Why can't I work M&S self service tills?

[Atre]

Everywhere else is fine - up to a point; obviously there's the errors in bagging area and all that shit. But with M&S it takes me ages just to get the bastard thing to scan a code at all. There's only six actual tills in ours now so didn't have much choice but to do self service and honestly it took forever, stood like a twat waving my bloody manchego at the stupid fucking red light. What am I doing wrong?

They are the worst of all the shops, take so long to register the item. Still a lot easier than scanning as you shop though, that’s the worst system, lots of people clogging up the aisles while they try and find the barcode on their items whilst balancing bags etc too.

I literally HATE all this self scanning. I feel like a complete mug saving them money on staff and doing the job of an employee! I honestly wish I could spring back to the 80s/90s, everything seemed so much easier!

I found this yesterday, I only used them because I had a basket and the queues were huge, I think DH thought I was a bit slow and doddery but it was the scanner which was rubbish.

Use their scan and shop and skip the till!!

Of your shopping is under £45 (?) you juts Apple Pay it and bypass the checkout. If mover you scan the QR code on the self checkout but no scanning items awkwardly- my phone picked them up easily

I have a row with it every time and I can NEVER get my sparks card to scan which really pisses me off. I try to avoid but they have about 30 at my M &S and very few tills.

Can I add the ones at Sainsbury's local which have a very very small weighing point so you can only use them if you have two or three items. Our local has got rid of three of the bigger ones for these and nobody ever uses them because they are shit.

I detest them. Unless I’m buying one or 2 items, I’d rather queue at the till.

My M&S is chaos at the self-serve tills. There’s no bloody room, for one thing. And there’s always 2 or 3 people standing looking hopeless needing assistance.

You should see me trying to scan my sparks card on my phone! I’m alright with the food items, just not the blinking Sparks scanning! My husband tells me off for holding it too close, and for waving it around like my life depended on it 😁.

I was finding the new ones (with the ridiculously low basket shelf that knackers my already dodgy back) really unresponsive, this afternoon, until I twigged that they beeped at the point that I pulled the product away. Still slow and annoying but at least I wasn't standing waiting for things to happen, each time.

It somehow beeped immediately at my sparks card, though, which took me by surprise as it's rather worn out and difficult to scan with the manned checkout scanners. It also took me by surprise because the older card only ones in a different store don't beep when I scan it.

Bar codes aren't always on the bottom, btw. Often they're on the side, which is why people end up hunting for them.

They are rubbish - I just queue at the normal tills now. Though bizarrely the (M&S) ones at the station work fine.

Decathlon self-service tills are fab.

Oh, WHSmith are the absolute worst.

Definitely not the worst. That accolade goes to Morrisons with own brand products with bar codes too big to be recognised by their scanners. If you move them further away, they don't pick it up. I don't go in their very often but left several items behind, last time I did.

They all need to invest in self service tills like the ones in Uniqlo where you ust put your basket in a container and it automatically reads all the barcodes. You pay and then just pack your bag and go.

OMG why can't they all do that?

I can't do scan and shop with a phone because the signal is shit both in the centre of town and in the out of town shopping place round here - most times you can't even get bars on your phone, never mind 4g or wifi. It's like a bloody black hole.

I need to know why you're banned from Tesco 😂

@caggie2 I can go to Tesco, but I’m no longer allowed to use the self service tills. I managed to break (as in needed an engineer) 4 in the space of half an hour one visit. The manager was not happy.

tbf I do have a long history (50odd years) of breaking electronics just by touching them or, being next to them. I broke 2 computers at work just by moving the mouse last month - IT were most perplexed. And those suckers had the screen of darkness dead!

Haha that is an amazing talent. I would pay you to come and stand near every self service till round here so that shops were forced to get rid of the damn things.

What can I say? My ‘talent’ managed to get me out of plenty of stock take audits and very boring training sessions…..

Ah, Morrisons is the one supermarket I never really go to, there isn't one anywhere near here. I'll bear it in mind if I do find myself in one.

“Unexpected knickers in bagging area!” 😂

@PickAChew on the scanner part there is a little pic of a camera. If you press it it makes awkward barcodes easier to scan!

Completely agree on M&S being rubbish for self checkout. Very hard to scan, nowhere to pack. I generally prefer self checkouts as I have a disability and I can scan and pack at my own pace but not there. Unfortunately due to removing tills M&S have neither good self checkouts or enough manned ones.

My local the food bit is in the basement and sparks will not scan.

You can use scan and shop on your phone

It's worse when there's no one to help.

I was in the 6-million-person queue in WH Smith today and bravely used the self-service, which hardly anyone seemed to be using. It all went well and I was congratulating myself on bypassing the Christmas queue when ... yup! "Authorisation Required". As Help was clearly not on the way, despite the claims of the machine, I asked the lady on one of the two manned checkouts. Turns out she has to leave her till, walk round the counter and the queue, and do the card waving and code inputting while the queue grows and grows.

What was I buying that would be so dangerous for anyone who might be under 18?

Crackers.

Been today and scanned my Sparks card and took the gun - did the shopping putting it all in my trolley (yes I am an old lady) then went to SS till, paid without taking it all out and off I went - brilliant.

Oh that's fab I had no idea they had gins in some stores. That makes it even more accessible for people than just a mobile app!