I've hit rock bottom. Being terminated from a retail job is just that. I hate that it happened and I hate myself for what I did. I want to go back in time and undo what I did. And I am about as depressed as I (hopefully) will ever be. Don't worry, I don't do self-harm. That's just stupid (IMO).
I'm lucky to have friends and family that care about me. A sister who is just the world's best sister. Parents who've done so much for me. And I made friends at my job, a lot of whom I may never see again (at least not on a regular basis anymore). I let everyone in my life down. It's the worst feeling. Part of me feels guilty, part of me feels wronged. What I did certainly merits punishment, but termination? I was hopeful that I'd be back in a limited or restricted role, but nope. It's just a terrible feeling. I want to scream, punch something, destroy everything.
I'm hoping in the end this'll turn out to be a blessing in disguise. Maybe if I hadn't made the mistakes that got me terminated, I would've been stuck at Safeway forever. I would not have wanted that. Numerous times in my ten years there I thought about leaving. I'd apply for a job once in a while, but nothing became of it. Since I had my job to fall back on, nothing urged me to go for another job. It will be nice to do something different. No longer will I have to help those asshole Safeway customers. There are certain customers I will certainly not miss, and knowing I don't have to see them anymore certainly cheers me up. There are a few customers I will miss, but there are more that I won't.
I have tried to make the most of my time away from work. Cleaning, organizing, cooking dinner for my girlfriend on a fairly regular basis. It's given me a chance to clear my head and enjoy not having to work. But I also feel guilty. My roommate and girlfriend both work five days a week and I feel guilty for not working while they are. In this manner I do look forward to a new job and working again, even if it involves helping customers.
Lastly, I am afraid. I'm nervous. I'm anxious. I have social anxiety. I'm good with people I know, but when it comes to strangers and new people, I just crumble. I always second guess what I do or say around new people. Therefore it makes it tough for me to get a new job. I'm anxious that I won't be able to get a job because of this. My anxiety gives me anxiety. I just have to suck it up. I have savings to live off for a bit but not for terribly long. Like I said before, I mostly feel guilty that my roommate and girlfriend are working but I'm not. Here's hoping an employer takes a chance on shy and anxious me, because if they do I will be their hardest working employee. I will not make the same mistakes again.
Showing posts with label Safeway. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Safeway. Show all posts
Friday, May 3, 2019
Monday, April 1, 2019
50+ Annoyances of Working Customer Service at Safeway
It's hard to believe, but I have worked at customer service for over two years now. Things have changed in that department, but some things never will. And there are certain things I hate when I'm back there. Here's my list of them, 50, just like I did with checking:
1. A customer waiting for a while (long line, or I'm handling Western Union) just for something the self-checkout attendant could have helped them with, like a question, change for a large bill, or cigarettes. I always feel bad that they had to wait.
2. A customer who comes back and needs something changed with their Western Union money transaction. Usually, that requires calling WU, and it takes 10-15 minutes on average. And if there's no management to call to help other customers, it REALLY sucks.
3. Being in charge of the liquor case key but not being able to get the liquor call because of customers needing help at customer service.
4. A customer complaining that Just 4 U doesn't work. It's really not that hard, and it's probably something you did wrong.
5. Customer's getting upset at me enforcing rules, such as money orders are cash only (used to be), the limit for any transaction (WU, money order, etc.) is $3,000. Do you want me to lose my job?! Plus, I didn't make up the rules.
6. Customers who return 5+ items. The more the worse. Like really, what is your angle? I call these people serial returners.
7. Customers who call and talk forever and ever on the phone, especially when I have things to do or people to help.
8. Customers who want lottery tickets when that particular game is drawing. Know the rules and times, people, if you're going to waste your hard-earned money.
9. When customers bring their rotten food to get money back. Either take a picture or just have your receipt, I will take their word for it 99% of the time. Leaving me to dispose of the rotten food.
