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

[pinkheart]

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..

Gabity, if someone complained to the police, and the police investigated, it would be proven that the person you had served was over 18 and no law had been broken.

"p.s trading standards may only use under 18s but the big supermarket chains use 20-25 year old (I did it a few years ago) as their policy is Challenge 25.

Even if I did know the person, how would I know that the person isn't a test purchaser."

Firstly, are you saying that you wouldn't serve alcohol to someone if they were under '20-25'
(not very specific )

Secondly, if you knew the person, and knew that they were over 18, then it wouldn't matter if they were a test purchaser, would it? Because you're not doing anything wrong!!!!!

Honestly, it's this kind of ridiculous misinterpretation by shop assistants that gives the rest of them a bad name. You really don't seem to grasp the law itself, only your company's odd interpretation of it.

you dont need id to serve your brother or sister or anyone else you know for a fact to be over 18 ....

Afaik the law doesnt actually state that you need id to buy age restricted products.. you just need to be the appropriate age

Id is merely a way of making it easier for retailers and youngsters to abide by the law

And it doesnt matter what others in the queue think!!!! seriously it doesnt

As crackers as it may be, if a 23 year old from another shop was sent to my shop as a test purchaser and the member of staff served them they would get a written warning. Not against the law but against policy and you could loose your job just the same.

When ever an age related item goes through the till the operator needs to put in what age they think the person is. If you enter under 25 you then get asked on the till what form of ID you saw, "cos I know them" isn't an option!!!

so you lose your job for making a legal sale...

I think you would have a case for unfair dismissal...

the world has gone mad

People will stop shopping at the bigger shops and go back to the small ones where you know the person running the place. Also where common sense is used.

It makes life quite tricky, doesn't it?

I cannot apparently buy a 15-rated DVD or CD whilst accompanied by my 14yo and 10yo (was refused in Tesco's).

Otoh if I leave said them at home while I go shopping, I risk a police caution (as per other thread). Seems I'll just have to watch ToyStory and listen to Mozart until they leave home.

No, hang on- I can listen to those same age-restricted lyrics on the radio all day long. And so can dcs.

Hi all,

Helen Milford, Asda's Director of Customer Services has asked us to post the following quote on her behalf:

"I'm a mum myself and know that the promise of using the self-scan is a valuable bargaining chip in getting kids round the supermarket! I do appreciate your frustrations here, but our colleagues do have good reason for erring on the side of caution when it comes to selling age restricted products."

"Trading Standards and the Police will fine a colleague if they are found to be selling items with an age restriction - such as DVDs, cigarettes or alcohol - to underage customers. Unfortunately, test purchases are made all the time using children below the necessary age. I think it is important to stress we do stand by our colleagues for trying to do the right thing and would never ask them to do something they felt broke the law."

"In this particular case, where the child was helping scan the shopping and the person who paid for the shopping, was over the age required to buy the DVD, I think its fair to say that we could have handled the situation differently. But please be assured our colleagues are not trying to be difficult, but trying to make sure they stay on the right side of the law."

"I apologise for any inconvenience caused and we will take this as an opportunity to look at how we enhance the training for our colleagues going forward"

Thanks Rebecca and Helen!

I can see people printing this out for next time!

This is making me wonder if Helen is a member who didn't want to out herself

hello, only just had time to catch up and was quite interested to see all the replies, i normally manage to kill off threads lol!

It is interesting that Helen Milford has replied via mn, and yet I still have not had a reply to my original complaint that I emailed on saturday. The power of mn!!

I understand that the cashier woman was following policies and procedures, I wish she had explained it to me at the time though instead of coming across as abrupt and rude. Leaving me to ring and complain to the customer services manager.
I would have accepted it when he told me the reasons behind it, and he agreed they need to have signs informing customers of their policies however, when he told me I should leave my children at home when I shop, it made me angry again and decided I needed to take the matter further.