Unexpected item in the bagging area.

I was in Sainsbury's a bit earlier. My local one has recently installed a few self checkout machines. I thought I would try it.

Sophie Raworth was THIS close to telling the nation, on the news, that a man had gone beserk in a North London Supermarket and had been shot dead by armed police, while trying to ram an assistant manager's head into a coin slot.
First of all, It kept telling me there was an unexpected item in the bagging area... Well, yes.. It's called a bag. My bag. The one I just told the stupid machine, I'd be using. Girl comes to help. I scan a couple of things, then.. "Unexpected item in bagging area". Girl comes over to sort it out again. Scan next item... "Weighing item". Weighing?.. It's a box of bloody Cheerios! It doesn't need to be weighed.
Girl comes and waves her electronic pass thing, again. Two items later.. "Age verification needed". I'd stupidly bought a packet of Paracetemol, which meant girl had to come over again and OK with the machine. Immediately after. "Unexpected item in the bagging area". Girl comes over again, waves her thing at it and looks at me like she wants to kill me.
In all, I needed assistance FIVE times, for a small basket of items. It would have been quicker... And much better for my mental health, if I'd lined up at the regular checkout, behind the woman with a mountain of stuff in a trolley.
Those machines are frickin' useless! - The only thing it did without trouble, was take my money. It sucked in my £20 note easily enough, then spat out a few coppers in change. But everything else.. Trouble.
Those things are in serious need of a firmware update.

One of our supermarkets has them. If it doesn't scan your item you get it free. My son shops there and managed to get three big pieces of beef for free as it failed to scan each one. He has also had free wine, and all sorts of other stuff.

Me? I prefer to chat to a human whilst they scan my shopping.

Technology doesn't always work well I think when they put the RF tags/labels on items it will be a lot better.

I saw a recent survey that showed that it was faster to go through the normal checkout than the self-service. They probably introduced them to save on checkout staff wages by making the people redundant. For that reason I would never use them. If they give me a brush I'll sweep the store for them on my way out

+1

Even better - Waitrose doesn't have them at all.

As the Buddhist saying goes; “those who speak do not know”.

On the other hand at the self-service checkout those who know imperiously summon an assistant with a wave of the hand prior to the predictable problems arising, while the long-queuing technophobes look on in fear and loathing.

It’s real time Darwinism baby -- I love ‘em

Our local Tesco has them, I quite enjoy using them. The problems only start when you have lightweight items or more than a bag of shopping, but to be fair I don't think they're really designed for that. I tend to use them if I'm buying a pack of sandwiches or a couple of things to top-up the fridge.

Yeah, they just have offer free home delivery on online grocery shopping so that they don't need any checkout staff whatsoever.

Personal service is priceless.... I'll never forget when
I went in Tesco's for just two 1 pt cartons of milk and
the cashier asked me.... "Would like any help with your
packing?" No Thanks I think I can manage!!!

I'm sorry it was bad for your mental health; your story's good for mine though. Gave me a good laugh. Wish I'd been there and could have seen you (and taken some pictures maybe).

I hate those machines too. The "unexpected item" thing drives me mad. I have to heap up my stuff until I have finished and then pack it all in my rucksack thus taking up the space at the machine for twice as long as necessary. The tinny voice saying "unexpected item..." from eight machines almost continuously must drive the staff nuts. I'm with mowog on this one.

K.

My usual response to that question is "no thanks, I think I can remember how to do it"

Since I work in the local Smiths I will not use these tills, in a few years time there will be no jobs in supermarkets.

Sandy

Nothing beats the thrill of putting your expensive loose items through as 'carrots'. Take that, Tesco! Generally I prefer my local pakistani supermarket though, talk about cheap!

This is becoming a typical story. The bleeming voice "... the unexpected item" is becoming so annoying I sometimes pull my hair out. And I have stopped using it. God knows who designed these machines, and the software for them. Doesn't look like it was designed by people who really go shopping.

Now I am no technophobe, heck I used to design softwares in my earlier life during the COBOL age, but these machines just frustrate me. And I guess its due to my stubborness in thinking the previous incident while using it might have been just a one off so I keep trying them but almost every single trip to these machines end up in the same bleeming voice telling me "... unexpected item.."

I seriously think the flaws on these machines comes from the softwares, they could have designed it better or at least make it more user friendly and avoid those frustrating moments. I won't use them again!

I think nowadays many things are designed and planned by people who really haven't got a clue on their usage and applications. I have noticed this in the last few years in fact. Many examples around I encounter constantly. My local leisure centre which has a swimming pool for example, a few years ago when it was rebuilt by the council they designed it in such a way that people coming and going to and from swimming pool have to literally walk out through a corredor door which has a clear access view to the reception where usually a long queue of people are standing to buy entry tickets and they have to walk a few steps and open another door to the pool. Besides the modelling passage in trunks and swim wear one gets a cold draft of air from the open area.

This year another council leisure centre opened, the Swimarama and they designed it with huge glass walls that drivers from adjacent busy road can see through everyone in the swimming pool. There was an uproar from the public within days that it was opened and now they covered it with some opaque stuff, which look so bad on a newly built facilities.

Well, that's my moan and thanks mowog for starting a thread and allowing me to vent my frustrations too. I know what you feel at that till