Has anyone got any idea how these Devil's scrotums work?

In theory you scan the item and place it on the scales.

The scales reject the item. You try again. The ******* thing then allows 4
items through before rejecting the 5th item and freezes up. And never try to
buy dowel using one unless you want large dowel and intend to shove it up
the managers arse when the machine goes wrong.

Not a bad setup.

No tills open and 3 staff watching the 4 self checkout machines. Make that
two staff available when one of them went to find someone that could allow
me to buy my items.

All I need is the correct weight of a nice drill that exactly matches a
large bag of nails, swap the barcode over and I will be even with the
*******s.

Adam

In article ,
"ARWadsworth" writes:
Has anyone got any idea how these Devil's scrotums work?

In theory you scan the item and place it on the scales.

The scales reject the item. You try again. The ******* thing then allows 4
items through before rejecting the 5th item and freezes up. And never try to
buy dowel using one unless you want large dowel and intend to shove it up
the managers arse when the machine goes wrong.

Not a bad setup.

No tills open and 3 staff watching the 4 self checkout machines. Make that
two staff available when one of them went to find someone that could allow
me to buy my items.

All I need is the correct weight of a nice drill that exactly matches a
large bag of nails, swap the barcode over and I will be even with the
*******s.

I never had any trouble with them, until someone posted an
earlier winge here, since when they've been a disaster for me.
They don't work with capping and conduit either.
One bloke running round all 4 machines continually overriding
incorrect weight errors.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

"ARWadsworth" wrote in message
...
Has anyone got any idea how these Devil's scrotums work?

In theory you scan the item and place it on the scales.

The scales reject the item. You try again. The ******* thing then allows 4
items through before rejecting the 5th item and freezes up. And never try
to buy dowel using one unless you want large dowel and intend to shove it
up the managers arse when the machine goes wrong.

Not a bad setup.

No tills open and 3 staff watching the 4 self checkout machines. Make that
two staff available when one of them went to find someone that could allow
me to buy my items.


Never, ever try and pay by by trade card at one of these. I made the mistake
of going in to my local B & Q after the trade desk had closed for the day.
Not only do you get all the above problems but you then are faced with a
spotty oik who doesnt know how a trade card works and, once he had it
explained to him then announces he 'needs to go and find a pen'. Priceless

Neil

On Oct 26, 6:30*pm, (Andrew Gabriel)
wrote:
In article ,
* * * * "ARWadsworth" writes:





Has anyone got any idea how these Devil's scrotums work?

In theory you scan the item and place it on the scales.

The scales reject the item. You try again. The ******* thing then allows 4
items through before rejecting the 5th item and freezes up. And never try to
buy dowel using one unless you want large dowel and intend to shove it up
the managers arse when the machine goes wrong.

Not a bad setup.

No tills open and 3 staff watching the 4 self checkout machines. Make that
two staff available when one of them went to find someone that could allow
me to buy my items.

All I need is the correct weight of a nice drill that exactly matches a
large bag of nails, swap the barcode over and I will be even with the
*******s.

I never had any trouble with them, until someone posted an
earlier winge here, since when they've been a disaster for me.
They don't work with capping and conduit either.
One bloke running round all 4 machines continually overriding
incorrect weight errors.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I cherish the vain hope that if enough of us refuse to use them,
they'll start putting sufficient numbers of staff on the tills. Fat
chance. Blatant example of putting cost-cutting before customer
service.

RichRD

"Andrew Gabriel" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"ARWadsworth" writes:
Has anyone got any idea how these Devil's scrotums work?

In theory you scan the item and place it on the scales.

The scales reject the item. You try again. The ******* thing then allows
4
items through before rejecting the 5th item and freezes up. And never try
to
buy dowel using one unless you want large dowel and intend to shove it up
the managers arse when the machine goes wrong.

Not a bad setup.

No tills open and 3 staff watching the 4 self checkout machines. Make
that
two staff available when one of them went to find someone that could
allow
me to buy my items.

All I need is the correct weight of a nice drill that exactly matches a
large bag of nails, swap the barcode over and I will be even with the
*******s.

