Jenny M Benson <NemoNews@hotmail.co.uk> wrote:
> On 31/05/2023 08:56, Mike McMillan wrote:
>> Salesman to Customer: ‘Oh how many more times …. ? You must be the
>> seventieth person I have told today, we don’t stock that because there is
>> no demand for it!
>
> In a similar vein, I was in Tesco the other day, with a friend who was
> queuing to pay for a few items. We queued for *ages* at the Card Only
> till because, like me, my friend doesn't like using the self-service
> ones.(1) There were similar long queues at all (the few) tills at which
> there was a beepeuse, despite the fact that there were vacant
> self-service ones. If that doesn't make it obvious that customers
> *don't want* self-service tills, what does? But my friend said she
> recently told a Tesco person that she didn't like them and was told
> "well you'd better get used to them because they are doing away with the
> others altogether."
>
> (1) You know, the ones where you wait for ages for an Assistant to come
> and make it work or confirm that you can legally buy alcohol.
>

They’ve yet to explain how people with no sight at all use self service.
Of course most will ask for a beepeuse lookalike to go round with them but
the likes of me buying a couple of articles, certainly wouldn’t ask for
help.

Mrs McT

On 31-May-23 11:13, Jenny M Benson wrote:
> On 31/05/2023 08:56, Mike McMillan wrote:
>> Salesman to Customer: ‘Oh how many more times …. ? You must be the
>> seventieth person I have told today, we don’t stock that because there is
>> no demand for it!
>
> In a similar vein, I was in Tesco the other day, with a friend who was
> queuing to pay for a few items.  We queued for *ages* at the Card Only
> till because, like me, my friend doesn't like using the self-service
> ones.(1)  There were similar long queues at all (the few) tills at which
> there was a beepeuse, despite the fact that there were vacant
> self-service ones.  If that doesn't make it obvious that customers
> *don't want* self-service tills, what does?  But my friend said she
> recently told a Tesco person that she didn't like them and was told
> "well you'd better get used to them because they are doing away with the
> others altogether."
>
> (1) You know, the ones where you wait for ages for an Assistant to come
> and make it work or confirm that you can legally buy alcohol.

Said assistant might look old enough to still qualify for free school milk.

I (strongly) dislike self-checkouts because:

They hate me.

I always somehow manage to put things in places which are strictly
verboten, and send the machine into a tizzy - but there is never any
clarification on what & where these sacred places are. (Just an
assistant-inducing tizzy)

The machine seems to have a score of nooks and crannies, but I haven't
the faintest clue about which particular one contains the scanner that
wants to scan my (store?) card, or where I can stick in banknotes, or
coins, or credit card or[1]...

They hate me - but the feeling is reciprocated.

[1] "The customer will need to find this tiny slot - so let's hide it in
a downward-facing bulge of the machine, where they will have kneel down
to spot it."

--
Sam Plusnet

On Wednesday, May 31, 2023 at 10:03:03 PM UTC, Sam Plusnet wrote:
> On 31-May-23 11:13, Jenny M Benson wrote:
> > On 31/05/2023 08:56, Mike McMillan wrote:
> >> Salesman to Customer: ‘Oh how many more times …. ? You must be the
> >> seventieth person I have told today, we don’t stock that because there is
> >> no demand for it!
> >
> > In a similar vein, I was in Tesco the other day, with a friend who was
> > queuing to pay for a few items. We queued for *ages* at the Card Only
> > till because, like me, my friend doesn't like using the self-service
> > ones.(1) There were similar long queues at all (the few) tills at which
> > there was a beepeuse, despite the fact that there were vacant
> > self-service ones. If that doesn't make it obvious that customers
> > *don't want* self-service tills, what does? But my friend said she
> > recently told a Tesco person that she didn't like them and was told
> > "well you'd better get used to them because they are doing away with the
> > others altogether."
> >
> > (1) You know, the ones where you wait for ages for an Assistant to come
> > and make it work or confirm that you can legally buy alcohol.
> Said assistant might look old enough to still qualify for free school milk.
>
> I (strongly) dislike self-checkouts because:
>
> They hate me.
>
> I always somehow manage to put things in places which are strictly
> verboten, and send the machine into a tizzy - but there is never any
> clarification on what & where these sacred places are. (Just an
> assistant-inducing tizzy)
>
> The machine seems to have a score of nooks and crannies, but I haven't
> the faintest clue about which particular one contains the scanner that
> wants to scan my (store?) card, or where I can stick in banknotes, or
> coins, or credit card or[1]...
>
> They hate me - but the feeling is reciprocated.
>
> [1] "The customer will need to find this tiny slot - so let's hide it in
> a downward-facing bulge of the machine, where they will have kneel down
> to spot it."
>
OTOH, big shops with self-checkouts often have a Coinstar machine in the corner which for a mere 9% commission will change all your fivepenny coins[1] into a handy voucher. I know which machine I'd prefer to use when I want to offload a couple of kilos of loose change.

