I love how the people that say “He was just doing his job” conveniently forget that he in fact was not. If it’s his job to check everyone’s ID, he failed. He carded 1/3 of the people I was with. If his job is worth that much, and the fines are too much of a risk at least be consistent in your method of verification. I would not have been nearly as upset had all three of us gotten carded, and mine was the only one rejected. I never expected the guy to be able to tell how old I was just by looking at me, he clearly wasn’t a good judge of that having served someone a year younger than I without even asking for age verification.
If you’re going to back they guy up for doing his job once, at least make note of the fact that didn’t do his job twice.
Disregarding dnooman’s opinions reagarding how young or old he looked, or the fact that his friends didn’t get carded, it wasn’t a tatty license, it was a brand new one. And disregarding the quality or otherwise of the photograph on it, he had a ton of corroborating evidence regarding his identity and age.
The narrow-minded application of a one-size-fits-all ruling, rather than using one’s initiative, is indeed indicative of a jobsworth attitude. Clearly some people in this thread think being a jobsworth is reasonable; that’s a matter of opinion.
What a bunch of dicks. As the OP pointed out, this wasn’t a ‘Just following orders, Sir’-type deal. The emplyee didn’t check the friends’ IDs (the ones the OP presumably wanted to enjoy a meal with. As in, he wasn’t some bitchy teen yelling at a liquor store clerk 'cause he couldn’t buy a 6-pack), and the OP did have an ID himself. That the state issued. Badly.
The US is just fucked with drinking all around. I feel worst for people who, horror of horrors, have no interest in getting a license or driving. Must they always carry their passports around if they intend to drink?
Maybe. But Uno’s is a large-ish chain. They presumably have policies about this. Manager may have been following policy.
I work for a 50-store chain of c-stores. We have a list of acceptable IDs to accept for alcohol purchases. If your ID type is not on the list, no beer. That’s it. Whether I like it or not, I can’t apply my own judgment here. I will not be fired for selling to someone with an inappropriate ID. And yes, it has happened, recently, regarding a masterfully-produced fake Mexican driver’s license. Corporate’s issue is that they exclude easily-faked ID types. The Mexican IDs I’ve seen have few security devices, thus easily faked. The OP’s ID, while valid, seems to be easily faked, at least at the time.
Maybe his job is to card everyone that he thinks is underage. Regardless of the actual age of your friends, perhaps you looked younger, in his opinion.
So if it’s my job to card every single person that walks in the door of my bar. Every single person. And a 86 year old man walks in without an ID. And I know that if I let him in and get caught not asking for an ID, I should put my job on the line to let him it? You seem to think so. Not only do you think so, your going to describe my actions by using a word that has, from what I can gather, a negative connotaion. Really? You think I should risk my job so you can get a drink. I said it before, I’ll say it not. Go drink somewhere else.
Hey, I haven’t owned a car in six years. I still maintain a valid drivers license (and a passport for that matter) because:
I still need to occassionally RENT a car
A license is a lot easier to carry around than a passport or other ID.
Whether the US is fucked up with respect to drinking is the subject of another debate. Our current system of laws is mostly a byproduct of combining our American desire to drink ourselves stupid with our desire to not get run over by some drunk moron or to deal with violent drunks everywhere.
No, the man has ID. Several forms. The question is would you let the 86-year-old man in with a) a valid driver’s license with an arguably ambiguous photograph; b) a student ID from The Ohio State University, with picture and social both on it (he might have been a mature student…), c) his original copy of his Social Security card; d) his Federally-issued Selective Service Registration card, with his SSN on it as well, and e) his birth certificate; and you still were to refuse him a drink, then yes, you’d be a ridiculous jobsworth - and probably a dick too.
Furthermore, if the policy is that you must car 86-year-old pensioners, then the management of the establishment are insane, or those litigating or prosecuting them for infraction, or the entire world, has gone insane. Well, the bit to the left of where I am, anyway - on the evidence of this thread, you guys appear to have a serious hangup about booze…
Do you understand the reasoning behind carding every single person?
