Sunoco Refused to Sell Me Cigarettes

Sounds like this guy had a Barney Fife complex. Sorry he was so rude
to you.

In Brownsville, Texas, I tried to purchase cigs at a gas station
(cannot recall the name). He asked for ID, I gave him my driver's
licence (saskatchewan, canada) He said he couldn't accept it, he
coudln't sell them to anyone without a texas driver's licence. Fair
enough, I'm sure he's probably not seen a licence like mine before and
would be unsure if it's fraudelant (I do look quite young for my age,
I'm 27 and get id'd all the time for cigarettes). I tried to give him
my passport, but that wouldn't do either...
Not a big deal but I found it odd.

It would be difficult to know what an out of state license would look
like unless you live on the border of another state. Certainly
someone from NY would not be familiar with the appearance of an IL
license, thus identifying whether it is authentic or not would be
hard.

I can also understand that some gas stations have some VERY stringent
standards for carding their customers and will fire employees ON THE
SPOT if they are caught violating any portion of the rules.

However, there has to be some concessions made for out of state
licenses. To unequivocally say that you can't buy cigarettes or
alcohol if you aren't a resident of that state is crazy talk! I live
in OH and travel at least 1-2x/year to Florida to visit family and
have NEVER had a problem furnishing my OH DL for anything down there
(or maybe it's just that there's such an insane concentration of
migrant Ohioans down there that they automatically know our licenses
by sight!)

I'm glad the OP got what he needed, even if via an inconvenience of
going to another site - perhaps this is something that needs to be
addressed with the NY State Atty. Genl.'s office. I can't imagine the
state of NY would make a law (lose out on sin taxes???) like this and
that would call into question why Sunoco felt the need to be so
restrictive and punitive with it's customers.

It's most likely a policy with this particular franchise owner who may
have gotten hit with fines during the county's sting operations. I
see more and more retailers saying you must produce a valid NYS ID to
purchase tobacco or alcohol.

the fact that according to Beercuda's post below, the product appears
to have a negative impact on one's health.

You must consider that Florida is a very popular destination for
travel, so they must see a lot of out of state licenses due to
tourism, so they think nothing of them if your family lives in a
popular area or surrounding area.

In Marshall TX I was denied a 6 pack of wine coolers even though I had
a valid Florida ID with hologram and everything. My mom had to buy my
booze for me.

Why is it that anytime someone writes a letter regarding CUSTOMER
SERVICE in relation to purchasing tobacco products, there is always
some person (or persons) that have to post a reply to explain how bad
cigs are for your health? That is a totally different subject and has
absolutely nothing to do with the OP's complaint.

Are we here to discuss problems associated with salespeople, or is
this a forum where people sternly lecture others on how they should
live?

Stick to the topic.


To the OP: I wouldn't go around bitching about the sales clerk. I
think you should do exactly what you did in this case - take your
business elsewhere. We talk louder with our wallets.

The Nassau County District Attorney's Office conducts sting operations
of tobacco retailers to ensure that they are not selling tobacco to
minors. As part of this effort, they use local high school students
to go into stores and try to buy tobacco, some of them using phony
ID's such as out of state driver's licenses. It may well be that this
franchise owner got hit with a number of fines for accepting the phony
ID and made a decision to only accept NYS driver's licenses. I've
seen this posted at other retailers as well.

I look at it this way, the first clerk did you a favor.

I certainly understand your ire, as I am a former smoker myself. Also
I have faced exactly that same situation: I had an out-of-state
license and was refused cigarettes by a surly employee. (The refusal
of sales was warranted, the surly attitude was not). I also used to
work in the convenience store industry, so I know what it's like to
wear the name tag and take the abuse.
That being said, try to understand the clerk's point of view. Chances
are, the state conducts "stings" to bust convenience store employees
for conspiring to sell cigarettes to minors. I once got an $80 ticket
for selling cigarettes to a minor even though he had gray hair and the
store was incredibly busy. The state doesn't care, and doesn't conduct
stings to bust the underage smokers. (Too many important people's kids
smoke, it seems.)
Therefore, the clerks are probably going to err on the side of
caution and refuse the sale. It's a hassle to have to go to another
store, but it has to be done in some cases.
If the clerk had a bad attitude, then you certainly have a basis to
complain to the corporate offices. That will get you the best result
(they fire people as a matter of sport).
Cheer up. By the way, I quit smoking with those nicotine patches! Try
it!

Out-of-state licenses often are used to help underage people buy
alcohol -- in college, I always used one from a girl who lived in
Illinois. Handing an unfamiliar license to a bouncer increased the
chances that they wouldn't know that we used lightly-green-tinted
white-out to change an 8 to a 3, for example.

I say buy them at the next gas station.

Life is too short to get upset about a pack of cigarettes.

You know, truth of the matter is, even if you had a passport or a NY
DL Sunoco was still not obligated to sell you cigarettes. If this
particular clerk feels like being a jerk, there is no law requiring
him to sell you anything. Ridiculous as it sounds, he is not required
to even sell you a newspaper. Forwarding a complaint to Nassau County
Consumer Affairs will most likely get you nowhere. As an aside, many
conveniece stores, bars, and supermarkets have a book that shows and
describes every state's ID's and DL's If this store has no such book
they will have no way of knowing whether your IL DL is valid, its
nothing against you, there are alot of dishonest people out there