To think Tesco make it up as they go along

[Devilishpyjamas]

Son just popped out to buy some AA batteries from the Tesco down the road.

They refused to serve him saying they’re ‘not allowed to sell batteries to children’. Eh? Since when?

Ds3 is nearly 14 and has bought AA batteries from there (unaccompanied) before.

Tesco are the worst! Tesco won't allow me to use my address for deliveries because their computer shows that I live 3 towns over.

Now I've tried to have it changed as it's automated and keeps correcting my address for me. I contacted them and got the crap email how they can't change my address to my address at 123 High Street, Littletown because their computer says I live at 123 High Street, Notmytown and they are aware that their drivers have listed the problem because 123 High Street, Notmytown is 25 minutes away from my town but upper management says there is nothing that can be done to allow them to input my correct town into their computer system....:(

I got ID'd for a PaySafeCard (online gift card thing) as apparently in the UK you can't give them to under 18s. It just made me laugh because my reaction to getting ID'd in my local shop was one of confusion anyway, but the, actually very lovely, person who ID'd me was like "oh it's just in case it's for your kids or something because you can't give it to under 18s". I don't have kids! I do, apparently, look old enough to have 18 year olds! (I could be, just about, but in that case, why ID me?)

I will continue to compare a checkout assistant to a lettuce when they ask for ID to sell me a soft drink because it said "beer" on it. The till was perfectly happy to sell it to me. I would love to know if they would have IDed me for ginger beer.

Is it true that Tesco are going to rename the "parent and child" parking to "no spoons or vanilla" parking?

Thornton's refused to sell me run and raisin ice cream because I was in charge of a young child

I went to a Tesco garage, they watched me get out of the drivers side, get Petrol and then I'd me for a can of red bull..... I wouldn't mind if it was a normal shop but he watched me get out of my car pay for petrol then I'd me.... if he didn't think I looked 16 (which is the age for red bull) why let me put petrol in the car because you have to be 16 to do the pumps. Some are awkward for the sake of it

jcylops don't be ridiculous Ginger No-Dear spaces to indicate the lack of ginger beer, obviously.

That was my point in a way though bus (& I worked in supermarket retail long enough to know I hated it and all customers ) IS there a Tesco policy about AA batteries & teens and if so why??

Lostplatypus but that doesn’t even make sense? How would id’ing you prevent you giving it to your imaginary child?

Oh I meant to do a confused face !

In my uni days, I took a trip with my flatmates to stock up on alcohol from the local B&M.

Despite all being over 18 with ID proving so, they refused to serve us as we were under 21.

Still to this day resent them not allowing us cheap alcohol and have no clue why they had this rule.

I once worked in a shop where random things would scan at age 25.
The ones I can remember off the top of my head were wispas, a babys book (that said suitable from birth on it) chilli con carne in a tin

I've been into toysrus us before where ds1 was buying himself a nerf gun with his bday money.
The cashier couldn't sell him the TOY nerf gun as it was an age restricted product completly baffling

OP I know! I mean I had ID on me so it wasn't an issue but I don't know if the person realised halfway through ID-ing me that they'd made a mistake and were trying to back track or just badly explaining the policy. I assured them it was for me, since, you know, it was, and they were fine. Still don't know how my imaginary kids ended up coming into it (I'll have to remember to buy another one if I manage to have kids, just to see what happens. Oh and send them for batteries ofc.)

me and hubby in tesco today doing weekly shop. pack of corona’s and she asks hubby for ID. he’s in his 30s and hasn’t been asked for ID in the whole time i have known him(over 10 years) as unfortunatly he started going bald at a young age so he looks a lot older. anyway he hands over ID and then she asks me for mine. i dont have any as my purse is at home so she refused to sell it to us. i’m also late 20s and 8 months pregnant so clearly the alcohol wasn’t for me anyway. i know they have to ask but surely common sense would tell her that if he’s in his 30s and i’m heavily pregnant there’s a fair chance i am over 18.

The self scan even flags up U films for an age check 🤦‍♀️

I was once thwarted in my attempted purchase of a wallpaper scraper from Homebase because...get this...the checkout assistant wasn't old enough to sell it to me.

Also, the self-checkout in Sainsbury's refused to let me buy a bottle of alcohol-free Prosecco ("Nosecco". I know.) because it was an age-restricted product. Why? It's just fizzy grape juice!

