M'sieur, ceci, c'est pas votre signature...

[michiexile]

... the clerk looked half annoyed, half apologetic at me, and demanded to see some ID. I had stepped out of my hotel room to get some late hour snacks, and wanted to pay with my Visa card. Their 15 Euro minimal purchase for cards was alleviated by my buying some of my favorite liquor, and a few pieces I had been thinking about buying but first avoided...

I got up to over 15 Euro, handed my card over, it got swiped, I signed. Now, my normal signature is about 3-4 centimeters high, flourishing and bouncy. However, on the visa card, the signature strip is not even 1 centimeter, so I had to somehow squeeze it in to that space.

And the clerk got suspicious upon seeing the subdued signature on the card, and the flourished on the receipt.

I should be really happy that they're paying attention, but somehow it mainly rattled me. Especially since I couldn't really muster the french to explain the subtle differences in different signature areas...

Comments

[thette.livejournal.com]

If you ever travel to an Arabic speaking country, this can really bite you in the ass. The signature needs to match perfectly.

[complexzeta.livejournal.com]

You should tell the clerk that signature detection is made much more effective by taking Fourier transforms.