Just let me pay and leave as soon as possible, you MORON.

"Radio shack. You've got questions. We've got blank stares."

"Radio shack. You've got questions. We've got blank stares."

Oh, they're much more than mere morons. At least, the UK branch of Radio Shack (Tandy), while it existed, had some of the stupidest people I've ever seen. These guys would have been out of their depth if asked to stand up.

The best example of this was a few years back when I was in the local Tandy shop with a friend, and asked to look at a 5 inch LCD monitor that was on special. It took 6 C cells, and when I asked to see it working they had to put some in. The more experienced of the two guys behind the till told the new guy to help me. He removed the thing from the display case, turned it over and over in his hands for about a minute, and finally found the prominently labelled hatch on the back where that batteries went.

Another minute or so of fumbling, and he had managed to break the clip that held the door shut and remove it, exposing the battery compartment. At this point he stared around the shop helplessly, like a sheep asked to explain differential calculus. His superior idiot pointed him gently at the small box of test batteries, and the guy then took another couple of minutes trying several different sizes until he found some that fitted. He of course managed to get them in backwards. My friend Jon and I were by this time going red trying not to laugh.

A few moment of poking power buttons failed to elicit any signs of life, and of course no one else was going to point out where he had gone wrong. This was far too funny to interrupt. Anyway, after a while, and a short discussion between both drones, our one got the idea to measure the battery voltage with a multimeter.

He removed the batteries, took one over to the end of the counter where the test meter was, and fiddled with it for a while until he got it more or less on the correct setting. He then, and I swear this is true, proceeded to put both test probes on the same end of the C cell he was holding! Jon and I almost had strokes on the spot trying not to collapse in hysterical fits of laughter.

After a few seconds, I managed to get control of myself enough to gasp out that he had to measure both ends, then simply couldn't believe it when he solemnly turned the battery over and put both probes on the other end.

Anyway, this farce went on for a few more minutes, until eventually he made the thing work. I looked at it, decided it wasn't what I wanted, thanked the fellow, and left. As soon as we were a safe distance away, Jon and I simply collapsed in laughter for nearly ten minutes. It was some of the best live entertainment I've ever seen

pca

That's got me laughing out loud and scaring the co-workers, too. I'm going to print that.

I get really wound up when (with cash in hand) I get stuck behind somebody charging a $1.65 cup of coffee at Tully's and the POS credit card reader won't work!

Or how about at the grocery store, when the clerk has finished ringing up about $160 worth of groceries for the lady in front of you... and then she starts fishing through her purse, trying to find her checkbook. "Oh, do you have a pen I can borrow?" "Umm, which store is this, is this Safeway?" "What was that amount again?" "Oh, you need to see my ID, don't you... just a minute, let me look for it.."

The grocery stores I go to, I swipe my card while they're still ringing up the items, all I have to do is sign the receipt and I'm out of there in less time than you can give the cashier a $5 bill and take $3.35 in change!



tanstaafl.

Better yet is the growing trend of stores with do-it-yourself bagging and checking out. Except there's only one guy getting the payments for all those lanes.

I also have a debit card with a checking and savings account. I've had it for 7 years now with no difficulty, even when I lost it in France (sorry for the typical reaction, but I now DO NOT like the French police. long story) Anyway, I haven't had a case of fraud yet. *knocks on desk*

Better yet is the growing trend of stores with do-it-yourself bagging and checking out. Except there's only one guy getting the payments for all those lanes.

That's weird. Ours have bill, coin, and card receptors and can spit out change in addition to a receipt. They also have the obligatory moron standing at the end, making sure that no one steals stuff, I guess.

But I really hate these things.

First off, they almost have enough counter space for you to put down the Snickers bar you're buying, let alone if you're trying to purchase your weekly groceries.

Second, if you need to purchase produce, which obviously has no bar code, you need to punch in a code for it. But they've yet to get the idea that it might be smart to put a list of said codes near the scanner. Nope. You've gotta spend ten minutes trying to get the attention of lobotomy-boy over there to find the code for you.

Third, this would all be moot if it didn't seem that every time I go, that's the only lane open. I usually argue with them for a while until they give up and check me out at a real register.

