Charge it! Squeezing this Clerk with your credit crunch!

My lax attitude towards customer credit card usage was a slow evolution. In my youth, I was vigilant; comparing names, checking ids, suspicious of demagnatized cards, cards with rips and rubbed out signatures. After years of customer abuse, survival mechanisms, and reality, kicked it, resulting in my current "not my problem" attitude.

I do not check ids. Ever. Not even when the card is unsigned or when it says to check id. Too many times I have been yelled at by a customer because their id was in the car, their other coat, their pants pocket at home on the floor, their kid is holding their purse and the kid is wondering around somewhere else. These are not even people that seem sketchy. They are frantic, disorganized people blaming me for holding up the line when they are ones that put "C.I.D." on the back of their card. I tell people about this and they try to shame me. They tell me about a friend of theirs that had fraudulent charges on her card and how hard! it was to have them reversed. Of course, they never know any details about this friend's experience. So, again, not my problem.

Then there are the people that use other people's cards, usually a wife and husband situation. For some reason, people think this is okay and don't scold me for accepting cards labeled "Frank", "George", or "Walter", clearly masculine names, from people that are definitely female. I used to try to joke a little: "Oh, hi Frank, how's it going?" but the ladies give me a death glare and say "it's my husband's card." Basically, "do not F with me, clerk."

So, I gave up. And it is fantastic. For those of you that have had stolen cards, I am sorry. But it is not my problem. If you are grown up enough to have a card, you are grown up enough to keep track of it, open your statements, and use it wisely. I am paid minimum wage; that is not enough to be the keeper of everyone's credit safety.

If ever I do start checking ids again, I am going to check absolutely everyone's. I will be a pain-in-the-ass. Nothing arbitrary. Because to me, the clerk, everyone looks like someone that could be using a stolen credit card.