When "No Thank You" dosen't work...what next?

[Marga]

Recently deceased comedian, John Pinette, does a very funny bit about being asked for info when making a purchase.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_KRtj351kE

This had me laughing out loud!

[Teacup]

I work in one of these jobs that requires us to ask for all of your personal info.  I'm glad so many people realize it's a requirement.   

They do track our results weekly, daily, and even hourly.  If we don't meet our goals we get the pleasure of being on a before work early Friday morning conference call and, if that doesn't help, we get the pleasure of being written up.  They can even track false information by store and employee number, so we can't just enter no.thanks@fake.com and get credit (it's suprising how seriously they track the fake info gathering). 

Having said that, it's possible to be meet the goals and still be polite.  Saying "no thanks" or even "no" (in a pleasant tone) should be enough. Should this not be enough, you have every right to take your business elsewhere. 

You were polite, she was doing her job, and many wise members have correctly identified the correct people towards which to direct your ire, corporate.

[CrazyDaffodilLady]

Teacup, Would you prefer that people don't give fake information?  I have a fake phone number and email address that I give if it's easier than arguing about the matter.  Several places identify me by phone number, and it's sometimes helpful to me for them to have a record of my past purchases, but I DO NOT want them calling me. 

[Aquamarine]

I work in one of these jobs that requires us to ask for all of your personal info.  I'm glad so many people realize it's a requirement.   

They do track our results weekly, daily, and even hourly.  If we don't meet our goals we get the pleasure of being on a before work early Friday morning conference call and, if that doesn't help, we get the pleasure of being written up.  They can even track false information by store and employee number, so we can't just enter no.thanks@fake.com and get credit (it's suprising how seriously they track the fake info gathering). 

Having said that, it's possible to be meet the goals and still be polite.  Saying "no thanks" or even "no" (in a pleasant tone) should be enough. Should this not be enough, you have every right to take your business elsewhere. 

You were polite, she was doing her job, and many wise members have correctly identified the correct people towards which to direct your ire, corporate.

Yet management continues to wring their hands and wonder why everyone seems to be using Amazon.  Just saying.  It's just soooo much less hassle.

[Elfmama]

Teacup, Would you prefer that people don't give fake information?  I have a fake phone number and email address that I give if it's easier than arguing about the matter.  Several places identify me by phone number, and it's sometimes helpful to me for them to have a record of my past purchases, but I DO NOT want them calling me.

Unless you know that the fake number you are giving out is a  null number, or maybe someone's fax line, please don't give out a fake number.  You're just shifting those annoying phone calls to someone else.

[CrazyDaffodilLady]

The phone number I give has the local area code but a prefix from a nearby city.  The number doesn't actually exist and never will.  When forced to give an email address, I use a made-up name and domain like daffgrrl@pinkhotel.net.

I don't understand why an employee would be blamed for customers giving fake information.  If it's a big problem, management ought to figure out that customers do it because they don't want to give their real information.

[Fer]

[q]When forced to give an email address, I use a made-up name and domain[/q]
Just like with phone numbers, please make sure the domain isn't in use. 

I have a personal domain set up for my blog and email.  I have a specific email address, but anything sent to [mydomain] hits my inbox, whether it's addressed to [me@mydomain] or not.  In addition to the usual spambot stuff, periodically I get a flood of spam sent to [madeupname@mydomain], where someone has clearly used it as a fake address.  It can get frustrating trawling through the emails to clear them, block them, and find actual personal correspondance addressed to me!

[Isisnin]

Teacup, Would you prefer that people don't give fake information?  I have a fake phone number and email address that I give if it's easier than arguing about the matter.  Several places identify me by phone number, and it's sometimes helpful to me for them to have a record of my past purchases, but I DO NOT want them calling me.

I can't speak for Teacup or her store, but where I work as a cashier, when customers don't give their info some employees will enter fake info to meet the quota they are assigned. 

