Man smashes Home Depot checkout stand because it speaks Spanish!

Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer

... But that age-old adage -- that patience is a virtue -- somehow slipped the mind of a man shopping at Home Depot on Utah Avenue South in Seattle on Thursday.

Around 9 p.m., the man was in line at a self-service checkout stand, ready to buy a pry bar and hacksaw, according to a Seattle police report.

But as a manager told an officer, the man accidentally hit the button for Spanish on the computer screen.

And that was the tipping point for this consumer.

He became "frustrated that the machine was speaking Spanish," the police report says.

So, instead of asking for customer service help, he let loose a blow with the pry bar and shattered the computer. He ran from the store and made a beeline to some nearby railroad tracks, the report said.

Read more: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/330043_prybar03.html

Score one for the home team.

Maybe he'll be run-over by a train.

I hope the train runs on schedule, too.

I'm indifferent to whether the train runs on schedule.

I still want to see other cashiers.

What's retarded is that every self-serve checkout machine, be it at Home Depot, King Soopers or elsewhere, has that damn scale. The stupid thing always demands that you put items you scan in the bag on that damn scale, and won't let you scan the next item until it senses the weight of the item you just scanned in the bag on the scale.

Totally retarded. I'm the one who usually will try to scan three items, then put all three of them in the bag at once. The fucking self-serve checkout machines are always trying to outsmart you.

It's an absolutely idiotic user-interface design. Why don't they make the self-serve machines work more like the manned checkout stations, just swipe, throw on a conveyor belt, then bag when you're done scanning and paying? Instead, they come up with this inefficient clusterfuck.

...and putting it on a $60 hammer would be my guess.

I tried to buy a newspaper at a "self-serve checkout" once. Once. The newspaper didn't weigh enough to register on the scale. (Why should that matter? It's a newspaper.) It took several minutes for a clerk to come and help out (minutes I could have spent buying the newspaper at a regular checkout). He said "This always happens" and pulled a can of stewed tomatoes out from under the machine and put it with my paper. Then the thing would operate, but it refused to read the barcode on the newspaper. The guy finally just took my dollar and let me escape with my paper.

Never again.

I refuse to use them. I'll take the line that gives a person a job, thanks.

You want to buy some tools, or not?

ROFLMAO!

(It's a family joke.)

awww man...:) I work for the big orange life sucker and cant stand having self checkout in a hardware store... Ill have to pass this around at work tomorrow..

freakin' automated checker outers! Ship 'em back to where they came from!

:evilgrin:

And here is his car






his wife






and his kids

The guy in the blue T-shirt looks like he's saying "WTF's wrong with you lady?".

:rofl: :rofl:

Oh and don't forget to support the soliders.

:rofl:

it says the usual blather about how great it is you're there, use your card to pay, blah blah blah.

The friggin' things should have a button that turns the sound off!

I mutter shut up at them, but wouldn't break one.

and it's not on the reciept.

First time I used one of those I left my change in the machine! Glad you got it back for me :)

I had one short me $32 once. It took almost an hour to get my money.

The car manufacturers figured this one out early - a few cars in the '80s would talk to you, with obnoxious "Your door is ajar" "Fuel is low" type messages. Those cars didn't sell too well because their owners found the talking annoying.

Like I said earlier, that's lousy interface design. Just print a message on the screen. Have an optional audio mode for people with disabilities and such, but don't inflict it on people unless they ask for it.

And get rid of those damn scales. I'll take a crowbar to the next machine that won't let me scan the next item until I "Please place the item in the bag."

I remember a Family Ties episode where every time anyone tried to use the fancy new family camera it said "Load film now" in a bored-sounding woman's voice. For some reason, it was extremely humorous to hear this ridiculous announcement over and over.

Not so funny if you actually owned one, I assume.

alls I had to do was follow through, and the machine and I worked it out in Spanish.

Anything that takes away a job really irritates me!

and a Seattle P-I reporter treats it light-heartedly:


Well, let's look at it this way: At least, this guy wasn't buying a blowtorch.

But that age-old adage -- that patience is a virtue -- somehow slipped the mind of a man shopping at Home Depot on Utah Avenue South in Seattle on Thursday.


There's no way in hell I would've let that lede stand. :puke:

thats what these fancy English/Spanish talking machines cost.:shrug:

But not for the language reason. These self serve checkouts are nothing more than another way of taking jobs away the citizenery. I refuse to use them where I shop, and if there is ever a store that is completely self serve, I won't patronize it.

I love them, and check out on them at supermarkets and Home Depot when I can.

And I refuse to take one away from others.

You'll ruin the jobs of buggy-whip workers, blacksmiths and wooden wheel makers.

:evilgrin:

I was very frustrated recently when checking in at an Air Canada e-ticket booth in Logan because the machine would only speak in French. I eventually got a worker there to press the correct buttons for me. Even she couldn't figure out how to make the machine speak english - lol.

Real tight.

Don

:rofl:

not Spanish, get it right!! :sarcasm:

seriously I have had several people in the past say to me, do you speak Mexican? I answer back, no, do you speak RedNeck?