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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to be driven almost to the point of violence by self-serve machines in supermarkets?

175 replies

quesadilla · 14/05/2013 16:25

They've been around long enough now that you'd think the manufacturers could have ironed out some of the teething problems. But they just seem to be so pedantic about stuff that really doesn't matter.
Why the frick does it matter if there's an unexpected item in the bagging area? Its not a security risk? Why can't I, once I've scanned the fecker, just put my newspaper and my croissant into my own bag without having to put it the sodding bagging area without the entire thing melting down? Why do I need authorization to buy a single can of lager when I'm old enough to be the grandmother of most of the employees in the shop?
These supermarkets bleat on about a) customer services and b) cutting operating costs. And yet these things make life infinitely more complicated and drive people like me to the point where I have to be restrained from taking a hammer to them.

OP posts:
snufflepops · 14/05/2013 23:39

I really hate going to a supermarket when it should not be busy - say 3pm and having to use them.

With the level of unemployment and the huge mark ups in supermarkets I at least want to think the high price of goods might actually go some way to employing someone?

It drives me nuts I'd much rather speak to a real person.

idiuntno57 · 14/05/2013 23:48

on the plus side I fed one about £1.50 in 2p's the other day and it didn't moan until I put an unexpected item in the bagging area

StuntGirl · 14/05/2013 23:50

Why oh why do people think shop assistants/front line retail staff have any power in these matters? YOU the customers have the power!

It's less than useless for staff to tell the company customers are complaining. Because you're still coming back, you're still spending your money there and that's all that matters.

If you dislike something about a company you have to complain! As loudly and as high up as you can. Companies don't listen to their staff on customer service issues, but they are forced to listen when large numbers of customers speak.

Lazyjaney · 14/05/2013 23:54

"It's less than useless for staff to tell the company customers are complaining. Because you're still coming back, you're still spending your money there and that's all that matters"

That's it exactly. They do listen to social media increasingly though, but as they are all at this it's hard to switch shops

Monty27 · 14/05/2013 23:54

Snuffle I avoid 3pm, it's the school run round here Grin

Mimishimi · 15/05/2013 08:06

I like them. Blush I like that I usually don't have to wait too long until I can check out and leave. However, I have seen a couple of instances of fraud where someone ( or in one case a couple that I actually saw but didn't realise what they were doing) has checked in all their things and then simply walked off with the bags but without paying. Not quite sure how it works but scanning the barcode must deactivate something that would normally set the security alarm off at the gates. Both times, they waited until the supervising staff member was called elsewhere for a minute or two.

Original poster
quesadilla · 15/05/2013 08:28

What Lazyjaney said. I understand the princi

OP posts:
Original poster
quesadilla · 15/05/2013 08:29

Whoops! I understand the principle of customer power but where are you supposed to go? They all have them...

OP posts:
alienbanana · 15/05/2013 08:31

I'm with notso - aside from the co-op ones that just seem to crash all the time, I think they're great.

I don't put stuff in bags in the bagging area though - just stack it all up so the scales don't get confused, then quickly shove in a bag once I've paid.

LRDtheFeministDragon · 15/05/2013 08:47

notso - you failed to read the bit where it's been explained that no, people don't always get the choice to queue. Kinda important when you're suggesting people can just not use them.

And no, you didn't need to give your life story.

You saying everyone can just queue is not 'disagreement', it's just ignorance/telling everyone else they're lying. Or, possibly, not reading the thread?

Crinkle77 · 15/05/2013 09:55

I hate them and only use them if the queues for the other checkouts are busy. It is very rare that you ever get through them without having to call the assistant over. If I go shopping with my mum she insists that we use them as she reckons they are quicker. She will even use them for a trolley load of stuff. So frustrating as they keep getting stuck especially when you have a big load but she just won't have it that they take longer.

Dubjackeen · 15/05/2013 09:58

Until I read this thread I never knew that other people talk back to the machines. I do that, particularly when they act up Blush. I mutter under my breath STFU when I hear that voice telling me something repeatedly. Unexpected item etc.. Mind you, I prefer them to dealing with staff in one particularly well known chain.

kungfupannda · 15/05/2013 11:06

Our local co-op has ones which announce out loud what you are scanning and the price!

It's a bit public!

quoteunquote · 15/05/2013 12:27

I have a flow chart for using self-services machines,

Does everyone in the UK who wants a job, have one?

