AIBU to think stores wanting us to use self-scanning devices and self-service tills should not make customers feel like criminals?

[Nenen]

I want to start by saying I understand shops need to prevent shoplifting and if any store had a legitimate reason to suspect me of doing so I would be happy to let them search me. However, AIBU to feel aggrieved that stores using self-service tills and scanning systems can dispense with the premise of ‘innocent until proven guilty’ and insist on doing random checks on customers using the systems they do their best to get us to use in the first place?

My adult son (who had his 3 little daughters with him at the time) has just been stopped in a supermarket when he went to pay for a full trolley of goods he had used the store self-scanning device for. Security staff told him they had to do a ‘random spot check’. He and the girls (a baby, a 2-year old and a 4-year old) were led by security staff to a staffed till where all his goods were unloaded from the bags he had filled as he went round scanning. Staff then rescanned each item to check the total. This took the staff 20 minutes, during which time the baby started crying and the 2-year old got understandably fed up! At no time did the shop staff try to help my son pacify the children or apologise for the inconvenience. Suffice to say, his scanning had been absolutely accurate so he was allowed to pay and leave. However, the gross inconvenience and embarrassment factor of being publicly stopped and checked like this was enough to make him say he will never use self-service tills and scanners ever again.

If something like this ever happened to me, I think I’d refuse to cooperate and tell the manager they either trust me to scan my items or they don’t! If they don’t then I’m leaving and they can keep the whole trolley load! If they don’t trust customers who have not done anything suspicious then IMO they should not let them use the scanning devices in the first place. They can’t have it both ways, surely? These stores want it all their own way without any customer care at all.

I dislike using self-service tills for many other reasons too, not least because every time I’ve tried to use one, something has happened that resulted in me having to stand and wait for a member of staff to come and sort out an issue (often more than once for a single load of shopping). Therefore, I am prepared to queue for a little longer to pay at a staffed till.

My biggest gripe until now has been that several times I have waited in a queue for the staffed till at our local CoOp, only for the member of staff to leave their queue waiting to go and sort out a problem another customer was having at a (supposedly) self-service till! These customers had waltzed straight past the serviced queue and then got preferential service while we waited even longer!

To add insult to injury, self-service mechanisms obviously reduce the company spending on staff wages but I’ve yet to see any reduction in the prices I’m paying for their goods.

I just wanted to say that yes, unfortunately from time to time shops do spot checks. It’s certainly not a staff choice, it’s a computer based which not only chooses whom to check but also how many items, so it could be all
of your shopping or just 5 items. If it’s just a few items they do it near the self service till but if a total rescan and you have a big shop of course they move you aside.

I was a bit like your son the first time: WTF??? Since then I realised that it’s just random occasional checks, nothing personal and I’m more relaxed about it. It’s definitely a bother if you are in a hurry otherwise it’s fine. Staff in our local stores are much quicker now and always polite and even apologetic.

For the scan as you go ones they have to do spot checks, if they didn’t people would use it as an easy way to shoplift.

As PP have pointed out, the computer picks who to check, not the staff. It’s part of the T&C’s of scan as you go, if you don’t like it, don’t use it, the staff are just doing their jobs that they get paid very little for.

I don’t know why you mention supermarket staff not pacifying the children for 20 mins… presumably this would make the rescanning take longer…

I certainly didn’t know there were random checks !

Not sure why you wrote 'random check' like that, of course it's random chosen by the computer. And it tells the staff how many items to rescan to check or an amount depending on the supermarket. I simply don't believe it you've used the self scanners before you would not know there is always the possibility of a random check.

Random checks are normal, it's happened to me a few times and it's fine. Unfortunately there are people (looking at you Richard Madley and Anthony Worrall Thompson) who do nick stuff and make it harder for the rest of us.

As a pp said, is that because you signed up for self scanning without reading the contract? That's on you is it not?

I work in a supermarket and shop in others the checks are completely random The number of items scanned in the check is a proportion of the amount purchased To have a full rescan you have to have missed something.

Given that even the slowest checkout operator scans at least 20 items per minute your son must have had upwards of 400 items for it to take 20 mins

There was epic April Fools Day joke done in 2010 to show just how few people read the terms and conditions of online agreements.

”But one prank, so unique in its maleficence, distinguishes itself. The devious prank, pulled by GameStation, an online gaming store, resulted in the voluntary surrender of 7,500 souls.

The soul-snatching was made possible through what Switched calls the "immortal soul clause" buried in the site's terms and conditions.

