We’ve done a bunch of posts on how it’s a violation of their credit card merchant agreements to ask for additional ID in order to complete a purchase. An IHOP threatened to call the police on one reader when he wouldn’t show additional ID. A Walmart tried to hold a man’s ID and credit card hostage. Debate erupted amongst Consumerist commenters. Like a scythe through ripe wheat, here is an official VISA statement on how stores can’t do this, unless the credit card itself is unsigned:
Merchants may not refuse to honor a Visa card simply because the cardholder refuses a request for supplementary information. The only exception is when a Visa card is unsigned when presented. However, “See ID” is not considered a valid signature. In these situations, a merchant must obtain authorization, review additional identification, and require the cardholder to sign the card before completing a transaction.
To report any merchant practices that you feel are inappropriate, please notify the disputes area at the financial institution that issued your card account. Your card issuing bank has access to the appropriate Visa rules and regulations as well as to the Notification of Customer Complaint forms which should be used by your bank to document and file merchant complaints.
As an alternative, you may contact the Global Customer Care Services to report merchant practices that you feel are inappropriate. Please contact the Global Customer Care Services at 1-800-VISA-911 (1-800-847-2911). Please advise them that you were referred to file a complaint. The staff will be able to initiate a complaint form over the phone.
(Photo: Getty)
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refusing to show you rpapers is an unalienable right endowed by the creator..
reading is fun and learning is too
[www.redorbit.com]
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John Russo has been a victim of identity theft. So when he was asked to fork over a photo ID just to be seated at an IHOP pancake restaurant, he flipped.
Is THIS too far yet?
I really HATE being right..
EVERY TIME YOU REFUSE TO SHOW I.D. THE TERRORISTS WIN!
@LibertyReign: Yes, that is in fact too far.
@Meiran:
but why?
Cashiers and waitreses are all too stupid to steal your info. Thats why they are cashiers and waitresses. They don’t possess ANY marketable skills nor do they posess any brain-power.
It is not an invasion of privacy. Afterall, there is nothing on your I.D. which can be used against you anyways. Are you PARANOID about some stranger knowing your home address? *rolls his eyes* You’re a whacko or something conpiratorial like that..
You don’t have a right to refuse to be I.D.’d when traveling and patronizing American stores. You should stfu and comply. No one wants to wait behind you in line, and THEY have the RIGHT to be impatient and demanding of their more than precious time.
It’s not like it could lead to anything else. This is just your I.D. and just to prevent fraud and stealing. It’s not like it could progressively get worse if you comply, encourage others to comply publically, and make it more socially acceptable over time.
[/sarcasm]
@LibertyReign: You know, I always assumed the ability to look at a situation critically and think about it as it’s own situation instead of viewing everything as a horribly dangerous slippery slope was the kind of thing we were supposed to learn to do as we grew up and learned to live in society.
I don’t believe cashiers and waitresses are too stupid to steal your information. I think they don’t give a damn. I worked retail for ten years, I know I didn’t care a whit about anything written on somebody’s ID card. Most cashiers don’t even LOOK, they’re just asking to see if you present it or not. If you whip out the ID, they go “Look, they have it” and move on.
When you can show me an instance of a two second register ID check resulting in identity theft, I’ll reconsider. But I don’t think it ever has happened, and I don’t think it ever will. You can stand on your invasion of privacy, that’s a valid idea and I don’t believe it but I can see how you would.
But protecting your identity? Next you’ll be saying a police officer has no right to ask for your license when you get pulled over for reckless driving because he might memorize your address.
All that said, I still think if you have a problem and you’re within the merchant agreement to refuse, then by all means refuse. That isn’t going to stop most of the population from thinking you’re overreacting and being bothersome. Why? Because we recognize that the cashier isn’t some seedy identity thief waiting for the perfect idiot. They’re just somebody who was told to ask for ID so they did, and you’ll be lucky if they remember your name two seconds after you’ve walked away.
If the people who did these jobs wanted to be thieves, there are much better targets than a two second glance at your license.
It has already been proven to be a slippery slope. Just because you haven’t been paying attention does not make me immature, it just makes you ignorant. You have been as ignorant in this thread as you appear to be in your daily life, and as you are to society, and how the grid works as a whole. Whipping out your I.D. has already become irrelevant because of sheeple like you there are waitresses all the way in hicksville that think it’s ok to KEEP your DL while you eat.
I can stand on my invasion of privacy as a human being having been born with certain unalienable rights. I don’t have to prove SHIT to you. My rights are given to me by GOD. Your opinion is absolutely meaningless. My identity cannot be stolen from my I.D. BECAUSE I DON’T HAVE A FRACKIN’ I.D.!!! That is why I CHOOSE to pay with MASTERCARD because I.D. MAY NOT BE REQUIRED!!! Again, you pay attention here as well as you do in every other facet of your existence which is why you are ignorant to MY rights, YOUR rights, and the “slippery slope” to which we have already reached the bottom. These invasions of privacy WILL get worse. It is not my opinion, and you WILL remain ignorant, unfortunately for all of us.