Yes - Go to self-service machine
No - Go to manned check out

5Foot5 · 15/05/2013 12:46

Truly astonished about how many people seem to dislike or struggle with these. I am with MadBusLady on this. They really aren't so hard to use and I generally have no trouble and tend to prefer them especially for smaller numbers of items.

Two reasons whyI think they are particularly good:

  1. If I have lots of small change in my purse I find it easier to stand there working my way through all the 1p, 2p, 5p etc until I have got rid of them than I would if it was a person.

  2. At least once a week I need to ensure I have 3 x £10 notes plus £8 in £1 or £2 coins. When I go to the cash point I nearly always end up with £20 notes. In a quick trip to Tescos I can buy 2 or 3 small items and pay for each one individually at the self service checkout with a £20 and then come away with lots of lovely smaller notes and coins!

We have them at the library too and it really has cut down the queues.

Oh and quoteunquote - where do you stop with that analogy. Would you refuse to use a cashpoint and insist on only getting cash when you can go in to the bank and use a teller? Do you refuse to buy petrol from an unmanned pump?

bedmonster · 15/05/2013 12:54

I love them. What I hate is the absolute twits who can't work out SCAN, BAG. SCAN, BAG. SCAN, BAG.
Seriously, you do it one item at a time, get on with it and leave. If you can't work them out, do your bloody shopping elsewhere and stop holding up people that can use them (sits back and waits for the hordes of people who claim they can't shop anywhere else, their local supermarket ONLY has these checkout options, they are forced at gunpoint to use them yadda yadda yadda).

melika · 15/05/2013 13:01

I hate them! I follow the instruction to the letter, but something always upsets it. I vow never to use them ever again. I always feel like a thief when it goes wrong too.

NUFC69 · 15/05/2013 15:20

I don't use them, either, as I would prefer to employ more people and I know that the supermarkets make huge profits. What really irritates me, though, is the patronising "oh, it's quite easy to do it," when I refuse to use them - am quite convinced it is because I am over 60. My local Sainsbury Local has two self-service machines, two belts and one "basket" till where you buy cigarettes, etc. It infuriates me that the only one that is open is the basket till, and there is one lady standing watching the two self-service tills. If I have a trolley full of stuff I need a belt till and I always have to ask them to open one up.

quoteunquote · 15/05/2013 19:00

Would you refuse to use a cashpoint and insist on only getting cash when you can go in to the bank and use a teller?

If I'm at a bank that is open, I go in, of course I use cashpoints, but if a bank I have an account with is open, I go in, fairly sensible given how many cash points have scanners attached .

Do you refuse to buy petrol from an unmanned pump?

I always go in to pay if there is that option, not found a petrol station that hasn't got a cashier yet.

if there is a choice, I will always take the one that creates jobs, I know too many families desperate for a job, any job, so in fairness to all those out there who want work, I try to always make sure jobs are not eroded, as living in a community where some people are in despair is not nice, I do not know of any communities in the UK, that have full employment.

Decoy · 15/05/2013 19:13

You sound nice and tolerant bedmonster Grin

Sparkley84 · 15/05/2013 19:39

Morrisons ones are the worst: "please put the item in the bag"

Also I hate that it says 'approval needed' when you scan a pack of paracetamol!! Madness!! Surely it should let you buy two packets without flagging up a warning!

topbannana · 15/05/2013 19:50

I like them :)
I use the ones in our Little Waitrose all the time as there is never a queue. There are no scales to get irritated at me as we are presumably a most trustworthy band of shoppers :o
Conversely DH, who is usually a mild mannered man gets the rage with them as if you take too long between items the voice chides you to hurry up. A personal high point of my life was wandering up behind him as he scanned to hear him muttering "you'll be fucking old one day!" :o

Decoy · 15/05/2013 20:06

the patronising "oh, it's quite easy to do it," when I refuse to use them - am quite convinced it is because I am over 60

Next time, say "yes, they're too easy so I don't use them" Grin

bedmonster · 15/05/2013 20:06

Oh very much so, Decoy Grin

wheredidiputit · 15/05/2013 20:06

I hate them. They hate me as do most things electronic Grin.

I even stopped using my local library and go to the main one as the local ones have then same sort of thing where you put your books in and it's supposed to read what you have but I always have to shuffle through them to get them reconnise which books I have.

I go to one where they have people.