The Woolworths Thread (36 Viewers)

[groovygirl]

i wish that could be my weekly pay lol.

omg omg omg labour day today whos working?

doublw time and a half )

 

[T 360]

Today is the beginning of 4 weeks of hell. Our CSM is on holidays for 4 weeks,with the 2IC(Who plays favourites and doesn`t like me or many others) is acting CSM for 4 weeks.

I can expect the worst hours possible next week,when they do the rosters!

 

[ay0_x]

Guysss...

I justy learnt how to do reduced-to-clear item thingos and someone gave me their password to use. But how do I do more than one at a time? Because last night I had to do six chickens and it took me like 10 minutes punching in the code everytime =\

 

[Treefeet]

6 x
service menu
reduce to clear
scan or type the code in

.. you need service numbers for that aswell.

 

[babikakez]

Today is the beginning of 4 weeks of hell.

Ugh, me too. Except not for the same reasons as you, and only for one week.

CSM, 3IC and main weekend supervisor are off for training, holidays and TEE respectively. This leaves four of us.
We are so desperate that our weekend smokeshop operator has been doing proper supervisor training for the last week, and an operator who has only just been asked if she wants to be a supervisor (so she's had no training at all) both have supervision shifts.

Its going to be awful. I really don't like working with my 2IC. Like her as a person, don't get me wrong, but working with her is hell.

 

[SS-champion]

AN UPDATE ON MY EXPERIENCE --->>

Ok after a week or so of using the updated SCO's, things seem to getting better but there are still obvious flaws with this new system compared to the NCR software:

1) Weight mismatches are not as common as they were before but they still do happen for no apparent reason. For me, it is also really difficult to check wat has gone wrong without a PDA, especially when the customer has a bag overfilling with crap in the bagging area. Most of the time when I can't see anything obviously wrong I just approve the error to get the queue moving. What else can I do when there are scores of angry customers waiting to use the machines - go through the whole bag bit by bit to find an unscanned item? lol At least with the PDA I was able to watch exactly wat the customer scans scanned while watching them put that same item in the bag, and pick up any errors immediately.

2) The GUI is still damn ugly

3) Has anyone else found the fact that there are no "OK" or "Try Again" buttons for customers to press after signinging annoying? Or the fact that it takes ridiculously long for the "Store Log-in" button to pop up so u can approve the transaction? Or that once u press "Yes" nothing happens on the screen and the receipt prints out 5 seconds later? Most of the customers I've seen get confused after signing their signatures because there is no prompt on the screen telling them to press "OK" after signing their signature. Instead most people think the machine didnt accept their sigature, so they keep signing the pad until I go up to them and tell them the signatures gone through and they just have to wait until that stupid button pops up for me to approve it.

Also I;ve given up trying to sell our new SCOs to the public. Now if someone complains to me that they are crap I tell them that I agree and don't know why things had to change. I also tell them it would be good if you could voice your concerns with our manager as it will look good coming from a customer" haha

I fully agree with your 3 points.
1. "please wait for assistance" ... when nothing is wrong!!
2. yes it is ugly
3. Doing credit card signatures is stupid... no ok button etc.
4. When customers complain about them I just agree with them lol

 

[groovygirl]

Why? Rosters are perfectly easy to read. My store leaves spare paper next to the wall, you write your shifts down. If you have trouble, ask a supervisor. Not hard at all.

no need to be so rude. well mine doesnt, w/e i dont care what u think. just because you can read rosters doesnt mean u have to be slack to others..

 

[bdude]

6 x
service menu
reduce to clear
scan or type the code in

.. you need service numbers for that aswell.

You need a password to do price override, let alone quantity entry? LOL>

 

[ekul444]

I fully agree with your 3 points.
1. "please wait for assistance" ... when nothing is wrong!!
2. yes it is ugly
3. Doing credit card signatures is stupid... no ok button etc.
4. When customers complain about them I just agree with them lol

Ok, here we go, hopefully I can remember everything...
Just got back from training with Area Champ - she was great, she said that she loved the software (surprise, surprise) but she also told me the things she didnt agree with. (which included the post-signature issues, and the cashout stupidity as described on here - she told me that they have requested these to be changed and IT are currently rewriting the scripts...)

