They came to me at the Uscan wanting to load a Kroger gift card for $400. So I scan the gift card and swipe it with the amount. They say they want to pay with a check. So they hand me their personal check with their signature but they don't write out the amount and they want me to print the amount on the check. I tell them I don't know how to do that.. here's the kicker, they tell me they KNOW how to do that, and they start touching the screen, but I take back control and put it in myself.
So I put the check in, it says "INVALID CHECK TYPE," I put it in facing the other way, "INVALID CHECK TYPE." I pull the check out and notice that one of the digits on their routing numbers had been whited out and part of their signature was on it. So I ask them if they can give me another check. They say forget it, and that they'll just pay with cash.
As this happens, another customer needed my help with a quick ID check, so I walk over for a sweet second, thinking the customer at wanting the gift card was whipping out their cash. ... NO... No... No, no NOOOOOOOOO.
To my utter and complete surprise, I came back to find the screen was cleared, the card was gone, and there was no receipt out of the printer, and of course, they were long gone. WTF?! I had my back turned for ONE SECOND!!! Um, I guess they thought I'd have forgotten about them or thought they didn't want the card and just abandoned the whole thing. No... NO NO NO... NO!!!!
This had to have been the strangest thing I have ever seen as a cashier on Uscan. Never had it dawned on me that a criminal would know how to use a register. So I had the fortunate thought to reprint the receipt of the last transaction. And there it was, the gift card was on there and they had ****ing cashed it out.
OMG, so here I am both pissed off and scared for my life, cause I now had to get the floor supervisor and tell them what happened. They took my till out the attendant station, talked to a store manager, and went into the office to count it. I stood there for 30 ****ing minutes, worried I was going to be written up or be on some kind of suspension or fired.
Finally they come out of the office. No money was missing from the till, and they managed to cancel the gift card and get their money back. OH MY GOD WAS I EVER RELIEVED!!!!
THINGS I SHOULD HAVE NOTED AS RED FLAGS:
1) They wanted to pay with a check that had it's account numbers partially covered in white out, causing the "INVALID CHECK TYPE"
2) Refusing to give me another check. but opting to pay in cash.
3) Their knowledge of how to do a check on the register and the fact they touched my screen.
THINGS I WILL NEVER DO AGAIN:
1) Temporarily leave to help another customer while checking out a customer at the attendant station WITHOUT LOCKING THE ****ING SCREEN!!!!
2) Leaving a scanned Kroger gift card unattended with a customer. My floor supervisor just told me that unlike other gift cards, Kroger gift cards are activated the moment I swipe them, regardless if the transaction has been paid for or not. How in the hell did I not know this? And the security guard chatting away with the floor supervisor, "Ya know, not a lot of cashiers know about that." If I knew this, this would have never happened.
That was a complete shock to me. It never dawned on me that a customer would know how to work a register. Let alone have the ****ING BALLS to cash out their own transaction while I had my head turned, just a few feet away from them. Wow, just wow. From now on, I will always assume that every customer knows how to use a register. And I'm changing my password daily.
Actually Kroger GiftCards are activated when they are swiped and have a 5 minute delay on them. With the number of Associates hired and fired, I'm shocked Kroger doesn't have a bigger issue with fraud. With the introduction of SCO and typing your ID & Password....I'm surprised there not more issues of Customers learning and overriding items by themselves.
You will learn, with Fraud.....most companies are always 2 steps behind.....since we only react to things not become proactive to things!
And yeah, considering how many times I've had to type my ID and password in front of customers. How many price overrides I've done in front of them (I'm starting to realize the smart ones just complain that an item is the wrong price even when they know it isn't cause they know I'll override it anyways). Exactly the reason I'm changing my password daily from now on.
Any large amount of any type of gift card should be held by you til the order is complete and paid for, regardless of customer. To me, it's like handling cigs for customers at Uscan. I wouldn't trust them as far as I can throw them. I'm no cashier but that is common sense to me at least. It's a large purchase, therefore more scrutiny and attention is needed. "I have activated it and will give you the card upon payment, as any large purchase has to be held until then / is a loss prevention issue from corporate themselves / is a security and checkout policy in place."
