To think they should have apologised for wrongly accusing me of shoplifting?

[Tyzbiscuit]

I was in a well known supermarket today with DP picking up a few things for dinner. I scanned my shopping at the self checkout, paid and printed the receipt (all while being watched by a member of staff standing right behind me.)

There wasn’t much room and we had 2 bags so DP packed one on the paid for side and I packed another nearer the scanner. As I put one of the items in the bag, it must have scanned on the scanner again without me noticing.

As we were walking away, the member of staff started shouting ‘excuse me!’. I stopped and turned to see him staring at me accusingly and pointing at the self service screen. I asked what he meant and he said I had to pay for the item and shouted the price loudly across to me. Everyone was staring at this point, it was embarrassing. I explained I’d paid and didn’t owe anything and showed my receipt with the item on it. He still just stood there until his supervisor (I assume) came over and told him it was fine and that ‘this happens sometimes’. There was no apology from either of them. As I turned around I heard the supervisor telling the staff member ‘well done for checking’ and it honestly gave me the rage. Why is it ‘well done’ to wrongly someone of shoplifting and then not apologise?

It’s left me with a horrible feeling and I feel judged as someone who would go around stealing. I think that bar codes should be deactivated once the item has been paid for to avoid this sort of thing happening. I feel like raising this with the supermarket because I am still angry.

Yes, this is why I said in an earlier post that I pack at the end now. Some have a single bag packing area so I need to put my rucksack on the scanner instead to pack from the full packing area, so you could potentially rescan like the OP did. I have never seen one with a belt!

Even with a sinlge bag, we used to mange to mess up the machine so we decided, lay out items on the tray and only when the machine has accepted payemnt, start moving shopping to bag/s

we online shop tescos but often do a smaller odds and ends at morrisons one week and another week at sainsburys

also have anxiety problems, so things like this make me worry and I think about it long after. I just feel sad because I don’t often feel like going out but I decided to go on a walk to the shop with DP and instead this happened and made me feel worse

Sound like someone's tap needs a new washer

Are you deliberately trying to wind the op, who has said she has anxiety issues, up?

It’s a minor, nothing really to it incident. Most people just move on without much more than a second thought.

As I picked up the box of dog snacks to walk away it scanned again. I didn't realise and walked off as I had paid. Assistant called me and we both realise what had happened and I immediately showed her the receipt and she cancelled it. There was no need for your guy to be so dramatic. No one will even remember and as they don't know you there's no need to care.

Sorry, I'm not sure what you are trying to say?

Yes, raise it with the supermarket as they had no reason to shout your name across like that. Seek an apology and why not and I dont often say this, seek good-will as well

As I said previously we are very careful as i worry about stuff like this

Then someone posted they were a manager and staff had to shout accross to the customer - there is NO need to shout across the shop, they can just as easily walk up and speak to you - so complain - I would - then complain to HQ

Yes, this is what I do now. By single bag space I meant there is then no space for both shopping and then bag to pack it into. I need to pack on the scanner.

There seems to be little thought put into design when people walk and use rucksacks, or need to rearrange bags. Often the space doesn't fit a full basket of shopping either.

I have to agree.

Its fine to acknowledge you felt a bit panicked, annoyed or embarrassed. All normal feelings but not cause for distress or a reason to change your behaviour.

I don’t think it’s helpful to feed into op’s social anxiety by claiming people are more aggressive, rude, disrespectful and shops are awful these days.. It’s not my perception at all.

Its frustrating that supermarkets rely on automated tills. Computers have no common sense after all! They don’t allow for human error. We’ve all experienced similar “Computer says Error- human has to check we’re not a thief” moments.

This was one irregular event . Remember all the times you’ve been in a supermarket and no one has been rude or checked you’ve paid for your items and the cashier has smiled at you. 😊

I agree its not "well thought out" but i guess its saving space

We had problems with the one bag - so now we never hang the bag as any slight adjustment triggers the errors warning/lock etc

I also double checking the screen to esnure the item has registered that is how worried i am for missing an item and getting pulled up at the door.

The receipt is a must

There is no shouting across the shop. In my store (not a big supermarket) we have self service machines next to the exit door. A common occurrence is a customer tapping their card on the machine and then not waiting for this to actually go through so they then leave thinking they had paid.

A staff member will only shout ‘excuse me’ politely if the customer is heading out the door as they are not allowed to leave the area, they still have several machines to watch. Sometimes you can have 5 flashing red lights at once so you can’t just leave to speak to a customer at the exit unfortunately.

