Don’t you just love the smell of hypocrisy in the morning?
I went to the Post Office to mail off LCN’s cookies. I found a box that was the perfect size, threw a label on it, and took it up to the counter.
The woman weighed the package and told me how much it would be. The total appeared on the credit card display machine next to me. The display said, “Please slide card now.”
So I slid my card.
Nothing.
“We don’t use that terminal.”
“Oh. Okay. Here’s my card.”
She took my card and flipped it over to look for the signature. In its place she found the words “See ID” written in giant, black letters.
“Can’t take this. Has to be signed.”
“I can show you my ID.”
“Don’t matter. Gotta sign it.”
So I signed the card. 80% of my signature was obscured by the indelible black ink that I had used to apply the words “See ID”.
She took my card, glanced at what must have passed for an acceptable signature, and ran my card through her terminal. She then handed me a receipt to sign, didn’t verify my signature with the new signature on the card, and sent me out of the post office less secure than I came in.
For all the post office claims that it is concerned about identity theft they don’t really think about how to best implement a system to prevent it. Do they?
Apparently the US postal service thinks it’s easier for me to kill/immobilize someone, steal their face and body type ala Face/Off, and then use their ID and credit card to make purchases than it is to forge someone’s signature.
Way to go Post Office. You’re really breaking that stigma of bureaucracy and inefficiency.
