Guy at Lidl trying to make me use self check out

Completely agree!

Good for you @Toastandjam16 . If more people refused to use self-checkout, and insisted on a manned checkout, then they'd have no choice but to put more people on to serve on the checkouts.

@Sortumn It's not weird at ALL to want good customer service. It is not 'good customer service' to be serving yourself at a self-scan checkout, and having to wait for ages sometimes, for someone to come and help because an item won't scan - (and this happens EVERY TIME!) And if you've got dozens of items, it's a bloody nightmare. It's so hard to get everything to fit on the 'shelf.' I have had yogurts fall off and smash on the floor and all sorts of mishaps at the self checkouts!

@CherryFlan Good for you for refusing to go near a self service checkout!

@TotalEclipseOfMyFart Yes you're right, they can be problematic for people with disabilities.

I don't mind the odd self-checkout, like 1 in 8 or so, (as I said, I think they do have their place,) but there should be 7 out of 8 that are manned checkouts!

I worked in retail for years and had to do all the daft greeting, upselling etc. However i don't think that the customer should put up with crap from Aldi etc. We are paying for a service and having to put big shops through self-service tills with insufficient staff is not acceptable. Some of the PPs make it sound like supermarkets are doing us a huge favour we should be grateful for.

And saying we shouldn't complain because minimum wage staff will get told off is wrong. It just means that we are supporting Aldi and co.s poor treatment if staff and customers. Agree that complaints should go to managers/ Head Office though.

Is this a joke or just the result of skipping reading comprehension in school?

Jesus read the room.

My worst nightmare is walking into the shop with my trolley, go around and place all items from the shelf into the trolley, then wait in a queue for a number of people to get their shopping scanned by the staff, then unload said items and place them onto the belt, wait for someone to scan them and then place them in the trolley again while being rushed to pack them. It makes no sense. I much prefer to scan each item as I go, place it into the bag in the trolley, pay at the end and get out. Much quicker and less hassle. You can’t pay me enough these days to go through the staffed tills again.

^ Well, I rammed the trolley into him and he fell on the floor 😅^

Is this a joke or did you actually do this OP?

If you did I don't care how insistent and rude he was, you assaulted a shop worker, and you've lost your moral high ground entirely!

This is me at Sainsbury’s. I refuse to use the self check outs. If there are no manned tills available, I will ask for one to be opened. Sainsbury’s, and all the other big supermarkets, make enough profits for themselves, and their shareholders, and I spend a shed load of money in these shops every week, and yet they expect me to scan my own groceries so that they can save more in profits? No thank you.

I stopped using my local Lidl after they went on and on to an angry point about using the self checkout.

it shouldn’t matter my reasons (hands don’t work in the cold) if I don’t want to use it I shouldn’t have to.
I also had a £50 note. So enjoyed producing that after he’d forced me to use it

Instead of whining on MN or to the staff who are told to encourage the self service tills, please complain to the Head Offices of these companies.

People think a staff member offering to help you scan your shopping is harassment now?

Because there's not enough space to put your stuff.

There's a camera in your face filming you.

There's always some kind of error message or the touch screen isn't working in a certain place.

You get stared at like you're a thief by the person standing there, or you can't get anyone around at all to fix the so-called error.

There are never any bags or your partner puts the first damn item down before you've put the bag down so then you're stuck having to balance everything on the tiny checkout area and then have to pack it all again.

The checkouts in our Sainsbury's aren't labelled in any sensible way, it has 2 entrances/exits, people queue at both ends and clash in the middle both going for the same one, you don't know which side to put your basket because it's not labelled, and the card only checkouts aren't labelled as such which then causes more problems with the queuing. There's always someone with a trolley stopping everyone getting past, and there are the people who stare intently at the screen for five minutes after every button press so it takes 10x longer than a speedy cashier scanning things through and forcing them to keep up.

You were right. I always want to complain in almost any supermarket about the lack of open tills. It's just really poor customer service

No because we usually only go in the evening when my partner finishes work and has the car so there was no store manager on duty.
It might be worth finding out her name and going during the day and complaining.

We asked her name as she didn’t have a badge on and I wanted it to put in my complaint via email, she just said it wasn’t relevant. I wrote a factual email stating what had happened and gave a description of the staff member, it would have been easy to identify her as she wasn’t English.

I would like to take it further because it’s made life difficult not being able to go when all the other supermarkets shut early. I’ll give it a try, thank you!

DD18 has a weekend job in a shop and they are told by management they should push customers to use the self-check out.

She'll ask them politely if they would like to use it and then offer to help them use it if they are unsure.

That's resulted in a few arsey "No, I want you to do it (at the regular till) because that's what you're paid to do."

Sounds like this guy went too far pushing you to self- check out but sometimes the staff are only doing what they're told.

I have had this in shops, I just politely say no thanks. Though DH if no till is open goes to self service, calls the assistant over and then tells them he is not going to use this and they just put all the stuff through for him like at the till.

