Horizon online

[goggins69]

If someone wants 2 books of Christmas stamps and you change the quantity to two and then press the stamp book button the quantity botton reverts back to one. Did anyone elses manager spend the day queue hosting when they could have got a till out and helped. We have a bell outside for disabled customers wanting help. It rang twicr today but noone took any notice of it at all.

[demoralisedofessex]

Did anyone elses manager spend the day queue hosting when they could have got a till out and helped

.

No, that would've been far too helpful - our manager was too busy chatting out the back and drinking tea with our Christmas 'volunteer'.
Meanwhile, the queue got longer and angrier, the post hatch got fuller and we were still bollocked for not sending over enough referrals to the FS, who was cowering in the corner hiding from the angry mob.
Team work, eh - don't you love it?!
Never mind - whenever we feel aggrieved we must remind ourselves that we're grossly over-paid and just lucky to have a job working for such a caring company

[billyhayes]

...our manager was too busy chatting out the back and drinking tea with our Christmas 'volunteer'.
Meanwhile, the queue got longer and angrier...

Wow! You had a volunteer already!!?? We have yet to have the pleasure.

Shame about your manager though. Against our CAMS demands, our managers go on the counter, most of the day if need be.

Although there is the argument that they shouldn't do it 'cos it is CWU represented grade work, therefore another member of staff could be employed to do it...
Look at it this way.. when I've got some giro-scum-c@@t shouting and stamping their feet, I'd rather all hands on deck no matter WHO it is. 'Cos if not I'm gonna lump my heavy datestamp round some mugs head very soon...

[NPPO]

why is it dangerous, what does not clearing the stack do. exactly?

Matter collides with antimatter and the Universe implodes…

not really an answer is it?

[PostalOfficer]

why is it dangerous, what does not clearing the stack do. exactly?

Suppose a customer withdraws £100 from their Card Account. You hand them the money and press the Fast Cash key.
You have 'cleared the stack', i.e. the list of items on the screen. [Actually it's called the 'basket' now in line with online shopping websites, but it's the same thing that was called the 'stack' on old Horizon.]

Next customer comes along and draws £50 from their Card Account. You hand over the cash and they ask for a quote for life insurance. You eagerly depart to find the FSS/phone etc. Having done that you come back and call the next customer.

In your excitement you have forgotten to press Fast Cash, so the screen total still reads 'Pay £50'.

So the third customer is starting the transaction with you owing them £50.

They produce half a dozen cards for pension, electric etc., so the £50 quickly scrolls off the screen. At the end of it all you don't see that the item count says 7/7 instead of 6/6, just that it says 'Pay customer £98.00'. Should only be £48 actually, but you started the transaction with the £50 still showing. i.e. you have paid it out twice. You will be short.

You haven't cleared the stack and that's why it's dangerous. Perfectly possible to do it on the older systems. And you do feel stupid when the manager spots it on the 3rd yard of transaction log

Suggest several possible remedies:
Press the Fast Cash button and check the screen is clear before starting another customer.
If you do a payment and swipe three payment cards, item count should be 4. Usually shown as 4/4 near total value - first digit is actually showing which item the blue bar is highlighting. If it says 5/5, find out why!
Check the addition in your head - to the nearest £5 usually suffices e.g. Withdraw £107, pay a £50.57 bill and buy a book of stamps: round it off to £110-50-5. Total should be in the region of £55. If it's in the region of £105, found out why.
Press 'View full basket' to check the list of transaction is correct; Enter gets back to main screen.
If you spot any of your mates with transactions on the screen and no customers about, suggest they clear them.

Actually it's well worth checking some of these things for other reasons. Note Goggins69 entry above about the quantity reseting to 1 as you search through the menus for stamps books, or in my case, special stamps.

[PostalOfficer]

And another thing, which fool put up that message about asking if the customer wants a top-up?

Even with my poor sales ability I can manage this! It even comes up when the customer has just bought a top-up

[NPPO]

why is it dangerous, what does not clearing the stack do. exactly?

Suppose a customer withdraws £100 from their Card Account. You hand them the money and press the Fast Cash key.
You have 'cleared the stack', i.e. the list of items on the screen. [Actually it's called the 'basket' now in line with online shopping websites, but it's the same thing that was called the 'stack' on old Horizon.]

Next customer comes along and draws £50 from their Card Account. You hand over the cash and they ask for a quote for life insurance. You eagerly depart to find the FSS/phone etc. Having done that you come back and call the next customer.