10. When I'm behind on my closing duties, yet customers keep coming or the self-checkout attendant keeps sending me customers they could help.
11. A checker making a mistake (scanning something twice, missing a 50% off item) that I have to fix.
12. People asking me things that not even management sometimes has a good answer for, such as why a particular item hasn't been in stock for a while, or why we stopped carrying a certain product. THEY TELL ME NOTHING. ALL I HAVE IS CONJECTURE.
13. A checker acting annoyed when I was crazy busy when they paged for an office call, and I missed it.
14. A checker needing help or an override when their problem was so simple/didn't require an override (like entering in the price manually when they could just type in the numbers next to the bar code).
15. Counting a till and it's way off for an unexplained reason.
16. Going to exchange a till that is a complete mess. I never need store coupons! Why don't you put bills and coupons in envelopes? They are there for a reason!
17. The bill counter being a piece of shit and displaying "No call" for every bill, or getting a jam.
18. A person needing to do a Western Union transaction who barely speaks English.
19. A person needing to do Western Union who is unhappy with their policy (Only can be received in Euros, have to include a test question, etc.)
20. A customer needing help with the DVDxpress. Safeway does not own, nor is responsible for it!
21. The phone constantly going off, especially when a holiday comes up and people ask our hours, or if there was a big storm and people call and ask if we're open.
22. The floral, deli, or meat department not answering their phone.
23. Customers calling for floral, bakery or meat after they've left, leaving me to answer the phone and tell them they can't be helped.
24. Something being down (Western Union, Money Orders, Orca) and customers getting mad at me for it.
25. People asking questions about Orca that even Metro Transit experts would have trouble answering.
26. People complaining about the price of cigarettes.
27. Someone asking for a manager (possibly a phone call) and they're busy (conference call, checking)
28. Starting my shift or getting back from break and the counter is a mess and unorganized.
29. Having to fill out a SAR (Suspicious Activity Report) Form because a customer sent over $3,000 or sent over $1,000 to China.
30. Trying to get stuff done like changing out checkstand changers, organizing the department, or doing pulls of large bills, and I keep getting interrupted by customers.
31. Needing a particular key (Lotto, Propane, Master) and it's not in its assigned spot.
32. Someone trying to return a gift card. All gift card sales are final, and they always have been. I do the return, I get in trouble, and the store loses money.
33. Alternatively, people coming back with a gift card saying it doesn't work, or they peeled the code off like a moron and expect us to be liable and replace it. You have to contact the company for whom the gift card is for! Once we sell it and activate it, it's out of our control.
34. A customer not knowing how a product works and needs me to explain it to them like they're a freaking child. I've had multiple customers come to me with the cartons of soup/broth saying the seal was already broken. No, idiot, the seal broke when you opened it! Also had a foreign couple that didn't know how to open a small trash bag.
35. Management telling me to pull customers from the self-checkout line because they failed to schedule enough checker help (and I have other things that need to get done).
36. Customers either not communicating clearly with lotto or changing their mind on either Mega Millions or PowerBall, forcing me to either buy the mistake ticket myself or have the store take it as a loss (because we can't cancel for those two games).
37. A customer having a lot of questions about a Rug Doctor (something I have never personally used).
38. When a customer tries to return a fairly expensive item without a receipt. Either you're scamming us, or you're a freaking idiot. If you buy an expensive item ($20+) and there is ANY chance you might return it, hold on to the freaking receipt! Or at least remember the day you bought it. I know for sure I have done returns on stolen items, but there's nothing I can do, because Safeway doesn't have clear-cut return policy rules nor do they help me with the ability to look up transactions by something other than day/checkstand number.
39. When a customer returns a food item they say was bad, and most of it is gone/eaten. I'd say over half the time this happens they are trying to scam us out of a free product they actually fairly enjoyed.
