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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

AIBU - to think that if im paying at the tills, then asda shouldnt refuse to sell me a DVD?

135 replies

pinkheart · 06/02/2011 21:54

Hi, I had an experience yesterday in ASDA at the self serve checkout and wondered if it is just my local ASDA that has introduced a ridiculous policy or all of them? this is a bit long winded but;

I used the self serve checkout with my children (my eldest son loved to do this bit)and as all the items were swiped through, the last item was my DVD which had been at the bottom of the basket. I forgot I would have needed to get age authorisation or I would have used a different till. However, we waited for the self serve assistant to come over and authorise the sale of my DVD, however she told me that I couldn?t have the DVD as she had seen my son swipe the DVD. I thought she was joking as she took the DVD away and so I stood at the checkout waiting for her to bring it back (I assumed she was removing a security seal or something similar). The assistant saw me still standing at the till so came back to ask why I was not moving. To which I replied I was waiting for my DVD. Again she replied that as my Son had swiped the item I wasn?t allowed to have it.
I was purchasing all of the shopping on my debit card so I cannot understand why I was not allowed to have the DVD. I had to walk back through the store with both children and my bags of paid shopping to reselect the same DVD and take it to another checkout to pay for it.

when i got home i was still fuming over the way the checkout lady had spoken to me and lack of explanation, so i rang the store to complain (I have never ever rung and complained to anyone before!)
The Customer services manager told me that it was store policy to not allow items swiped by children to be sold. I replied that I have never encountered this situation before and there are no signs or notices anywhere to inform customers that their children cannot use the self serve checkouts. He told me that they had recently been caught selling an age authorised product to an underage person. However, clearly I am over 18, with my own debit card, photo id, and 2 children in tow and obviously old enough to purchase a 15 rated DVD (I am in my 30's).
The manager then suggested that I should shop without taking my children with me!! If I could complete my shopping without having to take the children around the aisles with me I would, but I work full time and only have weekends to undertake such tasks.

AIBU to think this is ridiculous or have other people encountered this?
I have emailed ASDA to complain but so far nothing back..

OP posts:

TragicallyHip · 06/02/2011 22:28

Second they need signs up!!

sharon2609 · 06/02/2011 22:30

Sainsburys wouldn't sell me a Daily Mail with a free DVD in it because it was a 12 rating and I had my daughter with me. FFS

onepieceoflollipop · 06/02/2011 22:31

Also the op mentions that the checkout supervising person watched her ds scan other items. Surely it would have been helpful of her to mention to any customer that had full baskets that if they were about to scan certain items then they might want to do it themselves.

Sounds like she "enjoyed" being a bit difficult tbh.

NoWayNoHow · 06/02/2011 22:31

YANBU - definitely not! This is like that story recently about a man at Tesco being prevented from buying a bottle of wine because he had his 8 year old daughter with him!

Both the assistant and the store manager sound like a pair of idiots - I would be very surprised if you don't get a grovelling apology from head office in reply to your email complaint.

If you don't, keep pestering them until they recognise the errors of their ways!

onepieceoflollipop · 06/02/2011 22:31

lucky escape sharon

sevenkeystomysoul · 06/02/2011 23:17

YABVU, but I'm assuming that's because you don't know what actually happens regarding the sale of age-restricted products. Warnings come up on the (cashier side) of the till when age-restricted items are swiped, the cashier then has to enter information about the customers age, what ID has been shown if it has been asked for, etc.

The consequences of selling age-restricted products to underage customers can be devastating. As well as automatically losing their job, that person will also receive a £1000 fine (more than your average shop assistant earns in a month, particularly one who has just been sacked) and a criminal record. The store will also go into 'lock down', so every single age-restricted sale for the forseeable future will have to be authorised by a manager, causing major disruption.

So while it may be a bit inconvenient for you to have to go back to another till to buy your DVD, it's nothing compared to the potential fall-out for the poor shop assistant if you had turned out to be an undercover shopper sent by the police or trading standards (and yes, they do really do this).

The cashier you encountered yesterday will have had the potential consequences of selling to underage customers drummed into her on a regular basis and will have also been aware that her every move can be monitored on CCTV should she fuck up.

So, should she risk losing her job, ending up in court and getting a £1000 fine, just to avoid pissing you off? Common sense doesn't come into it I'm afraid, there are procedures that need to be followed because they are the law. Saying, 'but the customer was clearly purchasing the DVD/cigarettes/vodka/knife/fireworks for herself and not her three-year-old/thirteen-year-old child' will not save your job or spare you a court appearence.

sheepgomeep · 06/02/2011 23:22

this is why I hate working in asda sometimes, this age related stuff.

Its an on the spot fine, arrest, marched off the shop floor possible court appearance, suspension and possible loss of job

This is why us asda staff are so paranoid

Its a bloody minefield and I hate it. We aget abuse of snotty customers every single day

sheepgomeep · 06/02/2011 23:23

everything that seven said. You try working behind a till at asda, its bloody horribel

ItsMeMo · 06/02/2011 23:30

She could have just voided off the DVD and then got you to scan it in again yourself. That wouldn't have been unreasonable and wouldhave kept her within the law.

sheepgomeep · 06/02/2011 23:32

oh and you wont get a grovelling apology either because thankfully we are supported by our managers if we refuse a sale.

allsquareknickersnofurcoat · 06/02/2011 23:40

I've worked for another supermarket and yep, the managers are 100% behind the staff.
Its not the supermarket thats the problem really, they're doing what they have to, its the stupid law.

