Dear salespeople
If you are serving a person who talks and walks a bit differently from most people, when sie hands over hir credit card to pay, the correct response is your usual one, ie “signature or PIN”. This is a standard presentation of options and, I’ve noticed, is usually said rather than asked.
It is not correct to ask: “are you able to sign?” Especially when it is said in a patronising tone (with implicit “dear” at the end).
It’s even more obvious that you’re being a douche when you go back to the usual presentation of options with the next person, whom you apparently judge to have no difficulties with working a pen.
The standard presentation of options works just as well for people who do have difficulties working a pen (or, more to the point, people who you might think have difficulties working a pen, based on your minutes-long acquaintance with them, all of which was spent discussing a pair of shoes). Give them some credit to be able to choose the appropriate option for them.
Most utterly sincerely,
Jo Tamar
Wallaby 
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