40. When a machine malfunctions (Lotto, CoinStar) and I have to fix it while other customers need help.
41. When customers form two different lines, and I don't know who was next.
42. When I have to help a customer for a long time (Western Union, calling someone) and they don't allow me to help other customers in the meantime,
43. Repeat customers who always get pint-sized bottles of liquor. They would save money by buying the 750ml every two days, but apparently, they can't force themselves to stop drinking. Sad.
44. When I have a list of things to do that keeps getting longer, and I stress out about it because I'm too busy with customers.
45. When one of the national Lottery games gets a really high jackpot and clueless customers come wanting to buy tickets but not knowing what the hell they're doing.
46. Customers who send multiple Western Unions, not allowing people behind them to be helped in between transactions.
47. Getting a complaint about an unruly customer, a customer asking for money, and having to tell the manager.
48. When a customer has a deal on an item (such as Free on J4U), but we don't carry it.
49. When I have to check because we're shorthanded, causing me to fall behind on customer service closing duties.
And lastly,
50. Having to deal with people. That's it. 90+% of the people I deal with at customer service are people I couldn't care less about.
BONUS:
51. People that buy a lottery ticket and tell me to sell them a winner. If I could control that, I'd sell myself a winner before you, fool.
1. A customer waiting for a while (long line, or I'm handling Western Union) just for something the self-checkout attendant could have helped them with, like a question, change for a large bill, or cigarettes. I always feel bad that they had to wait.
2. A customer who comes back and needs something changed with their Western Union money transaction. Usually, that requires calling WU, and it takes 10-15 minutes on average. And if there's no management to call to help other customers, it REALLY sucks.
3. Being in charge of the liquor case key but not being able to get the liquor call because of customers needing help at customer service.
4. A customer complaining that Just 4 U doesn't work. It's really not that hard, and it's probably something you did wrong.
5. Customer's getting upset at me enforcing rules, such as money orders are cash only (used to be), the limit for any transaction (WU, money order, etc.) is $3,000. Do you want me to lose my job?! Plus, I didn't make up the rules.
6. Customers who return 5+ items. The more the worse. Like really, what is your angle? I call these people serial returners.
7. Customers who call and talk forever and ever on the phone, especially when I have things to do or people to help.
8. Customers who want lottery tickets when that particular game is drawing. Know the rules and times, people, if you're going to waste your hard-earned money.
9. When customers bring their rotten food to get money back. Either take a picture or just have your receipt, I will take their word for it 99% of the time. Leaving me to dispose of the rotten food.
10. When I'm behind on my closing duties, yet customers keep coming or the self-checkout attendant keeps sending me customers they could help.
11. A checker making a mistake (scanning something twice, missing a 50% off item) that I have to fix.
12. People asking me things that not even management sometimes has a good answer for, such as why a particular item hasn't been in stock for a while, or why we stopped carrying a certain product. THEY TELL ME NOTHING. ALL I HAVE IS CONJECTURE.
13. A checker acting annoyed when I was crazy busy when they paged for an office call, and I missed it.
14. A checker needing help or an override when their problem was so simple/didn't require an override (like entering in the price manually when they could just type in the numbers next to the bar code).
15. Counting a till and it's way off for an unexplained reason.
16. Going to exchange a till that is a complete mess. I never need store coupons! Why don't you put bills and coupons in envelopes? They are there for a reason!
17. The bill counter being a piece of shit and displaying "No call" for every bill, or getting a jam.
18. A person needing to do a Western Union transaction who barely speaks English.
19. A person needing to do Western Union who is unhappy with their policy (Only can be received in Euros, have to include a test question, etc.)
20. A customer needing help with the DVDxpress. Safeway does not own, nor is responsible for it!
21. The phone constantly going off, especially when a holiday comes up and people ask our hours, or if there was a big storm and people call and ask if we're open.
22. The floral, deli, or meat department not answering their phone.
23. Customers calling for floral, bakery or meat after they've left, leaving me to answer the phone and tell them they can't be helped.