Out by us, all self check trained cashiers get a barcode printed for them to avoid the issue of custys seeing their creds on screen at the robot. Do you have anything like that. Ask your Front End Lead or Manager to print you up one if you do use them. It's safer, more convenient, and faster. Our attendant station is locked behind the service desk in the cash office for just that specific reason, security from customers. And only the Service Desk / FES will sign on into it. Why the attendant stations are in the open like that is beyond me as that is a very poor security practice, let alone have a till, unlike ours which is locked in a secure area and accessible by only three individuals at any time. Anything that requires a check or anything else not able to be done at the robot or station is transferred n processed at a normal register. If it came up invalid check type twice, I would ask the custy to provide a new check as the system is refusing it and a new one is now needed. Just repeat it til they get it and let them sweat / or make them cave in and pay. Otherwise if they can't supply it, welp order is voided and they are wished a good day, and out the door they go.
-- Edited by UC151 on Friday 25th of August 2017 02:35:34 AM
Any large amount of any type of gift card should be held by you til the order is complete and paid for, regardless of customer. To me, it's like handling cigs for customers at Uscan. I wouldn't trust them as far as I can throw them. I'm no cashier but that is common sense to me at least.
Well, my common sense had me under the impression that gift cards are just worthless pieces of plastic until the transaction is paid for. That is when they are activated. That is what the floor supervisors and other experienced cashiers told me back when I was being "trained" during my first weeks. What I had no idea, was that KROGER gift cards were active and loaded the moment I swipe them, regardless if the transaction was paid for or not. How can this be part of my common sense if the managers never bothered to tell me this? Even the floor supervisor that was counting my till and the security guard said so, "not a lot of cashiers know about this." Yeah, gee, I wonder why....
UC151 wrote:
Out by us, all self check trained cashiers get a barcode printed for them to avoid the issue of custys seeing their creds on screen at the robot. Do you have anything like that.
Yes, we have the barcode. In fact, I use the barcode every single chance I get. Yes, in a perfect world, I would have a barcode ready to use to help a customer. But, that is not always the case. Let me explain the reasons why I sometimes have to resort to typing my password on the screen.
1) The handheld. If I didn't have my barcode, I'd resort to using the handheld. But, unfortunately it doesn't work 50% of the time (always has trouble connecting to the server and gets disconnected often).
2) We have 3 Uscans at our front end, for a total of 18 robots. When you're walking around at the front and some customer has been waiting there for 5 minutes (or they need your help voiding something) at a Uscan that you don't control, and the attendant is nowhere to be seen because they're off doing god knows what, you have no choice but to sign in on the robot's screen in front of the customer. Am I supposed to tell them "sorry can't help you." Or sometimes, I have to bring a customer to another Uscan bank because the one I'm controlling is full with customers. Like for example, a customer whose order I suspended because they had to run to their car to get their wallet that they forgot, and now they have a coupon they want me to scan and the attendant isn't there.
3) Each barcode that is printed out becomes invalid if the operator is signed out of the attendant station. The robots will not print out a barcode if you're not logged in to the attendant station. The attendant station cannot print out a barcode, only a robot can.
3) It is not always conveniently possible to have a barcode printed out. Other cashiers are sent to give the ones controlling the Uscan a break. Or sometimes, I become the person to give other cashiers their break on registers and on the Uscans. So there is a lot of shifting around. Or sometimes, a floor supervisor will come to take control of my Uscan and tell me to open up on a register. But when I come back to take control of a Uscan from whoever was controlling it, sometimes there are customers using all six robots. So I have to wait for a chance to get to an open robot to print out my barcode. In the meantime, other customers have issues they need help with, and oh darn! While I was helping that customer, another customer started an order on the only open robot I was planning to use! Now I have to wait another couple minutes to get my barcode. In the meantime, another customer needs an ID check! You get where I'm going with this... Also, there are times, whoever was controlling the Uscan forgot to sign off when I come to take control of their Uscan, and by the time I realize this, they're long gone, and I have to wait around for a floor supervisor to come and sign them off with their override.