If someone is buying something for someone underage, it should be completely their responsibility. Then the staff wouldnt have to refuse to sell you vodka cause you were with your toddler, cause if you chose to give your toddler vodka, YOU are the one breaking the law, not the shop.
Does that make sense?

makemineapinot · 06/02/2011 23:41

Itsme - that's what I was going to say - as the adult gets out the debit card it's bloody obvious who is doing the choosing and purchasing of the shopping!! my 8 to ds swiped 6 bottles of wine at the self service in tesco on Friday.... he even grabbed the receipt but I paid!! The nice smiley assistant even joked with him about his age as she OK'd it - asking if he though he looked 'clearly over 25'! Cue bright red face.... It was obvious I was buying it (not all for me I hasten to add ), she was friendly and helpful and common sense prevailed! Surely in this situation (as many children like to do the swiping) all it takes is a shop assistant to just ask who the dvd/alcohol etc is for?

allsquareknickersnofurcoat · 06/02/2011 23:43

On the mystery shopper subject, my sister was told in her last job that if you ask a mystery shopper their age, they cannot lie as it is entrapment. So all you need to do is ask every teenager, as if they are underage, they have to tell you so

eejit · 06/02/2011 23:43

It's the law.

You might be petty and pedantic too if you were at risk of getting a criminal record, a fine to the tune of thousands of pounds and getting sacked.

If you have an issue, perhaps you should take it up with your MP/trading standards.

YABVU

LisamumtoJake · 06/02/2011 23:54

Grr this kind of thing drives me mad!! I was in a asda store once and my husband was at the till buying his beer, anyhoo i've went to sit in the little seats opposite the till (i'm disabled :)) and the sales assistant says "has she got ID pointing at me) i was not impressed after telling her clearly that i was not buying any of the shopping and wasn't paying for it, just chumming my husband, and showed her my DL she let him have it! FFS i'm 27! YANBU!

allsquareknickersnofurcoat · 06/02/2011 23:58

Not the staff though, its the stupid law!

sevenkeystomysoul · 07/02/2011 00:07

ItsMeMo and makemineapinot,I'm afraid you are both fundamentally misunderstanding the degree of autonomy cashiers actually have. Of course 'it's bloody obvious who is doing the choosing and purchasing of the shopping' makemineapinot, however, had the person in the queue behind you been from trading standards, an off-duty police officer, or even an over-vigilant member of the public, your nice, smiley assistant would have been out of a job and facing prosecution quicker than you can say 'do you have any ID?'. Asking who the age-restricted sale is for isn't 'all it takes'. Hearing that the wine is for you and not your eight-year-old is not going to protect her from prosecution and a hefty fine, that's not the way it works. The simple fact is, a cashier will face criminal charges if they sell age-restricted products to a minor, they will even face criminal charges if they sell age-restricted products to an adult if that adult is found to be procuring the goods for a minor. So if, for example, an adult buys ten bottles of Smirnoff Ice, then walks out of the shop and hands them out to a bunch of minors, the cashier will be prosecuted. So it's not hard to see why some cashiers are draconian in their attitude to age-related sales.

cat64 · 07/02/2011 00:17

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

chickchickchicken · 07/02/2011 00:20

question about the law - isnt the person who is paying the bill the customer and not the person who swiped item?
if its person who swiped item wonder how under age checkout assistants are allowed to swipe alcohol? i know they have to call a supervisor and get the nod that its ok but they actually swipe item. this has happened to me a few times (i now avoid younger looking assistants so i dont have to wait for the ok)
i boycott asda after being told that i couldnt stand in the self service basket queue with my mobility aid in case other customers objected . i refused to move and manager was called. unfortunately he sounded like person who op spoke with - how dare he say you should shop without your kids. manager had to back down when i mentioned disability discrimination act but was so disgusted i havent gone back despite it being my regular supermarket

chickchickchicken · 07/02/2011 00:20

x posts

sheepgomeep · 07/02/2011 00:31

I know in asda living (where I work) we get round that by making sure that no till assistant is under 18. Once you hit 18 you are then till trained

makemineapinot · 07/02/2011 00:32

chickchickchicken - that's awful.

I am in Scotland - maybe the law is different up here? All the underage cashiers do up here is shout 'alcohol' when booze goes through and no-one bats an eyelid - shop assistant wise (very embrarssing though at times .

It is crap that the shop assistant loses their job in those situations and cat 64 is right - they need to make it clearer to the point of aying do not go through self serve tills with a child if you are buying alcohol, DVDS , magazines, CDs etc etc Another case of the wrong people carrying the can - the shop assistant for making a mistake and the customer for actually wanting customer service - I would not have been pleased if I had been stopped, it was obvious who was paying etc and we were buying posh wine not Buckfast or cider which I admit might have looked a bit like we could have been buying for underage-ers! Cos of course I'd take my son in as a decoy!

allsquareknickersnofurcoat · 07/02/2011 00:39

Pft, I always drank Moet in the park on a Friday night

makemineapinot · 07/02/2011 00:41

Ah... but it was Taittinger we were buying...

MissQue · 07/02/2011 00:47

It is pretty draconian, whether it's the store assistant or the law ruling these sales, once again common sense has been thrown out of the window in favour of petty, ridiculous regulations. It's also incredibly unfair on the store assistants, you can't have any power over what a person does with their purchases once they have left the store, jeez, I let my ds watch 18 movies when he was 16, for instance.

Weirdly, my 19 year old son comes shopping with me regularly and we've never been asked for ID on any age restricted items, even though it's supposed to be policy for anyone who looks under 25 to be asked for ID.

I'm intrigued about the make up thing, why would cosmetics be age restricted? Is it for stuff like nail varnish remover that could be sniffed or something? Because if that's the case, why are youngsters able to buy aerosol deodorants?

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