Supermarket self service tills are terrible for customer service

I'm sure I would be more than capable of using them. The problem is, you don't get a discount. Why do it yourself when someone else is being paid to do it for you? Less work for me, a job for them. I would use them if I got a discount though. I'm a slight hypocrite because I only use the petrol pay at the pumps BUT this is less work for me rather then more. Don't have to lock to car and walk into the shop. It means it only takes half the time.
 
I usually shop when there's only these available (1am-4am), I have a lot of shopping for the Self-Serve things so if one of the workers who's stood there chatting to their mates doesn't want to open a till or put them through the Self-Serve for me I will just leave it all there and walk out. I hate the Self-Serve things.
 
Andy said:
and the obvious issue that people might be losing their jobs because of these machines.
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I doubt they do, people still have to monitor them, also, your not going to be working in tescos then all of a sudden the boss comes over to you and say "eeerr sorry, were going to have to let you go, we have replaced you with a screen", they will more likely find them something more productive to do around the store to better it, as checkout is a resource hog really.

What would you rather do? Have over staff on tills, or introduce some self serve tills, take a few normal ones off and get the staff doing stuff round the store to improve it?

Its just an addition to offer the customers the quicker option of doing it themselvs
 
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mame said:
Why do it yourself when someone else is being paid to do it for you?
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Why waste a few minutes of your time queuing, when you can zip through self service instantly.

Also asda ones, you can chuck handfuls of change in. Useful after a night out drinking. When your pockets are full of shrapnel.
 
Used to get lots of errors during the first few uses, but now I've not had any for months. The only interruption is usually for alcohol id checks.

doofer said:
I usually shop when there's only these available (1am-4am), I have a lot of shopping for the Self-Serve things so if one of the workers who's stood there chatting to their mates doesn't want to open a till or put them through the Self-Serve for me I will just leave it all there and walk out. I hate the Self-Serve things.
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I hate when people do that during peak times at like 7PM, and worse even when the parents let the kids scan each individual item..
 
Fine for a small amount of items but quicker to use a normal till for larger amounts.
 
You have to ask why they are there. Thinking that they are quicker is a short sighted way of looking at it. They are only quicker because they only take a shaving of the traffic that goes through the main checkouts. What if they were all self-serve? Would they be any quicker? I think that they would be slower. The only winner when this point comes is the supermarket.
 
I thought there was a bit of anonymity to them, but having bought 4 different types of lube on offer, I walked pass the 'master' till, to see everybody's shopping being displayed as it was scanned.

Apart from that, they're good.
 
mame said:
You have to ask why they are there. Thinking that they are quicker is a short sighted way of looking at it. They are only quicker because they only take a shaving of the traffic that goes through the main checkouts. What if they were all self-serve? Would they be any quicker? I think that they would be slower. The only winner when this point comes is the supermarket.
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1) They are only suitable for small shops
2) they can fit far more in due to less staff needing to supervise them.

They won't fit another 10 normal basket only checkouts due to staff commitment. But they will fit 10 self service.

Everyone wins.
 
I've never had any problems with them but they never feel intuitive to use. Makes me feel clumsy as i fumble around with all the items scanning and bagging them all. I prefer the express basket checkout since i don't tend to ever go into supermarkets unless im picking up snacks or a few things.
 
AcidHell2 said:
1) They are only suitable for small shops
2) they can fit far more in due to less staff needing to supervise them.

They won't fit another 10 normal basket only checkouts due to staff commitment. But they will fit 10 self service.

Everyone wins.
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I'll just let them do it for me, I've already paid for the service, might as well use it.
 
HumbleCoder said:
From a technological point of view I can see the machines themselves being quite difficult to balance between the varying weights of the same products and bagging speeds of customers and trying to prevent theft or gaming of the system. But where they really fall down is when the things go wrong and a member of staff has to help you.

At my local Asda, for example, it has 14 self service tills and generally has 2 - 3 members of staff for all of them. When the machine decides I haven't bagged something or I need to be ID'ed the staff are generally slow to respond because they have other duties, are helping another customer or generally not paying attention/gabbing/being poor at their job.

They are wonderful and quick for the 1 in 4 times I can make it through without needing human intervention. It's just a shame the other times I receive terrible customer service.

Do you love them or loathe them?
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So you're saying a machine is terrible for customer service?

Or the staff themselves that are assisting are bad at customer service?

Either way... these machine are great for those that use them on their lunch hour!
 
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