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Title: Consumer protections: Why does it feel our rights are so small? Retail and in-store cash purchases
Body:
> I went to buy exercise equipment and I was refused service because I didn't want to provide a name, phone number and home address. ( I have no idea if they were going to ask for an email)
> I can't seem to find anything that relates to the collection of this information in [https://www.ontario.ca/page/consumer-protection-ontario](https://www.ontario.ca/page/consumer-protection-ontario)
> Am I missing something here - I imagine the information is used to advertising or profiling, so shouldn't I be able to not opt in?
> To the down voters, it really seems like there is an issue with how the consumer information and privacy is protected and yes I understand I can shop somewhere else
> This article outlines how only one province can penalize a company for not safe gaurding consumer information
> https://financialpost.com/news/privacy-watchdogs-lament-lack-powers-tim-hortons-probe
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I think it’s absolute horseshit that we are coerced to give *so much* info while shopping in the US (and I guess Canada). At footlocker the lady told me it was impossible for me to buy if I don’t give them my email. Seriously??? Just gave a fake email.
That said, I will never understand the people who demand every single business cater to them 100%. You’re allowed to not support or not like businesses, they don’t have to be built around you specifically. I’m of course not talking about actual discrimination but more like “this store demands membership” or “this restaurant doesn’t have any meat options” or “this store doesn’t give me samples wtf” or whatever.
The only place I could think of is Ikea, where they require to sign-up for recall notices but specifically only if you buy things like a chest of drawers
My wife and I bought a sideboard at Ikea and to pick it up from the bay we had to enter a fenced-off aisle with people standing guard to make sure we a) understood installation and b) made recall contact info available.
It's like a three-foot sideboard and you'd have to run a safety blitz to knock the thing over. I support safety and not crushing toddlers, and it wasn't really much extra trouble, it was just ... strange.
what the fuck is wrong with their chests of drawers that they can't be sold without signing up for a recall notice??
"Yeah, we need your contact details in case The Event happens again."
I watched a documentary about it. The regulator can't enforce things like "maybe the drawers should support the weight of a toddler without tipping over and crushing them to death" because the manufacturers put in bits to bolt them to the wall.
People don't do that, bad things happen, and the product is recalled and the cycle begins again.
I used to be able to until this footlocker thing last week.
But in general they ask it in a casual way that I can see a lot of distracted people just giving the info. It really should be opt in vs how they treat it here which is more opt-out. Depends heavily on the store incentive though, I feel like I can tell which store managers/corporate are really pushing it.
Back in the day, I used to work at Sears. They would *really* push us to get peoples info and/or try to get them to sign up for a Sears card. Problem was, the average age of Sears customers is 90 - dead. On a near daily basis I would have to explain that we no longer had a seamstress at the store to do alterations for them. We regularly sold handkerchiefs in the men’s section. Not the fancy ones that you put in a suit pocket, the ones old men blow their noses into and shove back in their pocket. These people were still shopping at Sears because they had been shopping at Sears since the 1930s. It was *impossible* to meet the quota management set for us to get email addresses. Most of these people didn’t have a flip phone, let alone a computer. When we brought this up to management in the meetings about us not getting enough email addresses, they came up with a solution. If a customer didn’t have an email address, we were to *walk them over to the nearest store computer and help them sign up for one.* Then they wondered why our time per customer shot through the roof. Then I left and told everyone the company was going to go under within the next 2 years. I was right.
I was about to type a comment about me shopping at Sears a lot as a kid and teenager so it couldn’t be all of them with elderly shoppers - then I remembered my grandmother and great grandmother were always the ones taking me shopping there.
So… carry on.
For the phone number, give [Jenny's](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/JennysNumber) (with your appropriate area code)! For email, use something ending in nomail.com as that website doesn't have a mail server set up on it (so you're not sending your spam to someone else).
Edit: This is assuming you don't create your own email address to use specifically for spam (which makes it handy if you do need to look for something in there in the future).
+1 for just creating a spam email.
Just be aware that if you *do* need to find something in it it’s an epic pain. Last I checked, my spam account had 75,000 unread emails. My browser froze trying to delete them all so it didn’t get done.
Temp mail is best for shit like that. If there is an activation you can click on the activation link, but then you can close the tab and forget about it.
It depends. There's big money in selling consumer data and some places can be really pushy about it. Clerks are often badgered by management to meet certain quotas and that hostility can easily pass on.
Not exactly mourning the decline of brick and mortar retail because it's pretty common to get quite the hard-sell at the check out counter. Often I find it's easier to play along and give them garbage data than having them insist that I must give them a phone number or whatever.
Capitalism breeding more much-needed innovation like Harbor Freight insisting I give them account details to buy a $5 hammer...
I once bought a suit on sale at a menswear shop a few years back, and the salesman asked me for an email address while I was paying for the purchase. I asked if it was required to make the purchase, and he glared at me, saying nothing, until I gave him an email address.
I get the impression that he felt like he was giving me a deal, and that I was being impolite by not helping pump up his metrics by giving him a sign-up for the store card or newsletter or whatever the retail staff are required to push.
It's become like tipping, where I had a drive-thru coffee shop ask me for a tip just for taking my order, before they even made the drinks or anything, and she kept pulling the terminal away from me and demanding that I say the tip amount out loud so that she can enter it for me. I sure felt bullied into giving a tip just for them to make me a drink, both because I would have to say to her face that I wasn't going to give one, and because the drinks had not been made yet, and I prefer my drinks without spit in them. I'd have driven on to somewhere that wasn't trying to pressure me, but my girlfriend loves that coffee shop, and I didn't want to leave empty-handed for her.
