Flower Fun, and WE'RE CLOSED!

[Dreamstalker]

A woman comes up to me with two of our mini rose plants, they are $9.99. "How much are these? They're marked $9.99 but the man outside told me they are $3.99."
"These are $9.99."
"Are you sure? Can you do a price check?"
"I can't leave this area, you can go to the service desk or there is a price scanner just around the corner." The paystation was locked and I didn't know the person's password so I couldn't get in to do it there. All the keyholders were busy so it would take me a few minutes to get it forcibly signed off so I could sign on. "If you'll excuse me I have to help someone else."
I think that's the end of it and go to take care of a genuine problem...and SC tracks me down. Yes, she followed me to the SCO and got in the customer's (and my) face.
"She's busy, I was told these are $3.99."
"They are $9.99 and I can't get into this register so you'll have to either use the price scanner or stand in line somewhere."
"Really, because the man outside told me they are $3.99."
(knowing who is outside, I know exactly who told her...A) "These plants are $9.99. Unless you can show me a sign that says $3.99 I can't just give you that price."
"I can show you who told me."
"And I can't accept that. I need to see a sign."
"Can I talk to a manager?"
"Sure, but they will tell you the same thing I did."
Which S does. He later goes off on A for telling someone a wrong price. There was a sign but it was for violets or something cheap and said "$smallerplants" right on it.

One of the SCOs decided to not take or give cash. I suspect it had been a problem all day but whoever was on before me neglected to either tell me or put a sign up.

The store closes at 9 on Sundays. Usually. Last night, half the town decided to do their shopping at 8:55.

At 9:15, I get called over to SCO (I was pulled to open a register at 8:50 due to the crowds). I thought everyone had been rung out...

Transaction looks OK, it stopped because a kid was trying to stand on the belt (ah, so that's why all the belt scales are broken)...after two minutes of trying to wrestle the real problem out of them, it comes to light that they are trying to pay with an EBT card that has less than the balance due on it. Order was $2XX and change, the card only had $125. The old SCOs could handle this; take what's on the card and prompt for the balance. These can't (I should really put up signs, I'm getting tired of dealing with/explaining it to people), so I had to save the order, get a new register tray from the desk because I couldn't get them to tell me how they were paying the balance and reopen the paystation. During this the wife is raising hell asking me why they "can't pay". I just told you what was going on and how "we" could fix it. No, you cannot leave, you didn't actually pay. No, you do NOT get the food for free because "it wouldn't scan" (what wouldn't scan?). Cue disbelief at owing money...you just TOLD me you knew your card didn't have enough

They are literally the last customers. Night Crew Lead G was giving them the eye as they left--the guys can't start until everyone is out of the store and the alarm is set. In cases like this we should be allowed to add a surcharge to an order (three dollars per minute past closing might get the point across) to be divided among the employee(s) that had to deal with it.

As S and I are leaving the parking lot, a car pulls up.
S: "We're CLOSED!"
SC: "Closed?"
S: "Yes. We close at 9 on Sunday!"
SC: "No you don't, I need to shop." *parks*
Me: "Ah, let G deal with her. I only wish I could see those fireworks."

[emax4]

As S and I are leaving the parking lot, a car pulls up.
S: "We're CLOSED!"
SC: "Closed?"
S: "Yes. We close at 9 on Sunday!"
SC: "No you don't, I need to shop." *parks*
Me: "Ah, let G deal with her. I only wish I could see those fireworks."

"Good luck getting thru the doors!" Then stand right behind the see-thru doors as the SC pulls and tugs away, pounding at it, trying to get through..

