One thing I do not love is when I scan marked down meat, especially premium cuts, and the screen freezes with a “wait for an assistant” message.
Despite Coles using their markdown stickers and barcode stickers which are designed not to be able to be removed and reused, they obviously have a comms failure between the markdown gadgets and the POS system.
However, I had an absolute doozey today after I bought the only pack of lambs fry at our local Coles and had to go to another Coles to get a second pack.
It was not on special or marked down but the self service checkout still managed to have a dummy spit which I needed like Custer needed more Indians at the Little Big Horn.
Our local Coles butcher checked out the back and said that they would not have anymore until tomorrow, our local Woollies had no stock and no idea, the independent butcher in our local shopping centre does not stock it, so I made a special trip to the next Coles for a single item.
And I did not have my trusty block splitter with me to re-educate the terminal.
I thought Kmart might have fixed the left-to-right or right-to-left conundrum - but no! they have added a new twist. One auto checkout goes in one direction, and the machine right next to it can go the other way! NEVER EVER AGAIN. Someone seeks to make fools of us for being so stupid as to assume we can do what trained checkout people can.
I refuse to use self-checkout. If there’s not a staffed checkout, I tell the service desk, and if they refuse to allocate someone I abandon my purchases.
But Woolworths has taken steps to protect the identities and bank details of customers caught on camera.
In cases where footage from the new self-service cameras is later reviewed by another person, PIN pads will be blacked out and customer faces will be blurred so they cannot be identified.
After speaking to my daughter this afternoon and she has mentioned some of her clients are extremely unhappy with Woolworth’s intrusion into our lives as well as privacy.
Choice has suggested I post the following here to obtain feedback if people feel the same way. Your help is greatly appreciated.
As a member of the organisation Choice, I would like to relate to you an experience I had with Woolworths on two occasions over the last two weeks.
My first experience was when I had purchased quite a number of items and paid through the self-checkout and on the way out I remembered an item my wife wanted. So I trundled back into Woolworths and obtained the product she wanted. On going through the self-checkout the machine would not let me proceed to pay as the overhead spying camera had detected the goods in the trolley which I had already purchased. I put this down to Woolworths becoming desperate to increase their bottom line as well as treating their customers as thieves.
Yesterday I went to the same store and had a number of bulky items in the trolley and the complete purchase would not have fitted onto the tray where Woolworths check and weigh items that have been scanned, so I broke the order into two sections. The overhead spy camera detected and assumed I was thieving from the company and stopped the transaction. I called an attendant over to sort the mess out and the machine refused to allow the sale to proceed. At this stage I have decided not to shop at Woolworths in the future. The attendant was apologetic as was the checkout operator who processed the goods that I wanted to purchase.
It is nothing short of an invasion of privacy that Woolworths believe they have the right to record my face as well as to assume that I am a thief. For goodness sake the management of Woolworths is using me to scan their products, bag the products I have purchased without any form of payment for my services.
Woolworths needs to become a great deal more customer focus as my and others business will go elsewhere!
I rarely use the self-serve checkout. Maybe if I have only a few items.
Stores have systems to detect thieving customers. Fact of life. You want to use the self-serve, then adapt to the way it works, because there is no way it is going to adapt to the way you want.
I am somewhat bemused that you thought that pushing a trolley with goods through the checkout, and only scanning one item, would not trigger some sort of warning in the system.
I’ve ‘heard rumours’ that some people place stickers or affix other non-damaging things over the camera while using the self-service checkouts …
Where I shop, often there are none open, and they won’t open them. I’ve been tempted to leave the trolley and walk out, but after the time filling it, and that I do need the contents, it would be self-defeating. They claim they don’t have the staff - which migh be true.
I was at my local late night woollies one night and I had a half a trolley load. The checkouts were closed except for the service desk. I started to give my shopping bags to the person behind the counter and was told to use the self serve. I detest these and refuse to use them . In this situation there were minimal patrons in the shop with more staff than shoppers.
I suggested to the lady she had 2 choices, either process my purchases or take the trolley away and return all the goods to the shelves. I took this matter to the day manager the next day who apologised for this incident. She said she would be reporting the matter and I was satisfied with his outcome.
In this incident it wasn’t the company that was the cause for my concern but the individual interpretation of what consists of customer service that annoyed me.
Absolutely on the money. Theft through self service is massive. Research article from Monash University claimed self service didn’t actually pay with the cost of equipment and theft.
Ask for the duty manager and jump on the Woolworths FB page and tell them at and the store. You will guarantee get a result and will get the checkouts opened. My Woolworths store know only too well I don’t take second rate quality service for my first rate quality money. If there are insufficient checkouts open I call up the duty manager to get more checkouts open. Now the staff know to do it automatically.
I flatly refuse to use self service checkouts at Woolworths or anywhere else. Thankfully our Coles store doesn’t have self service checkouts.
Congratulations for doing what you did. The 100% correct course of action.
I refuse to accept second rate service anywhere anytime.
Some part time managers seem to forget that their primary function is to sell goods to customers, and not a place to hang out with others shuffling papers just collect their wages and go home. I abhor shoddy customer service and call it out when I can.
For me, sometimes its a bit of a balancing act - in the big smoke is one thing, in smaller places one can ‘get a name’ and often the people who ‘serve you at the shop’ are people you mix with in other circles. I take consumer issues seriously, but one has to live in a community also, sometimes a relatively small one. I prefer Woolies, so I ‘advocate’ without trying to be too ‘aggressive’. Far away in my home town, I could drive another 5km and get to another Woolies and try my luck - but here, and I ackowledge this is not what the vast majority of consumers experience, the next-nearest Woolies is over 1100km away in another state …
It’s a challenge for many smaller communities which only have the custom to support one of the big 3/4.
On our more recent travels we’ve been from classy Melbourne to more laid back Northern NSW. No express lane and a queue other than for the self service.
I’m not sure what the average supermarket is these days. I suspect the average consumer is past worrying and has moved on to self checkout.
P.S.
I’m the slowest self checkout operator I know.
Our local shopping centre (a very small one but expanding) is getting a Woolworths which apparently is to be 100% self-checkout. Until I heard that I thought it would be good to have competition for Coles which used to be in this centre when it was BiLo… but I will not use self checkout so thats me not going there.
