Maybe I'll steal your credit card myself, moron.

[marty]

I'm still under the impression it's way too easy to forge a signature, but that's just me.

[retaildrone]

If you refuse to show me your ID, you don't get to pay for your stuff. Go ahead and call my manager, she will tell you the same and actually give me a REWARD for sticking to company policy. So, really, PLEASE come to my line!

You seem to be under the impression that CC theft is a victimless crime. The owner can just call and no harm comes to anyone. HINT: it is not.

BTW, I am DUDETTE! TYVM!

Marty, It IS way too easy to forge a signature.

[Alpha Strike]

Sigh. We also had a Halo 3 tournament next door at a local restaurant that was hosting it, so all sorts of little douchebags came into the store between matches. (I would have played myself and burst some college boy egos, but alas, I was freakin' working.)

As an "older" Halo 3 player myself, I must admit to taking great job in beating a lot of the trash-talking children I run across. It's depressing enough to be beaten, but even worse when you find out that the person who did it is (sometimes) twice your age...

[marty]

As an "older" Halo 3 player myself, I must admit to taking great job in beating a lot of the trash-talking children I run across. It's depressing enough to be beaten, but even worse when you find out that the person who did it is (sometimes) twice your age...

Haha, I love it! They also get pretty down when they find out they were just pwned by a girl--my friend and I love doing team doubles and destroying the hearts of cocky boys, especially when they talk trash to us because we're girls at the beginning of the game.

Of course, I am talking about people at least old enough to buy the game themselves. For the life of me I can't understand a parent letting their kid buy a mature rated game, much less letting them get online and play it.

[karma_gypsy]

For the life of me I can't understand a parent letting their kid buy a mature rated game, much less letting them get online and play it.

I can't either .... my store sells a few used games. Too often, I see parents buying Grand Theft Auto for 10 (or younger) year old children. After telling them that the game isn't really suitable for the little ones, their excuse is "it's ok. They've played it before, they don't do the missions ...."

So... apparently, they allow the kids to just plow around the little fictional town and run over/beat up the townspeople with various weapons (cheated or picked up) ....

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

So... apparently, they allow the kids to just plow around the little fictional town and run over/beat up the townspeople with various weapons (cheated or picked up) ....

Yeah, and...? That's the best part of the game!

Although the GTA series obviously is not well-suited to younger kids.

[Shards]

I honestly don't see anything wrong with a parent buying an M rated game for their kid. I have very fond memories of playing GTA with my older cousin, just taking turns with the control. It was some of the little time I got to spend with him, and I really can't say it made me a more sadistic person. More cynical, maybe, but no worse for wear. Also, being a teen in a high school environment, I can't imagine being a student without halo. This isn't because I like the game more than any other game (Actually, I like it less than many), but because it's just a good party game, and the M rating is thoroughly unjustified unless you want to slap that rating on every game that hands the player a gun, which is bullcrap.

Back on topic, though, I applaud you for sticking to your guns. To be perfectly honest, I would probably thank you for carding me every time I tried something store policy was sketchy on. It really is only a minor inconvinience, and you don't usually even need to give them your ID. All you need to do is show them the picture, and give them enough time to read off your name, and you're golden. I'm quite skeptical that someone can remember my licence number (once I get it, grumble grumble.) after three seconds with my ID, while I'm the one holding it. Just seems like a silly thing to get worked up about.

Also, as far as 'why do they need to see ID? The store is in the clear...', maybe this is the straight-and-narrow, altruistic (I swear I wasn't the first to call myself that), future-law-enforcement side of me talking here, but I think that even if it isn't store policy to check ID, it's a good thing to do, from a completely humanitarian point of view. If I had my CC stolen, and some guy got it back for me because he did one extra, non-company policy check during checkout, I would consider him a great person, and feel indebted to him, and if it really is me he's carding, again, it isn't that big a deal.

[marty]

Shards--the kids I'm talking about are the ones under 15. The ones I play on Xbox live with voices higher than my girl voice, which is ridiculous. The ones that yell racial slurs just for the sake of yelling them, those kids... They're not mature enough for anything.

