Does anyone else feel insulted by the Tesco self service machines?

[Hamsterrace]

Whenever I but a bottle of wine, which happens often, a Tesco worker has to come over and press a button that says 'This customer is CLEARLY over 25'. Why so passive aggressive? Why not 'no id required from customer'. I know I look like a bag of shit buying my wine and crisps after a long week, the last thing I need is a dig from a computer that can't even weigh pick and mix properly.

Could you get the thread title amended, op? Get a TW for subtle, self deprecating humour, maybe?

I hate the wording of it, but it's because it's a legal requirement, since becoming part of "challenge 25", that the colleague assessing your age has made the assumption that you are "CLEARLY over 25", they are literally logging in and electronically signing, to say that they deem you over that age. If it simply said "no i.d required" and the customer was in fact 23/24, it could cause issues with confusion over the wording, the colleague needs to actually see that wording in front of them, incase it was found that the customer fell into the "test purchase" category, which Tesco need to pass to keep their store alcohol licence. Tesco regularly get test purchasers in, who are paid to attempt to buy restricted items between the ages of 18-24, and if they do not i.d them, they would get in huge amounts of trouble. So the wording is purely a reminder and prompt to the staff to ensure they carry out their age assesment prior to authorising the sale. Also, if an employee sold alcohol to someone under the age of 18, Tesco would get a substantial fine, the colleague would also get a fine, and lose their job, and the store would potentially lose their alcohol licence, which is why the challenge 25 was brought in, to prevent underage sales ever happening. It has to be very strict, and the colleagues don't enjoy i.d-ing people who are clearly over 18, but have to i.d anyone who isn't clearly over 25, or risk their job, a fine, and the stores licence and reputation. What I hate, is the customers who moan and grumble, and sometimes get aggressive and abusive towards staff when they get asked for i.d and don't have it on them. "I'M 22/23/24 FOR FUCKS SAKE" is a common one, and I tell my staff to answer politely with, "I'm glad I asked you for i.d then, as it shows I'm assessing your age correctly, and I need to see it if you're under 25."

But you need to be CLEARLY over the age of 25! It's not insulting, it's just a fact!

That’s as maybe, but there’s no need for the accompanying sneer and eye roll!

Couldn't get worked up about this tbh, think it is a good system to ensure you asters are not buying things they shouldn't....
However, I am irritated that self serve tills are even a thing, hideous invention that never works properly or scans everything anyway, systems of torture that seem such a horrid and inhuman process. Hate them

But yeah, I do need to add, aside from the legal protection the machines offer Tesco, they are utter bastards, and even when used correctly by staff scanning their shopping at the end of their shifts, start spouting out the usual bat shit "unexpected item in the bagging area, please remove this item" and similar whiney shite when they've done nothing wrong. Sometimes it's user error, but mainly it's just the machines being complete twats. We have one that starts shouting "sorry there is a problem with the scale" and when you attempt to reset the scale it starts stuttering "SORRY... SORR... SO....SORRY... SORRY..SO..SO..SO..SORRRRRRY...SOR...SORR..SO..SO...SORRYYYY" everyone stops and stares at it and it's highly amusing. Sounds like it's about to break into some fuck awful techno remix.

I assume you forgot to write 'light-hearted' in the title? 😂

My favourite experience was during mask wearing where I had to remove it to check. The mask has barely made it past my nose when the attendant went 'fine!'

😂

I think the machine is insulting the worker - along the lines of "you've been caught selling alcohol to minors you fucking muppet, are you really sure this person is an adult?"

This thread is hilarious 😂Cashier looking and sneering before confirming over 25 is brilliant.

I wish self checkouts asked me to step on the scale before I stock up on chocolates again 🙄Or maybe a welcome message "YOU again?"

😂

I know what you mean.When I buy wine and the supermarket employee has to come over to approve it I hope that they'll look at me and be unsure but no they just confidently press the over 25 button.

I'm 43 on Sunday I really need to be realistic here

The m&s ones have started saying ‘THIS PAYMENT HAS NOT BEEN PROCESS…yet! ‘ which is usually not in sync with the card machine.
It throws me and makes me feel like my card is being loudly declined, by a gobby computer.
(it’s actually pointless and confusing , sort it out m&s).

