Re: Taking medicine out of country?

The 3 or 4 places that I have challenged about their minimum purchase
requirement have backed down.

Marsha

The same agreement that says they're not allowed to have minimum
purchase amounts when using their card, and which they routinely
ignore complaints about?

Bill

Per the merchant/CC agreement, the merchant is not to ask for ID if the
CC is signed.  There is no law, per se, against a merchant asking for
ID, but if you refuse to provide it, that cannot be used by the merchant
to refuse the sale.

Marsha

Hi Marsha,

As I said earlier there is no law in most, if not all states
forbidding the merchant from asking for the ID.  Different bank card
issuers can make their own "policies".

Best regards,
Ray
LIGHTHOUSE TRAVEL
800-719-9917 or 805-566-3905
http://www.lighthousetravel.com
--

Visa/Mastercard policy is that if the card is signed, the merchant is
not to ask for ID.  I can't speak for other cards.

Marsha

Hi Marsha,

Private companies have the right to request the ID.  You have the
right to refuse the request.  At that point it is up to the clerk if
they wish to accept your card.  It is ashame that there is so much
credit card fraud but I certainly understand merchants that wish to
protect themselves.

Best regards,
Ray
LIGHTHOUSE TRAVEL
800-719-9917 or 805-566-3905
http://www.lighthousetravel.com
--

My credit card was signed.  The back of every CC I've seen says invalid
if not signed.  That, to me, would give a company pause to ask for ID.
But since mine was signed, they have no right, especially if the card
has been run through their machine and approved.

Marsha

Was your card signed? If it isn't, I think they are allowed to
ask for id.

Bill

I believe it's illegal to ask for ID when you use a CC, if the charge
has already been approved.  I refused to show ID at Circuit City once
and they backed down, saying it was only for my protection.  As a
consumer, it's my responsibility to keep track of my CC, not the store.

Marsha

Yes, yes yes.  It's no different than when the sales clerk at
Lowe's asks me for an ID when I use the CC to charge a $3 bag of
screws.  I want to tell them that a gray haired guy like me isn't
going to use a stolen CC for something like that, but I understand
that they're just doing what they're told.  Mrs. Nonny is always
searched on her scooter at the airport, and we understand why.

 She was in the CYA category. Those chosen specifically to keep the
people who habitually yell "Profiling" from doing so.

Yeah, like my elderly mother, God rest her sole.  They pulled her aside
in the airport for a thorough wanding and search, expecting her to stand
on one foot while leaning against a post, without letting her sit down
or waiting for her cane to go through x-ray.  She doesn't even resemble
Osama or McVeigh.

Marsha

The government uses profiles?!?!  I am, simply stunned.

On 7/1/2009 9:12 PM  Rosalie B. while holding "Agent 99", exclaimed:

On my return from Jamaica to Newark, my carry on was searched. I had all
my Rx in their original bottles.  But I had some OTC stuff in a daily
pill caddy.  I was asked to accompany a guard into an office where I was
questioned by a Fed.  A scraping was taken from each of my OTC pills.  
The scrapings were tested. Only after the results came back negative was
I released. I was given an official apology with the explanation that
they were acting only to stem the tide of drugs entering the US
illegally. I thought about it as I walked towards ground
transportation.  I was returning from Jamaica, my hair was long, I had a
beard, I wore distressed jeans (faded jeans with strategic rips in
them), and a souvenir Bob Marley T-shirt without any Marijuana
illustrations on it. Guess I fit some sort of profile.  But saying this
does not imply that none of you might be randomly searched.

I've never been challenged and we usually have the medicines in a
weekly dispensing box.  I take copies of the prescriptions with me,
but no one has ever asked.

However - I also take a signed notarized statement from both of my
grandchild's parents that I have their permission to be taking their
child out of the country, and only once has anyone even asked about it
and that was when we were changing planes in Heathrow.

My mother was given a hard time when going through Checkpoint Charley
with my daughter in the 70s, but that was then.

I can see the logic of this advice, but I'm wondering if anyone
has ever actually been challenged.

My wife and I have traveled all over Europe and South America
as well as Canada and Mexico and never been challenged about
the contents of our medical kits.  We've always had unlabeled
bottles of vitamins and supplements with us.

Coming back to the U.S. we've seen drug sniffing dogs, but I
think they're trained to sniff for specific illegal drugs (we
don't use those!)  The dogs have never had a problem with our
bags.

Has anyone experienced a challenge, or is the requirement for
prescription documentation purely hypothetical?

    Alan

PeterL, you just lucked out, this is not good advice.

All medicine should be kept in original containers and this is true for
prescription or OTC meds/supplements.

sue

No need.  I put my pills in little zip lock plastic bag, each one with
a label.  No one ever checks.  I've been to Europe, Asia and Canada
with them.

We're going on a road trip to Canada next week.
We'll have the usual bunch of medicine that those of us  not young
anymore have.

Should we be sure to have all the bottles the medicine came in or will
the normal pill boxes work?

Thanks

Jack.