No madam, YOU are being unreasonable.

[Dreamstalker]

This SC tale has two parts. The second is where it gets weird.

Act One
I'm apprising ASM of some issues with the self-scam, when a woman stomps over with a half-gallon of almond milk.
AMW (Almond Milk Woman, exits after this appearance): "This should be $3 but it's ringing up at $3.99!"
I know what's going on; she didn't use her store card (there's been a LOT of that happening lately). I tell AMW that I'll be right over...little did I know what was about to happen.

AMW had scanned her item in and then left the self checkout, and couldn't remember which one she used. Meanwhile, another lady (SC) had immediately jumped in and scanned her item...meaning the almond milk from AMW was still in the order. Easy fix, if AMW had not left the checkout or SC had seen there was an open order and waited.

Act Two
SC calls me over. "This should be $X.XX, but it's charging me $Y.YY!" I know exactly what happened, but at that point she already swiped her debit card.
SC: "I slid my card, and it's trying to charge me the higher price! I know this turkey isn't $8! So I hit No when it asked for the amount and I put in the price I know my turkey is!"
So, she was basically thinking that putting in a different amount would magically make the total price go down. Had she let me know before paying, I could have easily voided the almond milk (and the result would have been far less complicated to explain to whoever did the daily audits). But...the only thing I can do is to reverse the transaction, which meant asking SC to re-swipe her card. Cue yelling: "How do I know you're not charging me again?" I must have explained it four times that no, you are NOT being charged again, the money you paid is going back on your card so I can take off the extra item (I wouldn't have had to do it this way if you had let me know what happened before you paid).

So I have to go into the assistant menu, before I can hit "Reverse Tender (Void)" (the correct option), SC mashes "Reverse Tender (Suspend)". What that does is treat the whole thing as a saved order, so I would have to recall it on a register and then get someone to get me the almond milk as it would have to be scanned to be voided.

SC grabs the receipt out of my hand. "What's this? I didn't buy this milk! I want to make sure I'm not getting charged for it!"
Me: "Miss, if you'll give a moment I can explain what just happened. You are not being charged ag--"
SC: "I want a manager! Get me a manager!"
ASM steps in. I quickly explain what happened; the previous customer left something on the screen, SC paid before I knew anything was wrong and I had reversed the transaction and was going to fix it.
SC decides to ring the turkey through again and pay cash. But now... "I want to make sure I wasn't charged twice!" So ASM reprints the three prior receipts and reads them off, SC seizes on one that was a debit payment with $20 cashback as a sign that she was charged twice (even though she just paid cash)

Eventually, all is well, I go off to write up what happened to explain the screwy saved order, but not before an admonishment from ASM about how I "could have handled it better". Um...she flew off the handle first and the more I tried to reason with her the more crazed she got. My trying to explain in a nutshell what happened (being as you did not see the whole thing) is not 'getting agitated'. The only reason she calmed down for you is that you don't have a polo on.

[TonyDonuts]

Reason number 1,245 why self-scan is a Bad Idea. BAD.

And another example of how somebody will get snotty with "the help" but will be sweetness and light once management shows up. As management, it's fun calling people on that.

[Sundassa]

I like self scan, but people who prefer to have servants than try to understand how to help themselves, should never ever ever be using one.

[TechieGirl87]

I hate it when management does that. I had that happen to me once and unfortunately, they are always like "the customer is always right" bullshit when we both know that isn't true

[PepperElf]

how I "could have handled it better".

That's code for "stop bothering me with customers"

[Food Lady]

How are you supposed to "handle it better" when she starts pushing buttons while you're trying to help her? Who does that??

[starsinthesky]

I used to self scan all the time, then I kept getting stuck behind people who didn't know what they were doing.

[Dreamstalker]

If it were up to me to design the self-scans, I would somehow have the screen recognize fingerprints of everyone authorized to hold a selfscan key, so only they could perform any actions on the assistant screens. Some SCs see 'shiny button that showed up when she scanned her card' and think anything they press will fix it.

What really chafed my hide about the whole thing was how, when ASM got involved (he tends to 'handle' SCs by making them feel warm fuzzies so they 'know' they were right), I could see SC smirking at me. I had it in hand before you got involved thank you.

[MoonCat]

When I have a problem with self-scan, I just go ask the cashier assigned to that section to fix it. I know that if I keep pressing buttons I'll just screw it up worse!

[Dreamstalker]

Our self-scans are so decrepit that in general if anything goes wrong it's a very good idea to just hit "Need Help"...that's another thing I can't stand about SCO duty. People have an aversion to that "Need Help" button (which is the only way I can tell which one needs assistance) so they just stand there staring. Depending on who's running the front end I'm allowed to ignore the stupid ones until they figure it out themselves or go to a cashier lane.

[vikingchyk]

I came out ahead a can of corn the last time I used self scan. The lady in front of me must have forgotten it in the bagging area, and the person working the lanes came over to bag for me while I was still paying (they are nice that way sometimes ) I didn't discover it until I got home. So, they're still ahead a portion of a gallon of Arnold Palmer that didn't make it into my bags last year (at the regular checkout) which I forgot to complain about. Not that I'm keeping score.

[MelindaJoy77]

Ahh this happens all the time in my store; an item is voided off for whatever reason and the customer comes back after I've finished the transaction asking why I charged them twice for this thing. Look, there is a minus symbol and a line that says VOIDED ENTRY right there showing I took it off. Sometimes I highlight it for them Self-checkouts would indeed be a Very Bad Idea in my store as well.

[Dreamstalker]

I get the "zomg you're charging me TWICE!1111" thing when I'm on a regular register as well. On those screens it's harder to explain to them for some reason...maybe because the void isn't in bright red.

[Jay 2K Winger]

I get the "zomg you're charging me TWICE!1111" thing when I'm on a regular register as well. On those screens it's harder to explain to them for some reason...maybe because the void isn't in bright red.

I had that same thing once or twice at the wholesale club as well. I had to point out to the customers "see that little '-V' next to the item? That means it was voided out."

I also sometimes had people get up in arms because "you're charging us TWICE for tax!" In VA, there are separate tax rates for food and non-food items. Sometimes the rates are the same, as they were for some time while I was working at the club, at 4.5%. The club's receipts parsed out the two taxes into separate items. I had to explain to the customers "No, you're not, one tax is for your food items, the other is for your non-food items."

Then I'd get people getting all BLARRRGHBLBL about taxes, which I flat out refused to get drawn into: "If you have a problem with the taxes, then take it up with the government."

[AccountingDrone]

Then I'd get people getting all BLARRRGHBLBL about taxes, which I flat out refused to get drawn into: "If you have a problem with the taxes, then take it up with the government."

Or bring in your tax exempt paperwork and cycle it through the office so we know not to do tax next time.