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.

Mmm, could this have been the OP? Moved to Waitrose..😂🤣

Yeah but she found something you hadn't scanned so had she not checked you would have got that thing for free - technically stolen it.

Crying over it seems very dramatic.

Surely a better solution is to ask the customer to queue at the traditional till for a rescan rather than taking you to the side and unpacking everything manually, one by one, not even allowing the customer to touch the shopping? On the off chance they are actually a loyal customer and not a thief!

Because then you're holding up the traditional till. Every supermarket rescans like this that I've been in.

Genuinely curious, what does having a 9 month old baby have to do with self scanning checks? 🤔

I’m really struggling to see how this was an “incident”. You accidentally missed something with your scanning so they had to re-scan. End of story.
You then had a hissy fit and squashed your shopping but that’s on you not them.
Maybe just go through a checkout next time 🤷‍♀️

I did scan the item, there system didn’t register it because it was yellow sticker.

The scan and go handsets beep every time an item is scanned. Not to say you were stealing on purpose, but it's hard to miss that sound and they beep for a reason. To let you know that it's registered the barcode. The onus is on the customer to be paying attention to this. You didn't scan the item, your complaint won't go anywhere other than making you look a bit silly.

But by that point you were a thief. You would’ve paid for shopping that included an unscanned item.

If you don’t consider yourself a thief then you need to check that every single item has scanned. That’s what I do to save myself massive embarrassment and drama at the checkout.

If it makes you feel any better OP I usually just feel sympathy when I see people getting a rescan as it is a huge pain. The first time I registered to do this with Sainsbury's I got rescanned the first 6 consecutive times I used it even though they never found an unscanned item! I stopped using it and just go through the checkout now.

I help to design systems like this and in my view, the fact that rescanning is ever needed means that the system simply doesn't work and should be scrapped. The fact that people tolerate being rescanned or say 'that's just what happens' shows how much we've become used to service so poor that essentially it isn't service at all - a situation in which a person has to do the work themselves and then gets severely delayed and/or upset because the system is extraordinarily poorly thought through is beyond unacceptable.

If shops believe the self scan encourages stealing then the solution is to shut it down and go back to staffed tills, not to humiliate customers with 'random' checks.

They can't tell by looking at you whether you have thieving intent. They don't know you, or anything about you.
I've been stopped and had my shopping searched in front of whoever's walking by more than once, and I don't even use the scan and shop option. I wouldn't steal a penny from the change dispenser, so I don't feel either guilty or picked on. I presume there's a reason why they want to rifle through my potatoes and onions.

You chose to feel like an idiot and a thief.

Are you this dramatic with all other areas of your life too? 😂🙄

Scanning includes (or should include) checking that every item has registered, and registered correctly. I don't do it myself because there are people being paid to do exactly that.

I needed a full rescan at Waitrose a few weeks ago. I asked to unload my bags at a regular checkout so nothing got crushed. They obliged and I was able pack things back into bags at my own discretion.
What a complete over reaction to a non event.

This has happened to me in Tesco. Massive shop and the system told them to rescan 44 items! Massive pain the arse. Had to pretty much unpack the lot at a checkout and repack. I appreciate they're trying to clamp down on theft but it's got so ridiculous with the amount of items they need to check that they're making their own self-scan system redundant.

This. The shop worker was absolutely correct though, wasn't she. Something wasn't scanned and how was she to know what else?
You being a business owner isn't her issue, she was there to do a job which she did.
You're making it a bigger issue than it is.

If it is like my Waitrose they only have one till open, and there is usually a queue of people who don’t work for the company so don’t do their work for them of other shoppers. Are you suggesting they should be pushed aside so your shopping can be scanned? Or made to feel resentful that a new till can be opened to accommodate potential thieves while they are queuing and waiting at the sole till?

I work in a supermarket and it has happened to me and have had to have all my shopping rescaned it's no big deal.

Naaa, they didn’t have a 9 month old baby 🤣

What a load of drama over nothing. A full rescan is just a hazard of using the scan and go facilities. Everyone knows that. If I see someone else getting rescanned I don’t think “call the cops”, I think “oh, tough luck, technology eh”. People who pinch stuff are usually far more blatant in the supermarkets I frequent (shoving packets of meats down their joggers or bottles of spirits in an inside pocket of a coat).

😂🤣😂

OMG … I cannot believe what I’m reading. Really? You didn’t scan an item, the cashier had to rescan the whole shop (in case something else hasn’t scanned) and you call yourself traumatised by the experience? The cashier was just doing their job. All supermarkets do that. You don’t get a smile in Asda or Tesco with the experience either. Why would anyone think you’re a thief? Are you? Maybe quick to judge others?

Shops do have a system in place. That system is that the till decides how many items to check. I have had 10 checked out of 15 items before. The system is designed so that of even 1 item they select has not been scanned, they must rescan everything to be sure as how do they know you have not incorrectly scanned more items? Fact is they don't. This is done to reduce theft.