The clause, as published by GameStation, reads,
By placing an order via this Web site on the first day of the fourth month of the year 2010 Anno Domini, you agree to grant Us a non transferable option to claim, for now and for ever more, your immortal soul. Should We wish to exercise this option, you agree to surrender your immortal soul, and any claim you may have on it, within 5 (five) working days of receiving written notification from gamesation.co.uk or one of its duly authorized minions.

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/gamestation-grabs-souls-o_n_541549

The manager will just being doing their job too. If you feel the need to complain, then it's better to direct the complaint to Head Office, rather than the people on the shop floor who have been instructed to run the store in a certain way.

Sorry no idea how the gif got in my post. Have asked for it to be removed

I agree OP, I've stopped using Sainsbury's and Tesco now, for this reason. They can bore off with their automated till obsession, over packaging and high prices. Make me feel welcome or I will go elsewhere.

Aldi (my local one anyway) and M&S have a much better approach to customer service.

Some people don’t like self service and that’s fine, don’t use them

At my local Lidl there is one 'manned' check-out.......... which is hardly ever manned.

I wouldn't mind self check-outs if they actually worked, but it's impossible to scan even one basket of goods without the stupid thing throwing a wobbly...

I think we all know that no one reads all the Ts and Cs but you cant validly complain later that you didn't know something that was in there

As well as being in the agreement though random supermarket checks I would have thought were a pretty widely known cultural reference type item

The checks are random. No one is looking at someone thinking they look dodgy, and triggering a check at the till.

I had 3 in a row once, which was annoying but I rarely have more than a handful of items anyway so it is no big deal to be checked.

I agree. I was just trying to lighten the mood so the OP doesn’t feel like the odd one out for not reading all the T&Cs as it is a common failing.

The 100% checks when you are doing your weekly shopping are very irritating. Especially when you made an effort to pack your bags in an efficient way. I can understand you want to do some random checks, but when i have 6 full bags i am really unhappy if i have to repack it all.

I would like to see some studies about which type of checks are more cost-efficient. In the time all my bags are getting fully re-scanned they could have done 10 small random checks on other people.

What an idiotic comment. If a staff member is wanting to check MY bag is absolutely is about ME.

As PPs have said, either trust customers or don't. But you won't be checking my bags.

Nor will I be scanning a receipt to exit the self-serve at the supermarket. I simply make out I've forgotten something, go back out of the self-serve the way I came in and exit the main doors normally.

It would be interesting but the deterrent effect is unmeasurable and possibly greater than the few items they actually find that haven't been scanned

Supermarkets have so much data that they must already know the answers so presumably they do think it's worth it

He just picks the first he sees and once got in trouble for having picked the expensive ones but paid for the cheap. But when he came home I saw that he paid for ecological apples but had picked Granny's

Well maybe they are trying to stop people who do this on purpose

I understand why they have to do it. I take exception to the manner in which it is done in our local Waitrose: two stony faced assistants, totally lacking in any grace and seemingly the complete opposite of the excellence in customer care which Waitrose espouses.

They’ve taken out the majority of checkouts too so whilst an alternative option is there, it takes far too long.

I’ve voted with my feet and now use the scan facility which is currently on trial in my local Morrisons. I was spot checked yesterday - done extremely pleasantly by an obviously well trained assistant and I have no problem with it whatsoever.

Its not idiotic at all,empty bags checks aren't personal but you sound like the kind of chippy peson I try to avoid so your clever ruse to stick to the man means our paths are unlikely to cross

I've never been in a shop where you have to scan a receipt to leave, why would you need to waste time on such nonsense, is it some kind of complicated time taking process?

Not quite the point of the thread but I have to ask, why is your husband buying tomatoes for his ex?

Completely agree @Nenen- I had the same in Sainsbury. No issues with them doing the random checks. Think it was like 7 items it asked for. The issue with their system is if you have 2 of the same item (I had 2 tins of sweetcorn in this case- both had been scanned by me!) but they scan 2 of the same item as part of the sample, it sends an error to the machine and they have to rescan the whole shop!!

I was also escorted by security to a manned checkout like I was a criminal- I was furious at how I’d been treated!

Now I specifically mention anything I’ve bought duplicates of and tell them not to select both as part of the random check but they are welcome to print and check the receipt if they want to. It frustrates the life out of me that loads of jobs have gone so they save £££ on labour, but then don’t trust customers to use the process they force!

I refuse to use them.

YANBU, having used the self scan thing a few times I know than sometimes staff have to double check, I think the screen showed that- can’t quite remember.

In your DS’s situation I would have said - so you’ve confirmed that I’m not a thief? Well done.

Then I would leave to the store and go to a different supermarket. I know that would be awkward/difficult with children but I’m really petty with things like this.

I hope the baby calmed and your DS and his DC are okay now.