Okay the title is a bit exaggerated, but honestly not far off. This post is very mundane and a bit long, but thought it fits the community.
I’m visiting my home country and went shopping for pants, there were “30% off everything!” signs with a tiny text underneath that said “member discount” (don’t have membership). Not a problem, did not notice and I don’t care for such marketing tricks to get you into the store but okay.
Picked up couple of pants, went to the cashier and they asked me “do you have our membership?” - I answered no and expected the follow up question whether I’d like to join, but, to my positive surprise the cashier just happily responded “okay, not a problem!” and continued to bag my stuff.
I stood ready to pay and then the cashier said “now I just need your phone number and you can pay”. Hold up. What. I did not expect that, I honestly had a burst of anger inside me (never gonna take it on a cashier, they are just doing their job). I asked nicely why do I need to give my phone number and I was told that to register me as a member so I can get the discount.
I declined and said I don’t want to join and would like to just pay.
The entire interaction after questioning why they need my phone number was awkward, as if I had been the first person to decline, the weirdo, aluminum foil hat wearing hermit.
This was just one of many interactions in the recent years that make me feel as if I was a weirdo for not sharing all my info around. The worst is when everyone keeps telling me “its just an app, just download it and use that why do you make things complicated” or “just sign up you don’t need to pay anything”.
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Stores will never respect your privacy or data, so you have no obligation to respect a corporation’s expectation of truth.
Just have memorized fake data ready for bullshit like this, say it when asked. Then the retail person who cares even less than you about it (but is forced to pretend they do, in order to survive) can get to their break faster. Win win
Very good point, it seems to be the most popular advice in this thread and will try this next time!
Yeah in Australia I just use my home phone landline number converted to a mobile number, first 2 numbers are state code so like 02 1234 5678, mobile numbers are the same but 04 at the start. No idea if it is someone else’s number but I haven’t clashed yet.
I use 0400 000 000. I’ve had a couple of looks, but just smile and nod. I also have a spam that’s called <name>'sSpam@hotmail.com. I should make a spam account without my name though. I never log in. It might be dead by now.
Give fake information every time. Waste the cashiers time with questions. Make them pay for it.
Yeah, that’ll teach a lesson the minimum wage employee who didn’t make the rules.
It doesn’t waste their time. They are getting paid by the hour. As long as you are friendly it doesn’t hurt anyone to give a wrong phone number to get a discount.
I am absolutely not advocating rudeness to the cashier.
Give them the opportunity for malicious compliance.
Allow them to answer every question and have a pleasant break from the monotony, knowing full well that they are being cheerful and helpful just like the training videos and handbook demand they be.
I am absolutely not advocating rudeness to the cashier.
IMO, lying to somebody, specifically with malicious intent (as opposed to a white lie to avoid hurting somebody) is rudeness. Just because they might not catch onto it doesn’t change anything; you’re being a bad actor in this scenario, and taking out your frustration on somebody who had nothing to do with your ire.
Except the person you just signed up for unwanted spam texts.
(Area code) 867 5309
It already has an account, and nobody who gets that number keeps it for long, it may not even be assigned anymore because of how much spam it probably receives.
Ah, I was wondering where all the Karens went.
Cool assumption bro. Hope that works out for you.
I am never rude to the poor people that have to work retail. I know the pain; I have been on the other side of the counter.What I’m talking about is malicious compliance.
They tell the cashiers to push the program and be helpful? Fine. I will let that cashier be the most helpful employee ever and at the same time gum up the company data collection system with fake information.
At the same time as more punshment to the company they will see reduced sales and throughput requiring additional cashiers (more hours/pay for those people).
But please bring on the fake internet point brigade.
Why you assume your have to be rude? They are all underpaid by the hour…you think the cashier gives a damn about answering dumb questions when they themselves ask for personal info that IS NOT REQUIRED.
Waste their time…cashiers don’t give a shit
I didn’t say to be rude to the cashier. They make hourly wage, doesn’t matter how many people they check out.
Make the company pay. Cause less product to be sold per hour. Cause more cashiers to be required. Make it more expensive to have the data collection program than to not have it. Be the change you want to see in the world.
Or just let them get away with it. Your call.
I was looking at ISPs yesterday as my current contract ran out so they’re taking the opportunity to wring me for all my money. One place I looked at has a regular price and “members price” for every plan. I go to see what a membership entails and it points me to download an app. No clue if the membership is free or not because I don’t want or need an app for every utility and purchase I make. People like you and I are not the norm but from my viewpoint you’re being reasonable and the world has lost all sense of normalcy and reason.
