self checkout lanes

[Timewalker]

I suspect from the shoppers point of view you are wrong maybe 1 in 10 times. From the Cashiers point of view it could be more a case of the customer is wrong 9/10 times.

You've said you're reaction would/is "Well get on with it, then!" I think you'll find a "Thank you" will work better. Whilst you say you don't get angry, how you phrase a response can acome across as "Can't you <insert expletive> people do anything right!" or "Thanks, for sorting this out for me"

The way I see it, regarding prices the shopper is either wrong or right - there's no in-between. And I've been right far more times than I've been wrong.

My "get on with it!" reaction is not always verbalized. It's how I feel when the clerk's tone of voice and body language seems to be daring me to get them to check on the item because they either don't want to, or they can't believe the computer could be wrong. I've had similar things happen at banks, while doing some banking chores for my grandmother when I had power of attorney. The teller all but accused me of trying to make off with my grandmother's money - she said, "Well, you know we're not going to give you the cash - we're just going to transfer the money to the other bank!" in a sneering tone of voice. In that instance, I did tell her to "get on with it" because as far as I was concerned, she was the one wasting time (yes, I know they have to be sure, but all the documentation was in order and I really didn't need their rudeness...).

 

[MacLeod]

^The computer is never wrong, somewhere along the lines a Human has made a mistake. i.e. by not changing the price label.

Not saying what the person in the shop is doing is right/ but you are just one of hundreds or thousands of people they might serve in that day. So yes you might be right more often than not, but in general from their perespective it might be that the customer is more often wrong than right.

still doesn't excuse good customer service though.

 

[Timewalker]

Good customer service is to be praised, not excused...

 

[doubleohfive]

doubleohfive wrote:
... unless you're dealing with a customer taking their sweet time counting change or heckling over prices or what have you, things are typically well-paced. I can't think of a single time when a grocery line I've been in that has been stalled or we've been held up that was a cashier's fault.

If the price at the till and the price posted on the shelf don't match, damn right I'm going to "heckle." Even if it's just 5 or 10 cents, it's still the principle of the thing. And yes, I realize this annoys people in line behind me; I don't care. The store has to be kept honest, and I don't let the clerk get away with saying, "Maybe you got it from another shelf?"

Well, no. I am quite aware of which shelf I got it from, thanks!

doubleohfive wrote:
Swell. You missed the point I was making though.

Okay, what was your point?

Its in the second sentence you quoted. Simply that anytime I myself have encountered any delay in a regular grocery store checkout lane, that it has rarely been the fault of the checkout person, and very often instead the fault of some dipshit asshole trying to count every one of their pennies or use the express lane to buy 300 items, or some such nonsense when I just want to buy my condoms and aftershave.

I'm glad you take your shopping so seriously to heckle with the management about actual prices versus those advertised, but that was just a throwaway example of how some customers hold the rest of us up, often times needlessly. So I guess I have to take my previous comment back - you got my point and made it for me. Thanks!

 

[Timewalker]

There's no need to be vulgar about it.

I don't "count every penny." I normally use my debit card when I'm doing the grocery shopping, unless what I'm buying comes to less than $10 or so. And as long as it's a familiar model, I don't need to be taught how to use the debit machines; it just takes me a little longer due to dexterity and vision problems.

And I'm quite sure that if I tried to take 300 items through an express lane, I'd get lambasted by everybody around... except in such instances as it's half an hour until closing and the express lane is the only one open! In that case it's not my fault, it's the store's fault.

Are we using the same definition of "heckle"? To me, it means to make fun of, to ridicule, or to insult. All I meant was that if the price on the shelf says one thing and the price at the till comes up higher, I expect to get the item at the shelf price, since it's POSTED that that's the amount the store wants for it.

There have been times when the store staff have thanked me for drawing their attention to incorrect prices, as it makes it fair for the other customers who also buy that item and they will only need to correct it once, instead of 10 other people also complaining.

And if you need to shave and jump into bed that badly, maybe you should try a smaller store where there aren't so many people?

 

[doubleohfive]

Dude, you are taking this all way, way too seriously.

1) Where was I vulgar?

2) I never said YOU counted every penny. I again made an offhand reference to a possible scenario which might cause a slowdown in the checkout line. Why does it necessarily follow that I must be referring (or inferring about) to you?

As for your last comment, again... seriously? Really? What gives?

 

[Timewalker]

First of all, I'm not a "dude." See the icon below my name? Female.

Second of all, the word "you" in English doesn't differentiate between one person and many. I'm just pointing out that the behavior you describe isn't the behavior I do. Since you quoted and addressed me, I considered it reasonable to respond in a personal way.

Third: Vulgarity is to some extent in the eye/sense of the beholder. Since you were quoting and to some extent addressing me, I didn't really appreciate the "dipshit asshole" part of your post.

Fourth: Re-read your own post. It seems as though you are in a big hurry to buy those two specific items, so maybe it would be less annoying for you to get them somewhere other than a busy grocery store. I apologize for my own assumption, which was also rude.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Third: Vulgarity is to some extent in the eye/sense of the beholder.

Good reason right there not to respond with hostility.

Why don't we discuss something that no one gets upset about, like people who get into the "ten items or less" line with full carts?

 

[Robert Maxwell]

You know, the other day they actually told me to use the express lane, even though I had about 25 items and not the 12 you're supposed to have.

 

[RoJoHen]

You know, the other day they actually told me to use the express lane, even though I had about 25 items and not the 12 you're supposed to have.

Well, if the other lines are busy and nobody is in the Express Lane, you might as well just use it if you don't have a giant order. It's not like you'll break the register if you go over the 12 item limit, and I guarantee the checkout person isn't counting. They're probably just bored standing there with nothing to do.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

You know, the other day they actually told me to use the express lane, even though I had about 25 items and not the 12 you're supposed to have.