In your excitement you have forgotten to press Fast Cash, so the screen total still reads 'Pay £50'.

So the third customer is starting the transaction with you owing them £50.

They produce half a dozen cards for pension, electric etc., so the £50 quickly scrolls off the screen. At the end of it all you don't see that the item count says 7/7 instead of 6/6, just that it says 'Pay customer £98.00'. Should only be £48 actually, but you started the transaction with the £50 still showing. i.e. you have paid it out twice. You will be short.

You haven't cleared the stack and that's why it's dangerous. Perfectly possible to do it on the older systems. And you do feel stupid when the manager spots it on the 3rd yard of transaction log

Suggest several possible remedies:
Press the Fast Cash button and check the screen is clear before starting another customer.
If you do a payment and swipe three payment cards, item count should be 4. Usually shown as 4/4 near total value - first digit is actually showing which item the blue bar is highlighting. If it says 5/5, find out why!
Check the addition in your head - to the nearest £5 usually suffices e.g. Withdraw £107, pay a £50.57 bill and buy a book of stamps: round it off to £110-50-5. Total should be in the region of £55. If it's in the region of £105, found out why.
Press 'View full basket' to check the list of transaction is correct; Enter gets back to main screen.
If you spot any of your mates with transactions on the screen and no customers about, suggest they clear them.

Actually it's well worth checking some of these things for other reasons. Note Goggins69 entry above about the quantity reseting to 1 as you search through the menus for stamps books, or in my case, special stamps.

So basically the same as any other system then, and sod all to do with the software at all............(shrugs shoulders)

[dueforparole]

Horizon Online demonstrated its instability to us this week with two Global Priority consignments totalling 18 packages and other associated postage labels vanishing from the sales stack and dumping the user back at the login screen.

Cash declaration showed nearly £600 over which was the total value of the transaction , PF dispatch paperwork had no sign of them even though the customer's receipts had printed correctly and looking at a timed transaction log showed a big 90 min gap. The clerk had no resort but to show a £150 over for the postage label element of the transaction.

[NPPO]

Horizon Online demonstrated its instability to us this week with two Global Priority consignments totalling 18 packages and other associated postage labels vanishing from the sales stack and dumping the user back at the login screen.

Cash declaration showed nearly £600 over which was the total value of the transaction , PF dispatch paperwork had no sign of them even though the customer's receipts had printed correctly and looking at a timed transaction log showed a big 90 min gap. The clerk had no resort but to show a £150 over for the postage label element of the transaction.

Thats a proper problem

[PostalOfficer]

So basically the same as any other system then, and sod all to do with the software at all............(shrugs shoulders)

With the issue of not clearing the stack this is so, just as in the old days if you didn't press Total or Clear on the addlister it would just carry on adding your pensions onto whatever you had added up before.

However before anyone thinks I'm an apologist for the system, I have to say I have heard of several 'odd' stories from numerous sources. It's easy to dismiss the first one or two, but when they continue you start to wonder. Frankly it wouldn't surprise me if the lost PF transactions mentioned above don't mysteriously reappear in several weeks time, making the stock that amount short.

I've seen somebody reverse a transaction, then realise that the transaction was originally performed on another stock. The look on our faces must have been a picture when we realised it had accepted the reversal. There followed some 'odd' results the following Wednesday.

Not confined to Horizon - the crown sales spreadsheet (MI) actually showed how many offices had done zero Recorded labels last week. Check your payslips, people

[subbie]

>>>I've seen somebody reverse a transaction, then realise that the transaction was originally performed on another stock. The look on our faces must have been a picture when we realised it had accepted the reversal. There followed some 'odd' results the following Wednesday. <<<<

Are you saying that one stock user could reverse a transaction performed by another stock user ? Without detection?

If so this could leave staff open to allegations of fraud that might not be down to them.

Subbie

[PostalOfficer]

>>>I've seen somebody reverse a transaction, then realise that the transaction was originally performed on another stock. The look on our faces must have been a picture when we realised it had accepted the reversal. There followed some 'odd' results the following Wednesday. <<<<

Are you saying that one stock user could reverse a transaction performed by another stock user ? Without detection?

If so this could leave staff open to allegations of fraud that might not be down to them.

Subbie

As I remember it both stocks were out by equal and opposite amounts. The clerk on the first stock was quite annoyed it had happened. Nevertheless we knew what had happened and were half expecting it. But yes, subbie, comments were passed at the time along the lines of your post.