No ID, No Idea, Part 47

I work for a rather old-fashioned arts and crafts store. We don’t scan anything, we don’t take payments over the phone, and we don’t take checks without ID.

It’s a Monday, around halfway through my closing shift. I’m walking up front to take over the main register so my coworker can go on a break when a customer makes eye contact and asks me to answer a question. She’s carrying one small item and one larger one.

She gives me what is probably meant to be a sob story about how she’s on her way to work “at the nursing home”. There are like three in town, so I don’t know which one she’s talking about, although she is wearing scrubs and a name tag. One of the residents broke her lap tray, and the customer wants to surprise her with a new one.

Customer: “I don’t have my ID, but I’m in here all the time. Can I still write a check? Can you just trust me?”

First of all, why are you driving around without your ID? Second of all, you’re in here all the time. You should know our policy.

Me: “No, sorry, we have to have an ID with a check.”

Customer: “You guys are the only place in town that does it that way.”

Me: “Sorry, it’s a corporate policy. I have to see a physical ID to take a check.”

Customer: “You don’t have those scanner things like [Chain #1] or [Chain #2]?”

I just shake my head. No, which you should know because you’re here ALL THE TIME.

She follows me toward the registers and asks where she can leave her items, and I indicate a currently unused register. She drops her stuff and then digs through her purse one more time to make sure she hasn’t missed her wallet or whatever. She mumbles one more thing about us being the only place in town that doesn’t just take a check or something, and I turn slightly to address her as I log in to help another customer.

Me: “Yeah, sorry, corporate policy: you have to have an ID with a check.”

I’m not going to bother my boss with the question because he is busy doing a new hire orientation, and he would tell this customer the same thing anyway. I don’t care if you’re the Queen of England or the President of the United States. No ID = no check writing. I am on camera on my register, and we verify every check before we send it off to the bank. If I were to take a check without physically looking at an ID and writing down the necessary info, I’d be in big trouble. It’s not my favorite rule, either, but I follow it.

My boss does notice the items later and asks me about them, and when I tell him the short version of the story, he just scoffs.

Manager: “She’s not coming back. Put them away.”

And she didn’t come back before we closed. We’ll see what happens tomorrow.

Related:
No ID, No Idea, Part 46
No ID, No Idea, Part 45
No ID, No Idea, Part 44
No ID, No Idea, Part 43
No ID, No Idea, Part 42