USCAN is a horrible nightmare for me. I truly cant stand it anymore but at first thats all I wanted to do was be at USCAN. I cant stand it for many reasons. First, if a customer asks for tobacco I have to go to register #1, where the cigarette cases are located, no problem until other random customers come along saying Shes opening up. Are you open? I need tobacco too! Can you help me with something?. Im caught in a whirlwind when this happens because I have to do security checks, help my current customers and help random customers. Then, what is really irritating me is when people forget their change or dont see their change. The money dispensary is at the bottom and that is soooo freaking irritating because I have an average of 7 or more people leaving change in one day.
Sometimes I get the change, sometimes I dont, and sometimes people dont even come back for it. The machines always f up at the busiest times at the store. I have couponers come through on a regular, people that want to put everything back, people with bad attitudes or people that dont read my No Cash, No Cashback! signs of when there is not any money in the machines. Recently, I had a Kroger employee from a another store disrespect me. I hadnt even been at work for 20 minutes, she went to the machine starting scanning away but wasnt paying attention to the screen. So I told her maam you items are not scanning, she was on her phone not paying attention. So she started calling me a girl saying that it was scanning because it beeped. So I took everything that didnt scan out her bag and she said she wanted to start over and I had about 10 people waiting in line. So once I did that she still was not paying attention and the items werent scanning. So when I told her that she said If yall would clean this nasty scanner off maybe itll scan. So I did just that but she didnt take all her bags off from when she wanted to start over and thats what messed it up. She did a lot of other things also but I wont go over it. I just wanted to smack her so bad that day I was going to quit and smack the bitch. Security scales malfunctioning, people breaking ****, I have a lot of men breathing on me like dogs, **** I dont know what to do anymore, ANY ADVICE????! Help Me Pleaseeeeee!
Then, what is really irritating me is when people forget their change or dont see their change. The money dispensary is at the bottom and that is soooo freaking irritating because I have an average of 7 or more people leaving change in one day.
If that truly bothers you, then I don't think Uscan is for you. I'm kinda shocked that that would bother you. I've been doing Uscan for about six or so months now. And let me tell you, I love everything about it. I'm probably the only person in the store who loves it.
Change left in the coin dispenser... I mean, that happens all the time. I just take the change, put it in the attendant station's till. If a customer asks me if I can spare them a couple pennies cause they don't have any to pay the rest of their order, I give it to them. I mean, people leave garbage and unwanted groceries on the Uscans all the time. They tare open the bags where that hole goes into the hook, cause they couldn't open them normally.
My personal favorite, whoever in Kroger corporate who reprogrammed the pinpads a couple months ago, made it so after a customer inserts their card, it just sits there and says "Processing..." instead of the old screen that told them to please continue checking out or wait for cashier. So now customers think that they've paid and walk away when the Uscan hasn't processed the card to finish the transaction because they didn't hit "Card" on the screen (the equivalent of pressing the EFT button on a register). First time that happened to me, I tried explaining to this college girl that just because the pinpad says processing that you haven't actually paid. I pressed the Card button for her and her response to me was "so like I said, I already paid." Like wow, such attitude. That really is the only annoying thing that I USED to have about Uscan, and its annoyance only lasted a couple days. Because I realized customers are idiots and there is no point in explaining that to them, so I just press the Card button in front of them every time they just sit there wondering why it's been 5 minutes and they haven't gotten a receipt and their order is still on the screen. It doesn't bother me one bit. Some customers thank me cause they know they were stupid for not realizing they had to push the button. Others just walk away, not even realizing what I just did for them. And they come back again, and do the same thing again, over and over and over. Again, this doesn't bother me one single bit. I love it.
Machines freezing up or breaking down, malfunctioning, that's going to happen all the time. Customers being idiots. The software in the Uscan's will change every so often because someone reprograms it, or it gets updates, which brings new challenges you'll have to adapt to. The handheld, at least in our store, the wifi is so bad at times, half the time the handheld doesn't work.
Have you ever had to do six ID checks in a row? I have. I loved it. I found it hilarious that that can happen all at once.
Did I mention customers will be idiots? Oh and I have to laugh at the no cash signs. I'm sorry but, at my store the managers don't really bother putting cash in the machines so that happens all the time. I've had days where all six of my robots would be card only. The other cashiers just shut down the ones that can't take cash, but not me. I keep them open. No one ever reads those signs, no matter how big they make them, no matter how many signs they put on the robot. I actually had one cashier put like 4 no cash signs all over the Uscan. I'm like do you guys really expect to not have to cash out a customer at the attendant station, really? If it were up to me, there wouldn't be any signs at all. The message that displays on the screen when a customer begins their order should be enough. If they don't read that, they'll never read anything. Again, I love ALL of this.
The most exciting time for me, had to have been during the labor day holiday. I had never seen so many people. And for some reason, the floor managers let me be on the Uscan, where normally they would take over and tell me to open up on register. I was bouncing all over the place, ID checks here, cigarette fetching there, solving WIC problems here, cleaning up there, answering silly questions there, cashing out orders here. I loved it, it was the best time I had at the Uscan. I was kinda disappointed that it wasn't that busy during thanksgiving and christmas.
My point here is that, I loved Uscan from day one. If you don't like it from day one, it isn't for you. At least, that is my humble opinion.