If the place get’s raided by the cops who feel there are underagers slipping in, the bouncers can say that they carded every single person. When the cops say “Well what about this 80 year old? Did you card him?” The bouncer can say “YES, Yes I did”. As opposed to saying no, he’s clearly old enough and then the cops can go from there.
I guess I just don’t understand the problem. If you want to drink, bring an ID, if the bartender won’t take it, either get a new one, or go somewhere where they don’t care as much.
I have never heard of any sting in which the underage individual showed an ID. Showing a state-issued ID, along with other documentation, and calling for the manager and trying to convince the bartender to serve would probably be entrapment.
No, the law says you must have a valid state issued PHOTO ID. If the PHOTO is compromised then you don’t have a valid form of ID. The state doesn’t say you can show up with 87 forms of ID except the state issued photo ID. You only need the one. Carry it. Use it. Love it.
It’s got nothing to do with hangups about drinking and alcohol. It’s just to keep everyone on the same playing field and is frankly the fairest way to handle these situations. You got no ID you got no drinky.
Oh, right.
The cops are going to use the same tired old sting setup every single time they go undercover. Believe it or not, cops can be creative too.
I don’t see how it can be entrapment either.
Another angle to pursue in this scenario is that maybe Uno sends out “customers” to check on the quality of service at different stores and that maybe the bartender is on high alert for someone trying to trick him/her.
In that case, see my statement earlier about the prosecutors (police) or indeed the world having gone insane. What the fuck ever happened to common sense?
Things are rather different here, which is why my being carded aged 39 was such an amazing occurrence. The last time it happened to me I was 22 and my lack of outrage, and the huge grin on my face was wide enough for the barman to say “Oh, you’re clearly over 17, aren’t you? No need for ID.”
There have been a number of times when I’ve been asked for credit cards or alternate ID when the bouncer or bartender wasn’t sure about the photo (yes it was legit), so I definately do not think its out of line for OP to offer secondary ID. I know a foreign students who carry no state ID whatsover and and they still get served on either passport or non-goverment student ID. If the server didn’t want to look at other ID, fine, but there was a more than reasonable chance that they bartenter would have been convinced and happily sold him beer. As for asking to talk to a manager, well, moving to another place is an inconvenience to his friends who were already paying customers. I honestly don’t see what is dickish here – he tried to resolve the situation and it didn’t work out.
I don’t have a problem with him offering alternate forms of ID. Where he turns dick is when he has not let it go. The OP has not stated how long ago this happened. I guessed at 1, 2 or 3 years years ago. He has not come back to contradict me. I will not that when I threw in Library card as one of the alternate forms of ID he said this:
this tells me he has no humor gene. Also the lack of him telling me I was full of shit on when this occurred (like he did with the library card) and the wording of the OP makes me think this happened a looong time ago, and he just won’t let it go.
When presented with the actual language of what the State of Ohio requires, he still won’t admit he should not have been served, and the employees did the correct (legal) thing.
Go back and read all of the OP’s posts in this thread. Tell me he isn’t coming off as being full of himself.
Bottom line is he tried a my post is my cite and the bartender didn’t buy it.
ETA: Good for your foreign friends. Are you in Ohio? If not this is nothing but straw. Different states have different laws.
I dunno… I got ID’d in Sainsbury’s earlier this summer (I’m 29, and do NOT look 17 any more!!).
I got around it by pointing out my wedding ring and the contents of my basket (typical leftie Guardianista items… parma ham, organic olives and a bottle of Aspell’s).
I’ve also had to show ID in several pubs in Leamington Spa - one pub in particular used to have a reputation for underage drinking and nearly lost their licence, and as a result they do an ID sweep at around 8.30pm and check anyone who looks under 30.
It’s standard in UK shops now to ID anyone who looks under 21. In America, they take it one stage further I guess - probably to excess, but that’s a matter for debate.
My father (mid-50s) assumes he’ll be ID’d in nearly all corporate hotel bars when he travels to the US on business. Several times he’s left his passport in his room but has been told politely but firmly that if he wants a beer, he’ll need to show ID.