Have you complained to the store manager about being harassed? Maybe ask the woman doing this to get her manager every time. She will eventually get the message.

That has nothing to do with people leaving their shopping behind. Most people like self scan. I know I do. I don't want to queue and have to speak to the staff I don't see it as a social event. I want to get my shopping and be in and out

You do realise that layers of management above them run businesses and decide systems and how they can be efficiently run? You do realise that business decisions are taken and strategies determined on the back of how customers behave? You do realise that if customers are not participating in self check out, and the bottom line of companies is affected, that companies will amend policies to increase their profit margin?

Can’t you see the difference between a scanning and packing away a trolley full of stuff and a single ATM transaction?

A few months ago using a self scan with scan and go in my local Asda I got a quality check and a 95p item hadn’t scanned properly, it hadn’t registered on the scales as it was too light. It was a big shop over £80 and I’d think common sense would show it was obviously a mistake that there was only one cheap, light unscanned item.
The staff member doing the check made it into a huge issue and basically acted like I was a shoplifter.

The next time I went in when she was working I didn’t get an automatic quality check that showed on the scanner but she said there had been problems with the tills and had to check my shopping, she seemed almost disappointed that everything had been scanned. I was going to email and complain to Asda but in the end just thought she’s only doing her job.

I stopped using scan and go after that but in the evening when I shop there are only self checkouts open and every time she was working she was hovering around me, DP once said loudly “I wish that stupid woman would stop staring at us and do some work!” But she still stood watching us like we were criminals.

A few weeks ago she struck again, I go shopping late on as DP finishes work in the evening and has the car for work, there are usually lots of reduced items and on this occasion we decided to use scan and go again as we wanted to add it up as we went along because we were trying to stick to a budget. There were about 15 things in our trolley that were reduced. Again no quality check showed on the scanner but same woman rushed over and told me she had to check my trolley and do a full rescan and put it through the checkout. I wish I’d walked out but we really needed the shopping and it was decent stuff that was marked down.
At the end the total on my scanner was £74 but when she put it through the checkout it was £89, the manager gets called over and I get a lecture about how bad it is to shop lift and the impact it has on the store and other shoppers. The staff member said she needed to speak to the manager about involving the police. I was mystified as I’d made sure everything had scanned properly and counted items in my trolley and matched them to the total on the scanner.
The manager realised that the reduced items had scanned on the scanner but not added to the total of the shopping and explained to this staff member that I had indeed scanned everything but it was a fault on their end. I got no apology and other customers were staring at me and DP having our shopping checked by the manager with other staff all standing round us watching.

I was so embarrassed and humiliated and was almost in tears, DP was angry but just trying to pack it up quickly and get out.

I emailed ASDA but got no apology and just told that staff have to do quality checks in case of shoplifting or people “making errors whilst using self scan”
With the amount of staff that were standing watching that night and the manager involved surely one of them could operate a till?

I avoided going back but as it’s the only late opening supermarket and I needed to use the pharmacy one evening we went back, I thought we’d be left alone after what happened but same staff member homed in on us, we just left the trolley and walked out and haven’t been back.

This is why lots of people hate to use the self scan, as a pp said you watched and treated like a shoplifter even if you are just trying to scan your shopping, you often need approval anyway or coupons validated or something is too light. If they are that concerned about shop lifters that they have several staff standing round watching then why can’t those staff jump on a till?
Its put me off using any self checkout now and all for a genuine mistake and a technical fault that wasn’t down to me.

I recently went to Aldi with a full trolley and there was no one on the tills and just self checkout open, I asked if I someone could jump on a checkout and they were more then happy to open one up. I had nothing against a self checkout before but I doubt I’ll use one again now after what happened in ASDA.

He's probably not use to people saying no so pushed back. I think it was reasonable for him to say he would assist you. But once you said no thank you he should have politely moved away.

My preference is for self-checkouts, I love them! But this staff member should have taken your first answer of 'no, thanks'. Although I wouldn't go to a manned till I believe that there should be a choice and that some customers genuinely need these tills, disability, someone needing social interaction due to loneliness, stressed out and finds it easier, etc.

I go to Asda for my shopping in the morning about 7-7.30 am and there are no manned tills available at those times. 4 trolley and 10 basket self-checkouts. I often see people looking annoyed with their trolley full of food when they realise they have to use the self-checkouts. Normally the member of staff can't stay with them to put it through for them because they're covering all of self-checkouts. Busier times they usually have two staff members there.

You do understand the people in stores aren't the ones who make these decisions right. So leaving half your shopping behind will make no difference apart from meaning even less staff at checkouts and self scan to help customers

I feel that when they make you use self checkout you should immediately change your mind about 50% of the items and leave them on the side. If enough people did this, they would it out.

Also if they are going to insist on self checkouts I want a discount on my shopping.