Nick
[1]Other denominations are available

Nick Odell wrote:

>OTOH, big shops with self-checkouts often have a Coinstar machine in the corner which for a mere 9% commission will change all your fivepenny coins[1] into a handy voucher. I know which machine I'd prefer to use when I want to offload a couple of kilos of loose change.

>[1]Other denominations are available

Quite so!

Checkouts like the ones at our village Co-op (clockwise) allow
you to drop a handful of change into its maw, and will give you
back what it doesn't need in the largest denominations possible,
including notes.

Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham
'48/33 M B+ G++ A L(-) I S-- CH0(--)(p) Ar- T+ H0 ?Q
chris@cdixon.me.uk @ChrisJDixon1
Plant amazing Acers.

Chris J Dixon <chris@cdixon.me.uk> wrote:
> Nick Odell wrote:
>
>> OTOH, big shops with self-checkouts often have a Coinstar machine in the
>> corner which for a mere 9% commission will change all your fivepenny
>> coins[1] into a handy voucher. I know which machine I'd prefer to use
>> when I want to offload a couple of kilos of loose change.
>
>> [1]Other denominations are available
>
> Quite so!
>
> Checkouts like the ones at our village Co-op (clockwise) allow
> you to drop a handful of change into its maw, and will give you
> back what it doesn't need in the largest denominations possible,
> including notes.
>
> Chris

Now, that is intelligence being employed wisely! (I will still stick to
Apple Pay though)

--
Toodle Pip, Mike McMillan

On 01-Jun-23 8:23, Mike McMillan wrote:
> Chris J Dixon <chris@cdixon.me.uk> wrote:
>> Nick Odell wrote:
>>
>>> OTOH, big shops with self-checkouts often have a Coinstar machine in the
>>> corner which for a mere 9% commission will change all your fivepenny
>>> coins[1] into a handy voucher. I know which machine I'd prefer to use
>>> when I want to offload a couple of kilos of loose change.
>>
>>> [1]Other denominations are available
>>
>> Quite so!
>>
>> Checkouts like the ones at our village Co-op (clockwise) allow
>> you to drop a handful of change into its maw, and will give you
>> back what it doesn't need in the largest denominations possible,
>> including notes.
>>
>> Chris
>
> Now, that is intelligence being employed wisely! (I will still stick to
> Apple Pay though)
>
Really?? Which slot on the machine will take apples as payment?

--
Sam Plusnet

Sam Plusnet <not@home.com> wrote:
> On 01-Jun-23 8:23, Mike McMillan wrote:
>> Chris J Dixon <chris@cdixon.me.uk> wrote:
>>> Nick Odell wrote:
>>>
>>>> OTOH, big shops with self-checkouts often have a Coinstar machine in the
>>>> corner which for a mere 9% commission will change all your fivepenny
>>>> coins[1] into a handy voucher. I know which machine I'd prefer to use
>>>> when I want to offload a couple of kilos of loose change.
>>>
>>>> [1]Other denominations are available
>>>
>>> Quite so!
>>>
>>> Checkouts like the ones at our village Co-op (clockwise) allow
>>> you to drop a handful of change into its maw, and will give you
>>> back what it doesn't need in the largest denominations possible,
>>> including notes.
>>>
>>> Chris
>>
>> Now, that is intelligence being employed wisely! (I will still stick to
>> Apple Pay though)
>>
> Really?? Which slot on the machine will take apples as payment?
>