Last year I had an SC buy six nice plants for $10 a piece. When I rang them, she said the price was wrong and that they should be $3.00. I said, "Well, let me go have a manager check". After all, we put the price in, so it very well could have been a mistake. A few minutes later the head cashier comes back, po'ed look on his face and says, "Just give them to her for three bucks each", and a few seconds later she comes back so I adjust the price accordingly. As she pays:

SC: "That was wrong of you to embarrass me like that!"
Me: "Huh?"
SC: "Getting a price check..."
Me: "Heh, M'am, I work for the company, not the customer. If you tell me an item is one penny, do you really think I'm just going to take your word for it and give it to you for that price? We'd all be bankrupt!" What I really should have said was, "If you were so worried about saving face, bitch, then shut up and pay the full price!!!

Throughout the following months she would come in, always pick a small fight about some thing or another. Thank God I no longer work at that location anymore.

[Dreamstalker]

She'd probably try to dash in just as G is trying to lock the doors, we've had that happen before. One winner actually knocked a door off its track; you could hear G swearing in the next town (I don't think the guy got in the store). If it were up to me the police would have been called and him charged for fixing the door; that didn't happen as far as I know

One of the upsides to watching SCO is that for some reason people are less likely to pull prices out of their ass there; not to say it still doesn't happen, but not only do I alone have the ability to override prices, often it's too chaotic for them to think to ask for a 'real' manager (who also has the magic card, but everyone except ASM listens to me when it comes to what's actually on sale--after all, I put the tags up).

[Draco]

Hey Dreamstalker, I forget if you work for the Royal A-holes too, but if you have the same software we do, after it rejects the card the first time on the SCO try printing a duplicate receipt. It mentions the EBT balance on that.

[DerangedHermit]

Transaction looks OK, it stopped because a kid was trying to stand on the belt (ah, so that's why all the belt scales are broken)...after two minutes of trying to wrestle the real problem out of them, it comes to light that they are trying to pay with an EBT card that has less than the balance due on it. Order was $2XX and change, the card only had $125. The old SCOs could handle this; take what's on the card and prompt for the balance. These can't...

Did this change when they did the register update in your store? Because if so, they managed to make a situation that's bad even worse. So many times I have had to reverse their tender because they didn't realize they got fried chicken or something that wasn't covered, and in the programmer's infinite wisdom, I cannot simply take the item off the order. I have to reverse the EBT payment they already put on the card, bring the order to the paystation, void the offending item(s), and then most likely wait for someone to give me the key because they had me take other items off. My store is getting the update sometime next month and I hope this doesn't FUBAR things any more than it already is. This company's programmers deserve to be covered by an infinite number of fire ants for the rest of time.

[taxguykarl]

S: "Yes. We close at 9 on Sunday!"
SC: "No you don't, I need to shop." *parks*

Bummer, it wasn't any of the usual excuses.

[Dreamstalker]

I have to save the order anyway to complete it at the paystation, and the suspend-order receipt that prints at SCO has the balance. Where it gets tricky is at the regular registers; that needs a key override to save the order (which is the only way to get the balance as that option is only available before starting a transaction).

Did this change when they did the register update in your store?

Yup. Probably because it was working fine before, so they just had to break it (I believe that it can be changed back; there are a number of fiddly-but-useful things that I know are still in the code somewhere). And the 'error message' on the new ones is less than helpful; it simply kicks out 'not authorized' which results in much yelling and verbal abuse when the SC thinks they were either cut off or the entire EBT system's down.

I am discovering that some food items that were previously not covered are going through.

Another 'improvement' along those lines is that we can't enter a specific value for the WIC produce checks. The prompt is there, but has been disabled for some reason (when I select the option for the produce checks, there is a microsecond flash of "entry disabled"). So if a customer has a check with a max allowed value of $6 and their order comes to $7 and change, the check is run through--and approved--for the entire amount as if it was a normal WIC check.

[MoonCat]

As S and I are leaving the parking lot, a car pulls up.
S: "We're CLOSED!"
SC: "Closed?"
S: "Yes. We close at 9 on Sunday!"
SC: "No you don't, I need to shop." *parks

Wait, which one of us works here? Me? WE'RE CLOSED. Bye now!

