Never had that problem at my Lowe's and I use credit all the time.

You shouldn't have had to put in the pin number if you chose credit in the first place. If a POS tells you to enter the pin or hit cancel for credit, it's because it didn't give you a choice before hand.

I've never had this problem at ANY self checkout that I've been to.

The last time I was at Home Depot there was no checkout where an average joe could go to that wasn't a self-checkout. I wanted to use a cashier and it wasn't an option.

Luckily I have a really good Ace hardware in my neighborhood, so I can avoid both Lowes and Home Depot.

My guess: They've identified the bin numbers (first 6-8 digits of a card, iirc) for

-credit card only cards
-credit/debit and debit only

and use the system to steer towards the cheaper to process debit transactions.

At least debit used to be cheaper to process.

yeah, well good luck at home depot.

please scan item.
please place item in the bagging area. it is in the bagging area.
please remove item from the bagging area. ok.
please rescan item. fine.
please place item in the bagging area. it is.
please place item in the bagging area. it IS.
please place item in the bagging area. IT IS DAMMIT!!!1!
please remove item from the bagging area. ARRRGGHH!

*head explodes*

attention maintenance, please report to the front-end for a bio clean-up on self checkout.

After waiting in line, Home depot's self checkout would not let me input a lenght of chain I was buying. The cashier said you can't check that out here and pointed me to the long line with the checker. I left my absolutly full cart blocking the line exit and told her "now it is your probelm" and walked out. If a store provides a service, they should really make sure it works first.

Never had a problem hitting cancel and getting to sign the screen at Lowes. I try to avoid the self checkout machines when possible though. In my opinion, the Lowes around me are cleaner, more organized, and have employees that will help.

In theory, self checkout is great, but in practice, it sucks.

The Lowe's that I go to actually is a cinch, unless the bar code reader malfunctions (suffers from bipolarism).

At Wal-mart, it is nothing but a giant mess (at least at the one I go to), where in order for you to use coupons, the attendant has to enter them in. Also, people who seem to use it, the least experienced ones, always, and I mean ALWAYS, scans in the SAME item twice, thinking that the item didn't go through the first time, and requires the attendant to come over and correct their mistakes.

Also, at the Military NX, they just installed self checkouts, but they have the cashiers ring them in for you! Why call it self checkout when you can't do it yourself?

Never had that specific problem, but Lowe's and Home Depot self checkout always have the whole "replace item, remove item, item removed, etc" repeatedly. I also wish they would give us one of those little scanner guns at the station to scan awkward large items.

@mac-phisto: x2! Oddly, the one at the grocery store works almost flawlessly. Sounds like HD went with a cheaper system!

Our Lowe's doesn't have self checkout. The Home Depot self-checkout is as annoying as mac-phisto suggests though.

It sounds like there also could have been some problem with the card communicating on the credit card network. Is it possible that it was the bank's fault?

"After the long process of selecting our few meager items in a disorganized store with unhelpful employees.."

You just described the Home Depots in Maryland. Usually the Lowes around here are much more organized and well lit.

As for the POS, my debit card has to be manually entered in no matter what when I go to Lowes. I had the same issue when I used the self-check out and the women walked up and saw the bank name. She said those won't scan and have to be manually entered. Took her about 30 seconds. Still faster than regular check out and the system beats Home Depots chaotic weight sensor. The one where if you breath on the product it requires an employee to come over and make sure your not stealing.

I have experienced these at multiple locations, and I can say that it is completely dependent on the User Interface software installed. The ones I used at Stop&Shop on the east coast were great. The ones I have experienced at Home Depot are middle of the road. The ones at Lowes are abysmal

I can't decide which is worse. Luckily, we have Lowe's and Home Depot side by side, in the same lot. Whichever pisses me off least, gets the business on that trip. Pricing is essentially the same, although one will sometimes carry something the other doesn't have.

