The first scanner fell out of the holder on the trolley (I only managed to scan the fruit that I had picked up) it only fell a few inches into the child seat and went blank! So at 10 am when the store officially opened (the store opens for browsing at 9.30 am) I went to the customer service desk told the lady what happened and got my second scanner.
I then tried to scan some sweetener powder and after a couple of minutes the scanner came up that it couldnt find DCHP (I think it basically means that the scanner cant access the barcode database) so off I went back to the customer service desk told the same lady what happened and got my third scanner and hey presto I could scan the rest of my shopping and carried on.
I was glad that I was doing the shopping on my own as James would have thought that Sainsbury's were giving us dodgy scanners just to wind him up!
Those of you who are interested in knowing if I got to the packets of two custard tarts before the not so phantom castard tart napper...
this picture will tell you all you need to know :o(
So what did I get myself instead...
I got some individual bread and butter puddings and very nice the one I had last night was too ;o).
This morning I tried to buy an annual ticket from Chelmsford to London Liverpool Street to start on Friday. Since my annual ticket expired in November last year I have been buying monthly tickets until the move to London as I didnt really want to faff about buying tickets each month from Romford to Liverpool Street (plus it would have worked out more expensive too). So, I went to the station armed with my photocard and cheque to buy the said ticket.
I was told that it was too early to buy my annual ticket becasue there wasnt any coninuity with the tickets, I told her there was because I had a monthly ticket expiring on Thursday and I wanted a ticket from Friday and that you could renew your ticket upto a week in advance (I know my stuff you know). She then told me that there wasnt any continuity because the ticket I had was monthly and I wanted annual and the destination station was different! The lady then said I cant buy my ticket until Thursday at the earliest :o(. Im pleased to say I didnt explode but just said thanks and walked off.
Im now really peed of with nxea and have e-mailed them to complain I knew it was no use "going off on one" with the lady serving me as it would have given her a bad day and it wouldnt have done any good either.
Luckily Romford station is only a five minute walk from where I work so I will try and get the ticket Thursday lunchtime. This is not what I wanted to do as its bad enough having to battle through the Mums with pushchairs and the bloody old people without having to queue up and get my ticket too. At least its preffable to having to get the ticket on Friday morning or Thursday evening. Hmmm thinking about it I might get it Thursday morning at Romford before I get into work (I think thats my best idea yet).
The packing crates arrive on Monday so the end of this week I will be packing stuff (when we moved out to Romford 18 months ago, luckily I was on holiday so came into the new office with everything unpacked).
On Friday it was my colleagues bithday and got invited upto London for his Birthday lunch, I had a cumberland sausage ciabatta, Im not sure if I had one portion or 2 (if it was 2 they were pretty small and if it was one it was pretty big). To make up for the big lunch all I had for my dinner that night was an Innocent Veg Pot.
When I weighed myself this morning I was convinced I would have put on a little weight and was well chuffed that I had lost the 200 grammes I put on last week.
At least I now know I can have the occassional nice lunch although saying that I wouldnt have let the odd weight gain put me off ;o)
14 comments:
Sorry I missed the hassle...
*finishes last packet of two custard tarts*
Ah lovely...
I don't like bread and butter pudding either, so that's another thing you're welcome to. I did consider buying all of the four packs too just in case you decided to go for them instead. Happily it appears there was no need.
I do get some very funny looks from the staff in there every week though. :-)
On the subject of moving, I was quite glad that when they moved and rebuilt the photo lab in my store they closed on my day off. No packing for me, although there wasn't as much to do as there could have been as we had been running stock down in anticipation. We all went in one Sunday evening to unpack it all though, I almost missed the start of Top Gear because of that!
James I dont believe you for a second ;o)
Al, wheres all the fun if you dont like bread & butter pudding either...
its great when you "miss" having to do the packing for a move. It doesnt sound so great though if you have to go in Sunday evening to unpack instead. Did you record Top Gear just in case?
Tell more about this self scanner thing.....you scan as you go and then pay at the end? Very, very interesting. I assume that it keeps a running total for you, too?
The technology y'all have over there, I tell you. It beats ours any day :)
Kelly, it works with a reward card...
...first you have to get your card registered (at customer services desk) for the self scan.
