The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.

[Kim]

the John Lewis click and collect normally requires the order number and the payment card. If the payment is by a means other than card then I can understand wanting some other proof of ID.

For PayPal, they specifically want passport or driving licence only, which is unreasonable as well as grossly excessive considering that not everyone has it.

Agreed about the unreasonable, but perhaps not excessive, given PayPal's habit of siding with the buyer in any dispute.

[mcshroom]

Leading my mates back down the C2C cycleway at 20mph into the wind and rain when I'm still recovering from a bug was a bad idea. Now appear to be expelling the entire lining of my lungs

[ian]

Well, what other forms of ID do us freedom loving Brits have other than a driving licence or a passport? I thought it was standard practice to need photo ID if you don't have the payment card and I can understand why.

[Biggsy]

No it is not standard practice to need photo ID for collecting stuff from other retailers I use even when paying by PayPal.

[jsabine]

I don't think I've ever used paypal for something I was collecting from a retailer, so it's never arisen

[Mr Larrington]

Some sellers on Fleabay offer the option of collecting from Argos.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Why not transfer the sum from Paypal to your bank account and pay from there?

[ian]

Well, given the potential for fraud with PayPal, I'd ask for ID. Otherwise, they've no way at all of knowing it's you, not even a card (which is admittedly weak but something more than nothing).

[Biggsy]

Other companies are satisfied just to know it's FOR me, which they can tell from the order number and name.  They and I are happy to take the tiny risk of someone stealing and using my info.

Why not transfer the sum from Paypal to your bank account and pay from there?

Changing the payment method without cancelling would be complicated (at the John Lewis end), so I've just cancelled instead.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Well, I meant "in future" rather than for this particular transaction. I'll use Paypal online cos it's easier but if, as here, it's not easier, then why use it?

For this specific instance, do you not have any other photo ID they might accept? I've used a long out of date driving licence specific to a tiny island in the South Pacific, as an example of otherwise useless photo ID.

[Guy]

For this specific instance, do you not have any other photo ID they might accept?

Probably not, if they're anything like Lloyd's Bank in Hitchin. Forgot my wallet. No problem, I'll get cash over the counter. I don't have either a driving licence or passport, the only ID I had on me was my work pass. Good enough to get me into any MOD establishment in the country, but not good enough to be allowed to withdraw 50 quid out of my account, in my local branch, where I do all my banking, with at least 3 people behind the tills who recognised me.

[Tim Hall]

For this specific instance, do you not have any other photo ID they might accept?

Probably not, if they're anything like Lloyd's Bank in Hitchin. Forgot my wallet. No problem, I'll get cash over the counter. I don't have either a driving licence or passport, the only ID I had on me was my work pass. Good enough to get me into any MOD establishment in the country, but not good enough to be allowed to withdraw 50 quid out of my account, in my local branch, where I do all my banking, with at least 3 people behind the tills who recognised me.

You're not thinking this through properly. Use MOD pass to enter MOD establishment.  Withdraw gun. Return to bank. Withdraw money. 

[Guy]

For this specific instance, do you not have any other photo ID they might accept?

Probably not, if they're anything like Lloyd's Bank in Hitchin. Forgot my wallet. No problem, I'll get cash over the counter. I don't have either a driving licence or passport, the only ID I had on me was my work pass. Good enough to get me into any MOD establishment in the country, but not good enough to be allowed to withdraw 50 quid out of my account, in my local branch, where I do all my banking, with at least 3 people behind the tills who recognised me.

You're not thinking this through properly. Use MOD pass to enter MOD establishment.  Withdraw gun. Return to bank. Withdraw money.

[Biggsy]

I have an expired provisional driving licence with photo (that doesn't look like me now), but didn't fancy trying to get it accepted.  Technically I have a passport, but it's lost and will take some time to find or replace.

It's only been a small amount of inconvenience for me (most of which is typing these replies!), but it's the common general assumption that everyone has a driving licence or passport that pisses me off.  It creates more serious difficulty for people doing more serious things.  My mother, for example, wasn't able to use a certain financial service at all.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Campaign for the CTC/BC/your local CC to put photos on their membership cards!

[billplumtree]

I have an expired provisional driving licence with photo (that doesn't look like me now)

Less facial hair back then?

[Guy]

Campaign for the CTC/BC/your local CC to put photos on their membership cards!

Which won't work if all it says on their crib-sheet is "Driving Licence or Passport", because that is all they'll accept.

[Biggsy]

Much less facial hair in my old photos, indeed. 

[Cudzoziemiec]

Campaign for the CTC/BC/your local CC to put photos on their membership cards!

Which won't work if all it says on their crib-sheet is "Driving Licence or Passport", because that is all they'll accept.

Of course, but there are two reasons I can think of why that's all they'll accept: 1) that's all most people have 2) those are the only photo IDs issued by government sources, so "secure". Then again, so many people have some kind of photo ID at work nowadays that 1) is not necessarily true (even kids get school ID at secondary schools now), and an MoD pass should surely be reasonably secure.

[ian]

Given that we don't have national ID cards, then I'm not sure what other photo IDs they would accept. Anyone can stick their photo on a bit of official looking card. In the US, before I drove, I had a non-driver license to save my passport getting more beer stains on it.

I did have to replace my passport mid-term because the photo stopped looking like me and I was forever being held up at immigration. I used to have to hold the photo page next to my head and pretend to be a puffer fish while the immigration officers gathered to squint and look suspiciously at my efforts. 'Blow your cheeks out more, we're not getting it.'

[Biggsy]

I'm now ordering from Argos, where I can collect without showing any ID at all, regardless of payment method.  They obviously agree that the risk of a thief presenting the code numbers is too slight to bother about.

[T42]

God-damned cleaning-personess emptied vacuum cleaner into kitchen bin right beside my espresso machine, covering same with drifting crud. She's been told not to but she hasn't the attention span of a dead cockroach.  She also managed to knock my Porlex over for the 42nd time.

[rafletcher]

God-damned cleaning-personess emptied vacuum cleaner into kitchen bin right beside my espresso machine, covering same with drifting crud. She's been told not to but she hasn't the attention span of a dead cockroach.  She also managed to knock my Porlex over for the 42nd time.

This should be in First World problems....

[tiermat]

Who, in their right mind, empties the hoover in the house, anyway?

What is the point in spending ages hoowvering the house, just to spread a percentage of the dust back around the house?

HAving said that at least she emptied the hoover, something Mrs T seems to have a blindspot on....

[Biggsy]

I even hoover the hoover after empting the hoover.  (Vax, actually)

Another grumble: Argos haven't sent me a confirmation email with the number I need.  Been more than an hour.