The Lemon Fool

...I'd vote for Boris, I'd even vote Conservative (that would be a first!). In fact I'd vote for ANYONE (even Adolf Hitler if available) IF ONLY THEY WOULD BAN PAYMENT BY SMART PHONE AT SUPERMARKET CHECKOUTS.

This is now the second time, relatively recently, I have come across this particular contemporary horror... And, of course, I know this is now something I am going to come across increasingly - to be in a queue behind somebody who is 'paying' by the 'convenience' (PAH!) of smart phone. WHY IS THIS NOT ILLEGAL?* I mean, child molestation, murder and rape are illegal, so why not PAYING BY SMART PHONE AT A SUPERMARKET CHECKOUT??? Seems reasonable to me it should be. This is obviously the latest 'thing' designed to drive us into total, despairing insanity.

I gave up. Eventually I just walked out. I simply abandoned ALL my shopping at the checkout. I simply walked away...

Like the song says: "You gotta know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em."

Why is this 'thing' even allowed?


* My preferred punishment for people who attempt this: Death by hanging from piano wire. With their feet 2 inches off the ground, so they can periodically 'save' themselves by touching the ground, until they succumb by exhaustion. That should prolong the agony of their death for, Ooh... hopefully a good 11 - 17 hours. That 'convenient' enough, for you? 'tis for me!

Harsh? Possibly. But entirely fair AFAICS.

FINIS.

You didn't think much of it, then?

BJ

Is that you Granny?

I've never had the experience of being behind someone paying by phone at the checkout.

The one that drove me up the wall was paying for drinks in a pub by credit card. OK if you are buying rounds but when I lived in Brighton the pubs were full of students and they all bought their own drinks. When there are 6 lads at the bar wanting a half of lager and they all want to pay by card you can be there until closing time.

Things might have improved with the introduction of the new cards you just wave somewhere near the reader but thankfully where I live now people don't buy drinks individually or by cards. Maybe it's just that there aren't any local universities

sg31 wrote:I've never had the experience of being behind someone paying by phone at the checkout.

Lucky you! But I have bad news for you, one day you will be...

To be precise, it's when you are behind somebody NOT paying by smart phone - but labouring under the misconception that they can do so, which is the real problem.

Paying by contactless card is quicker than paying with cash.

I've never seen anyone pay by phone (except in car parks ) how does that work?

Rob

robbelg wrote:Paying by contactless card is quicker than paying with cash.

I've never seen anyone pay by phone (except in car parks ) how does that work?

In my recent experience, it not infrequently doesn't.

I have to say that while I don't pay using a mobile phone, I do see a lot of people doing so.

It's often quicker than the little old lady who, bless her, can't find the slot for her card or find her purse to put the card back in it.
It's like paying with a contact-less card, but not limited to the £30 limit on those cards.

Ps, I understand that paying by phone can go VERY wrong.
https://www.ft.com/content/e8a177d4-dfa ... 5a370481bc

I would quote the Headline, but the FT would apparently prefer that I did not, and of course TLF is clear that I should abide by their constraints.

robbelg wrote:Paying by contactless card is quicker than paying with cash.

I've never seen anyone pay by phone (except in car parks ) how does that work?

Rob

If I know how much to pay and have the right change, I can pay with cash quicker than I can extract my card from my wallet. Normally, however, I would expect contactless to be quicker.

I have never paid by phone but I have seen it used in a pub. The phone is held to the reader in the same way as a contactless card and is just as quick in my experience.

Start using Google Pay with Visa Checkout and breeze through your next purchases...

https://www.visa.co.uk/pay-with-visa/fe ... sumer.html

It seems that either it doesn't always work properly or some people paying using this method are doing something wrong.


Julian F. G. W.

jfgw wrote:
It seems that either it doesn't always work properly or some people paying using this method are doing something wrong.


Julian F. G. W.

Or their cheapo phone is knackered. The NFC protocol used by the phone is the same as a physical card. And contactless is easily the fastest way to pay unless the server is dozy.

So a question for the OP,

Is it every such transaction or do you only notice the small fraction of instances where it doesn't work properly? I have never seen it not work in the pub but, if it is cheap 'phones to blame, I suspect that I would see more failures if I spent more time in Wetherspoon's than the slightly-pricier-than-average pub where I have seen it used.

Is it as slow as writing a cheque? (remember those?)

Julian F. G. W.

I've seen people pay by phone for quite a few things, right down to bus tickets. Doesn't seem to be a problem.