4) For whatever reason, sometimes a robot will temporarily not recognize my barcode as valid, even though the other robots can. And I'm forced to sign in on the screen, because my handheld doesn't work.
Now in this particularly unique situation, the floor supervisor told me specifically not to sign in to the attendant station while they were counting my till. BUT, they left me to control the Uscan. Which means, my barcode was invalid, I could not print out another one because you have to sign into the attendant station. I had no handheld because... I dunno some other cashier was using it to control their Uscan? They have it at the office because it never works half the time? I dunno!!!
So for 30 minutes I could only sign in on the robot screens to help customers. At some point, my operator number was temporarily suspended for about 2 minutes. I assume that was part of the process of counting my till. So I had to get another cashier to come and help me by having them sign in. I'm lucky there wasn't a customer that would need help that could have only have been fixed at the attendant station, cause that customer would have been waiting a looong time.
Any large amount of any type of gift card should be held by you til the order is complete and paid for, regardless of customer. To me, it's like handling cigs for customers at Uscan. I wouldn't trust them as far as I can throw them. I'm no cashier but that is common sense to me at least.
Why is it then that a customer can scan their own gift card (Visa, Starbucks, Tracfone, etc) at a Uscan robot and activate it themselves AFTER they're done paying? Do you see now why I have (had?) the impression that gift cards are worthless pieces of plastic until the transaction is paid for? Why this wasn't part of my common sense?
I understand now why KROGER gift cards are the only gift cards that can't be scanned at a Uscan robot.
My god Kroger. The grocery chain I worked for 10 years ago, all cashiers received a manual explaining EVERYTHING that can be done at a register and how to do it. Kroger? ... No manual. Just learning from painful experience, one day at a time.
4) For whatever reason, sometimes a robot will temporarily not recognize my barcode as valid, even though the other robots can. And I'm forced to sign in on the screen, because my handheld doesn't work.
And sometimes, a robot's scanner scale thingie would stop working for whatever reason. You know how the scanner becomes disabled to prevent further scanning on a regular register when you're, for example, processing a payment at a pinpad? Well, the Uscan robots have this glitch sometimes when they're demanding the customer to replace an item removed or something, and the software disables the scanner so I can't scan my barcode. It doesn't happen often, but it does happen.
Our attendant station is locked behind the service desk in the cash office for just that specific reason, security from customers. And only the Service Desk / FES will sign on into it. Why the attendant stations are in the open like that is beyond me as that is a very poor security practice, let alone have a till, unlike ours which is locked in a secure area and accessible by only three individuals at any time.
Yeah, ours for all 3 Uscans are out in the open, right next to the robots. Yeah, they have a till. Quite handy for when a customer wants cash back and they failed to read the signs that the robot cannot give cash back because cash tenders have been disabled... BECAUSE the FES's ... FOR WHATEVER REASON!!!! do not want to put cash in the machines or fix one that has a bill stuck in the cash dispenser. And that happens quite often.
I'm not kidding, there was a time when FIVE out of the six robots at my Uscan couldn't take cash cause there was no cash in them. What was I supposed to do have them all closed when it was busy? It was common practice to keep asking the FES to give me more money for the attendant station, because I had to give it to the customers.
One time, I didn't have much money in my till, and a customer ordered $100 cash back on their robot. There was no FES around, and the customer either had to wait for one to come by or they had to wait while I counted $100 in DOLLAR BILLS... After about 5 minutes, an FES finally showed up. Apparently they were on break and the customer service desk cashier who was temporarily running the floor (giving breaks) didn't have the authority to give me cash from the office.