I love the comment re: Ace Hardware. If I could go there for EVERYTHING, I would. Unfortunately, they are somewhat limited in scope as to what they carry, and they don't carry lumber!

Sounds like a case of user error. I use my debit as credit all the time at Lowe's with no problem.

It's worse at the grocery store when the little old ladies decide to "venture" away from the cashier and try the self check. You just want to strangle them.

Never had this problem, but whenever I go through the POS, I always have an armload of bulk items (screws, bolts, and other widgets that don't have UPCs on them) or several large items (most often lumber).

With that cart-load, GrumpyOldLady does the cashier job like the old days when customer service meant something, and "do-it-yourself" was for the project after I got home.

Possibly the card's mag stripe is going bad. I have yet to experience this at my Lowes. Always an easy and quick self check using credit. Even if I had a bad experience I would never go back to Home Depot. Just not worth the stress. Try out ACE.

Good luck with Home Depot. I tried using a gift card at one of their self checkout machines - the system had a problem and it debited the amount from the gift card and didn't credit it toward my payment. It looked like the transaction just hadn't gone through, so I tried again, and it took the remaining few dollars off the gift card, and then said I still owed 3/4th of the bill. I spent about 45 minutes at the customer service desk while they looked up the transaction history on the gift card and then fixed the issue. I think both Home Depot and Lowes are incredibly incompetent and I really wish I could find a good alternative in my area.

I wonder how much loss they are seeing through these things. Several times I have seen people not scan items and put them right in the bag. Hilarious.

Never had a problem at my Lowes. Right after swiping the card, the pin pad pops-up and in the lower right corner it has a CREDIT button. Simply press this button and it closes the pin pad and opens the credit signature screen.

- actually thinking of OSH.

@shoelace414: Yes! They do this at our local Home Depot too! It drives me crazy how you have to call the attendant over if you have something large or awkwardly shaped so they can use the handheld scanner.

It's a home improvement store! Everything is large and awkwardly shaped!

Self checkout is evil.

I try to buy local when I can, using local lumber stores (better quality wood than Home Despot or Lowe's anyway), hardware stores, etc. It's worth it to seek out a local store and patronize them, they'll get to know you. Nice.

My biggest complaint with the self-checkout systems is it's such a pain to use them with your own bags. Putting your own bags in the bagging area sets off an alarm as the system thinks you're bagging an item without scanning it. The only solution I've found is to bag everything in plastic bags after scanning, and then, when the transaction is complete, transfer the items from the bags to your bags.

(Note that there was plenty of money in the account for this measly little $6.xx transaction, so this is not an issue of insufficient funds - just a POS POS.)

It might be that your total was too low for a credit transaction... in some places you have to spend over a specific amount to justify the fee transaction associated with credit cards... hence the auto switch to debit.

Personally, I've never had trouble with my Lowe's and find the reasons of this OP to switch ridiculous. But, it's his money he can spend it anywhere he wants.

I've had machines steer me towards debit when I didn't want to use that card that way, and for some reason it quite often rejects when used as debit. I always have trouble with Lowe's self-checkout.

I work for a major retailer, and I can testify that PIN Debit is by far the least expensive way to receive payment. It's obviously much, much cheaper than counting paper money and processing paper checks. It's also significantly less expensive than signature debit/credit, because of the fact that fraud and stolen cards are relatively common (and signature debit/credit doesn't prevent fraud) whereas PIN debit transactions are legitimate 100% of the time - so the credit card companies pass the savings on to the retailers in the form of lower processing fees for PINs (low risk) and high processing fees for signatures (high risk). Every company obviously negotiates their own rates, but at my company PIN debit is less than one tenth as expensive as signature debit.

I think consumers should consider themselves fortunate that they have not yet been asked to pay additional fees for signature debit/credit transactions, and I really think we're likely to see that in the very near future.

The Lowe's POS creditcard machines have an option labeled "Credit" on the screen that asks you to input your PIN.

