Lotto and IDs

[AmbrosiaWriter]

Okay, I'm bad with faces when I first meet people. Unless they have some kind of distinguishing aspect, doing something very memorable, or I spend like 5 hours with them the first time we meet, I probably won't remember them.

People who only show up for 5 minutes at a time... yeah that's going to take me a while.

I've had several people get used to the fact that I probably won't recognize them, and have their ID ready for me because it makes everything easier. (One was a 19-year old kid who would just hold it out as he asked, made my life easier.)

Then you have the people who just rant at me.

"I'M IN HERE EVERYDAY!"
"You don't recognize me?"
"You carded me yesterday!"

If my Boss is within earshot he'll usually let out a "Well she's carding you again! Get it out or get out!" Since these are typically the people who only come in for one pack of cigarettes and that's it. No big loss if they get offended.

You are not so special. You do not give me a raging wet dream (because I would obviously remember you if you had!) If I was male I'd probably go flaccid at the thought of you, but that's a whole 'nother issue. I see at least a hundred, if not more, people every day, many of them who are much nicer to me.

Ugh, I feel like I may have ranted about this before... just built up again I suppose.

Lotto!

Before asking for a game like Numbers, Lucky for Life, Powerball, etc. make sure you have enough freaking money on you for all the tickets. Numbers I will forgive, because I can at least cancel those, but for all the other ones? Hell no. You did not just make me print out a $10 lotto ticket to laugh and say "Whoops, only have $2 on me, oh well, I'm not getting it."

That costs the store money. The boss is kind enough to not imply or try to intimidate the cashiers into buying misprinted tickets, and handing off an single draw of a game is typically not that hard... but a $10.00 ticket? Jerks.

[BrenDAnn]

"I'M IN HERE EVERYDAY!"
"You don't recognize me?"
"You carded me yesterday!"

Response the first: "You and about 500 other people. ID please."
Response the second: "No, I don't. I see several hundred customers a day. ID please."
Response the third: "And I'm carding you today, and tomorrow, and the next day, and the next....ID please."

Can you tell these kind of people annoy the hell out of me?

[CarcinogenCrunchies]

Oh boy, do I feel your pain.

At our store, it doesn't matter if you come in every day, if you come in ten times a day, if you're my best friend, my brother or even a co-worker - if you're under 30 (or look it), you're getting carded every. single. time. Some people get so worked up over it that you might think I had kicked their dog or something. I get the "You don't remember me??" thing too, and I generally just reply, "I remember that you're not 30." Actually, the ones who pull this most often are people that I don't remember at all.

I had a guy come in a week or two ago and get really belligerent about it. I just asked him which of our stores he worked at, if he was so familiar with our supposed policy not to card regulars (which he wasn't, anyway). The transaction ended with him saying, "F this store and F you too, I don't need to come here!" Next day, he was in for a pack of smokes. He didn't say a word when I asked for his ID.

I have one customer that is actually 31, but she looks about 18, tops. It took me awhile to remember her age, and at one point I told her, "You should probably just get used to showing your ID." She still flashes me her license on every visit just as a matter of course.

[blas]

Yeah, I used to get that all the time, too.

Oh, my God, the whining, the bitching, the moaning.

"BBbbut I come here EVERY DAY!"

"You carded me YESSSTERDAY!"

"You card me EVERY time I come here!"

Don't like it? Go somewhere someone cares to remember you.

[Trixie]

There's one creeper jackass that always comes in and bitches because I don't card him. For one, you look way over 40 and for two, you make my skin crawl and I just want you out of my line and out of my store. Guy just gives off bad vibes.

[Carsomyr]

Before asking for a game like Numbers, Lucky for Life, Powerball, etc. make sure you have enough freaking money on you for all the tickets. Numbers I will forgive, because I can at least cancel those, but for all the other ones? Hell no. You did not just make me print out a $10 lotto ticket to laugh and say "Whoops, only have $2 on me, oh well, I'm not getting it."

Wow, this actually surprised me. Maybe it's simply due to my location, but I don't think I've ever seen computer-generated purchases (top ups for phones, cards, bonus bonds, etc.) printed before payment, the computer does it automatically when the purchase goes through. That sucks for you. >.< Next time you see one of those people, wave at them and with a big grin on your face, say: "Would you believe it! That ticket you couldn't afford last week? It was a winner! Who'd have thought, huh?"