Well, if the other lines are busy and nobody is in the Express Lane, you might as well just use it if you don't have a giant order. It's not like you'll break the register if you go over the 12 item limit, and I guarantee the checkout person isn't counting. They're probably just bored standing there with nothing to do.

That's exactly what it was. There was no one using the express lane and the other lanes all had lines, and I didn't have a full cart.

 

[Sean Aaron]

Here they tend to call them "basket only" so anyone trying to roll a trolley through is going to get stopped by the cashiere and told to move their shit somewhere else.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

You know, the other day they actually told me to use the express lane, even though I had about 25 items and not the 12 you're supposed to have.

Well, if the other lines are busy and nobody is in the Express Lane, you might as well just use it if you don't have a giant order. It's not like you'll break the register if you go over the 12 item limit, and I guarantee the checkout person isn't counting. They're probably just bored standing there with nothing to do.

That's exactly what it was. There was no one using the express lane and the other lanes all had lines, and I didn't have a full cart.

Well then, instructions from the folks running the thing overrule signage. Same as a cop directing cars through a four-way traffic light.

Just because "there's no one in line at the register " OTOH isn't good enough unless the place is absolutely dead. The lady who walks up five seconds later with two bananas and a diet coke doesn't need to be standing in the express lane behind someone shopping for the week who decided to call "dibs" on an open lane.

 

[Mike Farley]

The lady with the bananas and diet coke should go to the self-check lane. It's faster.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

The lady with the bananas and diet coke should go to the self-check lane. It's faster.

There are self-check express lanes as well as cashiered, and some people don't follow the rules in either kind.

 

[Sean Aaron]

It's faster.

It's crap.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Well, it's not Scottish.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzG_J7RCGS0[/yt]

 

[Trekker4747]

doubleohfive wrote:
... unless you're dealing with a customer taking their sweet time counting change or heckling over prices or what have you, things are typically well-paced. I can't think of a single time when a grocery line I've been in that has been stalled or we've been held up that was a cashier's fault.

If the price at the till and the price posted on the shelf don't match, damn right I'm going to "heckle." Even if it's just 5 or 10 cents, it's still the principle of the thing. And yes, I realize this annoys people in line behind me; I don't care. The store has to be kept honest, and I don't let the clerk get away with saying, "Maybe you got it from another shelf?"

Well, no. I am quite aware of which shelf I got it from, thanks!

doubleohfive wrote:
Swell. You missed the point I was making though.

Okay, what was your point?

Its in the second sentence you quoted. Simply that anytime I myself have encountered any delay in a regular grocery store checkout lane, that it has rarely been the fault of the checkout person, and very often instead the fault of some dipshit asshole trying to count every one of their pennies or use the express lane to buy 300 items, or some such nonsense when I just want to buy my condoms and aftershave.

I'm glad you take your shopping so seriously to heckle with the management about actual prices versus those advertised, but that was just a throwaway example of how some customers hold the rest of us up, often times needlessly. So I guess I have to take my previous comment back - you got my point and made it for me. Thanks!

In my experience an error in pricing is usually 75% customer error. In my store we have a staff of about six people whose job it is to come in at 2:00 in the morning on ad-change days and go through everything and make sure the correct signage is up and the system coincides with what's on the shelf. Yeah, every once in a while something is missed due to either a product UPC changing or it's just over looked but most of the time when I handle a price discrepancy it's customer error. Usually from not properly reading the sign to see what is and is not on sale (the Beef-style Oscar Mayer hot dogs and "mixed meat" hot dogs are on different pricing tiers. If one is on sale the other one isn't.) Or taking an item that is slotted adjacent to the sale item. Also failure to notice exclusions in an ad.

Heavily common, also, on stuff out of the service counter is not noticing an item is priced by count and not by weight. So, yeah, sorry lady that Prime Strip steak isn't $4.99/lb it's $4.99 for an 8 ounce steak, as it's clearly marked.

As I said there are exceptions and its usually due to human error and not out of any slight on the store to "screw" the customer. There's 50,000 or so different items on our shelves, once in a while, yeah, changing an item's price and ensuring it's price in the system matches the price on the signage is not going to line up.

Just yesterday a couple of days ago a customer got pissed with me because an item he wanted to buy rang up higher than the price on the shelf (an ad price.) He said we were trying to screw him over. What really happened? The UPC number was changed by the manufacturer so the old UPC got changed to the ad price but the new one didn't because no one was aware of the change. (We're not informed of these types of changes and just sort-of have to catch it.) He was getting the item for free due to the discrepancy but he thought it was some active conspiracy to screw him out of 10 freaking cents.

Stuff is going to be missed, that's just the nature of things. I highly doubt there's many businesses out there set to screw over their customers by tagging things wrong than they'll ring up as. That's just bad business, information like that is caught and the word gets out.

If something rings up wrong be polite to the cashier -whose $8/hr. job does not include changing prices on the shelf- who will alert the manager, the problem will be fixed by those who can do it and life will go on. Politeness will get people further than rudeness.

 

[Timewalker]

Well, I try to be polite at all times. And I realize the store isn't out to get me... unless they refuse to accept that they made a mistake when it's pointed out that they did and it's obvious that the customer is right in that case.

About express lanes... the other day, there were about 10 people in the express lane, just one person in the regular lane, so that's where I went with my 3 items.

 

[Saxman1]

As an MBA who has had to work as a contractor for most of this year, the only thing I don't like is self checkout costing jobs. I'm probably a little more sensitive to that than most....