Apparently, asking for ID makes me terrible at my job.
For some context, I'm Canadian and I work in a gas station where we also sell age restricted products, including cigarettes. The legal age in my province for purchasing such products is 19, and we are required by law to ID anyone who looks under 30. Today, I had a customer really have a go at me for it.
So, I had a shabby (albeit younger) looking couple come in, who I'll call refer to as Felicia and Kevin (I couldn't think of a better name for him). Now, for the sake of covering my bases in ensuring that I don't risk selling to someone who could be under age, I requested to see both of their ID's. Well, this pissed Felicia off because while she had her's, Kevin had left his at home and only had a picture of it on his phone, which I could not accept as an appropriate alternative. The reason for this is because anyone can take a picture of their ID and then doctor their date of birth to make it seem they are of age.
Anyway, Felicia gets uppity with me because she doesn't want to go all the way, back to their place and "we always take her ID anyway." I stuck to my guns, telling her that without proper physical ID from Kevin, I cannot sell the cigarettes even if she was the one going to buy them. For those of you who are reading this and wondering, Kevin was mostly silent and passive. So they step outside and I see Felicia making a phone call as I ring up other customers. During that period, we have a rep for our tobacco company come in to take a look at our inventory, which they do occasionally. I'll call him Rep. So, Rep does his thing and I'm doing my job ringing up customers, when Felicia and Kevin come back in with a third person, who I'll call Dick, who assumed that Rep was my boss and go off on him, because apparently it's my fault that he had to go a get Kevin's ID and bring it over on his lunch break. After Rep corrects him on his assumption, I take over from there.
Felicia slams both ID's on the counter and demands her cigarettes. Before I do, I politely but firmly tell her that my reason of IDing both her and Kevin is due to potential consequences for myself and the store for selling to someone underage and that they are responsible for having proper ID with them, which Felicia took offensively because "I DID have my ID either me!" and "We're all over 19!" When I meant that it also applied to Kevin. Done with her shit and having said what I had to say, I get her cigarettes and ring her up just to be done with her.
And here's this little gem for you guys: while I was completing the transaction, Dick proceeds to tell me on how I need to do my job better as he takes his leave! (Like seriously what do you think I was doing, you simpleton!) On top of that, Felicia whipped out her phone and took my picture, saying she was going to complain. (Go ahead, their likely going to praise me for doing a 'terrible' job!)
After they had left, I realized how much I was shaking. I could even hear my own pulse in my ears. For a moment, I wondered if I should have handled it differently. Maybe I was being to rigid about the ID thing. However, Rep and my supervisor, who had witnessed the interaction go down, said that I was in the right. After being reassured, I printed a copy of the receipt and circled the date and time. I'll be seeing my boss when I go back in tomorrow and see what he has to say. He's a reasonable man but I'm still going to get his input.
But yeah, that's my experience. What about you guys?