E.g.   a neighbor works as a cashier for the same chain store, but in a different town.  Neighbor told me a story about an employee at that store who was constantly praised and awarded for meeting and surpassing the quota. Management kept saying to all the other employees  "if "great employee" can do it - you can too!".  Well, neighbor worked next to "great employee" and constantly saw "great employee" entering false information to meet and exceed quota.  E.g. customer would give name and phone number but wouldn't give email address, so "great employee" would enter a made up email like "noemailagain@email.com".  So "great employee" got credit for signing up a new member.  Eventually, "great employee" was caught and fired.

I won't enter fake information, but I get a lot of customers who WILL NOT give their emails address.  I suggest that they sign up for a shopping email address with one of the free email providers.  Then they don't have to ever actually have to go into that email address again if they don't want to, but they can give it out to the stores so they can get the discounts.   Everyone loves that idea and a couple customers came back to me to sign up with their new shopping email addresses.

But I really hate this whole member thing and getting credit apps.  I recently had a customer say that he was rejected last year and should he apply again.  Well, the store would've wanted me to say yes and get the credit app from him.  I told him it was too soon to apply again.  Fortunately, management wasn't' around to hear that conversation.

[rose red]

I don't give any information to stores anymore. I had the same email address for over 5 years without one spam. After I gave it to a certain store, I started getting them. I don't believe it's the store sending them, but perhaps it's some security hole in their system that gave scammers access to the customer file. Yes, I know everybody gets spam, but perhaps I would still be one of the lucky few who doesn't if I hadn't given that store my email.

So I'll be polite to cashiers because it's not their fault, but my answer will always be a big fat NO. I refuse to even make up fake information.

[Teacup]

I personally would rather customers just say no thank you, but I can't speak for everyone.  If it is easier for you to give out fake info, go ahead.  Cashiers usually know not to enter egregiously fake information and can usually take the hint when you give it out.  I don't feel like it's inherently rude to give out fake info and I don't know all the legality of it, but I myself prefer a "no thank you." Keep in mind, I have to respond with something like "Okay, just so you know, that's how we send you coupons and special offers.  Let us know if you ever change your mind."

The fake info tracking catches the obvious stuff, i.e. 555 prefix phone numbers, names without vowels (yes I know those do actually exist), fake cities, addresses like '123 Random Back Alley', using celebrity names repeatedly, using your own information repeatedly to get credit, just to name a few.  A few of those could be attributed to typing errors, so they usually only approach someone if they have many, many flagged entries.  Although, last year at least three associates in the district got caught entering false info, so the pressure to meet the goal is definitely there.

In the long run, that's their problem to deal with, not yours as the customer.  In all honesty though, on days when most of my customers have been mean about refusing to give information I have been known to find an extra coupon for the first customer that says 'no' politely and with a smile.  I goes a long way to make my day better, so I want to pay it back.

[ladyknight1]

I don't mind giving my zip code and do provide an email address for a few stores that I already get email from.

[JenJay]

I have a yahoo email account that I use to sign up for deals, both in store and online. It does get a ton of spam but it's all filtered to the spam folder. Legit emails re points, coupons, etc. make it into the inbox.

[miranova]

There are a few stores that I actually like getting coupons from.  When I shop at those stores and they ask for my email address I am able to truthfully say "oh you already have it, I get your emails all the time".  This seems to work.

Anyone else I just say "I don't give that out" with a smile.  It sounds more final than "no thank you" to me and I don't get a lot of pushback from it.

[CrazyDaffodilLady]

Yesterday the cashier at Michael's asked for my email address, but was pleasant when I refused.

Today I saw the news that Michael's has been hacked.
http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/michaels-hacked-as-many-as-26-million-cards-affected/25545876

According to the story, Michael's has been aware of the problem for over three months.

[jedikaiti]

Yep - and much to my annoyance, I had to find out from the news today, instead of any kind of contact from them. Never mind that they've got at least one of my email addresses! And yes, I checked my spam folders.