24. Something being down (Western Union, Money Orders, Orca) and customers getting mad at me for it.
25. People asking questions about Orca that even Metro Transit experts would have trouble answering.
26. People complaining about the price of cigarettes.
27. Someone asking for a manager (possibly a phone call) and they're busy (conference call, checking)
28. Starting my shift or getting back from break and the counter is a mess and unorganized.
29. Having to fill out a SAR (Suspicious Activity Report) Form because a customer sent over $3,000 or sent over $1,000 to China.
30. Trying to get stuff done like changing out checkstand changers, organizing the department, or doing pulls of large bills, and I keep getting interrupted by customers.
31. Needing a particular key (Lotto, Propane, Master) and it's not in its assigned spot.
32. Someone trying to return a gift card. All gift card sales are final, and they always have been. I do the return, I get in trouble, and the store loses money.
33. Alternatively, people coming back with a gift card saying it doesn't work, or they peeled the code off like a moron and expect us to be liable and replace it. You have to contact the company for whom the gift card is for! Once we sell it and activate it, it's out of our control.
34. A customer not knowing how a product works and needs me to explain it to them like they're a freaking child. I've had multiple customers come to me with the cartons of soup/broth saying the seal was already broken. No, idiot, the seal broke when you opened it! Also had a foreign couple that didn't know how to open a small trash bag.
35. Management telling me to pull customers from the self-checkout line because they failed to schedule enough checker help (and I have other things that need to get done).
36. Customers either not communicating clearly with lotto or changing their mind on either Mega Millions or PowerBall, forcing me to either buy the mistake ticket myself or have the store take it as a loss (because we can't cancel for those two games).
37. A customer having a lot of questions about a Rug Doctor (something I have never personally used).
38. When a customer tries to return a fairly expensive item without a receipt. Either you're scamming us, or you're a freaking idiot. If you buy an expensive item ($20+) and there is ANY chance you might return it, hold on to the freaking receipt! Or at least remember the day you bought it. I know for sure I have done returns on stolen items, but there's nothing I can do, because Safeway doesn't have clear-cut return policy rules nor do they help me with the ability to look up transactions by something other than day/checkstand number.
39. When a customer returns a food item they say was bad, and most of it is gone/eaten. I'd say over half the time this happens they are trying to scam us out of a free product they actually fairly enjoyed.
40. When a machine malfunctions (Lotto, CoinStar) and I have to fix it while other customers need help.
41. When customers form two different lines, and I don't know who was next.
42. When I have to help a customer for a long time (Western Union, calling someone) and they don't allow me to help other customers in the meantime,
43. Repeat customers who always get pint-sized bottles of liquor. They would save money by buying the 750ml every two days, but apparently, they can't force themselves to stop drinking. Sad.
44. When I have a list of things to do that keeps getting longer, and I stress out about it because I'm too busy with customers.
45. When one of the national Lottery games gets a really high jackpot and clueless customers come wanting to buy tickets but not knowing what the hell they're doing.
46. Customers who send multiple Western Unions, not allowing people behind them to be helped in between transactions.
47. Getting a complaint about an unruly customer, a customer asking for money, and having to tell the manager.
48. When a customer has a deal on an item (such as Free on J4U), but we don't carry it.
49. When I have to check because we're shorthanded, causing me to fall behind on customer service closing duties.
And lastly,
50. Having to deal with people. That's it. 90+% of the people I deal with at customer service are people I couldn't care less about.
BONUS:
51. People that buy a lottery ticket and tell me to sell them a winner. If I could control that, I'd sell myself a winner before you, fool.
Monday, December 10, 2018
Customer Service at Safeway - Everything We Do, They're Positives and Negatives
Having worked over two years at customer service, I have a pretty good understanding of all we do back there. Sometimes I will do a ton of these in one day and sometimes I won't do it at all (except Lotto--people always come for Lotto).
Lotto: This is the one thing I'm guaranteed to do every time at customer service. I'm actually surprised if I cover a break at customer service if no one comes for Lotto.