I never had any trouble with them, until someone posted an
earlier winge here, since when they've been a disaster for me.
They don't work with capping and conduit either.
One bloke running round all 4 machines continually overriding
incorrect weight errors.

--
Andrew Gabriel


So the machine should be able to detect a product that has parts missing?

Adam

On Oct 26, 6:30*pm, (Andrew Gabriel)
wrote:
I never had any trouble with them, until someone posted an
earlier winge here, since when they've been a disaster for me.
They don't work with capping and conduit either.

Same here :-)

The scales need a high level C-shaped hoop, say at 1.5m.
That way the bulk of the weight of long yet light items is maintained
downwards onto the scale, not "lost" by falling onto the framework...
or distributing themselves all over the floor.

One bloke running round all 4 machines continually overriding
incorrect weight errors.

M&S and Asda machines work ok on light items like diet hot-choc (22g?)
if you drop them into a bag, but not if you drop them onto a loose bag
which cushions their impact (not registered).

The B&Q units appear more industrial. I wonder if their scales are
capable of weighing heavier items at the expense of precision - such
as every 50g instead of every 1g like supermarkets. That might not
help discrimination of light objects.

The most laughable part of B&Q is "take your items ... ... ...
delay ... ... do not forget your receipt". I can not help thinking
it would be more logical to say "please wait for your receipt before
taking your items".

Ah, usability... that post production & commissioning process :-)

On Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:42:20 -0700 (PDT), geraldthehamster wrote:

I cherish the vain hope that if enough of us refuse to use them,
they'll start putting sufficient numbers of staff on the tills. Fat
chance. Blatant example of putting cost-cutting before customer
service.

Quite agree. After the dreadful experiences of trying to use the ones
in Tesco I just refuse to use them anywhere. They are just so slow,
I'd rather spend the time in a checkout queue relaxed and day
dreaming than getting annoyed at a machine that can't keep up or just
takes too long to respond to each item scanned.

--
Cheers
Dave.

"Neil" wrote in message
...

"ARWadsworth" wrote in message
...
Has anyone got any idea how these Devil's scrotums work?

In theory you scan the item and place it on the scales.

The scales reject the item. You try again. The ******* thing then allows
4 items through before rejecting the 5th item and freezes up. And never
try to buy dowel using one unless you want large dowel and intend to
shove it up the managers arse when the machine goes wrong.

Not a bad setup.

No tills open and 3 staff watching the 4 self checkout machines. Make
that two staff available when one of them went to find someone that could
allow me to buy my items.


Never, ever try and pay by by trade card at one of these. I made the
mistake of going in to my local B & Q after the trade desk had closed for
the day. Not only do you get all the above problems but you then are faced
with a spotty oik who doesnt know how a trade card works and, once he had
it explained to him then announces he 'needs to go and find a pen'.
Priceless

did he need a calculator to calculate 10%?

tim

tim.... wrote:
Never, ever try and pay by by trade card at one of these. I made the
mistake of going in to my local B & Q after the trade desk had
closed for the day. Not only do you get all the above problems but
you then are faced with a spotty oik who doesnt know how a trade
card works and, once he had it explained to him then announces he
'needs to go and find a pen'. Priceless

did he need a calculator to calculate 10%?

tim

10 % oh if only it were that simple. The B&Q trade discount system appears
to have been designed by the team that previously worked out the old British
Rail fare structure. Bletchley Park would have been stumped by this and Alan
Turing likely have opened a bicycle repair shop in frustration.

The basic premise is that under no circumstances should the customer be able
to work out what the discount will be. This is backed up by staff who don't
know either. Helpfully the till receipt is programmed to display discount as
0% - whatever the discount subsequently turns out to be. Not only does it
vary from line to line but also product to product and from month to month.
Added to this is the volume discount (the only transparent part of the
system and mischeviously included to give the false impression that someday
all will explained). A 'teaser' system also operates whereby specific
products will be stickered to the effect that 'cost with trade card is'.
Fate dictates that your needs will never coincide with one of these items.