I don't have an inherent problem with these self-checkout lanes existing, but it seems like it's just another way to reduce the amount of customer service given. It'll get to the point where it's the only way to buy groceries, and I'll then be forced into having them delivered.

Interesting. Our home town recently got some of those self-checkout lines installed at a local K-mart. Our first.

Ironically, our local K-mart has been, for years, notorious for having the worst and slowest checkout lines, staffed by the most moronic of all possible employees. I thought it was funny that their attempt at solving the problem was to install the self-checkout system rather than simply raising the IQ of the staff.

"Interesting. Our home town recently got some of those self-checkout lines installed at a local K-mart. Our first. "

Yeah, but half of the damn items still misring at the register and you STILL have to wait for the SAME staff members to fix the problem. It's the same reason the traditional lines are so long. I swear to God, EVERY time I go to that store (Tony and I live in the same small town) I have to wait while someone runs in back to check the price on an item for the person ahead of me. And they're usually quibbling about $1-2 in price change.

I think the bankruptcy may be the only solution here.

This could be the reason the company filed chapter 11.

I've had my groceries delivered for almost three years, by ordering online (tesco.com). They charge £5, but considering that someone wanders around the store with a trolley and a mobile checkout, packs it in bags and then delivers it to the door, it's a bargain - and costs less than the cab fare from the store.

Wish they offered that service here.

The grocery stores I go to, I swipe my card while they're still ringing up the items, all I have to do is sign the receipt and I'm out of there in less time than you can give the cashier a $5 bill and take $3.35 in change!

One advantage of my debit card here, it's also an ATM card. All the self card scanners I have come across at the checkout lanes (including Walmart as well) allow me to swipe, enter my PIN, and leave. Unless my stripe decided to not work. Out of the few cards I have, my debit card has to be replaced every 2 months now. I know it's time when the Walmart lady grabs the card, wraps it in a plastic bag, and swipes it. Because by the time I get the replacement, it will degrade beyond the point of that trick even working.

And can someone explain to me how that helps? My friend didn't believe me that it did until he watched a Best Buy person do it as well.

Second, if you need to purchase produce, which obviously has no bar code, you need to punch in a code for it. But they've yet to get the idea that it might be smart to put a list of said codes near the scanner. Nope. You've gotta spend ten minutes trying to get the attention of lobotomy-boy over there to find the code for you.

Odd, all of our King Soopers here that have these lanes have a button to press for produce. Then it brings up a menu to find the item, and adds it to the list. I know they didn't roll it out that way, but it's been like that for a bit. Initially you would put the item there, and wait on the attendant to enter it from their station (each station here has a camera on the pad so they can see it). They tend to work really well here as long as everyone remembers there is an item limit. It would be nice to see more of them, since when I use them, it takes me no time at all to get out of the store, around all the old ladies with checkbooks and fear of technology

The real solution is to genetically engineer the produce so that the correct bar code simply appears in the pigmentation of the skin.

That is a cool idea but also immensely disturbing for some reason
One of the local supermarkets near me used to have scales where it printed out a little sticker for you automatically after you chose what produce it was.

- Trevor

Sainsburys also do this service but they continually send me free delivery vouchers through the post. They all say first time customers only but nobody complains...

- Trevor

I have to wait while someone runs in back to check the price on an item for the person ahead of me.

The local K-Mart in my town has a policy that if the item doesn't ring up right (bar code not in the system, or price that rings up is different from that marked on the shelf) then the item is immediately sold at whatever price the customer says it is. No arguments, no "Price check on Register 13", no sending somebody back to check on the chance that the store just might lose 40 cents on the transaction. They just ring it up. Of course, that applies to customer-supplied prices within reason -- obviously a 6-head VCR isn't going out the door for $19.95.

They apparently take the quaint view that customer satisfaction is more important than wringing the last nickel of profit out of every transaction.

tanstaafl.

Or how about at the grocery store, when the clerk has finished ringing up about $160 worth of groceries for the lady in front of you... and then she starts fishing through her purse, trying to find her checkbook.