Positives: It's a game, and anyone who's worked over a game (amusement park, bowling alley) can agree that there is some aspect of fun to it. And VERY rarely is dealing with a lotto customer stressful. I know enough about the games that if they dispute something I have a good argument to back it up.
Negatives: People that complain about never winning. It's not exactly designed to payout a lot, people. People that play it so often that it gets annoying. People that pay with exact change in cash that could do that very same thing at the lotto machine.
Western Union: This is the one thing I was most apprehensive about when learning customer service. Now that I have it down, it's pretty darn easy. There's always the occasional snag I'll run into (more on that below).
Positives: If I'm having a slow day, WU's help the time go by. Most of them are fairly straightforward, and about half are with customers I help fairly routinely, so they know the drill.
Negatives: Helping someone and another person is right behind them and has to wait a long time to be helped with a quick thing. Also, when snags happen, such as a customer not understanding something, or a change occurring in WU (such as a fee going up). The worst is a customer needing a change on their WU that requires me to call and get their transaction refunded, and send it through again. UGH!
Returns: This is something I was already accustomed to doing as a checker and SCO attendant before customer service. And I didn't mind it at all. But after working customer service for a while, I hate it. People constantly try to scam us by returning items without a receipt which in that case always puts me in a tough position.
Positives: Nothing difficult about it, most of the time fairly straightforward.
Negatives: What I mentioned above. Scammers. I know I've returned items that customers have stolen. There's not a lot Safeway does to help me. They don't set out clear parameters on what I can or can't do refunds/returns on. The more I've worked customer service the more I hate doing returns and refunds.
Orca: Dealing with Orca Cards is one of the easiest things at customer service. Most people will just add money to their card when necessary.
Positives: Like I said, one of the easiest things to do. Plus, it is informative for myself as a fellow Orca Card holder.
Negatives: When customers want to do the monthly pass and are clueless as to what amount they want. When customers have questions about it (nearest Orca/Transit office for example) that I don't know the answers to.
Rug Doctor: Rug Doctors have to be one of my least favorite things to do. I've never used one myself so it can be tough to answer people's questions about it.
Positives: Fairly straightforward, and when people return them it's very easy to deal with.
Negatives: Time consuming, usually makes people behind the person I'm helping have to wait. Also when people have literally any questions about it. I don't know how to use one myself, nor do I have the need to (I don't own, I rent).
Phone Calls: The thing I was most dreading when being trained at customer service. Whenever I hear that "Attention Service Staff, 2, 0, 0" I always have to let out a groan.
Positives: Most of the time it's fairly straightforward. Most of the calls are either for someone else (a manager, DotCom) or are a fairly quick question, often about a product.
Negatives: I don't like talking on the phone. I have kind of bad hearing and have a lot of trouble hearing people through any static or an accent. Also when people complain to me. I've even gotten prank called once. I felt a little violated.
Bookkeeping: My favorite part. Get to handle money, account for it, balance tills, etc.
Positives: Very fun, VERY few stressful moments, get to handle money.
Negatives: When I'm bothered by a customer in the middle of balancing a till or doing something important, bookkeeping-wise, or when a till comes up quite a bit short.
Questions: This is a surprising amount of people that visit customer service. Sometimes it's people simply wanting to know where something is (a product, the restroom), or sometimes it's a customer asking if we have more of a product.
Positives: I'd say over half are fairly straight-forward and easy questions to answer, and usually just take a few seconds.
Negatives: However, there are always customers who want something not in stock, or want us to carry a product, or want a particular item and are upset we don't have it. If it was me in their shoes, I'd either go to another store or be content with getting a similar product.
Money Orders: This is very simple, just ask the customer how much they want on their money order, they pay for it, the machine prints it out for them.
Positives: Very easy, most people know exactly what they want and have the right payment method handy.