It's a shame we haven't some kind of ID card or something that we could tap ourselves , although I know this wouldn't work at all for all manner of reasons to be fair ! .. they obviously need to double check that people underage are not flouting the system etc.
I use the self scanners sometimes in the bigger stores and maybe my own club card could have an extra facility on it to prove I'm over 21 ?
Although , again, it's hard to 'police ' and things could be stolen to use by someone under age.
They also do random checks too, so at least it's keeping people in jobs I guess. Which is why I always feel guilty for using the self scanners.
It's still faster than queuing at the tills even after waiting for a check by an assistant , but it has also led to less jobs for people as well :(

It's a shame we haven't some kind of ID card or something that we could tap ourselves , although I know this wouldn't work at all for all manner of reasons to be fair !

They could make it work with facial recognition software I reckon, if you were willing to let them store your image in their database

My chip and pin card has been rejected a few times , for tiny amounts too. They say it's a bank check ! It's not a problem putting it in the machine, but it does hold things up

I've noticed that too

I always struggle with the bio metric machines at the airports. I noticed that Asda have mirrors at the self check out. I gave it a wave
I suppose it will be the next step though, having facial recognition everywhere

No way would I would Tesco using that on me, storing my image in their database so I can do some shopping, completely disproportionate!

same here!

To be fair to those taking the thread seriously, people definitely do get genuinely angry and irate at anything to do with being ID'd for anything that's age restricted and very judgemental about the poor sods that have to do it, on behalf of the machines or just with a normal transaction or whether they ID or not, deciding they are power hungry and dead set on insulting and pissing everyone off instead of just doing their jobs.

I wouldn't be surprised if someone genuinely complained about it because people seem to seize any opportunity at the moment for a good old moan and to feel like they've been treated badly by customer service workers, because it seems almost fashionable at the moment to be a 'victim' of poor customer service and for it to have ruined your day/week/life and be the end of the world.

@CandleInTheStorm a challenge policy is a mandatory condition of an alcohol licence, they get to choose which policy they use but they have to have one and show they use it to get and keep a licence. Challenge 21/25 is considered best practice so the ones most places go for. Those granting alcohol licences or checking them aren't interested in customer service.

You obviously don't buy enough booze @Goldenbear

All the stores already hold a lot of information on us via loyalty cards. If you don't have one for tesco ( for one example ) you pay more , so they have us 'over a barrel ' as they say.
Unless you only use cash or shop at different independent shops or farmers markets etc ( as my parents did ) you are ' followed' every where
There are ways around it , but it's hard to do for the average person who wants to shop in one place with ( mostly ) free parking and the convenience they have brought to a weekly shop. My late dad used to say we had all sleep walked into this corporate capitalist world and maybe he did have a point.

It wouldn’t shock me if your face was already image captured when you pay at the till and linked to your card. (You wouldn’t even have to have a clubcard, just your payment card could be linked to your biometric ID.) I am not saying that this happens already, just that it wouldn’t shock me if it is happening already.

Don’t think they would be able to do that without getting your consent, but could see how it could be sold as saving the bother of carrying a card to get your consent.

At the checkout I was at recently there was my image on a camera. There was a little sign notifying me that filming was happening. It would be technically possible (fairly easily) to link that image with my card number. I would only have to visit a couple of times (even only once) for a reasonably accurate biometric ID to be built up.

If the images are linked to the card numbers within the walled garden of Tesco I do not see how one could prevent this from happening. How would anyone even know it was being done? If Tesco sold the data on that’s possibly more dubious but if consent is required there is likely implicit consent in using the self checkout tills with filming on them (would be my assumption, I might be wrong).

yy RE it being sold for this purpose, not long off now - or just used by Tesco to track you moving round the store, how you browse goods and choose things, that sort of thing. I would be surprised in a way if this wasn’t already being done in some form, either video and facial recognition or mobile phone movement/proximity data.

I’m just thinking out loud, don’t want to make anyone paranoid. (But probably have. Sorry. This thread was quite funny before I said that.)

@erinaceus.
They wouldn’t be able to take that information for processing without your consent, there is a chance they have obtained it somewhere in the club card usage small print already, but they couldn’t realistically use it to link you to shoplifting, or sell that data on to third parties without getting into trouble.
However, the introduction of significant price differences offered to club card users, might persuade customers to unknowingly give their consent, which makes me wonder if that is the longer term rationale of offering the big price differences.