To think that a self service checkout shouldn't need a permanent member of staff to show you how to work it?

[SunshinePine]

Isn't the point of a self service checkout that you can do it by yourself?

It seems ludicrous to me that it should need a member of staff to operate it.

They have to have them for items with tags and security stickers and also items that there is a legal age that you can buy it.

are you joking, everytime I use ours there is always some fecking problem with it and the wee woman has to keep coming over and tapping in her code. they're also meant to help pack etc if they aren't busy, not that ours do but its nice on the rare occassion when I'm on my own with the girls and DD1 has insisted on 'helping'

then again I am known for being particularly inept in supermarkets and always pick the wonky trolley or checkout thats about to break down

They only need one member of staff to hop around between four self-service tills. It is a way of cutting down on staff costs. I make a point of going to a till with a 'real' person in the hope that it helps them keep their job.

SunshinePine - do you look a bit suss?

it means they can keep there stores open 24hrs too without customers having to track down staff and ask to get served

I prefer self service stations, the real people can be soooooo slow!
But I always get the machine that doesn't actually want to work!

I just wish they'd sort out some way you can use your own bags there without having try to grab someone to come and authorise it- they have one member of staff for four tills and they have so little to do they're always wandering off to do something else.

What is really daft is that I popped into our local tesco express at about 11pm the other week. There were 4 people doing nothing behind the counter whilst everyone used the self service tills!

What is really daft is that I popped into our local tesco express at about 11pm the other week. There were 4 people doing nothing behind the counter whilst everyone used the self service tills!

I hate those SSC - stupid annoying things that just bleeeep and complain about your rucksack and never say good morning isnt it cold out today.
Give me a real person any day.

kitten!! I can't imagine you getting cross at anything and now I have visions of you with checkout rage

I like the idea of self service, but those machines hate me
They always shout at me...'unexpected item in bagging area', and then people look and think I'm trying to steal things. Every time, every time.
I'm too scared to use them now

I tried one in Sainsburys the other day. I was a nightmare. Wouldn't scan items, then kept telling me to put my item in the packing area (ie bag) when i already had and wouldn't let me scan anything else til i had. Cue lots of picking up and putting down of said item and swearing at the till until it registered.

Never again. Would've been quicker to use a normal till.

Think i'll stick with fasttrack from now on.

I hate self-service machines. Dunno if the staff in my tesco's are dynamo's but the machines are so slow in comparison! It takes ages scanning every bloomin' thing. And it never accepts that I have PUT THINGS IN THE BAGGING AREA (ahem. Sorry) It's okay if you're literally buying one thing or amusing the kids but apart from that, I'd much rather have a person!

The tesco metro in Canterbury is the worst - if you use a basket you have to use a self-service till. They won't let you use a regular one. Which means you have a huge queue for the self-service which takes each person ages and two people sitting at the regular checkouts doing nothing - since nobody uses a trolley in that store. (They only have four!)

I hate how they can be so over-sensitive and under-sensitive at the same time - they seem to think you either have or haven't put something in the bag (or skipped bagging at all!). I might have expected that at the local ASDA, but now it seems to have infiltrated the local M&S too!

My local Asda has a button you can press to say you are not putting it in the bag to avoid the endless 'PLEASE PLACE ITEM IN BAGGING AREA'

Arghhhhh.

The bagging part is on a set of scales. To use your own bag you can usually push the plastic bags back out of the way (they should be on a rail type thing) and put your own bag onto the weigh plate.

I'd always assumed that the presense of an assistant is to deter the less honest customers from just sticking something in their bag/pocket without scanning/paying. Cynical, moi?

Dizzy - there are some things that try us all!

I would be very annoyed if there wasn't someone to help-I get a problem every single time.

At our Tesco's if you try to put one of your own bags on it always says 'unexpected item etc' The assistant has to come & put a code in. You have to push a button at the end to say you've used your own bags & then enter how many - so why can't they just put the own bags button at the beginning of the sequence which will override the weight sensor & let hou put hyour bag in. Then you could put how many bags you've used at the end.

They made me steal too! I was buying some jars of sauces (lloyd Grossman ones which were on special offer), I had two and it refused to acknowledge that I'd put the first one into the bagging area. So I put the second one in and it happily carried on - I assumed it must have already scanned the second one but it hadn't! Didn't realise till I got home .