That is just it. An app for everything, when it could just be a website you login to if you absolutely must have an account for something.
I’m glad I’m getting some peer support here and glad to hear similar stories.
Caring for your Privacy and the general privacy of society in the aggregate, given the increasing data mining, collecting, advertising and other trends is the normal mindset.
Getting propagandised and brainwashed into thinking that paying, with your own money for literal microphoned devices operated by for-profit-focused Corps that will listen in and record you so as to give you lazy weather updates or help you play a song, or purchase knick-knacks online in exchanhe is the crazy take.
Getting you to feel ackward is the point of peer-pressure and their Marketing. Just ignore it. You are not in the wrong.
Here it’s similar. I’ve found out that if to the question
do you have our membership?
I respond “No, thank you”, they often understand correctly and don’t assume I want to set one up
Now I know! I was positively surprised when they didn’t ask the follow-up question, but I see now they have been trained to not ask it at all.
To be fair to the cashier, they were just trying to do something nice for you and getting you a free discount. I doubt that any “training” was involved, they probably didn’t think that anyone would refuse to give a phone number for a discount.
Most people wouldn’t care, but I used to get so any spam calls that it wasn’t worth the risk anymore.
You made me question myself now, was I being unreasonable?
Didn’t even think that the clerk might have been just trying to help me out, I felt like this was a smart sales & marketing psychological trick to give up and go the way of least resistance to get me to sign up (obviously not by the clerk directly, but as part of their training on how to deal with customers).
But either way, thankfully I was polite and nice about it. I might have become too cynical about everything regarding my private info in the last few years.
No you weren’t being unreasonable. They absolutely weren’t trying to help you out of the kindness of their heart, they were trying to seamlessly get your info by just keeping the conversation moving, and not asking if you -want- to sign up, to which yes or no are the only answers. When they ask for your number it’s weird to answer as though they asked a yes or no question, and that’s intentional.
I’ve worked retail, I was trained on canvassing sales (just trained, I quit before I started because it was super shady tactics I wasn’t comfortable with), that tactic is 100% intentional to get the info without you thinking about it. Some places even give bonuses if the employees sign up a certain number of people. Nothing altruistic about any of it.
When you don’t follow their script they get confused… because it’s a script. Not because they think you are mad; they don’t care about you as long as you don’t yell at them. You are just nameless face #545 of the day.
Whenever someone asks for my number or email I smile and tell them “oh, I don’t have an account with you, and I really don’t want one, but thank you all the same.” It’s direct and maybe a bit rude to some people, but they typically apply whatever discount anyway, and if they don’t, meh.
If they ask for zip code or address, I tell them they don’t need it, and with those I will get rude if I get pushback. This includes when I call for product support or something and just have a question. “No, you don’t need to know anything about me to answer my questions, and I won’t be providing it unless I feel you need it, regardless what you think or what your system says.”
Thanks for the input! This kinda answered a question that popped into my mind: do the employees get bonuses for registrations.
And exactly, it felt too intentional to leave out the question, didn’t feel “natural” the way the phone number topic came up.
I know we are constantly being harvested for every little bit of data online, but it creeps me out when I encounter information “harvesting” by just talking to a store clerk.
Maybe just an awkward sales agent, or they thought you were mad at them for in their mind trying to help. I decline phone number and zip code all the time. Also been using someone else’s phone number at grocery stores for years – started by mistake. I don’t care about accumulated points or whatever but discounts at grocery store are pretty significant for me.
But I understand your frustration in general. Keep up the good fight :)
I can relate, and agree that maybe the cashier found it just as awkward. Tried to be as nice as possible because I know its a tough job!
Thank you and you too, fellow privacy enjoyer!
Yeah, I think this was just a hard sell, and it works. My friend and I were apartment shopping and had already checked out a few places. Then we arrived to look at another complex and after meeting with them, we said we’d let them know if we’d like to move forward. They were very friendly, but pushy, saying “no, you don’t have to do that”, “you’re moving in here!”, that kind of stuff. Being naive and lazy, we just said okay and took the path of least resistance. Oh well, gotta live somewhere!
What’s frustrating is that they’re not real discounts. The Club Price is the regular price, and you have to agree to tracking in order to not pay above retail.
Any time a store asks for a phone number, I use the local area code followed by 867-5309, and 9/10 times it works
How is Jenny and does Tommy know?
Best not to overthink it - The sales clerk is trained to ask for this stuff.
