What? You guys still think we sent you to that other planet to save you? Didn’t you wonder why we were smiling and waving as you flew away? You guys really believed it when we told you we were going to build a second rocket and follow you “real soon”? Boy, next you’ll be telling me you guys still have taxes and lawyers and politicians and all that other stuff we got rid of.
I have a plan to go to the DMV in my state and renew my license so that I can begin the change of my legal signature to the block-printed phrase “ASK FOR ID”.
A subtle plan, really. 
I agree, in legalese you are correct. But in the practical, every-day world, it rarely works that way.
I don’t know if you use your credit cards a lot, but just make your own observations about how many times the cashier checks your signature with the one on the receipt. In my experience, almost never. Usually I hand the cashier my card, he/she swipes it, gets the authorization, hands the card back to me, he/she tears the receipt from the register, hands it to me, I sign it, and away I go.
At the grocery store, WalMart, Kmart etc., you swipe your own card, the cashier never even touches it.
(Disclaimer: This may be a regional thing, but my experience in serval locations in the US have been similar.)
The only experience I’ve had of signing digital thingummiebobs is when people deliver packages to my home.
And I don’t like it, because on the digital thing there’s nowhere to write “goods not inspected” beside my signature, so I have to chance it that everything’s intact. Probably if it wasn’t the company would be reasonably helpful about it, but you never know, they might say I’d signed for it so it was accepted as intact. That happened with signatures on paper before I started writing “goods not inspected”.
I know I’m a gullible arse at times, but still.
Anyway they’re starting to do “chip and pin” cards over here soon, so that your ourchase depends not on a signature but on your typing a secret pin number into a special keypad at the checkout. Is that happening in the states?
I don’t know of anywhere in the states they are using “smartcards” yet. Although, if you use a DEBIT card to pay, you enter your PIN.
My cards all have my signature and “Ask for photo ID.” Probably one clerk in 20 asks for ID, though.
Here’s an ID tangent. Penn Gillette (of illusionists Penn and Teller) has glued a tiny piece of red foam rubber on the nose of his license photo. While the clerk looks down at his ID, Penn takes a stick-on clown from his pocket and sticks it on his own nose. When the clerk looks back up to find the man matches the doctored photo, it usually gets a laugh. He says 90% of the time, it gets him a free update when he’s flying.
D’oh!
Penn Gillette sticks a “clown nose” on his own nose, not a “clown.”
The funny thing about this is that a lot of stores will disclaim any intent to use the info they can get - “It costs too much to maintain this kind of database” and “the card is for your benefit, not ours”… that said, I use my local grocery store card all the time - they probably could come in my house and stock me up with all the stuff I need - hey wait, now THERE’S a good use for those things!
I hesitate to post this and have everyone point fingers and laugh at me, but I think that everything electronic actually is being sorted into databases and used by companies for their own nefarious purposes. A loyalty card would more accurately be called a database card. When I called Safeway up to change my address with them, I realized mid-call that I didn’t actually want to do that, and the customer service flack on the other end got pretty agitated when I said I changed my mind and wouldn’t be changing my address after all.
The thing about all the electronic stuff versus paper receipts is that it is just so doggone easy to route all electronic files into databases and from there manipulate the data any way you want. This is, of course, my personal opinion, based on my experiences working with electronics, databases, and records management programs. I feel like I know just enough to be very suspicious.
You’re absolutely right, and it annoys me greatly. As a former retail store manager, I received a good deal of training in proper credit card acceptance procedures and identifying possible fraud. I refused to take unsigned cards and always made at least a cursory check to see that the signatures matched. People are far too cavalier about their cards. I can’t count how many times they’d bring stuff to the counter and leave their card while they wandered off to browse through the store some more!
I work at a college bookstore.
When a credit card isn’t signed, I ask for ID before swiping it. (my coworker swipes it and then asks for ID, which defeats the purpose of asking, but that’s another thread for another time).
If the person has no ID, I usually hand them their card and ask them to come back. I will hold their purchases at the counter for them, etc, but IT IS FOR YOUR PROTECTION, IDIOT. Ahem. “but it’s in my truck” is not valid ID for your $400 textbook purchase. Come back with ID.
I check sigs, but I’ve never come across one that doesn’t match.
As for my cards, they say PLEASE SEE ID in large block letters and in the corner is a tiny version of my signature. If someone tells me my card is invalid because it’s not signed, my butt is covered. A friend of mine was turned down at the post office because her card wasn’t signed.
There is definitely some kind of credit card obsessive compulsive disease out there. I don’t think they even know about the $50 maximum liability if their card is stolen, they are just careless.
Here’s a good one. There used to be “companies” that would insure your credit cards, should they be lost or stolen, and pay any balance due over $50. Now wait a minute, if your card is lost or stolen, you are only liable for $50 anyway. I’m not sure if these “insurance companies” are still around or not. What a great business that was, it was like selling people insurance that pays you if the sun explodes.
Legally, you CAN’T ask for an ID:
You might want to actually read your cites before making blanket statements. From your link:
Filmgeek is 100% correct in his acceptance procedure. This will also be spelled out in the merchant agreement.
There are apparently two schools of thought (at least! if not more) on this. I also do not sign my cards, just have “See ID” on the back, and have been told to do that by someone at my MC issuer, while others say oh no, it’s not legal not to sign it. I haven’t yet been “made” to sign by a merchant… And if they tried to insist, I would pay by check or cash instead.
“You can be asked for ID only if you proffer a card that isn’t signed on the back.”
You do understand what “ONLY IF” means, right? Or are you saying MOST cards aren’t signed on the back?
OK, my original blanket statement should have read:
Legally, you can ask for an ID, ONLY IF the card isn’t signed on the back.
The general consensus on this thread (including YOUR statements) is that you can ask for an ID ANYTIME.
So what? Why should I care that Charmin puts another check in the “customers who buy chili seasoning, mexican food, and a Charmin super-multi pack” column?
HA!!! True. I really don’t care either. I’m just not sure the privacy-freaks realize all the statistics they become a part of by using their discount card. And you can be sure they sell YOUR information to everyone they can.
Personally, I don’t care at all how much data anyone collects about me. Put it to use, I say, and better my shopping experience.
OTOH, I think the primary reason people object to Charmin knowing that the household at 123 Main St. buys 20 rolls per week of double-ply is because they inevitably wind up with a pile of “10 cents off double-ply rolls!” coupons.
I don’t mind, though. RL junk mail is so much easier to deal with than e-mail junk mail :>
Yea, seriously. I go to Kroger often enough so that they probably know I tend to buy pork chops and Shake N Bake. I mean, oooooh! The grocery store’ll know what I eat! Scary.
Maybe they’ll learn to stock some friggin’ Diet Dr. Pepper, then.
And when I worked retail, your credit card slip had your full number, expiration date, and signature on it. So it’s not like that’s some superior form of privacy protection.