Just bought a 2m section of flexible tube for a gas stove, and the sales clerk asked first for my phone number, to which I replied “I don’t have one”. Then she asked me for my name, to which I replied “I’ll pay in cash”. She then insisted it was so “the cashier will call you by name”, to which I replied “I’m not giving you my name, I’ll pay in cash”. [Edit: she apparently got a bit upset when I refused to give info, but ended up entering “no name” according to the receipt]
Am I wrong for not wanting to give personal data for an item paid in cash, in person? No other hardware store ever asks me for my personal info.
My doctor’s office had a space on the form you fill out when you come in that said nickname. So just for fun I put in Your Royal Highness. I didn’t realize that was the name they called when they were ready for you to Go to the exam room. They had to repeat it twice before I noticed.
LoL. I wonder if they were amused or annoyed by that nickname
I would just play the witchy card, true names have power. Plus im onto that fey crap, you may not have my name, you can call me John. Now would you mind holding this iron horseshoe?
And no your not wrong, refusing to feed the infromation economy is the first steps to freeing yourself from it. It is effort, the modern world has too many traps, but you can do it.
My new use name is Wojtek, pronounced “Voy-tek”.
No, not wrong. But I usually give a silly name, like Glutomis Maximus! Yes, there is an exclamation point in the name.
I usually turn the tables on them by asking for their personal phone number.
Same with telemarketers, because I like to practice languages. Tell me about your insurance policy? What? Why aren’t you with your employer if they have the best deals?
No. This is the way.
It’s confrontational toeards a person who has no power in this interaction and will only prolong it.
They have a script they’re trying to follow so they get get you out of their line and on to the next one. The easiest way out of this is to just lie. It doesn’t have to be subtle. Any answer that fits the script works for them. Think of it more like madlibs than lying.
My phone number is 8765309. If they ask an area code, tell them it doesn’t matter, whichever is their favorite. If Ludacris’s got hoes there, the number goes there.
If they need a name, would you believe it? my name is Jenny. I may be a 6 foot tall Bear looking dude but my name is Jenny.
Yeah you can lie if that’s your thing, but that doesn’t address or fight the problem, it just passes it off to the next person. Just be honest and up front, it’s better.
It’s okay to be confrontational. Everybody knows it probably isn’t their fault. But they also got mad when op said, clearly, “no”, so that’s on them at that point.
Another thing to consider: maybe the cashier doesn’t know they work for a shitty company. Goons do the bidding of evil people: they may not be evil themselves initially, but they are still the ones doing the actual actions. At the register, designing the database, putting up the servers, serving the companies, processing the data, etc. Everybody’s got a hand in this.
Just say no, stop being passive and saying okay. Just say no.
I don’t think you will find someone on Lemmy who thinks you were in the wrong here. Unless you are buying something that is legally regulated and requires you to identify yourself there is no good reason to be demanding personal identifying information. I always just say “no thank you, I get enough junk mail and spam already” and try to keep it friendly. Every once in awhile they might insist and I tell them I am not going to do that and then they give up. I think most cashiers are at best ambivalent about their employer and don’t really care about enforcing company policy, as long as you are friendly and respectful they would really rather just drop the issue and move on with their job.
For those times I am Rufus Fuzzgrizzle (that’s 4 z’s ) from a random place and phone number … or 555- 5565 now gimme my crap.
It’s not your fault, but it’s also not the cashier’s fault.
Their boss signed up for some shitty customer management app under the guise that you can get online receipts or see high-value customers and sell to them.
Best you can do it no, sorry I don’t want to give out my information, If i’m going to be tracked, I’ll just buy it online.
I know Radio Shack would ask for your zipcode to see if their advertising spending was working.
That’s pretty benign.
You’re not weird or paranoid. They’re assholes. I have a catch-all email address for my mail domain, so I test clerks who ask on those rare occasions. “BestBuyCanSuckmyBalls@mydomainname.tld.”
It’s entertaining to see the look they get when they’re faced with typing it in or just taking my fucking cash.Mine is basically fuckme@gmail.com, usually gets a laugh.
Normally I just pay the cashier and get a receipt.
However, some stores I’ve gone to, lately they want a bit of customer information for their database if you’re a first-timer, ostensibly for potential offers and discount sales. You can just say no, or go find another store that doesn’t ask for more than your payment.
However, some stores I’ve gone to, lately they want a bit of customer information for their database if you’re a first-timer
Hair slons are the worst for that in my experience.
One place wouldn’t let me past the front counter unless I gave them my phone number and email.
I walked out and got my hair cut somewhere else.
I’ve seen hardware/electronics stores do this. It was to put on the bill/warranty paper.
No not wrong they ask for the information because places like that sell your information. RadioShack was notorious for this back when they were still in business.
I used to work for a major outdoors chain, and since so many cashiers would just skip past the phone number prompt to speed things up, corporate started tracking a cashier’s phone number capture rate, and if it fell below like 95% it counted against the cashier in their evaluations.
I just got good at making up random numbers using local area codes.
