From a recent post https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/381989 I bought a bissel spot clean online at Harvey Norman. I selected to collect from nearest store. I received an email saying the order was ready to collect with these instructions:
"When picking up your order please remember to bring:
Order number
A current, valid photo ID issued by AUS government
The credit card used for this purchase (doesn't apply for PayPal or Interest Free)"
My girlfriend works close to the store so I gave her the order # and my licence. The store carried on and refused to give over the cleaner. I talked to them in real time, they said forward the email to my partner's phone so they can see this. 30mins later my partner got the cleaner.
I phoned Harvey Norman's office, explained what had happened, and was told "it is the store's discression as to whether they give the order over or not". I said it shouldn't be up to stores discretion; that there should just be one policy and stick to it. I also explained that we followed the instructions in the email and that it should have been that simple.
Anyway, this is just a heads up and a whinge.
When a place requires ID, they would assume that the ID is of the person who's present at the time.
For example, you can't take someone else's ID and credit card to a phone store and expect to be able to sign up to an phone contract under the name on the ID.
Let's look at it on the flip side - someone steals your ID from your mailbox and collects your item. When you show up and they tell you that someone with your ID has already collected your purchase, what's your reaction going to be? You'd probably call up head office and complain that the staff in the store didn't bother checking to see that the ID matched the person.
Staff need to take reasonable measures to ensure that it's a legitimate collection because they're at risk for the loss if anything goes wrong.