You have to carry a slicer set to credit card thickness, but mind you don’t
lose the pips as they are the bank’s % that they cream off…

--
Toodle Pip, Mike McMillan

Sam Plusnet <not@home.com> wrote:
> On 31-May-23 11:13, Jenny M Benson wrote:
>> On 31/05/2023 08:56, Mike McMillan wrote:
>>> Salesman to Customer: ‘Oh how many more times …. ? You must be the
>>> seventieth person I have told today, we don’t stock that because there is
>>> no demand for it!
>>
>> In a similar vein, I was in Tesco the other day, with a friend who was
>> queuing to pay for a few items.  We queued for *ages* at the Card Only
>> till because, like me, my friend doesn't like using the self-service
>> ones.(1)  There were similar long queues at all (the few) tills at which
>> there was a beepeuse, despite the fact that there were vacant
>> self-service ones.  If that doesn't make it obvious that customers
>> *don't want* self-service tills, what does?  But my friend said she
>> recently told a Tesco person that she didn't like them and was told
>> "well you'd better get used to them because they are doing away with the
>> others altogether."
>>
>> (1) You know, the ones where you wait for ages for an Assistant to come
>> and make it work or confirm that you can legally buy alcohol.
>
> Said assistant might look old enough to still qualify for free school milk.
>
> I (strongly) dislike self-checkouts because:
>
> They hate me.
>
> I always somehow manage to put things in places which are strictly
> verboten, and send the machine into a tizzy - but there is never any
> clarification on what & where these sacred places are. (Just an
> assistant-inducing tizzy)
>
> The machine seems to have a score of nooks and crannies, but I haven't
> the faintest clue about which particular one contains the scanner that
> wants to scan my (store?) card, or where I can stick in banknotes, or
> coins, or credit card or[1]...
>
> They hate me - but the feeling is reciprocated.
>
> [1] "The customer will need to find this tiny slot - so let's hide it in
> a downward-facing bulge of the machine, where they will have kneel down
> to spot it."
>

I can’t see anything quickly at the best of times. Looking down from the
bright screen while everything around is bleeping sends my head to mush.

Mrs McMush

On 31.5.23 23:03, Sam Plusnet wrote:
> Said assistant might look old enough to still qualify for free school milk.

Like policemen.

--
Kosmo Richard W
www.travelswmw.whitnet.uk
https://tinyurl.com/KRWpics

krw <krw@whitnet.uk> wrote:
> On 31.5.23 23:03, Sam Plusnet wrote:
>> Said assistant might look old enough to still qualify for free school milk.
>
> Like policemen.
>

ITYM ‘Policeboys’.

