To too quickly lose my rag with self-service check outs?

[Liltzero]

Just had a nasty run in with the self service check outs in the Sainsburys Local. Damn thing kept complaining about "unexpected items in the bagging area"

Nobody around to help and the one lady serving at the proper till just suggesting to the long queue that they use the self service tills!

I still think that most people would prefer to be served quickly by a human being, so to my mind this proliferation of Self service tills shows a disregard of customer service in favour of increased profits by the shops, grrrrrr

For example there is always a long queue for the served tills in WHSmith whilst a poor shop assistant attempts to encourage the queuers to use the self service tills. Nobody shifts,

Rant over.....

I don't mind using them, I just hate waiting and watching other people use them. Pissing about, putting their handbags on the weigh scale bits so all the klaxons go off, generally taking an ice age to scan etc.
What seriously fucks me off though are the ones that at the end look surprised when the machine asks for money and than spend another age dicking around for their purses.... Stabby, stabby, stab stab (and breathe...)

I buy lots of bags of parsley (not that I'm a parsley addict but my guinea-pigs trough it).
So a bag of parsley weighs zilch, and the blardy 'bagging area' doesn't register it .
After the third bag, I'm

Does anybody know if they are, in fact, quicker overall? I have this feeling with all the 'unexpected items' and 'clearance needed' messages requiring intervention from one stressed and stretched shop personel, that actually they are slower.

I had hysterics once, bawled Shut UP! at the machine, paid and flounced, only to get home and find I had walked off with a joint of beef. It was reduced so it didn't go through.

I only felt a bit guilty. Am licking my lips even now.

YANBU
I have been known to swear, gather up my stuff and go and pay at a staffed till.

Apart from anything else my local Tesco's have really nice efficient staff, who chat when you have time and pack really well when you are in a hurry. I have no wish to see them replaced by a machine.

Automatic tills can't put fridge stuff in one bag and heavy stuff in another, so they are worse than useless if you have more than 4 things and if you try to be green and use your own bags they go nuts!

I lost my rag at the self service at Tesco's the other day . I was already so annoyed about a number of other issues and it was the final straw. I ended up slamming down a cut price swede and vowing to the checkout girl never to shop there again.

Oh and they indulge my anti social DH.

They age check you for buying alcohol-free beer . Or teaspoons

I'm just annoyed at supermarkets' greed! FGS Sainsbury's are mega-profitable, not a basic value store, so they should NOT cut the tills as much as this - in ours there is now a queue to the self service due to such a few normal ones (it's a good size store, and only 3-4 manned tills), while also a queue to the few served tills - nobody's happy!
I dont get it also, why employ several peole to stand around and help the self-service queue by directing them to a free till (we are not blind!) and then also assisting with alcohol purchases and the silly stuff like 'unexpected items', when the same people could man the till!
There should be a few self service, but back to usual numbers of manned tills especially in rush hour!
AINBU!

I love them.

I've just done a full small trolley of shopping in under 3 minutes in a valiant and successful attempt to catch the bus while wrestling DS.

If they use it as an Olympic sport, then I'm a shoe-in for the gold medal

I love them.

DS helps rather than tantrumming loudly and running off, when he was a baby I could zip through before he realised the pushchair had stopped moving. And I don't have to talk to people. Plus I love the beeps, very satisfying.

I love the scan and shop thingies more, it keeps the kids and me happy around the shop as they have a job and I can take time to pack the bags exactly to my satisfaction as I go. Rather than queuing, unpacking the whole trolley slowly, then packing in a rush. At the till just shove the thingy in the rack and pay. I also like the fact I can check the price of the ham or whatever instantly on the scanner and can compare it to the shelf there and then.

I hate them, too - and get extremely irritated at my Sainsbury Local where there will be a queue at the tobacco check out, no belts running, and a random assistant standing watching the self service tills (where there are no customers) and they won't open up a belt without calling for another assistant, if you see what I mean.

As an oldie, too, I get incensed when the staff say to me in a gentle, she's an idiot tone, "they are not really difficult to use!". That's when I snap, "I might be old but I am not a technophobe, I just want someone to serve me, you know - to at least justify the money I am spending in here!"

Unless I have a huge amount then I always use them and rarely have a problem.

I find them preferable for:
a) getting rid of lots of small change - much more inclined to stand there stuffing in pennies then I would be if it was a real person

b) conversely for breaking big notes up in to £1 coins. Once a week I need to end up with cash amounts to give out of £12, £12.50 and £14. When I go to the cash point it always gives me £20 so I then take myself off to Tescos where I buy 2 or 3 small items < £1 each which I scan and pay for individually so I end up with the right combination of £10s and £1s. (Sorry if you are behind me in the queue)

yes, I use them too, but the supermarkets should give people proper choice, sometimes you aer just tired to do it all yourself if you have a lot of items (after a long day) plus the queuing to these is very slow at rush hour when there aer not enough manned tills, they move slow when people deal with all the pesky problems. In non rush-hour, and with fewer items, of course they are conevenient.
The point is service has always been included in the price of products when they are not low-value places - it's just dishonest of Sainsbury's, as they haven't lowered the prices due to self service. There should be a choice of having a good number of manned tills.

exactly NUF, cross post!
I just want someone to serve me, you know - to at least justify the money I am spending in here!

Whenever I am pointed in the direction of the self service till by a staff member, I say I'll use it if they give my 10% off my shopping for saving the company money....

YA So NBU.

I have such a deep hatred for them from the UK but can you imagine I'm sometimes forced to use them and they speak a foreign language to me - say the same but in Polish. I often get an overwhelming urge to just kung-fu kick the twatting things. They're really not good for my health, as soon as I join the queue I can feel my blood pressure rise.

Yes me too. They make me feel old and grumbly and they always show up an error, particularly at Morrisons.

It's a bit like at the airport when I travel with work. It's 6am in the blinkin morning, there are two airline assistants standing there, I do not want to start rummaging in my bag for my glasses and credit card reference details, I just want to hand my paperwork over to a human being to print a boarding card out for me.

They can be irritating, buts whats more irritating is your 70 year old techno phobic mother using them, who keeps forgetting to put the item she just scanned in the bag, removing bags from the weigh scale before shes finished and then removing them after its asked her to pay but before she has. I,m still traumatised...

I think they're convenient for speed but I worry about all the people who've lost ther jobs or had their hours cut because of them.

The rare times I have problems with one at the Co-Op where I live is fine as there's always a supervisor close by watching us all like a hawk - I live in south east London, you see

I hate them with a passion they just make me

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