Waitrose incident.

[SensitiveSallySue]

I am not sure if I am being sensitive or if I should complain.

Every Sunday morning I go out for a coffee and read my book, then do the weekly shop without the children. I like to be back before midday so I can spend the rest of the time with my children, including 9 month old baby. We have every supermarket local to us, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, M&S, Asda, Tesco, and I always use the ‘scan and shop’ to make the shopping as quick and easy as possible. I’ve never had an issue until today in Waitrose. I’ve only used it a couple of times in Waitrose and never for a big shop.

After scanning my entire shop, strategically packing it so it’s easy to unload at home, I went to pay. When I beeped the scanner, it flagged up as needing to be checked. I thought that was fair enough, it happens sometimes, and I haven’t done a weekly shop in Waitrose before using the ‘scan and shop’ option. The worker came over and said she needed to rescan 30/58 items. I thought that was ridiculous, in every other shop they scan a random selection of a few items, not over half your shop. It seemed pointless to me to have even used the option in the first place, but I didn’t say anything and the worker started to empty shopping bags full to rescan items. This was taking ages, but I just stood patiently waiting for her to finish.

Then, she came across one that I apparently hadn’t scanned. I know I did, but it was a yellow sticker packet so I can only assume that it hadn’t registered properly. She repeatedly asked me if I had scanned it, and I repeatedly told her I had but it clearly hadn’t registered.

She told me she would need to rescan my entire shopping trolley, then took me over to a till, and I stood on the end whilst she unpacked every single one of my bags and scanned every item individually. It was completely unsubtle, in front of all of the other customers, and obvious that they were rescanning the entire shop in case I was attempting to steal things. I felt like an idiot and a thief. To make matters worse, I am a small business owner working with children, and had already bumped into several of my clients in the shop. I was absolutely mortified thinking that they may think I am a thief.

I was thoroughly embarrassed and teary eyed, and hastily shoved everything back into bags whilst the Waitrose worker apologised. Half of my shopping is crushed as I was shoving things back into the bags indiscriminately. I promptly paid and left but it has really upset me. By that point, I’d spent around 20 minutes having everything rescanned.

AIBU to think that if Waitrose are going to have a system that is open to abuse, they need to have a solution that doesn’t involve treating customers like thieves? I have never had an experience like this in any other store and whilst I realise they have to protect themselves from theft, surely this is not the correct way to go about. It’s not the Waitrose workers fault, it just seems like a very poor system and they shouldn’t offer ‘scan and shop’ if this is the way they treat customers.

Exactly none of this is for the benefit of the customers. It's all about cost savings for the big supermarkets.

I do my shopping on the internet now much more enjoyable. Definitely recommend it op. You can still go for coffee and read your book for time without children and not have the hassle of the supermarket etc.

I've used these scanners 3 times and had my items checked 3 times, only 1 or 2 items but I don't find them faster because of this. So my advice would ge to go to a till every time. Supermarkets don't want to pay people to sit on all the tills, so use the scanner system, then pay a person to check you've scanned it 🙄

That exact thing happened to me with the dog treats! I thought I’d picked up the same x3 but one had been placed on the wrong shelf. They rescanned the whole thing. Young guy who did it was very apologetic and we just chatted and I repacked while he scanned. People used to shout at me for stuff that was in no way my fault when I worked in retail as a teenager, I wouldn’t ever hassle the staff about policies and procedures they have zero say in.

Perhaps they could have been more kind to OP during the process and framed it as more of a “this is annoying but we need to rescan for the system” process. I think she is being a bit over sensitive given rescanning is routine and most people seem to understand that. I do wonder as someone who works in talking therapy if there’s a bit of social anxiety at play here.

Im not sure why you had such an emotional reaction to this, if they checked an item and it wasn’t scanned on, obviously they had to follow their protocol to check the items.

It wasn’t personal and if I saw this happening I wouldn’t give it a second thought, certainly wouldn’t assume you were stealing.

Some of us don’t want to stand in a queue and wait for the person in front to pack every item before they start looking for their handbag, then purse and oh lets not forget the club card! It’s like they’re surprised they have to pay! Give me a self scanner anytime.

That's what I think. ! Same thing happened to me in Asda. First and last time using self scan' Complete and utter waste of my time.