Then you put your card in the machine reader that holds the scanners and it lights up the scanner that you have to take.
You then scan the barcodes on the items that you want to buy, providing the barcode is recognised by the database, it comes up with how many times that you have scanned the item and it also comes up with the running total at the bottom of the screen.
If your buying loose fruit you can either save it as a problem item (which is what we tend to do) or use the electronic weigh scales which will print off a label with a barcode on it for you.
If you change your mind about an item then there us a minus key on there as well.
I forgot to mention also that there is a trigger on the scanner which omits an infrared beam that reads the barcode.
It beeps a short beep if the item scanned is recognised and a long (dieing sounding) beep if it doesnt renognise what you have scanned, and the scanner says this is a problem item and to hand it to the cashier.
You can then pack your items as you shop.
Once you get to the till you hand over your scanner together with your reward card and any "problem" items (the ones that wont scan).
Occassionally the till will come up that you need to have a partial rescan approx one third of your shopping or a full rescan just to make sure that you havent got anything in your trolley that you havent scanned.
The only thing the scanner doesnt tell you about is the offers such as bogof or bogohp or 2 for £5 etc.
Hope this makes sense ;o)
Is was only for a few hours, they got everyone from the photo lab in so it didn't take that long. We went in just before the store closed at 4pm and I think we left at about 7:45. We had unpacked most of our stuff by 6 but we didn't leave as the kiosk and CSD still had a lot to do.
Didn't think to record it, but happily I just made it. Got paid a fair bit for it too.
The self-scan system in Sainsbury's is a good idea but it does seem to be wide open to abuse. Occasional rescans can only do so much and the staff probably get at least some abuse from those customers. However, I suppose they would recognise if someone had twice as much stuff as they were paying for. Not like you can hide a TV behind some custard tarts (as I found out to my cost this previous weekend).
How often do you attempt to get the custard tarts?
Do you go on the same day(s) every week? Maybe you should try a different day/time frame so the 'not so phantom custard tart napper' can't get them!!(Hope he/she isn't reading this!!)
Oh well, at least it's an excuse to try all the different cakes!
/QUOTE "Not like you can hide a TV behind some custard tarts (as I found out to my cost this previous weekend)."
Ah, there's your problem; you need to hide the TV IN the custard tart...
;-)
Al, you seem to get a rescan if theyres a massive difference in the total of your shopping from previous weeks.
Once we had a rescan when we used self scan twice in one day.
The selfscan is definitely open to abuse, but me & James are pretty honest anyway ;o).
Some people certainly do get uppety when they get a rescan, but we have never done. At the end of the day it is still easier packing as you go along even with the occassional rescan.
Stuff like electrical goods and cds have a security chip in them that has to be removed by the cashier so there is no sneaking out a plasma screen tv with the custard tarts.
TOAO I tend to go the same time each week on Saturday morning that way I can have one Saturday night and the other on Sunday.
I like to try the different cakes anyway.
well done for resisting giving that automaton a bad day, and yourself. since starting this job i am extra polite with the public and try and speak as clearly as i can. nothing like personal experience to teach you a thing or two about manners.
scanners are all the rage here too in many of the supermarkets. in some basket only isles have been removed to fit the self scanners in. so far i have only watched from afar while queueing politely ; ) alot of people seem to have problems but that doesnt stop the clammer to use them. well done on the weight, every little helps.
AN, if Im in a hurry and the queues arent too bad than I will always try and use a proper till, as any problems can be sorted reasonably quickly.
Like you I watched from afar to see any obvious pitfalls for a couple of weeks before using the new technology.
Its the older people who like to chat who always seem to hold the queues up and if you get a chatty cashier too (enough said).
I knew there would be security devices in CDs etc. At least I know now, those handcuffs really were tight. I was thinking more along the lines of continually putting say two items in but only scanning one, that way your total week to week wouldn't be significantly different.
On the subject of self-serve tills, I use ours a lot when buying my lunch and never have a problem. As soon as I try and use it with someone else there though and it all goes wrong.
Al, a variation on good old "Murphy's Law", that...
Al, it would be nice to think that the persistant offenders will get caught...
I always find that things go wrong when other people are watching me too.
I think its where your trying to hurry and the machine being used is saying "sorry mate i dont do quick".
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