Its like a Kafka play

Neil

Dave Liquorice wrote:
On Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:42:20 -0700 (PDT), geraldthehamster wrote:

I cherish the vain hope that if enough of us refuse to use them,
they'll start putting sufficient numbers of staff on the tills. Fat
chance. Blatant example of putting cost-cutting before customer
service.

Quite agree. After the dreadful experiences of trying to use the ones
in Tesco I just refuse to use them anywhere. They are just so slow,
I'd rather spend the time in a checkout queue relaxed and day
dreaming than getting annoyed at a machine that can't keep up or just
takes too long to respond to each item scanned.

Its not so much the machines as the complete planks who try to use them
causing huge clues. The ones in our local Morrisons work almost 100%
properly, its the thicko's who use them.


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

Neil wrote:
tim.... wrote:
Never, ever try and pay by by trade card at one of these. I made the
mistake of going in to my local B & Q after the trade desk had
closed for the day. Not only do you get all the above problems but
you then are faced with a spotty oik who doesnt know how a trade
card works and, once he had it explained to him then announces he
'needs to go and find a pen'. Priceless

did he need a calculator to calculate 10%?

tim

10 % oh if only it were that simple. The B&Q trade discount system
appears to have been designed by the team that previously worked out
the old British Rail fare structure. Bletchley Park would have been
stumped by this and Alan Turing likely have opened a bicycle repair
shop in frustration.
The basic premise is that under no circumstances should the customer
be able to work out what the discount will be. This is backed up by
staff who don't know either. Helpfully the till receipt is programmed
to display discount as 0% - whatever the discount subsequently turns
out to be. Not only does it vary from line to line but also product
to product and from month to month. Added to this is the volume
discount (the only transparent part of the system and mischeviously
included to give the false impression that someday all will
explained). A 'teaser' system also operates whereby specific products
will be stickered to the effect that 'cost with trade card is'. Fate
dictates that your needs will never coincide with one of these items.
Its like a Kafka play

Applause!


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

In message
,
geraldthehamster writes
I cherish the vain hope that if enough of us refuse to use them,
they'll start putting sufficient numbers of staff on the tills.
Nope, that won't work. Best thing to do is make sure they don't work by
damaging the bar code or leaning on the scale
Fat
chance. Blatant example of putting cost-cutting before customer
service.

RichRD

--
Clint Sharp

Its not so much the machines as the complete planks who try to use them
causing huge clues. The ones in our local Morrisons work almost 100%
properly, its the thicko's who use them.



Wish I had a clue sometimes :-)

mark

In message
,
js.b1 writes
M&S and Asda machines work ok on light items like diet hot-choc (22g?)
Try a bag of Seabrook's crisps, screws up every time or maybe the
machine's trying to tell me something....

--
Clint Sharp

"The Medway Handyman" wrote in message
...
Dave Liquorice wrote:
On Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:42:20 -0700 (PDT), geraldthehamster wrote:

I cherish the vain hope that if enough of us refuse to use them,
they'll start putting sufficient numbers of staff on the tills. Fat
chance. Blatant example of putting cost-cutting before customer
service.

Quite agree. After the dreadful experiences of trying to use the ones
in Tesco I just refuse to use them anywhere. They are just so slow,
I'd rather spend the time in a checkout queue relaxed and day
dreaming than getting annoyed at a machine that can't keep up or just
takes too long to respond to each item scanned.

Its not so much the machines as the complete planks who try to use them
causing huge clues. The ones in our local Morrisons work almost 100%
properly, its the thicko's who use them.

I don't agree.

The ones in Tesco don't work well, and as someone who's day job is similar
products, I can see exactly what is wrong with them (rather than with me!)

tim

"The Medway Handyman" wrote in message
. ..
did he need a calculator to calculate 10%?

tim

10 % oh if only it were that simple. The B&Q trade discount system
appears to have been designed by the team that previously worked out
the old British Rail fare structure. Bletchley Park would have been
stumped by this and Alan Turing likely have opened a bicycle repair
shop in frustration.
The basic premise is that under no circumstances should the customer
be able to work out what the discount will be. This is backed up by
staff who don't know either. Helpfully the till receipt is programmed
to display discount as 0% - whatever the discount subsequently turns
out to be. Not only does it vary from line to line but also product
to product and from month to month. Added to this is the volume
discount (the only transparent part of the system and mischeviously
included to give the false impression that someday all will
explained). A 'teaser' system also operates whereby specific products
will be stickered to the effect that 'cost with trade card is'. Fate
dictates that your needs will never coincide with one of these items.
Its like a Kafka play

Applause!


