I work for several merchandising companies, but one company that I work for in particular, part of one job that I do, involves checking the BOH (balance on hand), also checking for UPC codes (to see if the store carries that item), and auditing the “shelf price” vs. the scanned UPC code of the item. I have never been provided training by the company on how to use a RF scan gun, so it is pretty much everybody is on their own, in order to get the data for this company's reports. Since I have to do work for both CVS Pharmacy and Staples, they both use totally different RF scan guns. Yet thus far, I only need the RF scan gun to be in one mode when I work at Staples, yet I need 3 different modes when working at CVS Pharmacies.

Now with that being said, I’m amazed at how long it takes even the seasoned managers, assistant managers, the more skilled employees to toggle to the various modes I need in order to get the data the company wants. Sometimes I have seen these people struggle for about 5 minutes to get the correct mode I need. Sometimes, I have had store employees tell me that I need to get another employee to set one of the modes for me, because they did not know how to do it. Thus far, the most difficult mode that seems to cause the employees to most trouble is, is the “item review / check BOH” mode. In this mode, I can manually input the CVS item number, and get the BOH for my report.

So I was just curious why in the world did the maker of these RF scan guns make them so difficult to use? The way I see some of these employees struggling with this (toggling to various modes), it seems like “rocket science”! I would like to learn how to use these guns, yet since they do not seem to be a generic way of using them, since the guns can vary for each store/company I am sent to do merchandising work for, so I’m always at the mercy of the store employees for help toggling between modes to get the data I need.

What have your troubles been to use a RF scan gun? Are there any pointers on how to "easily" use these guns on my own, once an employee inputs theire special code and password to use the gun? Have you too, witnessed employees struggling to get the mode you need?

Nick

I don't use them regularly and don't know how. Some employees just haven't been trained on them. To get to know how to use them, look at the emails your manager/scheduler sends. If there are other reps' email addresses on them, contact a couple and see what they say. They might refer you to a long-time employee. I'm presuming, of course, that you have already asked your manager and gotten nowhere.