Self-service supermarket tills - love them or loathe them?

pineapple

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

You seem to be suggesting that people who work on checkouts are stupid?

You are colouring my comment with your own issues. You need to work on that chip on your shoulder. I most certainly did NOT say that. Myself I've done jobs usually regarded as 'menial' such as cleaning and dishwashing - and I am most definitely not brainless.
However I would suggest that on balance there are less inventors, scientists etc amongst certain employment groups. To suggest otherwise is, frankly, a nonsense.

dibuzz

I rarely use them when I'm alone as I get a flustered and end up dropping my purse all over the floor or do some other equally embarrassing thing but yesterday I only had a few items, plus I wasn't feeling well and just wanted to get out as quickly as possible.
I had a purse full of change so slowly dropped it all in as I have done with no problem in the past.
It had counted down form £9.49 to a little over £1 when it came up with an error, the girl swiped it but it was then saying I still owed the full amount.
She called someone else who opened various coin boxes inside and shook them till it eventually started working and came up with the right amount.
I was feeling embarrassed enough as everyone was staring at me but then she turned to the queue and said " sorry about that, it's all these idiots who think they can stick loads of coins in just because they are too tight to use the coinstar machine"
I find shopping very stressful anyway due to anxiety and will never use one again

seven-day-weekend

pineapple wrote: »

You are colouring my comment with your own issues. You need to work on that chip on your shoulder. I most certainly did NOT say that. Myself I've done jobs usually regarded as 'menial' such as cleaning and dishwashing - and I am most definitely not brainless.
However I would suggest that on balance there are less inventors, scientists etc amongst certain employment groups. To suggest otherwise is, frankly, a nonsense.

Thanks for your comments. I apologise if I misunderstood. Just because there are lots of nasty comments about these things, I should not have asumed yours were. Sorry xx

nzseries1

dibuzz wrote: »

I was feeling embarrassed enough as everyone was staring at me but then she turned to the queue and said " sorry about that, it's all these idiots who think they can stick loads of coins in just because they are too tight to use the coinstar machine"

The Tesco employee said that? I would be getting her name and making a formal complaint - that is not on.

sammyroser

nzseries1 wrote: »

The Tesco employee said that? I would be getting her name and making a formal complaint - that is not on.

Agreed that is disgraceful behaviour!

pmduk

Is it tesco we are talking about here? I've never seen a coinstar machine at one? Certainly I'd be complaining immediately to the store manager..

Zanandu

I will use the self service checkouts- if there is a big queue at the manned checkout, if I am in a hurry, and if I don't have complicated things to scan- I hate weighing things and messing about. I prefer a manned till.

Working at a checkout isn't just for people that just scan going 'beep' all day. Interating with the public can take a lot of good communication skills, patience and interest in people. I enjoy the chit chat to the assistants and I have learned at the check out- great tips on caring for my garden, some wonderful recipes, some brilliant jokes, about local events going on, many other things. I also take an elderly friend shopping once a fornight and I actually choose the checkout assistant that we go through as its a social event for my elderly friend. April, Martin, Anne and many others at our local tescos are fabulous. They have the time and the approach to give my friend. Interestingly enough, we tend to steer clear of the youngsters who on most occasions are not interested in being sociable. They do their job, they are quick but they are just there to go 'beep'! I do avoid them. Its my choice. Its the same with the self scans- if people want to buy and go, thats great.

There is a place for both methods of shopping.

fluffymuffy

Hate them. I don't think I've ever used one that didn't go wrong and have to be corrected by the store staff.

We should get a discount for doing their checkout jobs for them.

dibuzz

nzseries1 wrote: »

The Tesco employee said that? I would be getting her name and making a formal complaint - that is not on.

I was too upset to do anything except run out but have written a letter of complaint. I'm not sure I was meant to hear what she said the the queue but she was still out of order.

pmduk wrote: »

Is it tesco we are talking about here? I've never seen a coinstar machine at one? Certainly I'd be complaining immediately to the store manager..

There is a conistar machine in our local Tesco but not the huge new one.

m1618

I know a man over 80, who shopped in the same Sainsbury's nearly every day for decades. He's a bit deaf. He'd used the self-service tills many times before. He didn't hear that a bottle of wine hadn't scanned properly. He was stopped by staff and was told that, as a result of this mistake, it was shop policy that he be banned for life from the shop.

I don't want to risk this happening to me should I make a mistake, so I always go the the staffed check outs, no matter how long the queues.

In any case, on the self service check outs I feel much more pressure to move quickly, when people are waiting behind me, which is often counter-productive as I'm more likely to make mistakes.

Staffed check-outs for me every time.