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

Thank you. I needed cheering up following a visit by the armed wing of the
same outfit "The Provisional B&Q" otherwise known as their 'Delivery
Service' (is that ever a misnomer) this afternoon. Whilst it always a
pleasure to renew ones aquaintance with the taciturn neanderthal that drives
their HIAB I had foolishly anticipated that the words "First drop of the
day" carefully scribed onto the whiteboard at the tradedesk would have
resulted in his cheery visage arriving at my jobsite rather earlier than
3.40.

Still at least it did eventually arrive. Their previous best effort was to
order the goods, arrange delivery, take payment and then do bugger all. I
gave up trying to talk to them on the phone and went down to the shed for a
face to face. The conversation went roughly as follows

Me "hello Fiona can you tell me whats going on with my delivery"
Fi " lets have a look at your sales advice - ok I know why its not been
delivered its because its not been scheduled"
Me " whys that then ?"
Fi " because you didnt pay for delivery"
Me " its a trade account - I don't pay for delivery"
Fi " are you sure, because it says here that you paid by credit card"
Me " well my receipt says B&Q Trade Card"
Fi " how did that happen then ?"

I lost the will to live at that point and somehow they contrived, quite by
accident to deliver everything to the right address later that day. But just
to prove who held the reins of power they did deliver scant instead of CLS.
And the wrong size.

Neil

On Mon, 26 Oct 2009 21:41:56 -0000 Tim.... wrote :
The ones in Tesco don't work well, and as someone who's day job is similar
products, I can see exactly what is wrong with them (rather than with me!)

When I lived in the UK the ones at Tesco Teddington reduced me to anger more
than once - often late at night there would be no manned tills. Here the
ones in my local Safeway work fine and are a good way of reducing a large
ex-ATM note to smaller notes or getting rid of loads of coin, in either case
without the embarrassment of tending same to a hard pressed checkout
operator.

--
Tony Bryer, Greentram: 'Software to build on' Melbourne, Australia
www.superbeam.co.uk www.superbeam.com www.greentram.com

On 26 Oct, 22:15, Owain wrote:
On 26 Oct, 18:54, "js.b1" *wrote:

8-------
I quite like self-scan as it means nobody can see me buying anything
embarrassing, but what's the B&Q equivalent of Value Condoms?

White spirit - you can put your tool in it, but you'll likely get a
nasty rash.

In article
,
geraldthehamster wrote:
I cherish the vain hope that if enough of us refuse to use them,
they'll start putting sufficient numbers of staff on the tills. Fat
chance. Blatant example of putting cost-cutting before customer
service.

I'd rather have a decent self service unit than the usual checkout
assistant who would rather be anywhere but there.

--
*Reality? Is that where the pizza delivery guy comes from?

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In article o.uk,
Dave Liquorice wrote:
Quite agree. After the dreadful experiences of trying to use the ones
in Tesco I just refuse to use them anywhere. They are just so slow,
I'd rather spend the time in a checkout queue relaxed and day
dreaming than getting annoyed at a machine that can't keep up or just
takes too long to respond to each item scanned.

Both the Tesco and Sainsbury ones round here are fine.

--
*I took an IQ test and the results were negative.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

ARWadsworth
wibbled on Monday 26 October 2009 18:19

Has anyone got any idea how these Devil's scrotums work?

In theory you scan the item and place it on the scales.

The scales reject the item. You try again. The ******* thing then allows 4
items through before rejecting the 5th item and freezes up. And never try
to buy dowel using one unless you want large dowel and intend to shove it
up the managers arse when the machine goes wrong.

My local's got these recently.

Yep - buying a pack of grommets buggers the whole system up. The answer is
to wait for it to whine, then lean heavily on the scales - it doesn't seem
to care that a pack of grommets weighs in at 20kg for 5 seconds. Have to do
it twice sometimes.