Are your guy's barcodes self expiring that you have to have a new one printed each time? The way it works by us is an actual card with a barcode is printed by management that the employee keeps as it "their card" that will always work anytime, regardless of who is signed on or off (unless of course the till is being counted or something when the operator login is disabled, then the card won't work.) It's like an override, but it's not, except for our FESes / CSRs / Front End Lead which are always active 24/7 as sometimes our Front end lead will leave their override for the night CSR or backup CSR and it works fine.
I hope you aren't upset at me OP as from the tone of one of your posts, it seems like I may have pissed you off, so if I did, my bad. Was not my intent, just explaining things from how they work by me n my own observations is all. 18 robots?????? Holy ****! I don't even want to think of the logistical nightmare that would be for an attendant, I would simply nope my way out right out the door. Out by me, gift cards can't be activated in Customer mode on Uscan, only Attendant mode as gift card scans are treated like alcohol, the robot will automatically lock-down and not proceed until after it's cleared by the attendant.
Yep, the attendant has to print a barcode for themselves each and every time. The barcodes are printed out on the same printer the robot uses to print out the customer's receipt. They are VERY temporary indeed. They expire each time the attendant signs off the attendant station, and they expire if you choose to print a new barcode. What I find weird is you can't print one at the attendant station, you have to do it at a robot.
Oh, no no no! Quite the contrary, I am actually quite excited I get the opportunity to share with someone how different our store is. I'm not upset at all
It's amazing how your store is different than ours. But yeah, 18 robots. But, lol, no, they're divided up into "banks" of six robots. And each bank has its own attendant station. There's a cashier assigned to each bank. The first bank is right by the door, right next to the service desk, which is immediately followed by 8 regular registers. This is the bank that receives the most action. It is the busiest bank, and the one the other cashiers hate the most. But I like it, which is probably why I'm always assigned to it. The rest of the banks are lined up along the wall around the registers.
And OH! There's yet another bank, but this one isn't really at the front, it's at our Bistro area, where there's a Starbucks and the Deli. It only has 3 robots though. It's mainly used by customers to buy stuff from the deli (like hot pizza and chicken), the salad and olive bars, and sodas from the soda machine. Our store also has a bar which is located upstairs. There are TVs on both floors. I like to go there when I'm on break instead of the breakroom. I've also had the chance to be the bar attendant on a few occasions. Let me tell you, whoever is assigned to the Bistro Uscan or the Bar, has the easiest job in the whole store, in my opinion. You're mostly just standing there (the bar attendant gets a chair! I'm sure the Bistro Uscan cashiers sit down when no FES is looking!) and you get to watch TV!
So a total of 4 Uscan banks in the store. Each handheld can log into any one of those banks, you just have to select which one you want to log into, "A" "B" "C" or "D" and then sign in. When it got crazy enough, I've seen one of our FESs control two banks at the same time WHILE running the service desk!
Wow, that's interesting that your Uscans don't allow a customer to buy their own gift cards. But yep, ours can. They have racks of gift cards in one of the aisles, and some by the registers, where any customer can pick one up, and that includes Kroger gift cards. They just scan the gift card, and the robot asks them what amount they want to put on the gift card, or not, as some have a fixed amount. And then the customer pays. They're activated as soon as the transaction is over, and the customer gets an extra little receipt that says so.
Kroger gift cards are the only ones that cannot be scanned at a Uscan robot, and now, after this lovely incident, I understand why.
How about coupons? Ours requires the help of the attendant. Or if you select it on the handheld, then the customer can scan their own coupons in customer mode while you're watching them. But there's no slot in the robot for coupons, the attendant keeps them at the station's drawer.
They came to me at the Uscan wanting to load a Kroger gift card for $400. So I scan the gift card and swipe it with the amount. They say they want to pay with a check. So they hand me their personal check with their signature but they don't write out the amount and they want me to print the amount on the check. I tell them I don't know how to do that.. here's the kicker, they tell me they KNOW how to do that, and they start touching the screen, but I take back control and put it in myself.