When cash/check transactions were the "dominant paradigm" (argh!) I'm guessing this would be the ugly scenario that you would be more likely to encounter (though I can say that I have), but the underlying problem seems behavioral -- customer who doesn't have their [censored] together.

I use my debit card quite happily for groceries and it serves as a nice, no-charge "cash back", ersatz ATM, too. I'd say, though, that nowadays, you are as likely to get stuck behind some disorganized person fishing for their debit card as you are to be stuck behind someone fishing for their cash.

What irks me (mildly) about my occasional plight at Tully's is that the problem is not really behavioral but systemic. More often than is desirable, the POS (nice double entendre, eh?) card reader won't work, or the connection to the verification system won't work, or it will take *forever* because the system is getting hammered by Christmas shoppers. Meanwhile, I'm standing there with $2 in my hand, and all I want is a cup of coffeeeeeee!!!!

So, I guess I could say that I have less of a problem with credit card verification problems (in front of me or when it happens to me) when I am at the end of a 45-minute grocery shop worth $80 as compared to those times when I attempt to acquire a $1.50 Grande half-caf drip in an interaction that *should* take 1 minute but instead takes 4 or 5.

Eh?

I'm gonna use that one.

I've had several RatShack tell me that I'm their biggest customer! So, I'm not the only one.

Well, the problem with all of that is the cash-only/ten-items-or-fewer (and I've actually started to see some places use ``fewer'' instead of ``less'' -- yay!) is always closed or some uber-bitch has decided that the rules don't apply to her and goes through it with a hundred items and then pays the $300 bill with thirty travellers' checks that she hasn't started signing until after the cashier is done ringing up the purchase because she's too busy ignoring her toddler running about the store screaming its head off and plowing into other shoppers. Of course, since she was obviously in such a big hurry, she parked her Canyonero in the fire lane, yet still somehow manages to leave the grocery cart in the middle of a parking space.

I live in a neighborhood near a lot of rich bitches. Can you tell?

But I really hate these things.

I have come to accept and even like ATMs, even though I know that the motivation for banks to install them was not to make me happy but was to reduce labor costs.

With subsequent "innovations" like DIY check stands, though, I am more acutely aware of whose interests are being served. I refuse to use DIY check stands and won't shop at local merchants (like Fred Meyer) in future if I have a problem finding a live, breathing cashier.

Systems like these are often fine so long as your interaction doesn't raise any exceptions. 3-4 weeks ago at O'Hare airport (during an interrupted trip) I went to a manned check-in desk while a colleague (against my advice) went to an automated "Express" check-in. One minute later I had my boarding pass, but then had to wait about 15 minutes for my compatriot as the express system failed to digest some aspect of his checked baggage situation and advised him to pick up the handy telephone mounted on the console so that he could wait in a queue to iron things out with a real person.

Heh, I like that K-Mart "it scans or you tell *us* the price" policy. Would that other retailers would be so bold -- and not wind up Chapter 11!

ATMs are great until you get the person in front of you that has forgotten their PIN for the first 2 tries, takes out less than they wanted so have to try again and finally want to check their balance, order a new cheque book and print out a statement...

I've always saved loads of time by checking in via the automated British Airways executive club check in system. You get your tickets out of a machine at the airport and check in online the day before when you select what seat you want. You don't have to queue as well.
You get a lot of nasty looks from other people in the long queues though

- Trevor

(and I've actually started to see some places use ``fewer'' instead of ``less'' -- yay!)

Bitt and *only* Bitt!!

has decided that the rules don't apply to her

Oh, I see this a lot...but even in my decidedly middle-class part of Seattle.

I live in a neighborhood near a lot of rich bitches. Can you tell?

Yes. Sounds like a unique neighborhood!!

I know you're basically agreeing with me, but the difference with ATMs is that they provide a service that wasn't available before, namely that you can do banking, including withdrawing money, outside normal banking hours.

But self-checkout lines don't provide any further service. They make you do more work for the same result. It's the same reason I avoid buffets. If I'm going out to eat, I want someone to wait on me.

