"Enter your PIN please.."

Hmmm, overreaction. Just slightly.

Cup of tea?

Eh? Am I missing something?

i think I'd just assume that the cashiers screen was working a bit faster than the pin machine?

Not in the slightest. She was one of those robots who spoke the whole time and couldn't let you do anything without speaking at you every single second of the interaction. "Any carrier bags for yourself today?" also annoys me.

And don't comment on my purchases.

Do till-people never use card machines themselves? Their end is always ready before our end, and yet still they request you to push the numbers before you're physically able to i.e. the machine isn't ready. I don't get it. I watch the queues and they all do it, to everyone. It's a bit weird.

I used to work on tills and there was a prompt that told us to ask the customer to check the amount and enter their PIN. You wouldn't believe the amount of people that stand looking aimlessly around if they're not prompted to enter it (and I include myself in this sometimes!)

Those four words are so damn infuriating! I am an adult, I know what to do!

(Saying that though, when I briefly worked at Sainsburys you had to ask customers to enter their PIN as a part of your 'till talk', along with do you have a Nectar card and can I help pack your bags, and would be told off if you didn't if you served a mystery shopper!)

I don't think it's ever happened to me. And I shop A LOT.

Do you need some cake?

Crikey, who knew people could get annoyed at a cashier asking if you'd like carrier bags? Are you broken?

I love it when the cashier asks if I want a carrier bag - I feel so smug when I tell them I have my own.

It's like I'm using Prada in a world full of Primark.

Firstly, YES! Exactly!!! (and thank you!)

Secondly, that absolutely explains it. It happens in all the supermarkets, including their little stores. Happens much less in independent shops. Darned auto-prompt!

Ha! Lots of us do yet they're still a little surprised.

We were constantly assessed for 'customer interaction' and had to make sure we said good morning/afternoon to the customer, asked them if they found everything they needed, ask if they wanted help packing, make polite conversation throughout, as about Nectar card and then prompt for PIN. If we didn't do all of them when being assessed by mystery shoppers which seemed to come in very regularly you would get told off!

It annoys me too, but not half as much as the self service tills. "UNEXPECTED ITEM IN THE BAGGING AREA". Yes, that would be my shadow, you stupid machine. Or even better, just a nanosecond after scanning something "PLEASE PUT THE ITEM INTO THE BAG". No sh1t, Sherlock! I never guessed that's what happened next. I was about to open the packet of yoghurts and smear myself in the contents whilst yodelling. FFS.

I cannot stand machines that think they're cleverer than me.

At least she never asked for your PIN number... now that does wind me up.

I get annoyed if I have come to the till with a basket full of stuff and they ask if I want bags. No I will fecking juggle my shopping all the way home. Or take my jacket off and fashion it into a carrier.

This is justifiable. Ranting about a person who is just trying to do their job, pass the time with chat, meet the company rules on customer care, is not (in my cabbage).

Ha! I can understand annoyance at the self service machines but I have honestly never felt the rage at being asked by a cashier to enter my pin!

Gah. This. Anyone who superfluously adds the word 'today' to the end of requests / sentences makes me grind my teeth with rage.

Particularly waiting staff: "Is everything alright for you and with your meal for yourselves today?" (don't even get me started on 'yourself/selves')

Bit of an extreme reaction to the PIN thing though. Were you on your mobile at the time? ?

I won't use them. I'll queue behind 10 people than use them. They're very messed up!

That is very annoying, but it happens much less than it used to. Folk are learning!

She got *no* rage. I said 'thank you' and 'goodbye'.

My seething was all inward

I was stood, at the machine, my hands empty, and one finger on the 7, when she helpfully prompted me that that (putting my number in) was the next thing I needed to do. It seems so weird that people don't use their eyes. Every now and then someone serves who is actually aware of what's going on around them and only ask for your PIN if you're still packing or staring off in to space. I like those ones!

I remember when they first installed those Pay and Pump petrol station things on the Island. It was like witchcraft to the locals, they treated them with fear and suspicion, poked them with sticks and made the sign of the Evil Eye...

Great for us grockles in the know; made whizzing through the petrol station much quicker! I'm all for automation- will always pick the self-service tills.

My son loves the Lee Evans line 'No, I'm going to f***ing juggle it all the way home!' and will often turn to me and say sideways "Juggle?" when we get asked. Makes me smile.

And me. It's not often you get caught with a requirement for assistance (at least, it doesn't happen to me very often).

LOVE the pumps, HATE the tills. I think I have only had one straightforward transaction with a self-serve till, and I've tried them all! Loads of my friends moan about them too.

The best ones are the ones who just beep your stuff through without eye contact and / or small talk. I'm not very good at making small talk and feel really put on the spot so inevitably come up with something massively inappropriate.

I suppose some of them just go into autopilot and recite their script, regardless. To be honest, if I was doing a repetitive job like that I'd probably find it pretty easy to slip into some sort of till-based mantra.

I ALWAYS need prompting to enter my PIN. I always get distracted and am looking around or in a day dream..

I like the quiet ones too

I was a till-girl in my teens. I spoke to the ones who seemed like they wanted to chat and left the others alone. I find it weird when they talk to you but you're talking to the people with you and keep being interrupted.

Yeah I don't really get the cashier thing, but you said it was the last straw so perhaps you just need some TLC and alcohol. ?

As for the self service tills, yeah they are a bit annoying, especially if you are in a rush and no staff members are about to help, but that's as far as it goes for me anyway, don't get any rage about it or owt.

In all seriousness, I really feel for checkout staff. It must be such a dull job and then to compound things, they're made to interact with the customers and penalised if they're not "chatty" enough. Why can't the supermarket powers that be just accepted that nobody in this equation wants to chat!

I mostly go to the self service tills. On the rare occasion that I go to a regular till I always ask the cashier how they are today, maybe they think I'm weird, I often get a surprised answer. I think it's nice to make conversation with people, especially as so many people hardly even make eye contact with them.

Again, I'm broken. I don't mind chatting with them.

"Oooh, they look nice".

"They are. Have you tried them?"

"No, might do though".

Inane? Probably. Are they ever going to actually "try them"? Unlikely. But it's just part of the human interaction. I'd hate it if we all became so insular that we couldn't have random, polite conversations with strangers.