Sunday 11 July 2010

you have outstanding transactions please see customer services!

Lets firstly go back to last Sunday...


I had scanned all of my shopping using their fast track system and had got to the till.  The cashier then went to scan the scanner and it all went blank!  She then called over to a supervisor to ask "what should I do?" and the supervisor said "you will have to do a full rescan" oh well...


...so it all got scanned and that was the end of it...


This morning I got to the supermarket and scanned my loyalty card so I could get a scanner and I got "you have outstanding transactions please see customer services" come up on the display.  Now I have used my loyalty since, admittedly it was in a different branch but surely the system would think "well hang on Amber has used her card since" but it doesnt!


Anyhow I was in the shop before 10am (bloody Sunday trading laws), so I explained to a bloke (who was sorting out the newspapers) by Customer Services what had happened and he said that he couldnt help, but to go and ask the ladies on the tills.  So I saw a group of ladies down the other end of the shop and "hot footed" it down there.


So I get down to where the ladies are, and one of them looks at me in shock and immediately steps back, I think to myself "does my breath smell that bad?", and I explain what has happened and how the bloke told me to speak to them about it.  The lady who had the shocked look on her face then said "I cant leave what I am doing because I have the money" (hence the shocked look on her face) and told me to go "back to customer services because the bloke who unlocked the doors would be able to unblock my card".


So I went back to customer services explained again what had happened and he unblocked my card and I was able to get my scanner ;o)  I then went back to the lady and said "thanks for your help" ;o).


I got to the till after getting all of the shopping and it was the same cashier who managed to "piss it up" last week on the till, but at least it all went ok this time ;o).

4 comments:

Al said...

Ah, Sunday trading laws. A royal pain all round in my opinion. By all means restrict the times that stores can sell you stuff but the "browsing time" can cause more problems than it's worth.

I can see the point of why they have it but it does mean that should there be any problems like you had it's much more difficult to sort them out because staff are often not in place to help or are not able to. Technically they shouldn't have served you in any description until 10am meaning you could have wasted half an hour. Not only that but certain areas in store can't open until 10am which can cause problems with people expecting them to be open because the front doors are.

Anyway, rant over! :-)

The unfinished transaction wouldn't trigger anything until you tried to use the self-scan system again, even if you had used it in the mean time. This is probably because the till system isn't programmed to look out for that marker whereas the self-scan system is. That's my logic anyway.

Kelly said...

Way to handle yourself!

What are Sunday trading laws....?
The only Sunday laws we have here in Texas include not being able to buy liquor (at all) or alcoholic beverages before noon.

chocolat lover said...

Al - the browsing time certainly does bring confusion...

Kelly - Sunday trading laws means that big stores over a certain size can only trade for 6 hours on a Sunday - but most places open half an hour earlier for "browsing time" - during which time you are not allowed to be served by a member of staff etc.

Its a way for the stores to make as much money as possible, without breaking the dumb law!

Al said...

Yeah, what Amber said but I will add that the law doesn't apply to smaller stores or at all in Scotland.

It would depend on each stores licence conditions as to when they are allowed to sell alcohol. Before 24 hour licences were made legal we had to stop selling it at 10pm each night and weren't allowed to sell it before (I think) 7am. Now we hold a 24 hour licence so we can sell it whenever.