Hey guys,
Just had a shift as self-serve attendent after the new user interface went live and it was definately a nightmare!!! :burn: Overall I think the new software is reallybuggy and dodgy compared to the NCR software, so I honestly hope they consider switching it back....
For one thing all of our self serve machines kept complaining of a weight mismatch every few minutes as customers were using them. As usual, I checked what each cutomer had already scanned compared to what they had placed in the bagging area and for most of the time there was nothing wrong with what they were doing. At one stage our store had about 20 or so people queued up at the self-serve machines (our express lanes were also crowded) and this stupid error seriously slowed everything down. When I was at one machine fixing the error, another error would pop up on the next machine, then another on the next machine and so on - and boy did the customers get annoyed. Almost all complained that we had gone backwards with the "upgrade" because of all the errors, primative interface etc etc and that they preferred the earlier software.
If that wasn't enough, one of our larger SS machines kept freezing while it was trying to print receipts. The screen would completely freeze each time so we had no choice but to switch it off at the power point and make reboot it - meanwhile this didn't help reduce the queue size considering we only have 4 SS's at our store. Another problem is that when customers select "credit card" and then sign their signature, the voice no longer says "Please wait for approval" and there is no "Ok" or "Try again" buttons for them to use. Usually I wait near the customer while they sign the pad so I can quickly swipe my barcode and approve the transaction so they can finish and get out of the store. But today I had to wait alongside each customer for about 5 seconds until that stupid little "Store Login" button popped up so I could approve the transaction. After pressing the "Yes" button, the software also takes ridiculously long to print the a receipt. Nothing would happen on the screen for like 20 seconds so each customer was forced to wait if they wanted a receipt. Some of them tried pressing the "Yes" button a few times because they thought I didn't press it. In the end, most got fed up, left and were long gone before the receipt printed. Meanwhile the machine was still thinking and finally said "Please don't forget to take your recipt".
Apart from the really really crappy graphics interface , I also am a bit iffy that customers can actually see what we are doing on the WoWPOS screen. For example, while I was voiding items with customers watching what I was doing on WoWPOS, they all kept asking me what I was doing, whether I was cancelling the correct item and what all the new buttons were for. I think it was way easier when the customers could select and cancel an item themselves - all we needed to do was swipe our barcode and it would be done. Simple!
We also had problems with the scales freezing/not working on the SS machines. As usual I tried pressing the "Reset" button on the scales but all I got was a stupid bleep noise. Then it hit me that they probbaly disabled this function, so I tried adjsuting the volume of the scanner and heard the same bleep with no change in volume. Again we were forced to reboot each machine when the scales froze and meanwhile customers were still complaining.
So from my experiences today I can confidently say the new system is a load of Bs.... Bring back the proper software made by the same company who made the machines, argh! If Woolworths wanted to change the buttons and incorporate WowPOS I don't see why NCR couldn't have customised the software for them, and in the process maintain the reliability of the SS machines!!
Sigh.... vent over.
It would be good to hear about other people's experiences with the new SS software
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