Reading is hard :(

@xAnarChisTx: The Wal-mart I go to (when I absolutely have no choice) does not have any self checkout stations. This is annoying but then I just assume they are doing a good job of knowing who their customers are. When I look around I doubt many of the people I see could navigate a self checkout.

I am a cashier at Lowe's and I frequently find myself behind the self checkout station. I can undoubtedly state that there is nothing malicious in the system to force any customer into using Debit. When a card is swiped, IF it does not read properly, occasionally the Credit button will not appear when the customer is prompted to enter his/her PIN. At that point, I usually would rub the customer's card against my apron and have them swipe the card again (this usually works!). If it continues to fail, then the option to manually enter the information comes up. You cannot process anything manually entered (everything typed in) as Debit. I'm not entirely sure of the reason why, but it seems a bit uppity to state that some kind of error is a malicious attempt to force a Debit purchase. I know people love to claim big businesses like to screw with people, but honestly, retaining a customer is far more important to Lowe's (or probably any other company) than getting them to type in their magical 4-digit number. Get a life.

I love self-checkouts where ever they are. I just hate that some people don't know how to use them. I always use Lowe's self-checkout unless I have a coupon or a huge item. I've never had any problems.

This problem has to do with the POS. I've noticed most stores will ask you for a PIN EVEN IF you hit CREDIT!

I hate that! When I hit CREDIT, I want CREDIT. Not debit.

I understand why stores ask if you want to do debit. It saves them money. But you shouldn't trick people to enter their PIN after they've decided to do a Credit transaction.

The Lowe's in my town doesn'thave these yet. When they do, (and fire a few cashiers) I will find another place to get my materials.

The Home Depot next door has these but it's usually not a problem because they ran most of their customers (and skilled,give -a- damn employees) off long ago. 9 times out of 10,the single cashier on duty has no line whatsoever.

Does anyone else resent being turned into an unpaid worker bee for these companies ?

@carso:

...whereas PIN debit transactions are legitimate 100% of the time...

You assume that the person is legit.

the self-checkout at Lowe's and Depot by me are horrendous, and like someone noted above the biggest problem is when it asks you to place your item in the bagging area, you do, then it insists you didn't over & over until the red light comes on (which prompts an annoyed employee to come over and work some magic).

The only self-checkout that I've used without incident is the setup at Stop and Shop, and I can;t explain why but it just works and it works well. The machines and process are more or less the same but theirs do what they're supposed to.

I don't do self-checkout: You don't come to my job and do it for me.

i've had that same problem in some places. I choose credit, scan debit card and still prompts me for my pin. what was the point of giving me a choice if you are going to choose for me?

my issue with Lowe's self checkout, is that when they have all 4 self checkout areas open, they either have only 1 or none regular checkout lines open.

Was at the local Wal-Mart this weekend. Noticed that there were 3 employees helping at the 4 self checkout registers.

Self-Checkout....you're doing it wrong.

> Aren't self check out systems supposed to be convenient?

I think their primary purpose is to replace the human cashier, in order to reduce costs.

I'm always amazed at the people I see who use them at my local supermarket. There's always at least one geriatric doggedly taking one on. I'd think they'd be scared to death of the machine for many reasons, but no, they're in there doing battle, and just as slowly as I'd expect.

We don't have self checkout at my Lowe's yet. The scarce, indifferent, avoid eye contact at all costs when passing by a customer, staff, we do have though.

@Serenefengshui: Self checkout is evil.

This.

I won't use them because I worked my way through college in retail. These systems only deprive others of the same opportunity.

@linus: I'm sorry, I mistyped, what I had meant to say there is that PIN transactions are legitimate -almost- 100% of the time, because a person's PIN is generally known only to that individual. There are, of course, cases where PINs are stolen are used without the cardholder's permission, but they are rare. Sorry for the mistake. ;-)

@xAnarChisTx: In theory, self checkout is great, but in practice, it sucks.