She said that ALL RTC items will have weight issues, as the price will be too low for an item of that weight!!! WTF - NCR didnt have that problem!!
All fresh stuff - including bakery, meat, deli, seafood, produce will be entered into the system as 'Accept any weight' so there should be less issues with that.
If a customer hasnt put their produce in a bag, and puts (for example) the apples a couple at a time into the bag, the SCO will have weight issues as it will take the intial weight in there (only 2 apples or whatever)
Anything light (under 15g) will be entered into the system as 'No weight required' so there will be less issues there.

Umm you can save transactions, but not recall them as it will totally freeze the machine..
For rebooting: the first option (if possible) is to go to POS and do a reboot from there. The second option is to go Ctl, Alt, Delete, Enter, Enter, Enter and do a reboot that way.

Re your questions: I asked her what the overall thoughts of customers were and she said that generally they hate them... Wow... So that provided my perfect opportunity to ask about a rollback and customisation. She said that they will not rollback the software, they are committed to improving the software, not giving up. Lol... About customisation - she said that NCR software had some big holes in it, in terms of things that they wanted, proper green bag support, cash office support, and suitable drill down menus to name a few. That is their reasoning for developing WoWPoS SCO. I couldnt get much more out of her because she liked the software overall....

She was obsessed with that 'Force Weight' thing, and kept saying it was the best bit of the new software - I was like WTF! I would never use it...

Couple of things that stood out for me:
You can not put cash in while the EDR card screen is there, you HAVE to swipe it or press skip...
The lane light has to be turned on manually.
The 'Intervention' Screen is fantastic - it shows exactly what items need intervening, why they need assistance, and whether the item has been added to the transaction. GREAT
You have to press 'Store Login' before scanning barcode -> you cant just scan.
Try not to do quantities excessively -> something about reduced hours for the department as it counts as 1 item/customer (some one like Townie might be able to explain this?!?)
The devices screen showing exactly whats wrong (cash low, paper low) except she said that she has never seen it actually appear here... lol
After opening the machine, to change paper, put a cash order in etc. press ATM Reset every single time - this will help in reducing the number of crashes.
IT is monitoring the amount of times you go to POS, they will contact your store if you do alot of scanning items in this mode, as it disables the security features. If you are putting a customer through on SCO, use it like a SCO, not a normal register.

So thats about it, if anything comes back to me ill post it, but now just looking foward to next shift on Saturday - might pop in tomorow to see how they are handling it =]

 

[BSammy]

You probably will. Our two weekend office cashiers have just been sent to do RSA Training and both have hours in liquor now to compensate.

Found out today.

Get to keep 22 hours in cash, as long as I work the saturday. I currently do no weekends at all.

I'm a full timer. So that means I have 2 8 hour shifts on front end. It could be worse.


I'm just hoping I get to write my own roster again.

 

[SpongeHead]

Why? Rosters are perfectly easy to read. My store leaves spare paper next to the wall, you write your shifts down. If you have trouble, ask a supervisor. Not hard at all.

Well yeah, nobody said they were difficult to read . The problem is copying down a week's worth of shifts when the company could easily give us our own individualised time-sheets/rosters at the beginning of the week. Or email them to us.

Honestly, who wants to waste their break time/free time after work copying down their shifts? And yeah copying them down yourself makes it more likely that you will make an error so it's actually quite stupid that we have to do this ourselves. Also I'm glad your store can afford to gvie you guys spare paper so you can write your shift down - we aren't that blessed at my store.

 

[Treefeet]

You need a password to do price override, let alone quantity entry? LOL>

wow really.... thats what... service numbers mean... duh!!!

 

[SpongeHead]

SpongeHead, thanks for your advice, i am focusing on studying for the HSC, im staying up all night to study and revise and i have n/ a ed the hsc exams yesterday at work. Im really scared about failure in the hsc because im also working during the HSC and school holidays. Yeah but my department manager wont want to waste paper but an email would be much much easier send us the shifts for the upcoming week. there is like 8 service girls doing there hsc too at my woolies, so they can ask the yr 10, yr 11 employees or older employees in our service staff that work during school time. after the 30th of October i can work whenever but not my yr 12 formal and the day before it. HSC does come first, but i need a balance of work family, rest and study

No probs. Just remember, all the hard work now will pay off in the end when you have 3 months off to party haha

 

[SpongeHead]

Ok, here we go, hopefully I can remember everything...
Just got back from training with Area Champ - she was great, she said that she loved the software (surprise, surprise) but she also told me the things she didnt agree with. (which included the post-signature issues, and the cashout stupidity as described on here - she told me that they have requested these to be changed and IT are currently rewriting the scripts...)