[DGoddessChardonnay]

As S and I are leaving the parking lot, a car pulls up.
S: "We're CLOSED!"
SC: "Closed?"
S: "Yes. We close at 9 on Sunday!"
SC: "No you don't, I need to shop." *parks*
Me: "Ah, let G deal with her. I only wish I could see those fireworks."

Another way to view this is:

It's after hours, so the customer could be seen as trespassing. And had she come to the door and tried to worm her way in, that could be seen as attempted breaking and entering.

So way I see this is the SC could have had two options:

a) get back in her car and leave on her own

b) wait for the cops to arrive and let them remove her from the property.

Either way, it could be a win-win.

[bainsidhe]

I'm really not surprised about the antics of the SCO customer that tried to leave without paying. We had so many people just start bagging (stealing) stuff because they'd get frustrated at having something not scan the first time, or because the screen was prompting them to push a button before it'd scan the next item. It didn't matter if it was a granny, soccer mom, college kid, etc. They'd immediately start raging in impatience and start stealing something.

[Dreamstalker]

The belt scales on ours are so bad (the only part that was replaced was the scanner hardware, so the belt that was broken--and causing half the problems--before still is) that every so often it will send an item back--removing it from the order. Some customers will realize that it didn't actually scan in and call me over (or rescan it and it will work), but a lot just toss the item down the belt anyway; if it passes the sensor that will halt the transaction until I can come over Do they ever raise hell when I catch them out.

Some stores don't have self-checkouts for exactly that reason. There is a local company that has developed some fairly sophisticated software for detecting self-checkout theft, but I guarantee the company will never use it. All shrink is due to the workers doncha know

[Silent-Hunter]

She'd probably try to dash in just as G is trying to lock the doors, we've had that happen before. One winner actually knocked a door off its track; you could hear G swearing in the next town (I don't think the guy got in the store). If it were up to me the police would have been called and him charged for fixing the door; that didn't happen as far as I know

Can't you just push it back onto the track, kinda like the sliding door on a shower? Or do they work different? Still an ass to do such a thing though, as I'm sure it's difficult to do

[Dreamstalker]

Sort of. They were designed so that in an emergency they will pop outward if you shove hard enough/in the right spot. When it's cold out they come off fairly regularly. I have discovered that if A decides to store the carts in the middle of the 'apron' between the doors, the carts in front hit the open door and knock it off kilter or prevent a closed door from fully opening (then the motor burns out). People also clip the doors with carts; there's something not working right with the sensors and they can be too slow to open for some people.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Some customers will realize that it didn't actually scan in and call me over (or rescan it and it will work), but a lot just toss the item down the belt anyway; if it passes the sensor that will halt the transaction until I can come over Do they ever raise hell when I catch them out.

I remember I had a Sucktomer like that once at the wholesale club. He always used the self-checkout registers, and he always expressed his hatred of them. It's worth noting that the SCOs were never the only option available. There were always regular checkout registers available, but Mr. I-Hate-Self-Checkouts always went through the SCOs and got angry that he could never get through them without someone having to come over to authorize something.

Mind you, the reason someone always had to come over to authorize something was because he never put his items on the belt after scanning them. He'd hurl them past the sensors and into the collection area, then get angry when it would ding-ding-ding at him and take his item off his order. He swore a lot and demanded we reprogram the SCOs so that he could use them the way he wanted.

On top of all that, he also had mean things to say about one of the good front-end managers the store had and called him "incompetent," which instantly put me (and many of my CWs) firmly into "bare minimum to assist you" mode when dealing with Mr. IHSCOs.

[otakuneko]

I've only seen SCOs with a belt once. The stores I go to, the bagging area doubles as a scale, and sometimes it's finicky as all hell, especially when the humidity gets high.

When the SCO starts complaining at me ("Please remove the last item from the bag...Please put the item back in the bagging area....") I start fiddling with the scale, then give the attendant an expectant look. One of the two usually solves the problem.