Unlike Tescos' it doesn't seem to whine when the weight is removed again.

Perhaps the elegant solution is to process the heavy item first, then keep
throwing that on...

Still beats queuing behind the old bloke with 27 paving slabs and the five
items without a barcode...



--
Tim Watts

This space intentionally left blank...

geraldthehamster
wibbled on Monday 26 October 2009 18:42

I cherish the vain hope that if enough of us refuse to use them,
they'll start putting sufficient numbers of staff on the tills. Fat
chance. Blatant example of putting cost-cutting before customer
service.

RichRD

Did they *ever* put sufficient staff on the tills?

--
Tim Watts

This space intentionally left blank...

Dave Liquorice
wibbled on Monday 26 October 2009 19:09

On Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:42:20 -0700 (PDT), geraldthehamster wrote:

I cherish the vain hope that if enough of us refuse to use them,
they'll start putting sufficient numbers of staff on the tills. Fat
chance. Blatant example of putting cost-cutting before customer
service.

Quite agree. After the dreadful experiences of trying to use the ones
in Tesco I just refuse to use them anywhere. They are just so slow,
I'd rather spend the time in a checkout queue relaxed and day
dreaming than getting annoyed at a machine that can't keep up or just
takes too long to respond to each item scanned.


Wing Yip (Chinese Supermarket) in Croydon (well, more Waddon) have the
correct idea. You potter round and fill your trolley.

You queue up behind at most one person, choosing from the dozen or so
staffed tills.

Then you stand back while one bloke unloads everything, the girl rings it up
and another girl packs it for you. By the time you've typed you PIN on the
card machine, your trolley is reloaded with bagged goods ready to push to
the car.

Given tehy are subject to the same minimum wage laws Tescos etc are, why
can't they all do that?

--
Tim Watts

This space intentionally left blank...

"Dave Liquorice" wrote in message
ll.co.uk...


Quite agree. After the dreadful experiences of trying to use the ones
in Tesco I just refuse to use them anywhere. They are just so slow,
I'd rather spend the time in a checkout queue relaxed and day
dreaming than getting annoyed at a machine that can't keep up or just
takes too long to respond to each item scanned.

They wait until the item is on the scales before they allow the next one to
be scanned.
It can be a real pain.

Q someone that doesn't know the bit the bags are on is a big set of scales
saying they don't have to weigh everything. 8-)

On Mon, 26 Oct 2009 23:53:52 +0000, Tim W wrote:

Still beats queuing behind the old bloke with 27 paving slabs and the five
items without a barcode...

he wasn't old when he went in. It was trying to find someone to help
him with the slabs.

He will be dead by the time he loads them in his Clio and trys to get
it home.

On Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:07:50 -0000, dennis@home wrote:

They wait until the item is on the scales before they allow the next one
to be scanned. It can be a real pain.

This requirement to "weigh" items that don't need weighing (tins of
beans etc) might be where the instructions are failing. I scan an
item, it beeps to acknowledge the scan (eventually, the scanners seem
very slow and unreliable, yes I have tried just zooming the object
through, going through slowly, pausing in front of the window all to
no apparent effect on the reliabilty). Then I put the tin of beans or
what ever (that doesn't need weighing) on the conveyor. The scales,
IIRC, are built around the scanner like on the manned checkouts not a
seperate platform.

Q someone that doesn't know the bit the bags are on is a big set of
scales saying they don't have to weigh everything. 8-)

Different design of self op checkout. They do have the small ones
that have a basket trough, scanner, bagging area but on the big ones
designed to take trolly loads the "bagging area" is more like 8 foot
from the the scanner.

--
Cheers
Dave.

"Neil" wrote in message
...

