Our systems are down!

Technology if used correctly and efficiently is great.  Technology, if it does not work, is not so great!

Today I went shopping at a large store which has outlets throughout the UK.  It was very hot in the large store and I started to feel a bit faint.  However, I had quite a few items that I wished to purchase so I concentrated on leaning on my trolley for support as I loaded it up with everything that I wished to buy.

When I got to the 'check out' I joined the shortest queue. There were only two operators working.  There is always only two check out operators working in this particular store, (which I am choosing not to 'name and shame' at this point).  I don't actually know what all the other tills are for?

Anyway, person in front of me, was having some sort of argument with the till operator which resulted in the supervisor being called.  That resulted in the two bags of rabbit food well it might have been guinea pig food that she was trying to purchase being weighed again.  And the weighing machine was a short distance from the till.  And she was also buying a couple of other things with a £20 note but the total came to over £20.  To cut a very long story short...................  Customer was trying to tell checkout people that she'd been quoted £19 something, which is why she'd taken £20 out of the cash machine.  To be honest, the significance of this conversation meant nothing to me.  I was just concentrating on not passing out through the heat of the shop.  Eventually, 'customer in front of me' said she'd take the rabbit guinea pig food cos that was the most important thing and she didn't want the rest of her shopping.  I just thought, 'what a lovely lady putting her pets first'.  However, she did have a bit of a 'rant' at the staff as well, which to be totally honest, I thought was totally justified.

And then it was my turn...........................  I plied all my stuff onto the conveyor belt and the 'check out person' started checking it through.  I probably had more than £50's worth of stuff in my trolley.  Did I get any apology about the wait from the check out operator?  I did not.  Well that would never have happened at any of our well known supermarkets?!

So after pretty much everything had been checked through and I got out my credit card to pay;  'check out operator' says to me, 'It's cash only.  Our systems are down'. 

To say I was furious was an understatement!

OK, systems do go down; but surely if the store knew that their systems were down, they could have put a HUGE notice at the entrance of the store advising their customers of that?  And even if they didn't want to do that (because obviously that probably would make people not come into the store), they could at least, have had notices displayed by their check out points???

Sooooooo, sooooo angry!  I'm not angry that the store 'systems were down'.  I'm angry because I wasn't informed in advance.

To be honest, I think the store has a cash machine but as far as I'm concerned that's not the point.  As far as I'm concerned; if I get as far as the check out and then get told cards aren't accepted; I'm not happy.  This information should have been relayed to me before I'd almost fainted in the heat of the store?

So what I did was.........................  Moan to the check out operator (and it obviously wasn't her fault), leave all my shopping on her conveyor belt and go elsewhere to buy all my shopping!!!!!