In instance the operator just shouted excuse me to the op as she had already left, there was no public accusation of theft. I personally would have apologised after but manning the self service is probably the worst retail job out there, trying to get a staff member in trouble because they had to rectify a mistake you made is just a small example of the type of shit we have to deal with day in day out. No wonder people don’t want to do this job.

It would be good if there were still basket only manned checkouts. Sometimes the packing area is too small for a full basket but the manned checkouts have queues with huge trolleys full.

1. he didn't shout her name
2. if he's been told 'stand there and keep an eye on the checkouts' that's what he's going to do. He's not going to leave the other checkouts unattended to follow one customer out.
3. if he had followed OP she'd be on here complaining he hunted her down.

Thank you

Re "tap card and wlak out not realaizing.." reason like this is why we double check and get receipt

Today at the hospital car park - it took a 3/4 seconds to machine to confirm, state confirm and we wait but i know not everyone is often when in a hurry

I would urge all people using self service machines in shops and car park to wait the few seconds to see the "confirm message and take a receipt if there is one

I told by all that i worry to much and i do - i would not want to be in a situion where i was pulled up and mistakenly failed to reister an item, hence me being extra careful. As another FM stated, the self checkouts are not designed well

People do make genuine mistakes and shop staff should be aware of that and be nore polite and subtle IMO

If thats the case, why let a customer walk away when they are standing next to them?

Shop staff must never forget even those people that are careful make mistakes for one reason or another and therefore should be sublte in their approach and those mentioned in the OP's post were not

From now on, just go to staffed tills only. I would call the supermarket and talk to the manager. There was no need for pointing and yelling.

Been there and done that and I’ve said no need to shout and you would of seen I’d made the mistake seeing as you were watching all the time so could of said earlier, smiled sweetly and went about my business as usual

i don’t use the self service anymore and go to an actual human as I’m not paid to use the tills on self service and the damn mistakes the thing does continuously is a bug bare for sure all I hear is put it in the bagging area or you’ve not bagged that item when you have repeatedly.

anxiety aside chalk it up and move on.

I guess the OP's going to have to make up her mind, either he was standing right next to her, or he shouted at her across the shop.

@Aswellisnotoneword I scanned my items on the machine next to him. Then walked down to the end of the self service machines a far distance from him. That’s when he shouted. It’s not so difficult to understand but I suspect you’re not gathering that on purpose so you can keep being unkind.

Because what was NOT well done was shouting across at OP and effectively making a public accusation, especially when the shop knows this is a recurrent problem.

It may fall under user error, it doesn't excuse the supermarket staff in terms of the way they handle it. It's perfectly possible to deal with these issues politely and professionally, without shouting at customers and drawing the attention of everyone else. These machines are installed primarily for the convenience of supermarkets, so it's up to them to ensure that they don't inconvenience customers.

Since when was being accused of theft "minor"?

Sorry but what has age got to do with it?
older people can be new and inexperienced?
As someone who also has done this sort of job, and suffers with severe anxiety, this person wasn’t in the wrong.
sorry you felt bald, but this was buyers error.
nobody called you a thief or was insinuating.
Nobody in the shop will remember you when you go in next.
The guy was right to say well done for checking though, you weren’t stealing but the person next might be.

They spot check, especially if it looks like something is awry. You made an error which cause the shop assistant to believe your shopping needed checking.

It happens often, it’s not a major deal. You are making far more of it than it merits.

In future just show your items and receipt and move on with your day.

I had a similar incident happen where I was accused of not paying. I had one item, scanned it and paid. I opted not to print the receipt. The staff member in charge of standing around the self checkouts shouted so loudly across the other registers and at me, that I didn’t pay.

I went back and said that I did and didn’t print a receipt. I showed them my bank transaction on my phone and asked to speak to the manager. It was completely useless, no apology from either of them. I felt awful and humiliated even though I did nothing wrong.

Since then I print every receipt and chuck it in the bin as I exit. If I see useless staff members watching me at self checkouts, I usually say to them, “Do you want to put these items through for me?” They always decline but it puts them on the back foot and they stop eyeballing me and watch another person instead lol.

I once watched one of these staff members drawing pictures on their arms.

The rude staff members that yelled at me have since left. I also put in a complaint and included their names on it and directed it to head office.

I know it’s really off-putting to experience this and only those that are shouted out and called out like this would understand. The ones that say it’s no big deal probably haven’t been publicly humiliated (yet) and think it’s no big deal - but it is.