"The Medway Handyman" wrote in message
. ..
did he need a calculator to calculate 10%?

tim

10 % oh if only it were that simple. The B&Q trade discount system
appears to have been designed by the team that previously worked out
the old British Rail fare structure. Bletchley Park would have been
stumped by this and Alan Turing likely have opened a bicycle repair
shop in frustration.
The basic premise is that under no circumstances should the customer
be able to work out what the discount will be. This is backed up by
staff who don't know either. Helpfully the till receipt is programmed
to display discount as 0% - whatever the discount subsequently turns
out to be. Not only does it vary from line to line but also product
to product and from month to month. Added to this is the volume
discount (the only transparent part of the system and mischeviously
included to give the false impression that someday all will
explained). A 'teaser' system also operates whereby specific products
will be stickered to the effect that 'cost with trade card is'. Fate
dictates that your needs will never coincide with one of these items.
Its like a Kafka play

Applause!


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

Thank you. I needed cheering up following a visit by the armed wing of the
same outfit "The Provisional B&Q" otherwise known as their 'Delivery
Service' (is that ever a misnomer) this afternoon. Whilst it always a
pleasure to renew ones aquaintance with the taciturn neanderthal that
drives their HIAB I had foolishly anticipated that the words "First drop
of the day" carefully scribed onto the whiteboard at the tradedesk would
have resulted in his cheery visage arriving at my jobsite rather earlier
than 3.40.

Still at least it did eventually arrive. Their previous best effort was to
order the goods, arrange delivery, take payment and then do bugger all. I
gave up trying to talk to them on the phone and went down to the shed for
a face to face. The conversation went roughly as follows

Me "hello Fiona can you tell me whats going on with my delivery"
Fi " lets have a look at your sales advice - ok I know why its not been
delivered its because its not been scheduled"
Me " whys that then ?"
Fi " because you didnt pay for delivery"
Me " its a trade account - I don't pay for delivery"
Fi " are you sure, because it says here that you paid by credit card"
Me " well my receipt says B&Q Trade Card"
Fi " how did that happen then ?"

I lost the will to live at that point and somehow they contrived, quite by
accident to deliver everything to the right address later that day. But
just to prove who held the reins of power they did deliver scant instead
of CLS. And the wrong size.

Neil

Neil, You're a born something or other. I take off my hat to you.

Bill

wrote:
On Mon, 26 Oct 2009 23:53:52 +0000, Tim W wrote:

Still beats queuing behind the old bloke with 27 paving slabs and
the five items without a barcode...

he wasn't old when he went in. It was trying to find someone to help
him with the slabs.

He will be dead by the time he loads them in his Clio and trys to get
it home.

Loved it. That's my experience!

"Tim W" wrote in message
...
ARWadsworth
wibbled on Monday 26 October 2009 18:19
Still beats queuing behind the old bloke with 27 paving slabs and the five
items without a barcode...

I'm sorry if I caused you any inconvenience.

Bill

On Mon, 26 Oct 2009 21:06:20 +0000, Clint Sharp
had this to say:

In message
,
js.b1 writes
M&S and Asda machines work ok on light items like diet hot-choc (22g?)
Try a bag of Seabrook's crisps, screws up every time or maybe the
machine's trying to tell me something....

I 'like' Seabrook's (plain (salted)) crisps.

Not that I use crisps on a regular basis.

--
Frank Erskine

"Frank Erskine" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 26 Oct 2009 21:06:20 +0000, Clint Sharp
had this to say:

In message
,
js.b1 writes
M&S and Asda machines work ok on light items like diet hot-choc (22g?)
Try a bag of Seabrook's crisps, screws up every time or maybe the
machine's trying to tell me something....

I 'like' Seabrook's (plain (salted)) crisps.

Not that I use crisps on a regular basis.

For those who live in a Seabrook's free zone, they do internet order boxes
at a not-unreasonable price - and you get to choose the mix of flavours.

(thought I'd mention it since I was recently surprised to see Walkers being
sold at 50p a bag, which just seems wrong to me).

On Mon, 26 Oct 2009 23:39:28 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Plowman (News)"
had this to say:

In article o.uk,
Dave Liquorice wrote:
Quite agree. After the dreadful experiences of trying to use the ones
in Tesco I just refuse to use them anywhere. They are just so slow,
I'd rather spend the time in a checkout queue relaxed and day
dreaming than getting annoyed at a machine that can't keep up or just
takes too long to respond to each item scanned.

Both the Tesco and Sainsbury ones round here are fine.

