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.

I stopped using the Waitrose self-scan because I was getting checked so frequently which meant it was not saving me any time. Don’t take it so personally it’s ’the system’.

🤣🤣🤣

Agree wholeheartedly with this. Self-scanning is no longer viable if supermarkets have to subject customers to rescanning most of their shops. The problem is, they won't reopen the tills – at my Tesco, the queues for the tills stretch back through the store.

Me neither because although I don't use it myself (precisely because there is no time advantage if they decide to rescan it "randomly") I know that people have their shopping rescanned on a regular basis. It also assumes that people even realise that's what happening.

It's much easier to go to a normal till or just order online..

Your being dramatic , this has happened to me in Tesco and sainsburys. I had a huge shop in sainsburys I must have missed something and the whole lot was redone. It’s annoying but it’s no body’s fault. The las that was scanning said there should be a better way maybe just adding the item on to the order rather than rescanning it all. It’s as much of a nuisance to the staff but they don’t assume you’re stealing and it’s just one of those things. This is why I do online shopping most of the time.

I mean you did have something that you hadn't paid for so the system works. If I seen someone I knew whilst having my shopping checked I would laugh it off. Nobody is accusing you of being a thief. Having said that I'm surprised they weren't falling over themselves to apologise to you in Waitrose.

*edited to fix spelling

They have to unpack it and rescan on their gun so it registers on the system. If you have missed 1 item off a £100 shop you are not likely to get flagged up for reacans as much as if you have missed 30 items off of a rescan. It also allows the company to see much potential theft is happening with scan and go. If you are flagged for a rescan and then go through a normal check out the system will have you down as abandoning your entire shop.

Not stolen it at all. There has to be intention to steal. If you scan an item and don't realise it hasn't scanned, there isn't an intention.

Those yellow stickers are pretty hard to scan at times. Maybe they could improve them? Seems like an easy win. Took me ages to scan something with a yellow sticker in M&S on Friday.

@SensitiveSallySue I don't think you're being in the least bit dramatic. I think if you'd described your experience to someone from the 80s they'd have struggled to believe it - at this point we've become so inured to horrifically bad service that people actually tell each other to suck it up and stop complaining.

It's not the 'system' that decides these things, it's human beings, btw.

So are you saying the yellow sticker wouldn't scan even when they tried it at the till? Or was it a case of you didn't scan it properly?

Nonsense. I love scan & shop as it is so much quicker than queuing for a till. I like packing as I select my items. I like just scanning the final button on the till and then paying.
I can’t remember the last time I had to have items rescanned but it was still quicker than queuing for a till

Yellow stickers do register. You probably upset the shop worker as well for just doing her job.

It is not what the members of staff do, it is how they do it. Some staff are down to earth about it, and some are not - if the member of staff is officious and if the person being check feels humiliated, chances are the member of staff is doing things in the wrong way. Yes some people will wonder if there was something amiss - although most people would assume that it was the shop being over zealous and feel sympathy for the person being checked. i would assume the latter.

OP, it isn't just you, and I hope that no one watching thought that you had intentionally stolen something.

We used self checkout in a clothes store last week and I forgot to pay for a paper carrier bag. How would they know that’s a genuine error if they challenged me at the door?
In Boots last week my daughter remembered to rip the security sticker off my mascara after I’d paid at the self scan, as we set the alarms off on a previous visit after paying. Again, no attempt to deliberately deprive the shop of an item. I’m certainly not traumatised. It’s easy to miss something on the scanner. You made a mistake. No one’s judging.

Happens to my black husband all the time.

Honestly this has happened to me loads of times in Waitrose- admittedly I've usually got fewer items than you and yes I have forgotten to scan stuff. The last time it happened the check out wouldn't even accept my credit card. I then had to be taken to a proper check out and everything had to be unpacked again and put through. I accept these things happen and often it is my fault! On that occasion the assistant went and got me a lovely plant to make up for the issue so I was happy. Don't take it personally- loads of people have to have a rescan of all items!

If a system works brilliantly for some people but is horrendous for others, then on the whole it's a bad system. A good system works well the majority of the time for most people.

One thing you always, always want to avoid as a retailer is making good customers feel like thieves. Doing so goes way beyond bad service into the realms of actively alienating customers. The fact that some people are happy and never have a problem doesn't change that.

Oh I understand OP. It's the way they do it.