Negatives: Before we changed our policy from Cash Only, people that would get upset that we wouldn't take Debit. Fortunately, we do now. Also, people that have no idea what to put on their money order, or the rare occasion that people try to get a refund or get it cashed (No can do, amigo).
Well, that's pretty much all we do at customer (now guest) service. There are odd requests here and there, but this is 95% of it.
Lotto: This is the one thing I'm guaranteed to do every time at customer service. I'm actually surprised if I cover a break at customer service if no one comes for Lotto.
Positives: It's a game, and anyone who's worked over a game (amusement park, bowling alley) can agree that there is some aspect of fun to it. And VERY rarely is dealing with a lotto customer stressful. I know enough about the games that if they dispute something I have a good argument to back it up.
Negatives: People that complain about never winning. It's not exactly designed to payout a lot, people. People that play it so often that it gets annoying. People that pay with exact change in cash that could do that very same thing at the lotto machine.
Western Union: This is the one thing I was most apprehensive about when learning customer service. Now that I have it down, it's pretty darn easy. There's always the occasional snag I'll run into (more on that below).
Positives: If I'm having a slow day, WU's help the time go by. Most of them are fairly straightforward, and about half are with customers I help fairly routinely, so they know the drill.
Negatives: Helping someone and another person is right behind them and has to wait a long time to be helped with a quick thing. Also, when snags happen, such as a customer not understanding something, or a change occurring in WU (such as a fee going up). The worst is a customer needing a change on their WU that requires me to call and get their transaction refunded, and send it through again. UGH!
Returns: This is something I was already accustomed to doing as a checker and SCO attendant before customer service. And I didn't mind it at all. But after working customer service for a while, I hate it. People constantly try to scam us by returning items without a receipt which in that case always puts me in a tough position.
Positives: Nothing difficult about it, most of the time fairly straightforward.
Negatives: What I mentioned above. Scammers. I know I've returned items that customers have stolen. There's not a lot Safeway does to help me. They don't set out clear parameters on what I can or can't do refunds/returns on. The more I've worked customer service the more I hate doing returns and refunds.
Orca: Dealing with Orca Cards is one of the easiest things at customer service. Most people will just add money to their card when necessary.
Positives: Like I said, one of the easiest things to do. Plus, it is informative for myself as a fellow Orca Card holder.
Negatives: When customers want to do the monthly pass and are clueless as to what amount they want. When customers have questions about it (nearest Orca/Transit office for example) that I don't know the answers to.
Rug Doctor: Rug Doctors have to be one of my least favorite things to do. I've never used one myself so it can be tough to answer people's questions about it.
Positives: Fairly straightforward, and when people return them it's very easy to deal with.
Negatives: Time consuming, usually makes people behind the person I'm helping have to wait. Also when people have literally any questions about it. I don't know how to use one myself, nor do I have the need to (I don't own, I rent).
Phone Calls: The thing I was most dreading when being trained at customer service. Whenever I hear that "Attention Service Staff, 2, 0, 0" I always have to let out a groan.
Positives: Most of the time it's fairly straightforward. Most of the calls are either for someone else (a manager, DotCom) or are a fairly quick question, often about a product.
Negatives: I don't like talking on the phone. I have kind of bad hearing and have a lot of trouble hearing people through any static or an accent. Also when people complain to me. I've even gotten prank called once. I felt a little violated.
Bookkeeping: My favorite part. Get to handle money, account for it, balance tills, etc.
Positives: Very fun, VERY few stressful moments, get to handle money.
Negatives: When I'm bothered by a customer in the middle of balancing a till or doing something important, bookkeeping-wise, or when a till comes up quite a bit short.
Questions: This is a surprising amount of people that visit customer service. Sometimes it's people simply wanting to know where something is (a product, the restroom), or sometimes it's a customer asking if we have more of a product.
Positives: I'd say over half are fairly straight-forward and easy questions to answer, and usually just take a few seconds.
