen from here: 1. Your bag is too light. If this happens press go back and just press no to having your own bag but (2) more commonly your bag is too heavy either it has something already in it or it's just a heavy bag. When this is the case it will come up "Wrong weight" so an assistant (that's me!) will come over, check you're not stealing , and fix it.
If you don't have a bag then just touch the screen and press no, even If you don't want a bag as you can just put it on the scale without it needing to go in the bag.

So, you're now ready to start.
3. LOOK AT THE SCREEN. It will say "Please put your item in the bag" Scan your item and everything on the screen will be disabled 'till you put your item in the bagging area.
If all is ok weight wise then the screen will go back to "please scan your item"
However, (and this is one of the problems I need to assist with a lot because people aren't reading the screen) some products are light so the machine is set up so that you need to scan a few of these items before it tells you to put in the bag.
For example chewing gum, hot chocolate sachets, wee 10p sweeties, analgesic packs like paracetamol etc. Unless it reads "Please put the item in the bag" DON'T put it in the bag as it will tell you either wrong weight or to remove the item.


Any questions ask away...I've worked on self scan (or SCO as I call it) for 3 years so know pretty much every problem that happens and why haha.


(Also, they don't take people's jobs. These machines don't just magically create themselves you know, people do need to make them and engineers fix internal problems. Plus, I was hired for self scan so if anything, they create jobs)

TheBanker

The Tesco Express near my office has removed all except one of their tills and replaced with self-scan. The one remaining till is also the Lottery terminal so gets very busy. If you are lucky and can catch the staff member's attention, he will pass you cigarettes so you can put them through the self scan. Not sure if they're supposed to do this but the're really no alternative due to the layout of the store now.

My top tip is to avoid this branch of Tesco and shop at Sainsburys around the corner instead. They still have cashiers and tills (for now at least).

Uplink

Great tutorial, but I have one thing to pick on:

charmedlassie wrote: »

If you need more than two bags you've got too many items for self scan ;p

Err.. no I don't I for one use SS machines because I'm socially inept, and also spend a lot of time talking to myself in my head, so I don't pay attention to what's being said, and apparently not having a chat with the person serving you, if you use a manned till, tags you as a "insert your expletive attribute here". The machine doesn't mind if I don't talk to it. I mean, sure, I can talk to bankers and salespeople just fine, because that's not social, but when it has to be social I turn mute instantly. But I'd rather not split my shopping either, if I happened to get a trolley-full of stuff. So it's the machine that is inadequate, not me having too much stuff

charmedlassie

Actually, when a customer doesn't talk to me when I'm serving them I really couldn't care less. I'm utter crap at making conversation so much prefer it when neither of us try to make awkward chat (which probably why I'm put on self scan all the time haha)
But the sco I work on is for 15 items or fewer and hand baskets only because we all know there isn't much space. So yes, if you need more than two (at most three as sometimes they can sit on each other) you have too many items for "my" self scan.

Middy

With Sainsburys' SS you can remove the bags off the bagging area once the area is full and press 'I have removed item or bag' button on the screen.

Morrisons won't let me do this. They had 12 Mullerlights for £2 and I bought 36 of them (12 for me and 12 each for two friends) and about 10 other items. I put my bags on the floor and the staff member told me to put them back onto the BA. You guessed what happened next - a yoghurt got caught on the bag prongs and burst it covering me with strawberry yoghurt. Not one staff member offered me a cloth or asked if I was alright. It took them 5 minutes to find the yoghurt even though the ss are next to the yoghurts!

Middy

TheBanker wrote: »

The Tesco Express near my office has removed all except one of their tills and replaced with self-scan. The one remaining till is also the Lottery terminal so gets very busy. If you are lucky and can catch the staff member's attention, he will pass you cigarettes so you can put them through the self scan. Not sure if they're supposed to do this but the're really no alternative due to the layout of the store now.

My top tip is to avoid this branch of Tesco and shop at Sainsburys around the corner instead. They still have cashiers and tills (for now at least).

They aren't supposed to do this if there are doors covering the cigs.

System

charmedlassie or other self checkout supervisors...

say someone is buying 1kg of loose carrots...

how do you react when they put through the carrots which are supposed to cost £3 per kg for example as onions which cost £1 per kg for example, hence "saving"(or really stealing) £2.

Do they get away with it?

charmedlassie

Middy wrote: »

With Sainsburys' SS you can remove the bags off the bagging area once the area is full and press 'I have removed item or bag' button on the screen.

Morrison's does badly need this and also "I don't want a bag" that I think tesco have. I have to admit, ours are not user friendly. "Non weigh items" as a category?! Come on, how are customers to know which items weigh and which don't?!

The way I see it if it doesn't all fit comfortably into a basket, you're going to have a bad time at Morrison's self scan.

charmedlassie

berbastrike wrote: »

Do they get away with it?

Sometimes they can, yeah. I've caught a lot of people putting pick and mix sweets through as something cheaper. There isn't much we can do when that happens, just need to keep an eye out for fraud. Luckily I take that quite seriously as I HATE thieves (in general, not just from my work) so make sure I'm always watching but when it's crazy busy it's not always possible.