[chops]

If you refuse to show me your ID, you don't get to pay for your stuff. Go ahead and call my manager, she will tell you the same and actually give me a REWARD for sticking to company policy. So, really, PLEASE come to my line!

Whether or not checking ID is a good idea, if you refuse a sale because the customer refused to show ID—and the card was signed—you are violating your store's merchant agreement with the credit card companies and your store can be reported for it. I can understand that you're caught between a rock and a hard place, and for the sake of your job and your own principles, I can understand how you feel the need to stick to your guns—but it can get your store in trouble with the credit card companies. That's a fact; my sources are page 34 of the Rules for Visa Merchants PDF and page 48 of MasterCard's Merchant Rules Manual PDF.

Note that if the card is not signed, you are not only well within your rights to demand ID, you are also supposed to make the customer sign the card in your presence.

[Shards]

Shards--the kids I'm talking about are the ones under 15. The ones I play on Xbox live with voices higher than my girl voice, which is ridiculous. The ones that yell racial slurs just for the sake of yelling them, those kids... They're not mature enough for anything.

Well, then it's a good thing my cousins beat some respect into me before I learned to hold a controller.

I agree, those kids aren't mature enough for anything, but I also think that that's their parents fault. Granted, my dad never hit me, but when my cousins would come to beat me a good one, he didn't step in the way. I got the old fashioned lessons in stoicism and respect that way, and I learned how to fight, too! Sorry, off-topic. The point I was trying to make is that I think that the difference between a 10 year old who is mature enough to handle Halo and GTA and a 20 year old who isn't is the difference between the families who raised them. I was able to handle GTA at 8, and competitive games at 6, and I never uttered a racial slur or debated a rule call, and I honestly believe it to be because someone bothered to teach me some basic manners, respect, and sportsmanship.

[marty]

Chops--If the company gets in trouble, that's all them, but I'm sure not getting fired for not following policy! I do as I'm instructed, and if someone gets mad about it, I'm not bending what I was told were the rules for any reason. I don't know, maybe company pays off the credit card companies or something? Hard to say why it can be policy if that's the case, but it's strictly enforced.

Shards--I agree, I mean, when we were kids (here I assume you're at least 18), the gaming community was a whole lot different. I was playing Doom when I was 10. I think, as a whole, the generations younger than us are getting a lot more immature and unable to handle violence and mature subjects in a, well, mature manner. These days, they just keep getting younger and douchier...and they yell and call me a bitch when I won't sell them M games

[Broomjockey]

We've established asking for ID is against the merchant's agreement, and we've established it's store policy to ask for it. If anyone wants to debate whether it's a good idea, or if it should be followed, or any of the rest, it can go to Fratching.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Chops--If the company gets in trouble, that's all them, but I'm sure not getting fired for not following policy! I do as I'm instructed, and if someone gets mad about it, I'm not bending what I was told were the rules for any reason. I don't know, maybe company pays off the credit card companies or something? Hard to say why it can be policy if that's the case, but it's strictly enforced.

My hunch: the store figures Joe Credit Card User doesn't know that this is in the merchant agreement and doesn't know they have the right to not show ID if their card is signed and the store asks for ID.

It seems weird to me too, because the store needs the credit card company more than the credit card company needs the store. If the credit card company knows a store is violating their agreement, they could just refuse to do business with that store, and then the store has to turn away customers wanting to pay with that particular card.

Not trying to start a debate or anything; that's just the explanation that makes the most sense to me.

[symposes]

A friend of my father, had a credit card that the signature had rubbed off of.
when he went to use it, he was told, that because it wasnt signed, it couldnt be used.
So he signed the back of it, and all was good.

Now I ask you. If you are a ID thief, and you find a credit card that isnt signed, or the signature has rubbed off. How hard is it to just sign the name on the card, in your hand writting?

This is why, i assume, retailers ask for ID.
This is why, i dont understand, credit card issuers(visa,etc) dont require id to be presented upon use of card... Or why they dont start issuing all Credit Cards with a photo of the owner... etc

[Broomjockey]

My bad, I was amibguous. I meant to include "discussing reasons retailers check for ID." That's techincally fratching too. Last warning.