I've always saved loads of time by checking in via the automated British Airways executive club check in system. You get your tickets out of a machine at the airport and check in online the day before when you select what seat you want. You don't have to queue as well.

Yes, actually, the various automatic check-in systems can be quite good for "no exception" situations. To clarify, in the O'Hare example, my colleague had the choice of going with me to a nearly-no-wait, frequent-flyer check-in desk or the "Express" line when we had been delayed overnight ...and rebooked ...and he had an upgrade ...and a checked bag...and so on and so on. he made the wrong choice under the circumstances.

I will say I *am* suspicious of "Express" systems (and E-tickets) in cases where travel is critical -- where you may want the carrier to shift you to another carrier to actually get yuou where you need to be. But that's another story. With United on the verge of Chapter 11, i'm starting to make *all* my tickets paper tickets!!

You get a lot of nasty looks from other people in the long queues though

Jimey don't do long queues!

But self-checkout lines don't provide any further service. They make you do more work for the same result.

Yes. A much better point. I wasn't really thinking of, or acknowledging, the additional benefits that ATMs have provided beyond saving banks payroll. Like, gad, you can get money in France on a *Sunday*.

Interestingly, an old GF's friend had a job with a West Coast bank where the whole point of the job was to optimize how much money was waylaid in ATMs. Yes, they never want the ATM to run out of money, but, at the same time, all that cash sitting in ATMs isn't *making* more money the way the bank would like. So some of his schemes involved things like "rapid response" ATM restockers -- Corvettes loaded with cash zooming around the city refilling ATMs on a just-in-time basis!

Luckily I haven't had an special exceptions occur when travelling. I do agree that talking to a human is vastly better normally as they can actually help you or try to understand what is wrong.
I try to stick with the larger airlines to avoid problems. This hasn't always worked out because my friend unfortunately was booked on a Canada 3000 flight just when it went bankrupt and shutdown. They managed to get him onto another carrier's flight though a couple of days later. His girlfriend was unimpressed to say the least!

I ordered a laptop through the online site at Dell. It was stuck in the processing stage for about 2 weeks and during that time, the price of the laptop was reduced. I phoned up asking to see if there was any way of getting a discount (well, you never know and the guy said that because I was an internet order I couldn't. But if I had called up on the phone in the first place then he could have done it then and there. All of the orders for the entire European internet site are handled by two people apparently.

- Trevor

> They apparently take the quaint view that customer
> satisfaction is more important than wringing the last
> nickel of profit out of every transaction.

I've never understood why that kind of policy is not more common. I've only once seen something similar. A customer in front of me at Tesco had bought some kind of fruit the operator didn't recognise. They turned to the supervisor behind them and asked. The supervisor took hold of the bag, looked at it. Then said 'I don't know. Free'.

Yet other times I've been stuck in a queue while the checkout operator gets up and goes across the store to verify a shelf-edge price, returns with the same price as the till had. Then has to go back again with the customer who points to a different shelf where a half price offer was marked. It took five minutes. The operator apologised for the delay and being British, I said it wasn't a problem.

The supervisor took hold of the bag, looked at it. Then said 'I don't know. Free'.

That might be less customer service and more employer disservice.

Case in point: I used to work at a store that sold, amongst other things, role-playing games. One particular publisher, West End Games, never printed a price on their products. Ever. Even in the UPC translation. Despite this, and despite the fact that he wouldn't allow anyone else to unpack the games shipments, my boss, who was also owner of the store, would never put a price sticker on them. Ever.

So when a customer would come to me and ask how much they were, I'd usually make up a price that was somewhere in the neighborhood of what I figured half-price would be.

This sort of thing also happened frequently with Games Workshop games, which were exclusively priced in UK Pounds.

So don't assume that a clerk is being nice to you. Assume he's being bitchy to his employer.

That ain't bad! I didn't realise EasyJet did that route.

Hmmmmm - useful to know. Cheers.

There was a story in the paper last week about stupid checkout operators.

Apparently the goods were flying through the scanner until they couldn't find the barcode on the last one - they held up the little plastic divider and asked them if they knew how much it was!

"Don't worry - I don't want it any more" the customer replied!

Gareth