My sister works on the checkouts in the evenings at a local supermarket and was telling me about something that happened last week.
She had 2 teenage girls come to her till trying to buy alcohol, the stores policy now is that if anyone looks under 21 you have to ask for ID. My sister said these girls clearly looked under age and had tarted themselves up to look old enough.
So when quizzed for ID the girl buying pulls out a passport and that she really didn't look like the girl in the photo!!
When my sister said it didn't look like her she claimed to have had her hair done and thats what is was and gets this all the time.
My sister asked for another form of ID to backup that the passport was hers and apparently she didn't have anything, not even a bank card.
On closer inspection my sister realised that she actually knew who the girl in the passport was and that it wasn't that girl.
She didn't know though whether the girl who's passport it really was had a sister etc. and had lent it to her or even if it had been stolen / borrowed!!
Anyway when my sister refused the girl kicked up a fuss and supervisor came over.
The supervisor also couldn't agree and called the security guy over for another point of view.
Apparently the security guy agreed with my sister in that the passport didn't match the girl but the supervisor felt that it was a closish match and as she had 'provided' ID she over-rulled the decision and agreed to sell the alcohol to the girl.

When my sister told me this I got really annoyed with her saying she should of stood her ground and refused etc. etc.

She did say that she didn't really want to fall out with the supervisor and that the supervisor did have the final say and the security guard was a witness to that as well. I can see her point but I still think I would have stood my ground and even proceeded more with the fact the passport wasn't hers!

What do you people think…

Right to refuse lies with the person serving, not the supervisor thats the first issue, secondly, why doens't your sister get in touch with the person from the picture and let them know whats going on etc?

I work as a Checkout Supervisor part time. Our policy is;

Operator refuses
Supervisor enforces this
Manager backs descison

It hasn't always worked that way and I've kicked up a fuss too.

You have to have ID. It doesn't say anything about having to be yours.

The person prosecuted would be the person serving, regardless of the wishes of the supervisor. £5000 max fine too.

If your sister gets this again, she should ask the supervisor to log in to the till and put the transaction through under her ID instead.

Your sister should refuse still and bring the issue up with the manager above the supervisor.

I've had similar years ago when refusing to serve people who were obviously drunk. I refused, but the duty manager was a pussy and over-ruled me. Best thing to do is take it one level higher, it completely undermines you when a boss doesn't back your decision.

Pointless being asked to make judgements if your opinion is over-ruled. Get the duty manager out at every possible case just to make sure in future…

your sister should have refused to serve her, and let the manageress do it

I used to be a manager and always used to back up the staff. If they wern't happy in their judgement, and they were no fools, then i wasn't.

It's not even the supervisors call, as it's not the supervisors liquor licence under threat, and it's the serving person who gets the prosecution/criminal offence.

I'd have been tempted,*knowing* it wasn't the passport of the person buying, to have called the police.

She wasn;t israeli was she?

Sounds like thesupervisor needs more till time and your sister should be the supervisor 😉

Get her to bring it up at the next staff meeting.

Should have asked for her town of birth and star sign, even if she had checked first she'd probably have forgotten by the time she got to the till

you are not the police