WIBU to dump my shopping and walk out of Asda?

[wannabetennisplayer]

Today I went to Asda for a shop - running later than planned due to a bus not turning up (which admittedly I can't blame Asda for!) - but still with enough time to do a shop. Long queues at the checkout. I am directed to a self-service till which turns out to be even more temperamental than usual (even if you remove all the scanned items, apparently thin air is an "unexpected item in bagging area") so I have to call for help a few times - and, as usual, there are only one or two poor sods on self-service till duty running around like blue-arsed
flies - and on one of the occasions my till was playing up there were no staff anywhere in the self-service till area (which I would estimate has about 20 - 24 tills) for several minutes. Not blaming them as it is obviously the supermarket who understaffs the tills.

Once I've scanned my items, I try to pay with my card but it doesn't seem to be working. One of the members of staff comes over and tries it a couple of times and then says 'oh, yeah, I think the card reader wasn't working on this one'. Now, if at this point, he had said 'this is the start of a long process to make a card payment', I would have asked him to cancel a couple of items off the bill and just bought what I had the cash for but, he just said 'come with me to make the payment'.

He takes me to the customer service point (again with a long queue) and gives a print out from the self-service till to the woman at the counter. I ask if I'll be expected to queue up again and/or everything will need to be scanned again and he says 'no, just wait next to the counter and she'll take the payment after she's finished dealing with the current customer - and it doesn't need to be scanned again as she's got this slip.' He leaves and then the customer service woman tells me to get to the back of the queue. I explain the situation and that I have already queued up etc but she says that I have to go to the back of the queue. As it's the customer service point, everyone is complaining about faulty electrical items, wanting to exchange items etc so none of them are going to be quick transactions.

As time is ticking on, my options are either to continue to wait in this queue and not make a gym class that I intended to attend later that day or to give up on the shopping - so in the end I emptied the shopping on the customer service counter, told the member of staff that I didn't have time and walked out. Slightly more dramatic than I intended but the bags were mine so I had to empty the contents onto the counter if I was going to leave!

What would you have done?

I hate the unpredictability. Will it work? If not, how long will it be before someone comes to help you?
At least with queuing in a normal queue for a checkout you know roughly how long it will be till you get served.

I'd have left my shopping too. The customer service lady was very rude. You'd been brought over by a colleague and of course should have been dealt with ahead of the queue. But as someone else pointed out, she probably didn't have to put the stuff back on the shelves.

I'd email and complain as well.

Unless I have 5 items or less I refuse to use the self service tills. Very rare that you actually save any time. They are the work of the devil. YANBU

Well, you kind of cut off your nose to spite your face there, didn't you? You've wasted half the morning and still have no shopping. I get you were frustrated but I think you let your anger get the better of you.

For the record the introvert in me likes self service tills. Not needing to interact with anyone else or make small talk with the cashier suits me fine!

YANBU.

For my own tale of supermarket woe, it was Morrisons, 6 weeks post c-section and the first time I attempted a shop on my own with DD in tow.

Put everything onto the conveyor (slowly - still sore from the section!) when the grumpy sod on the till told me he was closing, and I had to move everything to the next till. I asked couldn't he serve me, as it was all unloaded; he said no.

Even more slowly put everything back into the trolley, and moved to the next till, where I unloaded it again. He smirked across - "sorry love, only joking - bring it back and I'll serve you here."

I did not think it was funny. (I complained, and the manager was horrified.)

Murloc

He was lucky not to get a tin across the nose!

Murloc

All I could think was "don't lose it, don't lose it" - I was so frustrated by his smug face.

That's really nasty behavior Murloc what an absolute bastard. He must have been able to see you were struggling and with a tiny baby in tow! What a complete cunt.

I like self service as I struggle with people.

I refuse to shop at Asda though after my front door key fell into a slot on their Asda operated key cut machine and instead of clipping the side off as I found out later the woman had been trained to do or ringing their advice line the woman staff member who was due on her break told me there was nothing she could do and i would just have to wait until the engineers did a routine yearly check to get it back , wouldn't give me helpline number to sort myself and escorted me and my child from the store when I refused to leave leaving me locked out of my house on a Sunday afternoon with the dog locked in the house.

the big retailers do not want to pay staff or their pensions or anything, they want us to do it all ourselves. I wouldn't be surprised if they say one day 'heres a discount if you go out the back to the warehouse and put it on the shelf yourself, ready to buy'. there is a lack of staff everywhere and its is so annoying and frustrating and little anyone can do about it. I feel your pain, you needed the food and there was the usual breakdown in communication! all because of lack of any staff or proper tills that work or any money actually for the store to run properly - not just to make the wanker shareholders more money.
its the same when you phone up anyone, a long list of what to press, then more lists , all I want to do is fucking TALK TO SOMEONE ABOUT MY PROBLEM.. ( off topic sorry)