She said that ALL RTC items will have weight issues, as the price will be too low for an item of that weight!!! WTF - NCR didnt have that problem!!
Umm you can save transactions, but not recall them as it will totally freeze the machine..
For rebooting: the first option (if possible) is to go to POS and do a reboot from there. The second option is to go Ctl, Alt, Delete, Enter, Enter, Enter and do a reboot that way.

Re your questions: I asked her what the overall thoughts of customers were and she said that generally they hate them... Wow... So that provided my perfect opportunity to ask about a rollback and customisation. She said that they will not rollback the software, they are committed to improving the software, not giving up. Lol... About customisation - she said that NCR software had some big holes in it, in terms of things that they wanted, proper green bag support, cash office support, and suitable drill down menus to name a few. That is their reasoning for developing WoWPoS SCO. I couldnt get much more out of her because she liked the software overall....

Had a mental blank so will come back and edit soon...

Wow thanks so much for all of that info ekul.. It's good to know that they're aware of most of the probs we've talked about here and that they will hopefully be resolved with the next update.

I must admit though, my heart did sink a notch when u said that "they are committed to improving the software, not giving up" So obviously our NCR days are long gone - at least ur Area Champ is happy with the new software haha. Hopefully the next upgrade isn't too far away. Only then would I be able to be as positive as her...

 

[ekul444]

ps. did anyone see the news about apple taking legal action against woolies, cause their logo is too similar:
Apple and Woolworths logo copyright legal challenge

 

[danberg]

ps. did anyone see the news about apple taking legal action against woolies, cause their logo is too similar:
Apple and Woolworths logo copyright legal challenge

yeh i heard lol, pretty stupid.
i guess that explains why mad marty has a fit whenever someone describes the new logo as an apple!

 

[iMatthew]

They look nothing alike :s. Stupid Apple idiots.

 

[mak5]

Working in the bakery is great - no customer interaction whatsoever haha... Basically it just involves putting all the bread into bags, cakes into those round containers etc and labelling them. Although depending on the size of ur store u have to work pretty fast as there is heaps to do and the managers expect most of the bakery items to be on display pretty much within an hour or 2 of the store opening. Oh and make sure u wear gloves haha

Thanks for the reply. After many years working in other dept, have just 2 weeks to adjust to new dept b4 being let loose to dept mgr relief. Still very slow in packaging and know nothing about orders, autostckr and only 1 day of training left. Should be interesting!!!!!

 

[townie]

Try not to do quantities excessively -> something about reduced hours for the department as it counts as 1 item/customer (some one like Townie might be able to explain this?!?)

Hmm, thats interesting, it's got to be 1 of 2 things.

1. It affects # of items sold, which affects SMS performance, but i doubt this, otherwise all item counts would be screwy.

2. More likely: when i went to training they actually went into detail about how people-planner does the front end grids, and it actually allocates hours based on how long it takes to scan each type of item {as an aside, produce is allocated something like 16 hours per 1000 items, whereas everything else is like 1-2 hrs per 1000 items, so if produce sales plans are out, your grids will be screwed} - my guess is Qty screws up the time allocated to department item times.

Well yeah, nobody said they were difficult to read . The problem is copying down a week's worth of shifts when the company could easily give us our own individualised time-sheets/rosters at the beginning of the week. Or email them to us.

See, i disagree that the company "could easily" do this, they cant, the software just isnt there to do it easily, and manually cut up printed rosters? do you know how long that would take for so little payoff.

 

[ekul444]

Hmm, thats interesting, it's got to be 1 of 2 things.

1. It affects # of items sold, which affects SMS performance, but i doubt this, otherwise all item counts would be screwy.

2. More likely: when i went to training they actually went into detail about how people-planner does the front end grids, and it actually allocates hours based on how long it takes to scan each type of item {as an aside, produce is allocated something like 16 hours per 1000 items, whereas everything else is like 1-2 hrs per 1000 items, so if produce sales plans are out, your grids will be screwed} - my guess is Qty screws up the time allocated to department item times.

Yeah, thanks, Im not sure.
Its just as she was going through the WoWPoS SVR menu on WoWPoS SCO she got to Quantity and said don't use it - her own staff get into trouble if they do ANY quantities... She said the more quantities you do the less hours are allocated to the Front End...