Jobsworth and youthful looks
Posted: Mon May 24, 2010 9:59 pm
In any other situation, Jason Wilde might have been flattered to be mistaken for a teenager.
But when the 33-year-old was refused a bottle of wine at his local Tesco it left him humiliated and angry.
An overzealous staff member refused to serve him when he was unable to prove his age because he did not have identification.
Jason Wilde, 33, was refused a bottle of wine at Tesco because he was unable to prove his age. His 29-year-old fiancee, Lorraine Thomas, was not allowed to buy it either on the grounds that she may have been purchasing alcohol for a minor
Jason Wilde, 33, was refused a bottle of wine at Tesco because he was unable to prove his age. His 29-year-old fiancee, Lorraine Thomas, was not allowed to buy it either on the grounds that she may have been purchasing alcohol for a minor
And although his 29-year-old fiancee, Lorraine Thomas, stepped in with her driving licence, the supermarket refused to budge on the grounds she might be buying alcohol for a minor.
The final insult came when Mr Wilde complained to another member of staff who agreed he looked old enough to purchase alcohol but insisted the original request for ID could not be overruled.
He ended up leaving the Bar Hill superstore in Cambridgeshire - which he has visited virtually every week for the past five years with no problems - with everything in his shopping trolley except for the wine.
'Other people in the queue behind us were also looking on in complete amazement,' said Mr Wilde, a sales manager from Fenstanton, near Huntingdon.
'When you're buying £140 worth of shopping, then you're hardly likely to be underage. It wasn't like we were trying to buy six cans of dodgy cider either. It was one bottle of rose wine.
'My other half reluctantly produced her identification but we were told that because we were together and I didn't have any ID, then we could not buy alcohol - even though I am 15 years over the legal age limit.
'I thought someone was winding me up. I spoke to a member of staff at the customer services who agreed that I didn't look under 25 but she said that there was no way she could overrule her colleague.'
He added: 'Things have got a bit ridiculous. What happens if someone goes shopping with their two-year-old child?
'Will they be refused service because they might be buying alcohol for them?'
The incident on May 17 is the latest example of shops overreacting to rules that state if they sell alcohol to minors three times in three months they face a £10,000 fine and a three-month suspension of their licence.
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