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.

Do it , they won’t care it’s happened in our local Tesco where the staff are lovely and helpful , everyone around you will think you were trying to shoplift but you are free to do as you please .

I support the staff in doing this, but it should be made easier for them by prominent notices, and perhaps as a few stores do, having to scan a receipt for exit.

But I think OP is complaining about the system - not the staff who have to implement it (though in this case it seems they could have been nicer about it 🤷‍♀️). Someone designs the system - it’s not a self-generated fact of the universe.

The manager can do the exact same as the staff about a rescan-nothing.
In fact, they probably know less than the till staff do about them.
As someone who works in a supermarket a whole rescan is only performed when something is missed or removed from the trolley, otherwise it’s a partial one.

This indeed.

What they did to OP's son when he had 3 tiny kids was ridiculous. Stupid society.

I'm surprised they aren't made to chant
"MUST DO RULES"
"COMMON SENSE IS THE ENEMY"

For a significant element of the T&Cs, no, it's not on the customer if it's buried somewhere around page 22 of boilerplate.

I disagree.
Don't allow supermarkets to screw you. Shop elsewhere.

Maybe they should stop coming up with stupid policies that their staff have to implement then, while they hide away in their offices.

I am not excusing poor behaviour, but lets not let the retailers themselves off the hook.

The problem is if they all do it and then we are stuck with it.

I like self-scan/self service. I couldn't tell you the last time I used a manned till in any supermarket.
I hate having to try and keep up with a mundane conversation whilst concentrating on where I'm putting everything and trying to pack/ male sure the prices and offers are what I was expecting etc.

I find the supermarket very overwhelming and I'd much rather run the risk of the odd spot check for the convenience of not having to wait on a manned till.

How does the till know that something is missed before the scan is done?

I think your son sounds like a delicate flower and needs to grow up.
i love self scan, it’s so much quicker to pack as you go round, pay and leave.
great for me if you fuddy daddy’s can’t cope with it, no queue at the self scan section.

I just checked, you don't even need to read any of the agreement, a cursory glance at the FAQs will do

How does the till know that something is missed before the scan is done?

It doesn't When you get a check the assistant gets a message to say how many items to scan. If one of the items scanned by the assistant hasn't been scanned by the customer then a full rescan is required

Not in my local Tesco, the person next to me yesterday had a full scan come up, the assistant knows that before they start. Maybe @KaToby doesn't work for Tesco but I'm wondering how her supermarket knows that something has been missed to flag a check

If one of my staff took 20 minutes to do a random check they'd be on a performance review. I've never seen anyone take that long, even with a big trolley full of shopping.

We'd just put it back and you'd need a refund which I'd probably use as an opportunity to train someone completely new who has no idea what they are doing so could take a while. We can play the game as well.

What does having kids have to do with it?

You wouldn’t need a refund as you wouldn’t have paid? 🤷‍♀️

Love self scan as you do your shopping as I find putting stuff on the belt and packing the absolute worse bit of shopping.

It’s picked up in the partial rescan, which then prompts a full one

In that case it will be based on a history of them failing previous rescans.

Security staff have a device to set the alarm off when a suspicious customer exits the store.

Only use them if I have a handful of stuff. Can't stand them

Same here, and threads like this make me value our brand new Aldi all the more

I was dreading he new place having mostly DIY checkouts, but no - there are six of them but the same number of staffed ones, and they always open enough to deal with the footfall with no unwanted pressure to "just try it" or whining about "not having enough staff"

Take note, the (original) majors, because I won't return to paying your silly prices and doing your job for you too

@CrystalSingerFan If something lightweight like a greetings card doesn't get recognised due to the lightweightiness of it, put your hand over it and press down, that usually clears the prompt without staff interaction