--
Toodle Pip, Mike McMillan

On 30/05/2023 14:57, J. P. Gilliver wrote:
> In message <u5483b$1tccj$1@dont-email.me> at Tue, 30 May 2023 07:20:11,
> Mike McMillan <toodle.pip1@virginmedia.com> writes
>> J. P. Gilliver <G6JPG@255soft.uk> wrote:
>>> In message <fe877bf0-af43-4199-969b-5da71abc56ecn@googlegroups.com> at
>>> Mon, 29 May 2023 07:44:08, Nick Odell <nickodell@bigfoot.com> writes
> []
>>>> https://www.gov.uk/guidance/uk-transition-from-analogue-to-digital-landlines
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Nick
>>>
>>> Thanks for the link. Not impressed:
>>>
>>> "Analogue networks have been in operation for decades and have reached
>>> the end of their serviceable life. The telecoms industry is finding it
>>> difficult to source the parts required to maintain or repair connections
>>> as suppliers are no longer manufacturing them." I can't imagine many
>>> parts they won't still need, unless we're all getting FTTP (fibre to the
>>> premises) as part of the change. (I was initially going to say "up"grade
>>> there.)
>>>
>>> "It is the responsibility of the provider to ensure …" - no, IMO it is
>>> _all_ the responsibility of OfCom. Yes, they can _hand down_ the
>>> responsibility to the providers, but IMO the final responsibility rests
>>> with OfCom - especially where the provider is not _meeting_ the
>>> responsibility: it should be OfCom's _decision_ whether that is the
>>> case.
>>>
>>> (People may find
>>> https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/advice-for-consumer
>>>
>>> s/future-of-landline-calls useful too. Or not.)
>>>
>>> Of course, this change will probably happen while I'm away, which
>>> doesn't help.
>>
>> As I am long retired and in any case left precision engineering work
>> in the
>> 70’s, I can’t help them out but, at that time I used to make parts for
>> the
>> switching equipment. I think the sub-assemblies we produced were part of
>> the uniselector mechanisms - they involved small stainless steel pins
>> that
>> fitted into metal bars in which we reamed holes in lines to receive the
>> pins though my memory is a little hazy now…
>>
> I think that's part of the fallacy they're not doing anything to dispel:
> I'm pretty sure the _mechanical_ switching was all replaced ages ago,
> and that everything from where our wires reach the exchange (or in some
> cases just a cabinet) is electronic now - the signal is digitised, and
> effectively the network is digital anyway: the change will just be the
> moving of the analogue-to-digital converter into your router (or,
> eventually, 'phone) from the exchange, and almost certainly the
> cessation of the support of pulse dialling (no more banging the rest in
> an emergency).

In about 1991 my local exchange held a number of open days half way
through their conversion to digital when they had both systems running.
Quite interesting it was too.
>
> So "difficult to source the parts required to maintain or repair
> connections as suppliers are no longer manufacturing them" is misleading
> to say the least.

--
Ric

On 31/05/2023 11:13, Jenny M Benson wrote:
> On 31/05/2023 08:56, Mike McMillan wrote:
>> Salesman to Customer: ‘Oh how many more times …. ? You must be the
>> seventieth person I have told today, we don’t stock that because there is
>> no demand for it!
>
> In a similar vein, I was in Tesco the other day, with a friend who was
> queuing to pay for a few items.  We queued for *ages* at the Card Only
> till because, like me, my friend doesn't like using the self-service
> ones.(1)  There were similar long queues at all (the few) tills at which
> there was a beepeuse, despite the fact that there were vacant
> self-service ones.  If that doesn't make it obvious that customers
> *don't want* self-service tills, what does?  But my friend said she
> recently told a Tesco person that she didn't like them and was told
> "well you'd better get used to them because they are doing away with the
> others altogether."

When I complained to Customer Lack Of Service in Sainsbury's about there
being no personed tills open they were quite happy to find somebody to
put my trolley load back on the shelves. The person behind me was
complaining about the length of the queue at the self service tills and
probably got no joy either.
>
> (1) You know, the ones where you wait for ages for an Assistant to come
> and make it work or confirm that you can legally buy alcohol.
>

--
Ric

On Wed, 21 Jun 2023 23:26:38 +0100, Joe Kerr <joe_kerr@cheerful.com>
wrote:

>When I complained to Customer Lack Of Service in Sainsbury's about there
>being no personed tills open they were quite happy to find somebody to
>put my trolley load back on the shelves. The person behind me was
>complaining about the length of the queue at the self service tills and
>probably got no joy either.

So they don't really want paying customers? I prefer personed tills
too but am put off by queues on them if I only have a basket of stuff.

On 22/06/2023 09:18, Vicky wrote:
> On Wed, 21 Jun 2023 23:26:38 +0100, Joe Kerr <joe_kerr@cheerful.com>
> wrote:
>
>> When I complained to Customer Lack Of Service in Sainsbury's about there
>> being no personed tills open they were quite happy to find somebody to
>> put my trolley load back on the shelves. The person behind me was
>> complaining about the length of the queue at the self service tills and
>> probably got no joy either.
>
>
> So they don't really want paying customers? I prefer personed tills
> too but am put off by queues on them if I only have a basket of stuff.

It reduces their operating costs if the customer does all the work.

It's only a matter of time before you will have to do 20 minutes of
shelf-stocking, before you can get on with your shopping.