We’re having an issue with a scanner. Sometimes when you scan an item, it’ll add a completely different item to the cart. A particular barcode will be working fine, then it’ll add a different product to the cart a few times, then it’ll be working fine again. One of our managers noticed that the wrong item that’s added to the cart is usually something that he had been trying to scan just a little while ago. He’ll scan something, the scanner will beep, but nothing will show up in the cart. Then a little while later the thing he had tried to originally scan will show up in the cart instead of another product he’s trying to scan at the moment. This has been happening a couple times a day for the past few weeks. Are the scanners able to store any data in them? Maybe when we do the initial scan, we’re storing that barcode in the device and it ends up getting put in a cart later that day.
Topic summary
Intermittent mis-scans in a retail POS: a barcode scanner occasionally adds the wrong product to the cart (the active transaction). A barcode that usually scans correctly will sometimes cause a different item to be added, then return to normal.
Observed pattern:
- The incorrect item is often one that was scanned earlier: the scanner beeped but nothing appeared in the cart at that time.
- Later, while scanning another product, that earlier item appears instead.
- Frequency is a couple of times per day over the past few weeks.
Context: POS hardware barcode scanner feeding item data into the system; “cart” refers to the current sale.
User hypothesis/questions:
- Could the scanner be storing/buffering barcode data on-board and sending it later, causing delayed additions?
- Is there scanner-side memory or queuing that explains the delayed appearance of prior scans?
Status: No fix or definitive cause identified. Issue remains open; seeking explanation for delayed/queued scans and misattributed items. Images or attachments are not central here.