When I got my tires rotated last week, the guy at the counter asked for my ID to check the signature on my credit card. I said I was glad he asked and he told me he had recently caught a stolen credit card that someone had tried to use - he was suspicious and wouldn't take it and when he called the credit card company after the suspicious characters flounced off they confirmed that the card was stolen.

Or teenagers with one of their parents' cards. I worked in a Banana Republic in a ritzy mall. You'd have thought I was depriving them of life, liberty and basic sustenance.

So much this. I've watched teenaged girls' heads explode.

My boss gave me his credit card to buy some stuff once. No one seemed to notice I wasn't Louis.

OTOH, when I was a bank teller, I got to reject a kid trying to get a cash advance off his father's credit card. And it was my nemesis's brother, so even more fun.

I think in a lot of the stores where you run your own card in the little ... machine thingie, it's sort of pointless to check, I guess. But we don't use that yet, and my managers are really firm about checking, and what cards we can take, etc.

So much this. I've watched teenaged girls' heads explode.

One time, a girl came back with mall security, demanding that she be allowed to purchase the merchandise. She claimed discrimination in recounting her tale to the guard, but she also left out a few very important facts. Once the guard found out she wanted to pay with daddy's platinum Amex and not a card in her own name, he very politely told her to grow a brain before he hauled her down to the in-mall police station to allow the police to investigate whether it could be a stolen card.

She walked out of the store without a thing, all the while threatening to sue me, the guard, and Banana Republic because we were mean to her.

"With as closely as you were looking at the signature, I'm surprised that you didn't notice MY PHOTO on the back of the card."

I did this more than once when I worked at my friends' store. Oop!

(We checked if signature was missing or if card said "See ID").

::rolls eyes forever::

What really kills me is that parents hand their kids these cards. But who's going to be ranting if Susie's shifty friend lifts it from her purse and uses it?

I've had two nasty encounters with wives who are APPALLED I won't let them use their husband's card. "I can call him on the phone right now!"

And I'm like, "How the hell do I know who you're calling?" It's so ridiculous in this day and age. GET YOUR OWN CARD.

I keep having banana malfunctions.

sara, I'm not sure I want to know....

I did this more than once when I worked at my friends' store. Oop!

It's like the awareness test! We're so focused on the signature we miss the moonwalking bear.

Fuckers won't peel right.

I am so looking forward to going home and ... mopping my kitchen for a second time today. And moving the fridge to mop under there. And possibly mop the cabinets.

Sigh.