to think re-scanning 32 items out of a 66 item shop isn't a sensible check?

[DwightDFlysenhower]

I'd used a self-scanner because it was a big shop and I'd carefully packed all my cold stuff together, heavy things at the bottom of bags, bread on top etc.

I don't mind being selected for a check, but when it's nearly half the items I just don't think it's reasonable. Apparently it's changed from ten items to a percentage of the shop (not sure whether that's value or number of items). There was nothing wrong with my scanning, so it wasn't as if it flagged a problem and asked for more, it was 30+ from the outset.

I'd have preferred it to have just sent me to a manned checkout to unload it all onto the belt if it needed so many to be re-scanned.

It took ages, while other people were waiting for approvals and help, and although the person doing it tried to be careful there really isn't enough space to unpack and re-pack carefully when you're scanning so much. And obviously they have to take from all levels of the bags, and the shopper can't touch it in case it looks like you're concealing something. I've come home and found my cheese has been ripped open and my chocolate eclairs have been squashed flat under my potatoes.

AIBU to think that 30+ items being re-scanned at the self-checkout is impractical as a check?

I won’t use the self scan checkouts. I once took my Dd with her toddler and I had my baby dgd with me to Tesco’s and for the first time used scan and go.
We both had (very) full trolley recheck. One after the other, not at the same time.
little ones were fractious, as was I.
I have never used scan and go again and never will.
I would rather wait in a queue frankly.

There is a shit load of data behind the process. They know your average shop. What it contains. When and where you shop. Probably even a seasonal record of your habits.

As long as you stay within the parameters, you will be low on the list.

A few years ago I got selected for a rescan. Only what I didn't know was that of you asked for a loaf to be sliced, they print a different code for it. And I being a bit too quick had scanned the uncut load before getting it sliced.

The rescan flagged it, which puzzled me at first as I knew I had scanned it and it was the only loaf in the shop.

Got "randomly" checked for 8 weeks after that ....

This is so annoying this is why I stopped using them in the end was getting really frustrating

The tinfoil hatted among us will have noticed that some self checkouts have cameras now. And since they are using "AI" cameras for the veg weighing, it's only a matter of time ....

In my local marks and spencers there is always a longer queue for the self scan checkouts that take cash. Two take cash and cards, three take cards only.

Of late, much more a bugbear than the rescans are the failures of Google Pay. Quite a challenge if you don't carry a card as backup ...

I use self-scan always in Asda, packing as I go. I generally only get pinged for a check if I have added then removed things or had difficulty scanning an unrecognised barcode. It seems that they have to rescan a few items up to a specific value rather than a number - I have seen the checkout people keeping checking the handset to see if they have to scan more rather than knowing from the start that they have to scan 5, 10 or whatever.

Even with the random pings it is far better than having to go to a manned checkout.

I don't pay by phone, but I have been behind people who are struggling to pay with their phone, and sometimes had to use a card. Not to carry a backup is a bit foolish.

No point in having it on your phone then.

Not sure it's a Google problem. I have a suspicion it's my bank playing silly buggers. Either way it's not the fault of the poor staff who have to bear the brunt of it.

@SerendipityJane Fine. But I always carry a back up method of payment, unless I am literally popping out for milk.

If I am driving I tend to have my licence and card together. But if I a-wandering, it's phone only. Yet somehow I live.

And as we recently found out, card or no, if the system goes down, then you need cash. And that is a game I'm not playing.

This happened to me in Tesco recently. I (perhaps naively) used my clubcard for the first time to self-scan a £200 shop. Got to the counter and they had to count 100 items and scan over 80 of them. It took twice the time and was mortifying! I was so smug that I’d been efficient and it back-fired horribly.

Totally agree.
If they're so concerned about people not scanning things put operators back on tills.

I would say if you've been recorded previously as not scanning stuff it's fair game.

Yes, exactly this - I remember going to Sainsbury’s with my mum and queuing up separately for cheese, for meat, for general groceries etc and waiting while individual shop assistants fetched the products for you.

Everything was behind the counter at the village shop, neatly arranged on shelves and you asked for the goods you wanted. Everyone had to wait their turn to get their shopping.

Self scanners and those cameras/scanners that somehow know what you’ve taken and deduct the cost from your card are the future and won’t be going away.

Not sure if this applies to all supermarkets. A member of staff at Tesco at self scan told me that if you keep voiding off stuff and rescanning them, you will almost certainly get to do a rescan.

I did a smart shop at Sainsburys for one item as it was on My Nectar Prices and was selected to do a rescan on this item - which was a 8 pack of Pepsi Max.

Re scans are similar to contactless - after so many transactions, you need to do a chip n pin payment so after so many smart shops/scan n go transactions, you have a rescan.

I remember going to Sainsbury’s with my mum and queuing up separately for cheese, for meat

I wish you still could for some things. I miss our butcher and delicatessen counters, I used to use them a lot. Clearly not everybody did though!

Been to shops and at least about 8 times, the contactless system is down. It's not the fault of the shop staff that you only carry your phone or don't know your PIN.

Nor its the shop's staff fault that you are made to do a chip n pin payment. It's the bank that decides that its time for a CnP payment. Some banks its either when you spend X amount or when you have done X transactions in a week. Seen this in shops where customer pays on another card or just manages to scrape the cash - if its a couple of items. This card will require a CnP payment the next time you try to pay on it.

You should definitely get a refund for your eclairs and cheese. You are quite right if they need to rescan more than 10% they should do it at a till and each bag unpacked and repacked carefully.

I've stopped using the scanner guns. They aren't actually quicker or easier than using a self-scan till once you factor in all the complications.

A friend who works for Sainsburys said the deli only took about 0.5% of the week's sales which for the space it took up was not worth it. Sainsburys were thinking of getting rid some of the deli counters in 2018/9 but covid caused them to close them fully.

Unfortunately when this happens to me (and it has 3 times in a row now when doing my big stock up at Sainsbury’s) I have invariably spent two hours or more shopping and would have wasted a lot of my time if I just walked away.

The second to last time this happened the staff member’s scanner stopped working and the SmartShop wouldn’t let me check out without the check so I had to be taken to a till to unpack all of my shopping, have it rescanned and then packed back up again with my husband waiting to pick me up in the car. It was £400 of shopping and took absolutely ages.

What supermarket selects you randomly for a full rescan? I work in a supermarket and full rescans only take place if an item hasn't been scanned

Just say no. They are your items and you have paid for them. Leave the shop with them. Let them phone the police.

Tesco. I've been using the self-scan since it was first introduced and very rarely got checked. I've never had any problems, never missed an item, sometimes if I'd deleted something that I'd changed my mind about then I'd have a 10 item rescan.
Recently I've had two full trolley rescans and the assistant said they've been doing lots of them, her explanation was that people's spending habits change during school holidays and the algorithm picks up on that.

Here in the Netherlands it used to be a few items but that significantly increased in the past year, I suspect the level of thievery was getting out of hand and a greater sample was needed to catch more thieves.

The re-scan usually happens before the till asks for payment.