Negatives: However, there are always customers who want something not in stock, or want us to carry a product, or want a particular item and are upset we don't have it. If it was me in their shoes, I'd either go to another store or be content with getting a similar product.
Money Orders: This is very simple, just ask the customer how much they want on their money order, they pay for it, the machine prints it out for them.
Positives: Very easy, most people know exactly what they want and have the right payment method handy.
Negatives: Before we changed our policy from Cash Only, people that would get upset that we wouldn't take Debit. Fortunately, we do now. Also, people that have no idea what to put on their money order, or the rare occasion that people try to get a refund or get it cashed (No can do, amigo).
Well, that's pretty much all we do at customer (now guest) service. There are odd requests here and there, but this is 95% of it.
Thursday, January 25, 2018
25 Reasons Self Checkout Sucks and Should be Gotten Rid Of
(At least at Safeway)
1. They freeze, coins jam, they reboot on their own, basically malfunction in some manner WAY TOO OFTEN.
2. After having ours for 6+ years customers STILL don't know how to use them.
3. The SCO attendant is forced to do price checks (lack of courtesy), open the liquor cabinet, or get a replacement item TOO OFTEN, leaving people unable to get help and possibly able to get away with paying for something.
4. People use SCO to scrutinize every price and take up the attendant's time
5. Food stamps still don't work well with SCO. You need to pay partially with EBT? Too bad, you're fucked.
6. They aren't updated enough and have too many design/tech flaws
7. People STILL are coming to SCO and expecting help with all/most of their entire order
8. People who choose to go through SCO sometimes have to wait for assistance because the SCO attendant is ringing up the order of someone they brought from the end of a line at the checkstands. Not exactly fair.
9. There are no rules for waiting lines at SCO. Sometimes there's two, and sometimes there's one. And sometimes people cut, leading to arguments.
10. There are no clear rules for which produce items scan and which don't. Obviously weighed items (bags of cherries, grapes) don't, but large watermelons and stalks of celery don't scan while iceberg lettuce and small watermelons do.
11. We aren't able to check if the machines are low on bills unless we use the round key and physically check, so we can't refill them while it's slow before they run out (when it's busy).
12. Also, refilling machines with money is sometimes impossible (if the customer service person is busy) or at the very least takes several minutes.
13. For stores with a plastic bag ban, the machines are not set up to use only paper bags. The only thing that was changed was adding the "How Many Bags" after hitting "Finish and Pay". Customers still don't know how to use paper bags at SCO.
14. Because SCO attendants couldn't be more responsible, SCO attendants now have to ask people for their birthdays if they are purchasing age-restricted items (mainly alcohol). This is a slight invasion of personal information and can lead to arguments.
15. People do not clean up after themselves, leaving behind bags, coupons, and receipts. If their food spills they don't often notify the SCO attendant and it is a mess for the next customer.
16. Customers often need help all at once, and there's never someone around to help the SCO attendant.
17. Customers still cannot tell if certain stations are open, and will stand waiting like an idiot.
18. People forget their cash back all the time! The machines should warn the customer that they have cash coming, but they don't, leading to customers forgetting their cash basically on a daily basis.
19. Because there's usually a line during peak hours, this makes customers more impatient and forgetful when they finally get to an open station. This leads to them asking for assistance when the SCO attendant is clearly busy, or making a mistake (forgetting to scan an item).
20. People miss out on valuable coupons because they don't see them print out of the Catalina machine and don't know to grab them.
21. If the machine or customer makes an error, it's not really worth it for the SCO attendant to go over EVERY single time, so unless the error is obvious, the attendant will just clear the weight mismatch, which often results in the store losing money.
22. There is no item limit, so if a customer comes over with a huge cart full, this can result in them needing a lot of help, holding up the line, or both.
23. People question prices constantly, holding up the line and only wasting everyone's time. On the screen that asks them to bag their item, it often doesn't display sale prices (especially for produce items), resulting in the customer questioning the price before bagging it.
