At my B&N (and probably at all of them), the cafe doesn't make you sign if your purchase is under a certain amount (I think it's $10 or $20), but at the music and main registers, we make you sign for everything.

I dislike when they don't require signature.

Seriously. I WANT to sign.

Of course, I don't have kids or other people who might wing off to Starbucks to grab a snack, so I can see the convenience but...

I'm really, really turning my financial ship around by paying super-laser focused attention to every little detail...which is a 180 from my lalala it will all be okay stance of the last few years (ok, I confess, my whole life).

So now I'm all ocd about the bank statement and keeping a check register. I am balancing my checkbook for the very first time. And those cc receipts? Key to keeping the system going.

I thought yesterday was interminable.

Today's interminability totally kicks yesterday's ass.

Oh yeah--and if I am traveling for work, and you don't give receipts unless I ask, half the time I forget to ask, and then it sucks for the expense report. Sigh. At least if I have to sign something, I'm more likely to remember to ask for a receipt.

Yes, some marketing group did an analysis, and found that it's more cost effective to not deal with the cards and the signing and the slips, etc. It's like when I didn't sign a check once. I called the bank and was all indignant that they cashed an unsigned check, and they said that it if it was under a certain amount, it was more cost effective to process the check and fix it later than to take the time and effort to determine that it was legit.

A blog of IM conversations (all the same person, I'm assuming): [link]

It's self-indulgent (but what blog isn't, at least a little?), but I did laugh at this entry, about political fundraising via IM, and how the "younger generation" would love that: [link]

Man, my bank once refused to cash a check when the cents portion of the longhand line wasn't readable (it was readable in the little box.) The accountant at the place the check was written to was as bewildered as I.

The check was to the phone company or something. I assume that something shiny happened by and I put the check in the envelope without signing it. The bank was like 'is it your check" and I said 'yes", and they were kind of confused as to why I was upset.

Today's interminability totally kicks yesterday's ass.

Tuesday is the new Monday? Say it ain't so. I can only take one Monday during the week.

and if I am traveling for work, and you don't give receipts unless I ask, half the time I forget to ask, and then it sucks for the expense report. Sigh. At least if I have to sign something, I'm more likely to remember to ask for a receipt.

My company doesn't require a receipt for anything less than $25, but I usually include them anyway. My problem is I stuff all of the receipts in my wallet and then I have to separate out personal and business. It usually ends up looking like a paper factory exploded on my desk.

I assume that something shiny happened by and I put the check in the envelope without signing it.

Back in the day when I still paid all my bills by check via snail mail (rather than online, the way God and Al Gore intended), I once wrote out an entire month's worth of bills (electric, phone, MasterCard, cable, gym, car insurance, etc., etc.) -- and then didn't tear them out of the checkbook, yet I dutifully filled out the remittance slip for each bill, put each one in its respective envelope, sealed it, stamped it, and probably even wrote my return address on the envelope, and then mailed them.

I didn't notice that the checks were still in my checkbook (SIGNED, even!) for a few days, at which point I had to scramble to find all the addresses of my various payees, write shamefaced apologetic explanatory letters, PUT THE CHECK IN WITH THE LETTER, and hope they'd be forgiving and not ding my payment as late.

IIRC, they were all understanding about it. And let me tell you, I was THRILLED when I was able to pay all my bills online.