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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to hate self-service tills in shops?

138 replies

EightiesChick · 19/05/2010 15:38

Their presence in lots of stores is increasing all the time and I really don't like it. If I wanted to work at Tesco / Boots / B&Q etc, I'd fill in an application form like everyone else! I am there as a customer and part of that is not doing the firm's work for free. It will be an excuse to cut tons of jobs any day now, if it hasn't been already.

Plus it doesn't actually seem to save any time, given that half the stuff doesn't scan easily and you have to wait for someone to come and correct the machine.

Plus the repeated recorded instructions like 'unexpected item in bagging area' drive me up the wall.

If I'm invited to use them, I refuse - though so far I have suppressed my desire to rant about it when someone says 'would you like to use the self-service till?' That's why you're getting it here.

OP posts:
Oblomov · 19/05/2010 16:00

oh i don't mind them. for a few items they are fine. but they shouldn't be the ONLY way to pay.

ruddynorah · 19/05/2010 16:00

i love them, find them easy. but then i've done lots of shop work

biddysmama · 19/05/2010 16:01

i bought 14 single yoghurts and attempted to use the self service... not one of them would scan and i ended up putting the bloody codes in for 5 before i kicked it gave up to it..

Oblomov · 19/05/2010 16:02

vinegar, one memebr of staff to deal with 4 or 6 self service tills. they go wrong constantly so each of the 4 or 6 customers is stood there tutting, waiting for the person to come and sort them out. thats no good is it ?

Rhian82 · 19/05/2010 16:02

I love them, so much quicker. A pain if you're buying alcohol though.

minipie · 19/05/2010 16:03

I love them, much better than queuing.

but I find myself talking back to them

"no it's NOT an unexpected item you blinking machine"

ruddynorah · 19/05/2010 16:05

biddysmama- which shop? didn't it have a 'quantity' button?

don't forget it's not so long ago that all shops were one to one full service, not help yourself from the shelves at all. imagine that now, standing behind a counter at the front of tesco waiting for each thing you wanted to be brought over to you. they'd need millions of staff. i suppose online shopping is the true replacement of that.

pagwatch · 19/05/2010 16:06

I am enjoying the tales of self service till rage

DidYouDoThisOnMyHead · 19/05/2010 16:06

I hate them. I usually only use them if I have 1 or 2 things so I scan them then pop then straight in my bag over my shoulder. The bloody thing then has a fit because I've not put anything in the bagging area and I get all flustered, can't remember what it is I am supposed to do and some poor memebr of staff has to gently explain to the numpty (me) that you have to put your things down to be able to pay.

biddysmama · 19/05/2010 16:10

no, the guy came over the first time and showed me what to do... they were all different, i went into an i NEED yoghurt frenzy and grabbed loads lol

nappyaddict · 19/05/2010 16:10

It really pisses me off when people try and buy alcohol at the self service till. They know they will have to wait forever for someone to come and authorise it and hold everyone else up. Much quicker to use the normal less than 10 items til for alcohol.

Nymphadora · 19/05/2010 16:10

YANBU

Our tesco often just runs on them with a member of staff stocking and they don't come when you ring. I have abandoned my shopping many times to go to the Co-op ( who never have anything in hence not shopping there in the first place )

We got sent to one in B&Q at the weekend. Hugetrolley of stuff some were reduced and a member of staff had to put all of our stuff through in the end

StabbingWestward · 19/05/2010 16:11

Don't mind them, but hate hate hate it when someone is putting a weeks shop through them. One woman had a full trolley and a child of about 8 'helping' her...

'Now scan the chesse... look, its £1! Put the cheese in the bag. No IN the bag. Okay, now, what shall we do next? Milk? Okay, scan the milk. Look, 75p! That makes it £1.75! Put it in the bag...' FFS! With a WHOLE WEEKS WORTH OF SHOPPING!!!

Imisssleeping · 19/05/2010 16:11

Love them, I like having no social interaction and most people are too bloomin scared to use them so no queue!

VinegarTits · 19/05/2010 16:12

oblomov in my experience, people find them easy to use (at least in the supermarket i visit every lunch time they do) and the staff manning them is stood there a bit bored, maybe i come from a place where folk are not so technically challenged

squirrel42 · 19/05/2010 16:13

When they first brought in shops where you picked your own items off the shelf and took them to a till rather than a shop assistant behind a counter serving you there was probably an outcry!

Who knows, in five years time all shops might just have self-service tills and no one will think twice about it.

Mingg · 19/05/2010 16:17

What Katiepotatie said

foureleven · 19/05/2010 16:18

Only read OP.

I actually had a full on tantrum, stamped my feet and left my shopping half scanned and unpaid for in Tescos a few weeks back. YANBU.

ruddynorah · 19/05/2010 16:19

the ones in ikea are very good. no 'bagging area' at all. you just leave your stuff in your trolley and use the hand held scanner. very easy. can only pay by card though.

Wanderingsheep · 19/05/2010 16:19

I use them all the time but it does make me when DD touches the bagging area and it sets off he alert!

Another thing that winds me up is when someone in front can't figure out how to use it and the shop assistant ends up scanning all the stuff through. Why not just use a normal checkout?!

ruddynorah · 19/05/2010 16:22

yes or someone who goes up with bakery items that you have to look up, but they don't know what it'll be classed as or whatever so they start cursing at the machine.

or people who try to scan before they've put the previous item in the bagging area.

makes me want to leap in a sort them out.

nappyaddict · 19/05/2010 16:24

And people that take security tagged items.

singsinthebath · 19/05/2010 16:28

Love them but hate it if I'm stuck in the queue behind an incompetent user.

The trick is just to wave the item at the scanner, and 90% of the time it will register and the whole process will be relatively quick and painless. It helps to know that there is also a vertical scanner at the back.

It pisses me off when the person in front of me in the queue slowly searches for every barcode on every product rather than just doing the waving thing.

usualsuspect · 19/05/2010 16:32

My DD works in tescos and hates the bloody self service tills...the amount of abuse she gets when staffing them is unbelievable ..

pagwatch · 19/05/2010 16:34

see. that right there is why I hate them.
You lot are all ready getting all arsey about the twats and incompetents who can't use them properly as if the ability to swipe quickly is going to find you the cure for cancer.

You just all want to swish in store and pick up your sandwich and treat the ability to do it quickly as the definition of 21st century techno kudos. Fuck the little old lady with the tin of reduced cat food.

It doesn't need a trick, it shouldn't require knowledge of where the bar code thingy is. I am paying for this shit. I want them to do at least part of the transaction.

Fuckers