I had a similar thing in Sainsbury. Chap said they needed to randomly check 6 items. Which he did and when he scanned a bottle of tonic looked up really slyly and said "well, this hasn't been scanned so you'll have to have everything put through the till".

I was then frog marched to a till and a manager was called as an escort. The bill after scanning was £89.10p. The bill at the till was £89.10p. I asked for a print out from the scanner as I clearly had not failed to scan an 89p bottle of tonic. I was told "that's not possible because the scanner clearance automatically".

When I asked why I had been pretty much accused of theft, the manager rolled her eyes and told me there was no point getting her up.

The attitude was shocking. A quick check of my nectar card would have indicated that I usually spent £800+ pcm.

The tonic clearly was scanned and the assistant's accusatory attitude was a) bang out of order b) wasted 20 minutes of my time and c) was insolent and unwarranted.

I eventually, after much correspondence, received an apology from the store manager. I have never shopped at Sainsbury again and never shall. They have permanently lost my business and that amounts to approximately £10,000 per annum. I had shopped with Sainsbury for 40 years and clearly my custom was not valued. Notwithstanding the fact that if I was going to steal something, what twitter would take the risk for 89p.

If supermarkets want the public to self scan and offer incentives to do so they need to treat people with a little more dignity.

I no longer self scan, I'd rather queue at the till. Waitrose are buggers for not having tills open but I always insist they open one.

Like the op, the incident really upset me.

Rather than avoiding Waitrose in the future, I think you’d be best just avoiding Scan & Go in all shops, as they will all likely take the same approach to a discrepancy.

I’d not be fretting that customers and acquaintances saw you having your shopping re-scanned. Everyone knows that sometimes that is the way and some or all of a persons shopping must be checked, surely they just thu k you’d drawn the short straw. Why would they jump to the conclusion you’d been accused of theft? Is that what you’d think of you saw someone else having their shopping re-scanned?

The one and only time I attempted to use Scan & Go in Asda (using my own phone not their device) I was inexplicably logged out of the app on the last aisle. If you’d seen me unpacking my bags at the till you’d possibly think I’d been accused of theft too I suppose.

I observed an elderly customer being stopped at the door (having used their 'self help' tills) she was is a bit of a state, I went and stood beside her saying to her if you don't mind I will stand with you as I find this sort of 'public humiliation' M and S put people through is totally unacceptable' I stood with her holding her hand. the assistant found nothing!!! I complained twice to M and S staff about this incident. they appear not to stop people at the door any more, or at least not 20 people a day!!!

She was just doing her job

Precisely this! Supermarket make quite sufficient profits to have tills available and customer service as required.
Greedy owners just squeeze the margins for ever greater shareholder reward, never to the benefit of customers.

Had this ever happened to me I would simply have demanded the whole trolley value be refunded to my card immediately and walked away leaving them to return all the items to the shelves.

Thats why I would never use self scanning. I simply wouldn't want to make a scene but if pushed, I would.

I can understand your annoyance and embarrassment, op, but although it was unintentional, you did have an item which wouldn’t have been paid for, so it seems like the system was working as intended. You say the assistant was apologising, as she could see you were upset. I think you should re-frame it as one of those tedious things that sometimes happen if you shop with self-scan. Security wasn’t called. They didn’t march you off to a back room. Everyone knows technology doesn’t always do what you expect it to, and would regard it as a blip, similar to the alarm going off, if an assistant has forgotten to remove a tag. People don’t immediately think you’re trying to smuggle something out.

I don’t suppose you’ll ever want to go back to Waitrose, let alone use the self-scan, but if you do (and I think you should) and it happens again, just try and stay calm and take as long as you want to replace your shopping into the bags in the order you want them. It’s just a minor nuisance, no need to crush your shopping trying to get out as fast as you can.

I used scan as you shop for the first time in Tesco yesterday. My friend told me it would trigger a check the first time I used it, and it did. The member of staff was lovely, and told me as it was my first time using it, I should be aware that if I ever forget to scan an item, it will trigger a full re-scan. She had to scan something like 10/40 items, which she did there at the check out. I did not feel embarrassed or singled out at all, I just knew it wad part of the process!

Amen. I am not interested in scanning my own shopping, I do not wish to be gaslighted that it's quicker (it isn't), and wherever possible, I avoid supermarkets that use it or prefer it.