I'm surprised your SCO's are out of $$ that often, I would think there's plenty of $$ since they Auto Recycle. The newer ACSM's do not get the whole SCO and filling them up! At most if you pay attention and plan, most SCO only need one "refill" a week after its full balance. Also with the Auto Recycling SCO's.....if there is NO money going in...its never going to refill. If my store had Auto Recycling Cash Machines, we would maybe need to add loose change 1 time every 2 weeks.
Cash back increased dramatically as "Chip and Pin" was introduced, since Cash Back is an option with Debit.
I'm surprised your SCO's are out of $$ that often, I would think there's plenty of $$ since they Auto Recycle. The newer ACSM's do not get the whole SCO and filling them up! At most if you pay attention and plan, most SCO only need one "refill" a week after its full balance. Also with the Auto Recycling SCO's.....if there is NO money going in...its never going to refill. If my store had Auto Recycling Cash Machines, we would maybe need to add loose change 1 time every 2 weeks.
Cash back increased dramatically as "Chip and Pin" was introduced, since Cash Back is an option with Debit.
HELP IS ON THE WAY!
This subject is just a bit on a tangent from the original poster's questions, but I thought I would ask it here:
I don't work at the front end, but am curious about the currency used in the U-SCAN machines. Why is it, that (at the store I work) for the last 3 years or more, every time I got change from the U-Scan, the bills that were 'spit out' from the dispenser would ALWAYS be brand new, uncirculated bills, (consecutively-numbered, of course, exactly as issued by a bank)? I wondered why this was always the case, since I was thinking there should be tons of circulated, used, mixed bills that are constantly being taken in by customers all day. How does this work?
However, just yesterday (12-28-17) I was surprised to have received several older random bills from the U-Scan.
I know that (usually) bills received in the regular checkout lanes are a grab-bag mix of new and old bills, but it was never the case at this store with the cash dispenser at U-Scan.
Besides just being curious about what the routines and standards are on emptying and re-filling these machines, I'm also curious since I'm a member of the WheresGeorge.com site, and occasionally 'release' marked bills in both check out lanes and U-Scans.
(If any cashier has run across a bill with some type of marking that reads "http://www.WHERESGEORGE.COM ", basically it is a fun, a little goofy, but definitely nerdy, site. (And no, it is not illegal, contrary to what some people think). If you find a dollar bill (or any denomination bill) in change thats been marked or stamped with those words, you can just go on that site and enter the serial number of the bill, issue year, and your zip code. Youll then get to see what cities/states where the bill has been recorded so far, and you can sign up to receive automatic notifications to see where it is reported in the future, assuming you pass it along by spending it. You can "start" (mark) your own bills, enter their serial numbers into the database, and see where they travel around the US (some are eventually reported from overseas).
Anyway, just curious about the way bills are added and taken from the U-Scans at typical Kroger stores. I have assumed that (at our store) all of the bills taken from the U-Scan are taken straight to a bank for deposit. (??)
USCAN is a horrible nightmare for me. I truly cant stand it anymore but at first thats all I wanted to do was be at USCAN. I cant stand it for many reasons. First, if a customer asks for tobacco I have to go to register #1, where the cigarette cases are located, no problem until other random customers come along saying Shes opening up. Are you open? I need tobacco too! Can you help me with something?. Im caught in a whirlwind when this happens because I have to do security checks, help my current customers and help random customers. Then, what is really irritating me is when people forget their change or dont see their change. The money dispensary is at the bottom and that is soooo freaking irritating because I have an average of 7 or more people leaving change in one day.
Sometimes I get the change, sometimes I dont, and sometimes people dont even come back for it. The machines always f up at the busiest times at the store. I have couponers come through on a regular, people that want to put everything back, people with bad attitudes or people that dont read my No Cash, No Cashback! signs of when there is not any money in the machines. Recently, I had a Kroger employee from a another store disrespect me. I hadnt even been at work for 20 minutes, she went to the machine starting scanning away but wasnt paying attention to the screen. So I told her maam you items are not scanning, she was on her phone not paying attention. So she started calling me a girl saying that it was scanning because it beeped. So I took everything that didnt scan out her bag and she said she wanted to start over and I had about 10 people waiting in line. So once I did that she still was not paying attention and the items werent scanning. So when I told her that she said If yall would clean this nasty scanner off maybe itll scan. So I did just that but she didnt take all her bags off from when she wanted to start over and thats what messed it up. She did a lot of other things also but I wont go over it. I just wanted to smack her so bad that day I was going to quit and smack the bitch. Security scales malfunctioning, people breaking ****, I have a lot of men breathing on me like dogs, **** I dont know what to do anymore, ANY ADVICE????! Help Me Pleaseeeeee!
You sound like a girl I work with. She was sent home the other night with a panic attack. UScan is not for everyone, and doing UScan at night like this girl is especially not for everyone, considering that my store is in a "criminally interesting area". I can't give you any great advice besides if you have men bothering you, don't be afraid to call a manager over. Your safety is of the upmost importance, and if you feel threatened by any customer, that needs to be addressed immediately. Especially the types of people that come in at night. Dealing with unruly customers is just a regular process, remember the Three A's, maintain yourself and always have a friendly candor. Things will get better and the more you do it the more comfortable you'll become.
Its like walking the street in a bad neighborhood, make a presence and let people know you see them and are willing to help. I always can remember when people would be like SCO is off the hook today, I run their break and I'm like what are you talking about. I'm a nice guy, but after a point, I'm going to tell anyone how its going to be. I always loved when another associate came into the store and acted out, I would ask them how their boss is and or someone else at their store and ....they normally calm down real fast.
