You're gonna lose your jobs!

[Monterey Jack]

The "Lose your jobs!" people drive me nuts, because, at least two or three times a day, there will be a customer coming through my line with only a handful of items (maybe just one!), coming after two or three customers with full carts, and whenever I politely suggest they use the self-check lanes to save time, they're always like, "I don't like using those, they're so confusing!"

[Dreamstalker]

And if tech gets that good, the SCO is probably going to be intelligent enough to refuse to deal with idiot customers, so they'll have to use the manned lanes.

I wish Nothing chaps my hide more than an SC demanding "I don't know how to do this! Ring up my produce for me!" while the other 3 lanes are also yapping for help (in a way I blame the new software, what used to be called "Item Lookup" is now "Quick Lookup" so it's not clear to some people).

They still break and require parts/updates/etc. If my company was smart, they'd train someone in the store to handle 'minor' equipment/support issues (software or the like that doesn't require parts); I'm betting that at least with the crap SCO kiosks we use, that would save much money in the long run for tech calls.

[mhkohne]

Pay at the pump is the norm around here, and guess what? There are still human employees at the c-stores everywhere. I'll bet that'd blow your SCs minds, LNS! As for SCOs, of course there have to be employees there. Who else is going to make sure people don't either A) Use them to steal the store blind or B) break them?

It should also be noted that in many places it's ILLEGAL to run a completely unmanned retail fueling operation. Generally the authorities seem to think it's safer if someone is in the vicinity.

Rules are different for fleet fueling operations - they can be setup unatended in more places because they can use the fleet card for access control.

[wolfie]

Also, a fleet fueling operation is likely to be pumping diesel, not gasoline. Diesel has a higher flash point (temperature at which vapours will be at the right concentration that a spark can ignite them), and is classed as a combustible liquid rather than a flammable liquid. This (plus lobbying from fleets/truck stops to allow the use of cardlock pumps) is why you can pump your own diesel in Oregon and New Jersey.

[JustShootMe]

Meh...

1-Where I live, there is an epidemic of credit card skimmers being attached to gas pumps & even on some outdoor bank ATM's. I go inside. Takes a few minutes, yes. But how long does it take to have a rep process a credit card fraud report? Quite a few more minutes. Plus, the inconvenience of having to have your account closed & transferred to another account number means you don't have access to your card for a few days while the new account is issued. (I work in a credit card queue in a call center.)

2-When I inform customers they can pay by automated phone system or online, at least half of them say they prefer to talk to an actual person, not a robot.

3-People who delight in telling you you're going to lose your job are sadistic f*cks who don't deserve to breathe.

[Lace Neil Singer]

It should also be noted that in many places it's ILLEGAL to run a completely unmanned retail fueling operation. Generally the authorities seem to think it's safer if someone is in the vicinity.

That's how it is here; there has to be two colleagues minimum working at the petrol station by law.

As well as the "You're gonna lose your jobs!" idiots, we also get people saying, "So, I guess that you'll be twenty four hours, then?"

No. No, we won't. Cuz of the two colleagues law, and also cuz we can't trust the general public to behave themselves around petrol without us watching them. Point proven today by two morons who were going to jump start a car on the forecourt before we stopped them.

[XCashier]

"I can't wait to start collecting unemployment!" Wonder how they'd react to that?

"That's my tax money you're spending! Argle blargle!"

Employee: Well, you thought it was funny that I'd be losing my job, so it's only fair that you support me in my unemployment. Wow, you sure don't find it funny having such "humor" turned against you, do you?

...we can't trust the general public to behave themselves around petrol without us watching them. Point proven today by two morons who were going to jump start a car on the forecourt before we stopped them.

Ugh, I'd encourage the idiots to take themselves out of the gene pool, except that they're far too likely to take lots of innocent people out as well.

[Sparklyturtle]

I'm also waiting to hear about nasty lawsuits because unfortunately someone was injured or died because of unedited garbage in their medical records. At least with human transcriptionists on the other end of dictations a lot of dictation mistakes were caught before they ended up in the final record. There was a podiatrist at the hospital where I trained who was known as "Dr. Dyslexic" because it was never clear which foot he was operating on. I also heard things that were so completely wrong it was laughable, like women with prostate cancer (women don't have prostates) or men with ovarian cysts (men don't have ovaries.) Voice recognition doesn't catch things like that. Voice recognition also doesn't catch things like wildly inaccurate lab reports or other types of inaccuracies (I once transcribed a report on a 202-year-old man, if I could believe his date of birth. He was actually 102, which is still very impressive but a lot more likely.)

[LesserSouthernFroglet]

Sparkly, back in my nursing days we did operate on a woman for prostate cancer. The patient was M-F transgender. So it is possible...

Outliers like that really throw the spanner in the works! But, on the plus side, at least the hospital was honouring the patients' wishes on how to be addressed and identified.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Ugh, I'd encourage the idiots to take themselves out of the gene pool, except that they're far too likely to take lots of innocent people out as well.

That was my thought as well; I'm fine with them blowing themselves up... as long as they do it in a deserted place. XD

[Ironclad Alibi]

That was my thought as well; I'm fine with them blowing themselves up... as long as they do it in a deserted place. XD

Yes, premature detonation is the preferred way for them to go.

[Sparklyturtle]

Sparkly, back in my nursing days we did operate on a woman for prostate cancer. The patient was M-F transgender. So it is possible...

Outliers like that really throw the spanner in the works! But, on the plus side, at least the hospital was honouring the patients' wishes on how to be addressed and identified.

My former boss had been a record coder at a hospital in San Francisco, and she told me about a similar situation - a M-F transgender patient with an inflamed spermatic cord. She said it was a lot of fun trying to code this record, and the record computer was refusing to accept the diagnosis. She said it took some computer fudging, but she eventually got the computer to accept it.

[Shyla]

There are so many things you want to say but of course the customer would be offended. I wish you could say "What a mean thing to say" or "Why would you want me to lose my job?" or "How kind of you to wish bad things to happen to me."

[Lace Neil Singer]

I also want to ask them if they've ever encountered America, either thru visiting or watching TV shows/movies that picture petrol stations. Even tho the pumps are pay at the pump, there are still people working there. And, according to someone I chat to online, still complete numpties who, even after decades of pay at the pump, still can't get it right and need someone to run out there and help them.

[An Haddock]

Wow, you sure don't find it funny having such "humor" turned against you, do you?

SC's never do. Nothing offends and angers them more than someone turning the tables on their shitty, self-serving attempts at humor at someone else's expense.