I disagree. In theory, self checkout sucks donkey balls. If they want me to do the job that their cashier is supposed to be doing, then they can give me a discount when I use the "self checkout" lane.

Maybe next they'll have the "self unload the truck aisle"

The Lowe's here in Newburgh, NY does not have self-check out yet BUT really needs them... there never seems to be more than one (sometimes two) checkers on duty besides the CS desk.

FWIW the Home Depot across the street has them, and they work 100% better than Wal-Mart's SCO systems.

One more point I forgot to mention: Had the man helped the cashier read the security code from the card (of which being mis-typed prompted the error), he would have been given the Credit option he was after all along.

I too have experience the frustration of self checkout... and now refuse to use it.

Two reasons. First, if the system was at least friendly and helpful when it decides to screw with you that would make it interesting. Rather the systems are frustrating to use, staff rarely helpful as they seem to get just as frustrated by the systems (granted, by way of customers problems)and generally people end up walking away grumbling about the F-ing corporate stupidity... "I'll never shop here again". Granted this will disappear as we "self checkout immigrants" disappear to be replaced by "self checkout natives" (today's kids who grow up with this level of corporate abuse of customers and assume it to be the norm). I have on a couple of occasions walked away from carts filled with hundreds of dollars worth of products because the self checkout has decided to screw with me. Even when the checkout supervisor tries to come to the rescue I have had to let them know I am not enjoying my shopping experience at this point and have decided to terminate the experience and leave. Unfortunately as the self checkout is rarely their fault, they then get to clean up the partially checked out mess I leave behind. I am thinking of a couple of specific Home Depot experiences with this one where a live person checkout was not available when I was done shopping. Actually, at Home Depot I try the lumber checkout first as their is almost always a live body there.

Second reason, these self checkouts replace people who had real jobs and paychecks who in the course of their lives spent the money they earned buying the services of the people in their communities... like you and me. Of course the corporations tell us that the cost savings made possible by the self checkout is passed on to us, their customers, in the form of reduced prices. Well isn't that just the pile of fertilizer my garden needs. Let them prove this practice before they BS us with this excuse. Even, assuming they actually did reduce prices and pass this savings on to me the consumer, I would prefer to spend the extra couple of cents from my bill on the employment of my neighbors.

(Caution: Rant ahead) I am tired of the lying cheating bastards that run the majority of corporations that own our lives and would love to see them all have to provide proof for all the spin doctoring, deceptive, down right dishonest crap they feed us on a daily basis... whoops too late, it will never happen 'cause they own the politicians and legal system too... and that is a rant for another day...

@mac-phisto: I always wanted to hack the system at our grocery store.

"Please put the item in the bag."
"Please remove the last time from the bag."
"Please put the item in ANOTHER bag."
"Please toss the item over your LEFT shoulder."
"Please toss the item at the checkout clerk."

I stopped using PIN number transactions when it came to light that the stores were saving the PIN number info (which they are not supposed to do) and even worse not protecting that info.

Also, I receive more protection when I use my Visa debit card as a credit card (no PIN number)and I also get reward points.

shoelace414 "Luckily I have a really good Ace hardware in my neighborhood, so I can avoid both Lowes and Home Depot."

Platypi: "Unfortunately, they are somewhat limited in scope as to what they carry, and they don't carry lumber!"

And Ace Hardware employees are clueless about their products or how to use them. I have three in my area and they all seem to employ clueless high school kids. And their tool selection is worthless chinese crap. And they never have what I want. If I need a particular spark plug, they won't have it. If I need a particular sized bolt, they won't have it. If I need a link to a bike chain, they certainly will not have it. Instead the stores are filled with crappy home decorations and crafts I'll never need from a hardware store.

I have best luck with Tractor Supply Company. Sure the employees won't help, but if you search around you will almost certainly find what you need. And they have decent tools too. Too bad they don't sell lumber.

Another good hardware chain is Gilroy's. They employ people who know their stuff and they usually have it in stock. However, their tools are of a very low quality.