Luckily most times I encounter this I just tell them no I don’t have a phone number with them & continue checkout like normal. Sometimes that means not getting a sale price on something but usually I avoid those type of member-specific sales anyway.
And worst case - Just make something up. At Best Buy a sales rep absolutely refused to sell me something from the mobile dept without my info. Which didn’t make sense because earlier I had bought something at that same Best Buy with a different rep & that rep took my order without my info no problem (she said she had to enter a phone number but just entered Best Buy’s).
Yet this particular sales rep refused to proceed without info, so yeah he got an entire fictional name/address/phone/email on the spot.
Yeah at no point was I mad at the clerk and didn’t show it at all that I was boiling inside, because its just their job and they have no say in it.
Haven’t tried to say I don’t have a number or come up with a fake number, but read this in the thread earlier and will probably give it a try next time!
Nah, you’re not abnormal. I’ve had the same thing happen at multiple store. The most invasive has been Microcenter; they tell me that I have to give them my email in order to wait in line for tech support, and then bombard me with spam. Every time I buy something new there, I have to tell the cashier to NOT use the address on file that they won’t unlink from my bank card.
Microcenter hasn’t been nearly the worst of it for me, but I can confirm the spam side of it. I had to give them my email for some part warranties. However the actual emails in my case was just a single click to unsubscribe or change the preferences (It’s been a while, don’t remember which) and it was done just like that. It’s still a little infuriating that I have to give them my email though, let alone the spam that comes along side it.
Yeah, but every time I have to buy something new, they automatically sign me up again. They never give me an opt-out.
From a privacy point of view, it makes pefect sense to not share your phone number with a merchant. The only buisness you have with them is a single transaction, they don’t need any more information about you other than knowing that you paid.
Agreed. It used be worse here - at some point merchants wanted your social security number to create a unique customer identifier.
I will not describe how angry I felt hearing a shoe store clerk ask for my social security number (again, did not lash out at the clerk), but I was angry.
That thankfully did not last long (iirc).
Duh fuq.
I wonder how many people would give their social that easily.
Sadly enough that several stores in this country started doing the same until enough privacy aware people noticed and made a fuss about it.
It’s been more than 20y since the first time I remember sternly declining to give either a phone number or postal code to a cashier in a retail shop. It pissed me off then and still pissed me off now.
I think your misinterpreting your own social anxieties as being made to feel like an “outcast”.
The fact of the matter is it’s just not normal to question why a store wants your phone number and I’m sure the cashier was taken aback by the whole situation.
Convenience, not privacy, is the norm. There is going to be tons and tons of awkward social interactions when you go against social norms. Accept it and be proud your advocating for your privacy.
Yeah the title is a bit of an exaggeration of my feelings and as you mentioned, I was a bit anxious too since I have been abroad for quite a long time (and encountered something I did not expect in what I thought was an environment that could not surprise me).
Agreed, it could very well be that I was the first customer to question since the cashier started working there.
Thanks for the uplifting comment!
A long time ago they wanted a phone number for me to get a hair cut. She looked at me like I was crazy when I said no.
That woman needs to get psychiatric treatment lol
“But then how am I going to harass you endlessly for years to come?”
I realized a few years ago that my GF inadvertently solved this issue for me: She likes registering for anything that provides a discount, so I use her phone number.
“Are you a member?”
“Nope, but my GF probably is…”, and 90% of the time I am correct.When I was younger and lived at home we had “family accounts”. When I went to a store I picked up the “family card” and used that. So similar experience!
My wife is the same way. She doesn’t care so I just use her phone number for everything. But then she wonders why she gets more spam calls than me…
Be as rude, as harmful and as immoral to them as legally possible. These advertising system workers don’t deserve anything good.
Not to retail workers. The vast majority of them are underpaid and overworked. Between the stressful nature of a job like that and the various stresses that tend to come along with being an adult working for anywhere near minimum wage they probably don’t have the mental bandwidth to care about anything beyond their ability to get by. You’re not going to change anything by being a dick to someone like that.
Now if you happen to run into a developer or similarly paid person for a company like Meta or Google, absolutely be a dick to them. They’ve chosen to work for evil and have the means to choose otherwise. Acute social pressure could actually make them care and choose something else.
/s, right?
No.
Not exactly setting the good example.
Be excellent, but that does not mean you need to spend your attention to them. Let that kind of advertising system quietly die.
Well your opinion on this is valid too. Mine is unpopular so I expected disagreements.
No point asking them to justify why they have to ask, they probably don’t even know. Just say “Sorry, I don’t give that out”. I’ve never had a store push back after that - they probably get it all the time.