I don't need to ID so much anymore because we stopped selling anything that needs it by the law (Thank God!!) - when we do it's just store policy. If you look old enough and mature enough to get away with it they couldn't care less.

When we legally had to do it, yeah, people complained a lot, but there was only one that stood out. And my god, did she stand out.
She was wearing gigantic sunglasses. She complained because I carded her last time. That was last year. This happened during Christmas.

[CarcinogenCrunchies]

Wow, this actually surprised me. Maybe it's simply due to my location, but I don't think I've ever seen computer-generated purchases (top ups for phones, cards, bonus bonds, etc.) printed before payment, the computer does it automatically when the purchase goes through.

From the OP's description, it sounds like their state's lotto machines work like ours - they print the tickets, but the store register actually rings them up. Some larger retailers do have a machine with its own drawer, but I have no experience with them. In either case, tickets for some games cannot be canceled once they are printed. Stores are given a certain amount of leeway to account for tickets printed in error, but it isn't much. I think I posted here about the last time someone tried to back out of a large ticket on me, after I made a point of asking him if it was supposed to be that amount - long story short, he paid it.

[BrenDAnn]

CarcinogenCrunchies probably nailed it...that's how our system works, too. Lotto machine prints the tickets, our regular cash register is where we ring them up. For us, it's the 100,000 Cash Game, Pick 3 and Pick 4 that can be canceled, and Powerball, Hot Lotto and Mega Millions that can't. I always make sure to say very clearly "this will be a $10 ticket, is that alright?" just to be sure my bases are covered. One more comment on IDing: The ones that complain the most are the ones I tend to deliberately ID every time they come in. I'm kinda like that.

[PepperElf]

yeesh. Like they're the only customer in the store ever?

[mhkohne]

CarcinogenCrunchies probably nailed it...that's how our system works, too. Lotto machine prints the tickets, our regular cash register is where we ring them up. For us, it's the 100,000 Cash Game, Pick 3 and Pick 4 that can be canceled, and Powerball, Hot Lotto and Mega Millions that can't. I always make sure to say very clearly "this will be a $10 ticket, is that alright?" just to be sure my bases are covered. One more comment on IDing: The ones that complain the most are the ones I tend to deliberately ID every time they come in. I'm kinda like that.

Wawa around me (Philly suburbs) have only done Lottery for the last couple of years. They only started when they got full-auto lottery vending machines. No clerk intervention needed or possible. And, you have to put your money in FIRST, before you can get tickets. The things are a giant PITA to use (touch screen, but the UI is horribly slow), but they keep the lottery load off of the employees.

In spite of how crappy they are overall, I recommend them to anyone who sells lottery tickets - they take all the stupid and move it away from the clerk. I imagine they generate their own share of suck (explaining for the nth time that no, you can' do <X> isn't going to be fun), but it eliminates whole classes of suckiness.

[PastryGal]

lol, I remember once when I used to work at a gas station I had a young one in wanting smokes. Asked for ID, she didnt have any on her but she's working at the strip club down the street. Said I didn't care, ID or gtfo. She stopped off and came back in a few minutes, with the wrong card, so off she went again. Finally came back with the right card I grab the smokes and then she tries to pass me a $100 bill, "it's all I got" she says. It's still early in the morning, I don't have enough in my till to break it. She starting throwing a fit then. I ended up going into the safe and giving her a ton of $5's just to shut her up. Seriously, if you're going to be a stripper, be prepared to get ID'd for dressing young and trashy.

[BrenDAnn]

She was a stripper but had no ones on her...either she hit the bank to change them in on the way, she really is a bad stripper, or she works at a higher class club...or...wasn't working that night? Wow.

[Halo_miles]

This sounds like the daily occurrences at my place of work. I do have an excellent memory for faces and numbers, but if I don't recognize you, I'm going to card you. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. If you demand to speak to a manager, knock yourselves out. He'll tell you the same thing. Lottery drives me absolutely bananas. We are one of the few J of Flying's that actually have Lotto, and even in a smaller area, it's still annoying as hell to have it.

[CarcinogenCrunchies]

For us, it's the 100,000 Cash Game, Pick 3 and Pick 4 that can be canceled, and Powerball, Hot Lotto and Mega Millions that can't.

That sounds familiar. Are you in Iowa, too?

[blas]

Teehehehe, I know what IOWA stands for.



Don't mind me, I'll just be the in the corner here looking at shoes.