Seriously, it's NOT THAT HARD. And other selfscan tales...

[Dreamstalker]

I was in my Purple People Eater persona last night. I punch in, and get informed that the entire debit and giftcard processing system has been down all day and nobody knows when it's coming back up. Customers can still pay with a debit card, but it must be run as credit (no PIN). After the first 15 minutes I lost count of how many times I had to explain it (and how many times a customer entered a DEBIT card as I was telling them not to use debit). The most common rant was 'but if I do credit I'll be charged twice!" O_o

The "S-it" guns were also acting up. I've posted about the 'low battery' alarms on the guns before; for some reason they would be going off as the customer started to check out. The one saving grace is that somehow the order was able to be processed as normal (scan 'end' barcode with gun, then scan card) even though it didn't look it.

Luckily, both issues resolved themselves two hours into my shift; if I had had to put up with that for the full 7 hours...

I did get a fair number of people who just did not grasp the concept of self-scan at all. I'm almost certain there was a walkout with ~$35 worth of stuff while I was helping one confused woman who physically would not let me leave her lane to help anyone else ...now I'm wondering if they were in cahoots. Wouldn't surprise me. It's never just one SCO lane that has an issue at any given moment, always two or more; so the atmosphere is rife for shoplifting with only one attendant (who is often expected to answer any and all customer questions).

One lane needs a new receipt printer; I swear I was clearing a paper jam every third transaction. When I was clearing the registers to close them down I actually had to reboot that one three times (fun fact: on reboot, the W2k Pro startup jingle even drowns out the Muzak on the front end) before it would print.

[Food Lady]

Sorry--they don't listen, ever. Well, rarely. Just a question: if the debit system is down, does that mean the food stamp cards can't be run, either? That would really suck, as they can't be run without a PIN.

[Dreamstalker]

I'm fairly sure foodstamp cards are on a different system; there have been cases before where bank debit didn't work but EBT did and vice versa. Although in this instance store gift cards weren't working either, so it seems that whatever system fell over was on the store end.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I remember one day when two of our card machines decided to simultaniously go down. We had just one till with a functioning card machine; of course, we rang up the people who deal with our tills right away cuz we didn't know how long that would decide to keep working. Now, due to the fact that two of our tills were transformed into cash only tills, I made three signs to put out to inform customers of this fact.

Silly me! What was I thinking? Of course, customers don't read signs! Anyway, as we had to keep trading til the guy showed up to fix the machines, we spent many frustrating moments having to explain to customers in stupidese that no, they couldn't use their cards on the two tills with defunct card machines and that they had to wait in line on the other one. -.-

[Dreamstalker]

The SCO lane with the paper jam is still at it. Today makes a week that we've had to deal with the mess...I don't know if I'm 'allowed' to suggest a new printer, but Bossman loves any ideas I have so I'll run it past him.

Every so often, one of the SCO lanes will suddenly decide it doesn't want to have anything to do with cash; the only 'solution' is to keep the lane working, but post a sloppy handwritten sign (over the bill acceptor) informing people that the lane will only accept plastic and cannot do cash back...yup, they still try and then scream at whoever's watching the selfscans when it doesn't work. I swear, I could design a blinking neon sign 2 feet tall that physically shocks people if they try to do anything relating to cash and although it would provide us with free entertainment it still wouldn't deter the morons.

I actually did type up very clear, legible signs that were meant to be laminated so they could be reused, but I haven't seen them in use. Probably means they never got done and I have to do it next time I'm in.

[Draco]

My favorites are the ones who MOVE the signs blocking the bill acceptor, try putting the cash in, then acting confused when it doesn't work or it throws them over to me because the CASH PORTION IS BROKEN. "Oh, I didn't see the sign."

.............

"YOU MOVED IT OUT OF THE WAY!!!"

They're lucky assault and battery are illegal, otherwise I'd think I'd bludgeon a few. Not like there are brain cells to damage in many of 'em.

[Geek King]

My favorites are the ones who MOVE the signs blocking the bill acceptor, try putting the cash in, then acting confused when it doesn't work or it throws them over to me because the CASH PORTION IS BROKEN. "Oh, I didn't see the sign."

.............

"YOU MOVED IT OUT OF THE WAY!!!"

Oh, god, these people. When I worked at an arcade, we had big ORANGE stickers with "Out Of Order" printed in black that fit just perfectly over the coin slots on a broken game. You would not believe (or maybe you would!) the number of people who would push the coins right through the sticker and then complain that the machine wasn't working. Gah!

[Dreamstalker]

I'm thinking that we should have actual inserts--possibly with a sign attached--that fit into the bill acceptors* (similar to a USB port cover--I've seen some that need a special tool to remove). Then again, that might have its own set of problems when SCs think they can 'just move it aside'...

* I'd like to say that I've actually seen those (sans sign) but can't remember where

[Grendus]

I used to call running self check a low-work-high-stress job. It's not very strenuous, but when the fecal matter hits the air mover it's probably the hardest job in the store. You have my sympathy, much as I like the self checks as a customer I don't think I could go back to running them.