Couldn't Believe It

[tamaris]

In lidl earlier I got the self service machine a young man had used. He had put all his items through but had walked out before he used his card. I've never heard of this been done before. I mentioned it to the cashier who was attending someone nearby, but he said they couldn't follow or look for anyone outside the shop.

[barry1010]

I inadvertently did that in Aldi a whole back. I tapped my card to pay and walked out. A member of staff caught up with at my car and told me the payment hadn gone through

[Hazlinny]

Funny why they can't chase a thief! I once reported a young man who had stuffed razors and blades into his pocket in Boots then calmly walked out the shop. Sales Assistant gave me the same answer and didn't seem unduly bothered saying "it's Christmas and it happens all the time"!

[Buenchico]

Well, apart from the obvious (i.e. he was simply a thief), two possibilities spring to my mind here:

(a) he could have genuinely forgotten to pay. (I've actually started to walk away from a self-service checkout before realising that I'd not paid. So I know that it can be done) ;

(b) it could have been a machine error, as below . . .

Some years ago, I paid for about thirty quid's worth of shopping with my card at a self-service checkout in Tesco and got a receipt. I was just about to walk away when I noticed that the screen was still showing "Please pay £30", as if I'd never paid.

Fearing that an assistant would spot that as I walked away and (quite reasonably) assume that I was a thief, I called someone over and explained the situation.

She said, "That's impossible! The machine can't do that!". I pointed out to her that it obviously had and invited her to check my receipt and the shopping in my bag.

I left her looking baffled!

[Buenchico]

As Barry says, it's quite easy to assume that a card payment has gone through when it hasn't. That's happened to me several times in licensed premises, where the barman has had to follow me to my table to ask me to return to the bar to complete the payment.

[tamaris]

The machine was still on his transaction and the cashier had to free it up for me, who knows ?

[Old_Geezer]

More reasons not to let electronics transfer your money, especially through the eather, without your express permission, or vice versa in this case. World is clearly going insane.

[ToraToraTora]

I got distracted once at a garage and drove off without paying. I got down the road a bit, realised and turned around and went back to pay. They'd said they called the old bill and then when I went back they called plod again to call them off!

[Barsel]

I went for afternoon tea once with my daughter and son-in-law.
When we had finished, s-i-l- went to the loo which was near the counter where you pay.
When he came back, we gathered our things and walked out.
After a while, daughter asked hubby, how much was the bill. He replied I thought you had paid when I went to the loo. I didn't know you went to the loo, I thought you had gone to pay said daughter.
Son-in-law ran back to the place full of apologies and was told, 'We thought you would realise as you don't look like the type of person who would do that on purpose.'

[Gizmonster]

My missus works at Aldi and her store has recently had self-service tills installed.
During her training, they were told that there would always be 2 staff on the self-service tills at all time. This however is not the case, my missus says there's only ever 1 person on the self-service tills. I've showed her this post and she says it happens quite often .... some incidents may be innocent mistakes, but she reckons a lot of the time it's some scroat taking advantage of the situation.

[granny grump]

My husband was a checkout manager. They were instructed not to chase after thieves for their own safety

[douglas9401]

That's okay then, us normal law abiding citizens will take up the slack for entitled thieves and the supermarkets can continue not to provide a service.

[Canary42]

Small beer compared with these experiences but a self-serve machine in a newsagent once registered a pound coin I put in as 20p. When I complained the assistant swore I must be mistaken and refused to refund so I flounced out and wrote a formal letter to the manager saying how upset I was. I got a reply saying the assistant was most upset when apprised of my annoyance (but still no refund).
Funnily enough, at a different branch of the same newsagent there were no manned tills open, but I could hear chattering coming from behind the scenes so I called out loudly "Can I have some service please". Out comes an obviously annoyed lass who took my money and deliberately used the self-service till, no doubt to make a point. Wonderful result, she couldn't get it to work. "That's why I never use self-service" I said smugly

[douglas9401]

And, reader, I married her.

[Barsel]

Don't they have bouncers on the door in supermarkets anymore?

[Old_Geezer]

That's Mothercare you're thinking of.

[Canary42]

LOL