A little over three years ago I travelled by train in Sweden, starting at an unmanned rural station. To do so I had to buy my ticket online in advance - there was no such thing as a ticket machine I could use with anything so primitive as a credit or debit card. The ticket came with a barcode (PDF, I think) and once I was on the train the inspector scanned it on my phone.

My biggest problem with paying by contactless is that the limit is set too low for a tank of fuel.
These days if you want to fill up at a petrol station, it involves joining a bloody supermarket queue inside to pay (separate rant on why piano wire is too painless for people doing a full basket food shop at a petrol station).
Contactless payment at the pump would avoid the need to interact with any of them.

When I was in Bulgaria in the summer, everything was contactless. You flashed the card, then if it was above a certain limit the machine asked for the PIN.

No long delay while you put your card in and wait while it reads the chip. Don't know why we don't do that here.

Scott.

what shoud be banned is

* person X puts shopping on belt
* X watches worker scan each item.
* X bags up each item very carefully split across multiple colour coded bgs dependsing on what item is.
* tries to cram A+1 bags worth of groceries into A bags rather than pay 10p for A+1 bag.
* having completed eventual bagging X then gets purse/wallet out
* X then produces 17 gazillion vouchers which they then sort depending on value to maximise voucher spend and leave least actual money to pay
* X and worker then sort through vouchers to find which ones are valid, which out of date, which can be used on a 3-for-4 deal and which not
* the final bill is finally arrived at sometime towards the end of the current century
* X then refinds waller/purse and extracs the exact amount of cash incliuding searching pockets for the final 8 pence in coppers.


And then there is this ... (admins - this is MY own work abd nobody esle's )

http://almost-middle-aged-musings.blogs ... ility.html

didds

Not forgetting:

1) Finally gets to the end of packing and realises she hasn't got the PIN code for the card, so has to phone hubby for the info. Groan.....

2) Tries the PIN three times without success, before realising that she's using the wrong card. At which point the card (very sensibly) cancels itself until further notice and we're all properly stuffed.

3) Waits until the paying-up moment before asking for a book of stamps. Which means that the cashier has to stop everything and summon assistance. Assistant then asks whether she wants the special Christmas stamps, and she says she's not sure because she doesn't know what pictures they've got on them this year?

4) Has nearly finished the checking-out when her kids suddenly muscle into the queue with a couple of extra items. Namely, shorts, tank tops for Saturday night, a teen bra, and those glittery tee shirts that say either Naughty or Nice depending on whether you rub the sequins up or down. Oooh, says the cashier, that's nice, I must get one of those for my niece, it's her birthday next weekend, and did you want the hangers, and will you be needing another bag, and how would you like me to fold them?

Today's Sainsburys shopping was slightly more diverting. Two very drunk women fighting in the aisles, calling each other fat slag, and one of them threatening to scratch the other's eyes out. It quite restored my faith in the strength of the seasonal spirit. Gin and Bacardi, by the look of it.

BJ

TUK020 wrote:My biggest problem with paying by contactless is that the limit is set too low for a tank of fuel.
These days if you want to fill up at a petrol station, it involves joining a bloody supermarket queue inside to pay (separate rant on why piano wire is too painless for people doing a full basket food shop at a petrol station).
Contactless payment at the pump would avoid the need to interact with any of them.

But when you're at the pump, why don't you either use cash or just use your card to pay with PIN number?

Steve

stevensfo wrote:But when you're at the pump, why don't you either use cash or just use your card to pay with PIN number?

Steve

'Cos that way he wouldn't be unnecessarily holding up anyone behind him.

We braved Sainsbury yesterday. On entering we were met by a young lady who tried to push a peculiar device into my hand. "It's so you can self scan the items you buy and allows you to check your shopping and pay more quickly" No thank you says I, I prefer to use the checkout with an actual person there rather than try and put them out of a job by doing it myself. OH then put his two penneth in by saying Of course you do realise that when everyone picks these up automatically you'll be out of a job. Silence from young lady who then wandered off to accost some other unsuspecting victim.
I hate shopping.

R6

Rhyd6 wrote:We braved Sainsbury yesterday. On entering we were met by a young lady who tried to push a peculiar device into my hand. "It's so you can self scan the items you buy and allows you to check your shopping and pay more quickly"

How quaint and old fashioned - but then that is Sainsbury for you.

In Waitrose you simply have the app on your phone to scan items and pay at the quick check out, and so avoiding all the fuddy duddies who are trying to find the 23p in change to pay the patient till operator, whilst everyone else in the queue wants to murder them.