What's the alleged advantage of an automated checkout? Clearly it
does away with a humanoid (although they still need to be such around
for, say, alcohol purchases). In RL they seem to be much slower than a
checkout manned by real people. Is it just that most purchasers hate
the idea of having to speak to a real life human cashier? If so,
that's very sad.

--
Frank Erskine

In message o.uk, Dave
Liquorice writes
On Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:07:50 -0000, dennis@home wrote:

They wait until the item is on the scales before they allow the next one
to be scanned. It can be a real pain.

This requirement to "weigh" items that don't need weighing
The requirement to weigh everything is to stop you nicking stuff, the
machine knows how much an item should weigh and it stops until it can
see that weight on the platform before you can scan the next item. Of
course, the obvious scam is to show it a cheap tin of own brand product
(beans for instance) and put the equivalent weight premium brand product
in the bag.
--
Clint Sharp

In message , Frank Erskine
writes
On Mon, 26 Oct 2009 21:06:20 +0000, Clint Sharp
had this to say:

In message
,
js.b1 writes
M&S and Asda machines work ok on light items like diet hot-choc (22g?)
Try a bag of Seabrook's crisps, screws up every time or maybe the
machine's trying to tell me something....

I 'like' Seabrook's (plain (salted)) crisps.
Hmm, I like the prawn cocktail ones and look forward to the new 'spicy'
range they have appearing.

Not that I use crisps on a regular basis.


--
Clint Sharp

In message
,
Owain writes
I quite like self-scan as it means nobody can see me buying anything
embarrassing, but what's the B&Q equivalent of Value Condoms?
Duct tape.

Owain


--
Clint Sharp

On 27/10/09 01:23, Frank Erskine wrote:

What's the alleged advantage of an automated checkout? Clearly it
does away with a humanoid (although they still need to be such around
for, say, alcohol purchases). In RL they seem to be much slower than a
checkout manned by real people.

What they need is faster humans, such as the ones in Aldi, who are
equipped with tills designed to be fast, rather than pretty.

On 27/10/09 00:27, Dave Liquorice wrote:

Different design of self op checkout.

The Safeway ones are for basket only, but have the shelf for your basket
and the shelf with the scales/carrier about 6' apart, how convenient ...
and they have the droid voice that tells you do insert your debit card
AFTER you have already done so, and is still telling you to take your
receipt about 5 seconds after you've done so and set off on your way to
the exits.

"Dave Liquorice" wrote in message
ll.co.uk...
On Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:07:50 -0000, dennis@home wrote:

They wait until the item is on the scales before they allow the next one
to be scanned. It can be a real pain.

This requirement to "weigh" items that don't need weighing (tins of
beans etc) might be where the instructions are failing. I scan an
item, it beeps to acknowledge the scan (eventually, the scanners seem
very slow and unreliable, yes I have tried just zooming the object
through, going through slowly, pausing in front of the window all to
no apparent effect on the reliabilty). Then I put the tin of beans or
what ever (that doesn't need weighing) on the conveyor. The scales,
IIRC, are built around the scanner like on the manned checkouts not a
seperate platform.

The second set of scales are the collection area.
Its supposed to stop you putting stuff on without scanning it.


Q someone that doesn't know the bit the bags are on is a big set of
scales saying they don't have to weigh everything. 8-)

Different design of self op checkout. They do have the small ones
that have a basket trough, scanner, bagging area but on the big ones
designed to take trolly loads the "bagging area" is more like 8 foot
from the the scanner.


The ones with two conveyers?
--
Cheers
Dave.

"Bill Wright" wrote in message
...

Neil, You're a born something or other. I take off my hat to you.

Bill

Steady on Bill, high praise indeed from the author of A Riggers Diary !

Neil

Bill Wright
wibbled on Tuesday 27 October 2009 00:39


"Tim W" wrote in message
...
ARWadsworth
wibbled on Monday 26 October 2009 18:19
Still beats queuing behind the old bloke with 27 paving slabs and the
five items without a barcode...

I'm sorry if I caused you any inconvenience.

Bill

No offence intended :-o

backpeddle More to do with the lack of staff to help customers
/backpeddle

--
Tim Watts

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