To think that people that use self service tills should

[Charlie97]

A. Not scan, put all there stuff on other side, pay and ONLY then pack

B. Have a speed test, if they can't find bar code within certain amount of seconds, then they are not deemed fit and proper to use self service tills

C. Should not be allowed to let children scan items really slowly, whilst fighting their siblings for whose turn it is

Or should I just use the real person serving aisle?

This is light hearted!

What about ATMs Kim. How terrible not to have to queue in the bank.

I am mostly very good and fast on scanners but you will all hate me for thus. I found a giant bag of copper change at home (about 20 quid worth). Nowhere bloody takes copper except for the scanning machines at supermarkets.

So off I went to Tesco and paid for my purchase verrrrrrry slowly. I could feel the death stares on my back..... In fairness I tried to do it as fast as I could AND I've never done it since

Also think about this: here in Ireland you have to pay for plastic bags so if you forget to bring your own and don't want to pay 22c for one you have to precariously scoop up all your purchases (and DS ) in your arms....

I do A) on the list and I don't care. The fecking machine hates, hates, hates all my own bags, which I bring with me. or the item moves in the bag and the machine starts getting uppity. Supermarket S/Service machines are dreadful things and I use them as infrequently as possible. A triumph of hope over experience every time. (Did Oscar Wilde say that? He wouldn't have used a s/service checkout!!)

I hate them. I don't use them if I'm on my own, I'd rather queue - but my boys are ace on them and just stand me to one side until it's the payment bit (they got to the point where they were so frustrated with my ineptness they couldn't take any more) they are 8 & 11 .

What the hell is an "unexpected item in the bagging area" anyway?

I mean anything which is in the shop can't possibly be unexpected. It always makes me think of things like leprechauns or unicorns.

And as someone else said if you use your own bags it invariably crops up.

That's usually 'Some Numpty has leant/sat on the bagging area' Caitlin. or yes, a Unicorn, Lord Lucan and Shergar all sat there.

I hate them and prefer to use a real person, but DS1 likes using them. Thankfully, only the M&S or Sainsburys ones, which behave fairly well in the branches we use most often. I ended up having to use one in a Waitrose, before Christmas. It was card only. I had about 7 items and only 2 of them scanned properly. Then it crashed before giving me my receipt. The guy attending to the self checkouts spent so much time with me that the regular checkouts would have been quicker, if it wasn't for the enormous queue, half way around the shop.

I am crap at them. I get the "unexpected item in the bagging area" which is usually a bloody birthday card or "please wait for assistance" because I've breathed on the bagging area and sent it into a frenzy.

OH will use them though, he's very good at technology but said it's better if I let the grown ups use them

I do use the hand held zappy scanner thing in waitrose and tesco because it is so much quicker although I am a bit paranoid that I will have forgotten to scan something and get flung in jail for trying to steal a cheese sauce mix!

I like the self-service tills and use them in preference to manned tills, regardless of how much shopping I have. But then I am a competent user and generally refuse to let DS1 near the things, apart from handing me the items to scan. He's not allowed anywhere near the bagging area.

Of our 2 main supermarkets, the Coles ones drive me batty with their inability to cope with some things, and with the fact that once you've removed 3 bags from the weighing plate, it whinges and insists that the person in charge must check you.
But our Woolworths ones can be even more scary - apparently they've removed the weighing ability of the bagging area, to avoid a lot of those issues, but this means that if you accidentally keep your item near the scanner, it will scan multiple times! I nearly paid 4 times for one litre of milk because I didn't realise this at first (until the girl in charge told me why).

I do all those things and I don't give a crap! Hahahahahaha so tough!

I once got in such a tiz at a self service till in Morrisons that I paid for my shopping and then left it sitting there in the bagging area. Got all the way back to the car before I realised. Arse.

I never get cash back from them after I left money in the asda one. Thankfully I'd forgotten something so nipped back to pick something up and went back to the same till. An employee was just getting the money and I realised. Luckily I could find my receipt but they were a bit at first.

Zara8 be careful with the coppers in the till. If you do it too fast the machine has a huge tantrum and spits them all back out at you.

Try having to nip into Tesco at 5am for bits and bobs. (Long story-early cancellation for important hospital scan & app-GM doing emergency looking after of DCs with not a lot in). Ours doesn't have manned staff in the Godforsaken early hours so used self service where I bought DM some earings to say thankyou. Too light too scan and no fucker around to do the staff swipey thing. .