A police officer does NOT have the right to ask for my license. In fact, that is against the law. A Police officer has NO rights whatsoever outside of the one’s afforded to him as a HUMAN BEING. If you understand that simple concept I wouldn’t have to be schooling you on the fundamentals of human society. Reckless driving is a CRIME. While eating at IHOP may be a travesty of injustice, there is currently no LAWS against it. Your argument is baseless, ignorant, moronic and completely irrelevant to reality and to this situation as is your position on my privacy. I reiterate MY privacy. I can not be pulled over for reckless driving and have my I.D. confiscated because I DO NOT HAVE I.D.!!! I am hoping if I repeat that enough times with enough caps it will start to sink in.
A majority of the population will ALWAYS remain ignorant and docile. “A majority of the population” is what holds us back as a species, and “a majority of the population” will continue to be thankless, disrespectful, ignorant, and dismissive of the minority which will constantly fight to protect and evolve it. You will always be an ignorant conformist and you will never thank me or those like me for fighting for your freedoms and creating new innovative methods of thought and perception. I will never be thanked by the likes of you for contributing to the evolution of your entire species, and you will NEVER apologize for the retardation of said evolution. This is the story of mankind throughout it’s history. It was a minority that stood on two legs and walked the great plains of Africa. It was a minority that sailed the ocean and mapped the world. It was a minority that sculpted the first sculptures, painted the first paintings, and built the first buildings. It was a minority that fought the Roman empire. It was a minority that fought the British Empire. It was a minority that drafted the Declaration of Independence and created the first ever experiment in freedom which produced the most innovative, scientifically advanced, powerful nation in the history of mankind. It has always been the MINORITY that is advanced, and the masses which are docile, uninformed and too stuck in their brainwashed ways to listen to the motivations of the minority.
I don’t care what YOU think of the world. You obviously have not bothered to experience much of it. I have been a victim of fraud three times in my life. All three were as a result of an employee breaking the law while working for a merchant where I had made purchases. It is beyond my capacity to cure your ignorance, so you can CHOOSE not to believe that, because I am not going to show you the police reports. Unfortunately your ignorance, is YOURS to cure. I can only offer small tidbits of illuminating truth. You can still choose to keep your eyes closed.
Again, your OPINION of cashiers is irrelevant because REALITY has already proven you wrong. Not only in my personal life but in the NEWS stories I have posted here. Fifteen minutes on Google News would be enough for you yourSELF to prove to yourself that you are full of shit and obviously ignorant about the supposed divinity of cashiers.
I’m glad that you think so highly of yourself and your crusade.
But I’ll continue to believe what I believe, and you’ll continue to be convinced that everyone is out to get you and that only CONSTANT VIGILANCE can protect you.
I think my world is a much better place to live in. If, ten years down the line, I suddenly find myself victim of fraud because a cashier looked at my driver’s license for ten seconds, I’ll be sure to think, “Wow, that random person on the internet was right.”
Cashiers aren’t infallible. There are situations where they have participated in identity theft. A ten second glance at your ID when you use a credit card is not one of them. TEN SECONDS. That is what I’m talking about. Not about walking off with it, not about writing down your information on a check, not about even carrying your card to a kiosk to ring you up.
If you want to continue to think I’m running around shouting my social from rooftops or something, have fun with that. You obviously want to feel like you’re on a righteous crusade and make a bigger situation out of this than I’m even talking about.
If you’re going to think refusing to show your ID when you use your credit card is equal to the Declaration of Independence or the overthrow of the Roman Empire, I’m sure you’re life is fascinating. I have better things to do.
“The war for freedom will never really be won because the price of our freedom is constant vigilance over ourselves and over our Government.”
~ Eleanor Roosevelt ~
It is not MY opinion that freedom requires “CONSTANT VIGILANCE”. It is a proven historical FACT. I will continue to pursue all endeavors which are pro-liberty and which support the rights of all individuals in my personal and professional life. Acts which go well beyond cashiers and IHOPS.
As far as this thread is concerned I will leave my personal life out of it and remain content with constantly disproving your statements and stripping down your arguments to brainwashed rhetoric.
By the way can I have your name, DL#, and address yet? ..and if you aren’t ignorant then you are just in denial because I have already proven that constant submission to unwarranted violations of privacy result in not only criminal acts of fraud but a further invasion of privacy. Your comments suggest that you either ignored the evidence I posted or you are too stupid or afraid to recognize it.
No worries though my friend. Those who go along to get along should be able to surf through tyranny unaffected. You will take your chip like a good little sheep and hand over your biometrics whenever demanded.
All I need is 6 seconds, you can keep the other 4. In fact, just CALL me and give me your information, I will memorize it in the short time it takes for you to READ it. That should be even less than 4 seconds.
oh and one more time because it looks like you STILL didn’t catch it..
I DONT HAVE I.D.
ahahahahahahaha
the police can and will ask for you ID all day long if they pull you over for wreckless driving, which is exactly what was said above.
Reading the info out loud for someone and having them read it is two very different things. Plus, we already know how your convulted mind works so why would we want to give you our info, it seems to me that if anyone would know how to steak an identity it would you.
you are retarded…good thin retards have rights too.