I work for Waitrose. If the rescan is done on a mainline till and not the handset then it will appear on the system that you hadn’t paid for your shopping as it will still be in the system. By completing it on the handset, which is the correct way, this will avoid this issue. Be prepared to have another rescan the next time you shop as it will probably trigger one due to you having had to have a full rescan the last time. We know there is always human error when customers self scan and we do not assume everyone is a thief. Even us Partners get rescans when we shop, and if we are not embarrassed in front of work colleagues then I can’t see a reason why you should be, you’re just one of many that we process on a daily basis and we really don’t give it much thought

Jesus get a grip! I have my shopping checked about 1 out of 4 times i do a massive shop of about £400 at a time so they need to check over 60 items depending on what i have bought, no one cares and everyone knows that the scanners dont always work properly it happens all day every day you are seriously over thinking it but if it gives you that much anxiety maybe you should just use tills from now on.

Totally agree, rescan required, let staff do their job. Leave store, move on.

In future, just put your shopping through normally and then you won't have to face the possibility of having your shopping rescanned.

Happened to me at Sainsburys. It was mildly embarrassing but nothing I could really get worked up about. I was bloody glad in the end, though, as my "rescanned through the till" total was £3 cheaper than the "scan and shop" total so something had buggered up somewhere.

Had similar situations in Waitrose, where I was made to feel like a criminal, 10 years apart. I never self scan now and rarely go in there at all

This!

Although I do use the self scan and the experience the OP had has happened to me.

🤣

Huge overreaction. Please move on

So you made a mistake and the employee doing their job noticed it. Your anger should be with yourself not Waitrose.

I think they’re exaggerating their ability! If you were designing this system, you’d know exactly why checks are needed. It’s the most ridiculous and self important post I’ve ever read on here. Someone trying to sound clever who’s clearly not!

I use the self scan in Asda, Sainsbury's and Tesco on a regular basis, and have had spot checks on fairly regularly too.
There was one occasion (just before xmas a couple of years ago) in Tesco, where they did a spot check and found an item I'd accidentally not scanned, so they had to scan the whole lot again.
The offending item was a box of orange Matchmakers, but by the end of the repeat scan, the worker said she could see what I'd done, I'd scanned a box of mint Matchmakers twice, instead of once and doing the orange ones, so clearly, I wasn't trying to steal anything, I'd had the two boxes in one hand and the scanner in the other, and believed I'd scanned both boxes, but the scanner had registered the one box for both.
Yes, it was embarrassing having to get all my shopping out again, but it proved (in my case) that I'd made a simple mistake that wouldn't have affected the amount I'd have paid, it would just mess up their reordering system.
Since this occasion, I'm extra careful about checking I've scanned everything properly. In fact, I was shopping yesterday, but when I got to the checkout I realised it's put something back on the shelf, but trying to remove it from my list of scanned items hadn't worked, so I showed a member of staff the 9 items I had in my bag and explained I'd put the item back, and she was able to remove three item for me on the till.

Yes totally weird, that post. When I read it, it came across as "I helped design a system that's rubbish, it doesn't work and leads to customers being treated like dirt".

why would you even admit to that

The inefficiency and grim customer service is enough to upset anyone OP! Yeah these machines are useless.

Honestly noone would have thought you'd have done anything wrong. They'd likely feel sorry for you for getting stuck in the 'computer says no' situation.

I’ve worked in Waitrose. We do all that for you as we know this is an inconvenience and we are trying to get it through quickly. It’s not that you can’t touch it again, we are trying to be helpful. We don’t want you to have to queue again in a main line either so we we take you off so we can get you on your way again,

a full rescan happens both randomly and if there has a been a problem before. If you look at the millions of pounds lost to shoplifting, this is a way of cahtching those people who do steal things,

the process will never be flawless as it is disrupting the flow of your shop, however from a business perspective the entire process worked as it found an item that hadn’t been charged for.

If things had been crushed you should have mentioned it at the welcome desk and they will have gladly replaced those items.

im sorry you got upset. The staff would not have wanted that.

👏👏👏

I know how you feel being rescanned - it does feel like you look like a thief!

I was rescanned in Tesco once. Like you, it was triggered by a random "scan 10 items" because I'd scanned a bottle of wine twice thinking I'd picked up two the same, when I'd picked up a similar looking bottle from the next slot on the shelf.

I think it is an ok way to manage the system - you can normally choose to go through a manned till if you'd prefer. Scanning 38/50 items seems excessive though!

I work in another of the supermarkets mentioned and that's exactly how it works in all of them. If you fail the quality check you have to have your whole shop rescanned. It happens, usually because the guns are crap. It's not personal.

I agree with you OP. Makes me livid that scan and shop exists. If the store doesn't trust the customer to scan the shopping correctly, then they need to put proper tills with cashiers, back in.
This is the exact reason why I use a proper till now - every time I've used scan and shop in asda, I'm always getting checked.