24. Rules differ for SCO everywhere you go. Some states you can't buy alcohol through SCO, some you can. Some stores allow you to scan your own coupons, while others make the attendant do it. And people can't keep track of the rules.
25. And finally, the SCO machines are the devil and require more care than they're worth. We lose the most money through the checkout process through SCO, so it doesn't in the long run save the store much money by having SCO instead of extra checkers.
1. They freeze, coins jam, they reboot on their own, basically malfunction in some manner WAY TOO OFTEN.
2. After having ours for 6+ years customers STILL don't know how to use them.
3. The SCO attendant is forced to do price checks (lack of courtesy), open the liquor cabinet, or get a replacement item TOO OFTEN, leaving people unable to get help and possibly able to get away with paying for something.
4. People use SCO to scrutinize every price and take up the attendant's time
5. Food stamps still don't work well with SCO. You need to pay partially with EBT? Too bad, you're fucked.
6. They aren't updated enough and have too many design/tech flaws
7. People STILL are coming to SCO and expecting help with all/most of their entire order
8. People who choose to go through SCO sometimes have to wait for assistance because the SCO attendant is ringing up the order of someone they brought from the end of a line at the checkstands. Not exactly fair.
9. There are no rules for waiting lines at SCO. Sometimes there's two, and sometimes there's one. And sometimes people cut, leading to arguments.
10. There are no clear rules for which produce items scan and which don't. Obviously weighed items (bags of cherries, grapes) don't, but large watermelons and stalks of celery don't scan while iceberg lettuce and small watermelons do.
11. We aren't able to check if the machines are low on bills unless we use the round key and physically check, so we can't refill them while it's slow before they run out (when it's busy).
12. Also, refilling machines with money is sometimes impossible (if the customer service person is busy) or at the very least takes several minutes.
13. For stores with a plastic bag ban, the machines are not set up to use only paper bags. The only thing that was changed was adding the "How Many Bags" after hitting "Finish and Pay". Customers still don't know how to use paper bags at SCO.
14. Because SCO attendants couldn't be more responsible, SCO attendants now have to ask people for their birthdays if they are purchasing age-restricted items (mainly alcohol). This is a slight invasion of personal information and can lead to arguments.
15. People do not clean up after themselves, leaving behind bags, coupons, and receipts. If their food spills they don't often notify the SCO attendant and it is a mess for the next customer.
16. Customers often need help all at once, and there's never someone around to help the SCO attendant.
17. Customers still cannot tell if certain stations are open, and will stand waiting like an idiot.
18. People forget their cash back all the time! The machines should warn the customer that they have cash coming, but they don't, leading to customers forgetting their cash basically on a daily basis.
19. Because there's usually a line during peak hours, this makes customers more impatient and forgetful when they finally get to an open station. This leads to them asking for assistance when the SCO attendant is clearly busy, or making a mistake (forgetting to scan an item).
20. People miss out on valuable coupons because they don't see them print out of the Catalina machine and don't know to grab them.
21. If the machine or customer makes an error, it's not really worth it for the SCO attendant to go over EVERY single time, so unless the error is obvious, the attendant will just clear the weight mismatch, which often results in the store losing money.
22. There is no item limit, so if a customer comes over with a huge cart full, this can result in them needing a lot of help, holding up the line, or both.
23. People question prices constantly, holding up the line and only wasting everyone's time. On the screen that asks them to bag their item, it often doesn't display sale prices (especially for produce items), resulting in the customer questioning the price before bagging it.
24. Rules differ for SCO everywhere you go. Some states you can't buy alcohol through SCO, some you can. Some stores allow you to scan your own coupons, while others make the attendant do it. And people can't keep track of the rules.
25. And finally, the SCO machines are the devil and require more care than they're worth. We lose the most money through the checkout process through SCO, so it doesn't in the long run save the store much money by having SCO instead of extra checkers.
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