So I put the check in, it says "INVALID CHECK TYPE," I put it in facing the other way, "INVALID CHECK TYPE." I pull the check out and notice that one of the digits on their routing numbers had been whited out and part of their signature was on it. So I ask them if they can give me another check. They say forget it, and that they'll just pay with cash.
As this happens, another customer needed my help with a quick ID check, so I walk over for a sweet second, thinking the customer at wanting the gift card was whipping out their cash. ... NO... No... No, no NOOOOOOOOO.
To my utter and complete surprise, I came back to find the screen was cleared, the card was gone, and there was no receipt out of the printer, and of course, they were long gone. WTF?! I had my back turned for ONE SECOND!!! Um, I guess they thought I'd have forgotten about them or thought they didn't want the card and just abandoned the whole thing. No... NO NO NO... NO!!!!
This had to have been the strangest thing I have ever seen as a cashier on Uscan. Never had it dawned on me that a criminal would know how to use a register. So I had the fortunate thought to reprint the receipt of the last transaction. And there it was, the gift card was on there and they had ****ing cashed it out.
OMG, so here I am both pissed off and scared for my life, cause I now had to get the floor supervisor and tell them what happened. They took my till out the attendant station, talked to a store manager, and went into the office to count it. I stood there for 30 ****ing minutes, worried I was going to be written up or be on some kind of suspension or fired.
Finally they come out of the office. No money was missing from the till, and they managed to cancel the gift card and get their money back. OH MY GOD WAS I EVER RELIEVED!!!!
THINGS I SHOULD HAVE NOTED AS RED FLAGS:
1) They wanted to pay with a check that had it's account numbers partially covered in white out, causing the "INVALID CHECK TYPE"
2) Refusing to give me another check. but opting to pay in cash.
3) Their knowledge of how to do a check on the register and the fact they touched my screen.
THINGS I WILL NEVER DO AGAIN:
1) Temporarily leave to help another customer while checking out a customer at the attendant station WITHOUT LOCKING THE ****ING SCREEN!!!!
2) Leaving a scanned Kroger gift card unattended with a customer. My floor supervisor just told me that unlike other gift cards, Kroger gift cards are activated the moment I swipe them, regardless if the transaction has been paid for or not. How in the hell did I not know this? And the security guard chatting away with the floor supervisor, "Ya know, not a lot of cashiers know about that." If I knew this, this would have never happened.
That was a complete shock to me. It never dawned on me that a customer would know how to work a register. Let alone have the ****ING BALLS to cash out their own transaction while I had my head turned, just a few feet away from them. Wow, just wow. From now on, I will always assume that every customer knows how to use a register. And I'm changing my password daily.
The person that distracted you was probably part of the scam. Always pay attention to all the customers walking up to the Uscan. I know that's difficult. I'm not a cashier, but I have seen what they have to put up with. I have also been standing there waiting to use a Uscan while customers are piling up and watching the cashiers try to pay attention to every person. Most likely what took so long with the managers was them looking back on the camera to make sure your story checked out. Just remember you can only take care of one person at a time. Never walk away until you're finished.
__________________
Get to your department, get off your phone, and do your job!
At least you learned from this experience. It happens to everyone at least once. Thankfully for you it was only 400 that was able to be rejected in the end. We had one idiot who fell for a scam where someone called the store and said they were store management and needed to pay "Kroger's bills" so need him to load up a bunch of green dot cards and give the numbers over the phone. I've personally have had green dot scam calls and usually had fun with the caller wasting their time. Yet the idiot throws every red flag out the window and loads up green dot cards and gives every number over the phone. Guess how much he cost our store? $15,000.
All he got was a slap on the wrist. Also he was moved from my shift. I work (not for long myself) overnights 6 nights out of the week and he was covering my night off. He finally quit after another year or so.
-- Edited by 718downinthe270 on Monday 28th of August 2017 04:08:27 PM