I should say I never object to having to provide ID for alcohol free beer and wine I buy it regularly but it was an oversight as my bag was in the boot and I’d just gone in quickly for a few bits and had cash and card in my pocket. It was just the dogged insistence that I was some sort of wanton law breaker that vexed me.

As I understand it, Challenge 25 is not a legal requirement, simply an alcohol industry 'best practice' which has been adopted by most retailers. Some retailers have voluntarily signed up to it to cover knives too www.gov.uk/government/publications/sale-of-knives-voluntary-agreement-by-retailers/sale-of-knives-voluntary-agreement-by-retailers - and presumably are using it to cover any age related product. The penalties staff face from a legal point of view relate to selling to someone who is actually under the legal age to buy that product, but presumably they face other penalties from their employer if they fail to carry out the employer's procedures regarding requesting ID.

In other words, these are retailer policies, which go over and above the legal requirements and are used to ensure the retailers are protecting themselves (and if we're being generous, their staff) which perhaps are being applied inconsistently and with little understanding of the law. There is no real reason for instance to refuse to sell alcohol to an adult who is plainly over 18 just because they have a child with them, as adults are legally able to give alcohol at home to children from the age of 5. I was once asked for ID to buy a fork when I was 36; forks aren't actually age restricted, but the retailer's policy was apparently to ask for ID in this case. Luckily I am now past the age where anyone asks for ID (and happily I'm not bothered by that!).

I do understand why retailers have these policies, but would suggest however that it's worth asking companies to provide clarification that a particular request for ID or refusal to sell an age related product is actually part of their company policy as my own experience working in several locations of one company is that these kinds of policies are often interpreted very differently in one place than they are in another, and generally the big retailers are keen to provide the same level of service across their business.

I recently turned 33 and a couple of days before my birthday I was asked for ID when buying a can of Relentless (energy drink) because Tesco won't sell it to under 16s and I "looked young".

Made my bloody day. I cheerfully showed my ID and got on with my life.

Not Tesco but once I went to weather spoons with a friend we had a jug of cocktail each. Went to order food and they asked for idea and I was like for chicken? They said no the drink with your dinner I said oh just water. And they refused to let us eat in there because we had no ID on us at 24. When I said then other waitress just served us 2 cocktails she said “that’s in her judgement” so yeah wasn’t allowed to eat in weatherspoons after 8 even though I was drinking 😅

Re the paracetamol thing again.

If you're 25, and have a headache but no ID with you, do you just have to suffer?

Are you allowed to buy Calpol (liquid paracetamol) for your child?

I have all my loyalty cards on an app. Paying for fuel in Tesco the other week and handed over phone as I've done for several years so they can scan the app and she refused. Said they're not allowed to handle phones! Went in a week later and held up phone and they took it out my hand to scan! Suspect that probably isn't a policy but one persons decision.

I've had exactly the same as catmum, refused beer in a big shop to my 30 odd year old DH because I, heavily pregnant wife, didn't have any ID with me. Really annoying.

Have also been ID'd in B&Q when buying gloss, brushes and a bottle of white spirit because the cashier asked me if I was going to drink the white spirit and I jokingly said yes it's not to clean gloss off the paintbrushes at all.

A few years ago my young cousin was visiting my mum for a few weeks. At the end of the visit the cousin asked me to take her to Tesco because she wanted to get my mum something to say thank you. She picked a bottle of wine that was just over £20, she had seen my mother drink it etc, asked if she gave me the money would I pay for it (she was 16/17).
Went to the checkout, I got asked for i.d, happily gave my driving license and then of course they ask my cousin. So the whole issue begins of she hasnt got i.d we can't sell it.

I was honest, I said yep I'm buying it for her to give as a gift, she's whatever age, in your common sense do you really think that A a teenager has enough money to kneck down a bottle of quite highly priced red wine or B that she'd have such a sophisticated pallet. The cashier called the supervisor over who I told again and said that I will go to another supermarket up the road, leave the cousin in the car and buy the wine there. The supervisor ended up serving me the wine.

Drives me mad how they don't seem to have any common sense, and I bet if more people then left a conveyor of shopping so they didn't get any sale they'd soon start having a bit more common sense once their profits and sales went down.

Re the person who was refused the newspaper - you could have got a paper cut .... and died from the injury