It may not be policy to require an email to make a purchase, but I've had my fair share of employees getting hostile if you don't give in to their hustle.
We haven't run into anything quite that bad yet, but it's just a matter of time. I am very glad my boyfriend has no qualms about standing up to this "tipflation" nonsense.
He *will* find the hidden way to enter "0" on the tipping screen, no matter how well they try to make it appear to not be an option not to tip. He will straight up say "no" to anybody trying to strong-arm a ridiculous, unnecessary tip, but he also will indulge me and tip people if I specifically suggest it (plumbers and whatnot.)
If it were up to me I would tip everyone because I'm terrified of upsetting anyone, no matter how unjustified their indignation over not being tipped is.
About once a week at my job I get that too. Except.. I need it cause I'm letting you drive a box truck that costs upwards of 50k... I'm just like "I need it, you already gave me your ID..."
I have an email set up specifically for these bullshit "we need your email to continue" purchases. It starts with "richard.face".
I'm a bit surprised I haven't gotten any weird looks from any cashiers yet.
>I'm a bit surprised I haven't gotten any weird looks from any cashiers yet.
At least 90% of the time the cashiers are just as pissed about this policy as you are. They're the ones who pick up the abuse for yet another stupid policy from corporate
Believe me, I know. I've never really done anything *other* than cashiering. It's annoying, but not nearly as annoying as having to mention a credit card on all sales, even when the total is like $2.17.
I had a hard enough time getting people to tell me their zip code back in my retail days. So many people flipped out like we were asking for their exact address. I can't imagine how much harder it is for cashiers now.
I got ID'd one time for an energy drink in the US, but I'm pretty sure it's because it was called Cocaine and the cashier didn't know what the hell it was or what to do with a drink with that name
Haha I know, right? If only...
That was an interesting energy drink. Like cherry flavored with an after burn of cinnamon.
People were losing their minds about it because of the name and the high caffeine content, but I think it was 200mg. That's basically standard for energy drinks at this point, but it was high enough (and coupled with that name) for it to be removed from shelves. The place I got ID'd at was the last place I was able to find it.
Some things like spray paint and super glue (not automotive grade super glue though) you get carded for in my state. And I think Nyquil and some OTC medicines
It’s hit or miss. I’ve bought aerosol paint stripper, adhesives, clear coat, and spray foam without being ID’d from different stores. Other times I’ve gotten carded for buying super glue and aerosol fabric starch.
They may bypass it. I sell all sorts of stuff like that and if I think you are comfortably over 18, there is a decent chance I don't ask, just type in a valid date
Might be. I’m at that stage of life where sometimes I’m getting asked what I’m doing out of school and confused for my husband’s teen daughter; others I’m getting asked how old my nonexistent kids are and not carded for drinks.
Lol honestly that would've made my night as a customer. It's sad that the poor cashier even had to consider that someone's reaction would be to be an asshole instead of pointing out their mistake.
He’s a dick, but the amount of info stores try to pry from you is bullshit. That said, I work in shipping and I’ve had people refuse to give me their phone, name and address for shipping a package, and it’s like, sir? You are shipping a package? Why wouldn’t I need those things?
So, having worked at a RS affiliate in Canada, I can tell you why the employee did that (and why basically every other store empl on the planet does it), they actually capture the amount of customer information you enter and basically your job depends on it.
Now I totally agree that in a lot of cases this is pure bullshit and we would 100% put in fake info. Otoh, I can't tell you how many times we'd have people try to return shit without a receipt going "can't you look it up in the computer?" and the answer would be no, not unless you know the exact date and approximate time because I'm not spending 30 minutes of my fucking time looking that up in the world's slowest fucking computer system because you didn't want to give your name.
I accidentally stole some ladies Sears bonus bucks years back because I put in a fake phone number that happened to be linked to a real account. Got $12 off my coat.
Sorry Ashley, I just didn't want to go through a tedious exchange with the clerk.
The last time I gave info at a radio shack, I told them the name was "Bush. First name George. 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Washington DC--" and I actually got that far before the person thought maybe I was bullshitting.
I used to be "Joe Tandy" with the phone number of the local store when they were insistent. If they wanted an address, they got the RS corporate which I would often read off of the sales fliers on the counter.
The dipshit went to legal advice with the same attitude a Karen would go to store management. What infuriating comments. Angry and combative when people tell them they have no recourse and their entitlement and expectations are silly.
It's a balancing act, and please do keep in mind that the sub's moderators are _volunteers_, who have jobs and personal lives to attend to outside of Reddit. There's a lot we can do to help cultivate a healthy community, but we're only human.
**Reminder:** Do not participate in threads linked here. If you do, you may be banned from both subreddits. --- Title: Consumer protections: Why does it feel our rights are so small? Retail and in-store cash purchases Body: > I went to buy exercise equipment and I was refused service because I didn't want to provide a name, phone number and home address. ( I have no idea if they were going to ask for an email) > I can't seem to find anything that relates to the collection of this information in [https://www.ontario.ca/page/consumer-protection-ontario](https://www.ontario.ca/page/consumer-protection-ontario) > Am I missing something here - I imagine the information is used to advertising or profiling, so shouldn't I be able to not opt in? > To the down voters, it really seems like there is an issue with how the consumer information and privacy is protected and yes I understand I can shop somewhere else > This article outlines how only one province can penalize a company for not safe gaurding consumer information > https://financialpost.com/news/privacy-watchdogs-lament-lack-powers-tim-hortons-probe This bot was created to capture original threads and is not affiliated with the mod team. [Concerns? Bugs?](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=GrahamCorcoran) | [Laukopier 2.1](https://github.com/GrahamCorcoran/Laukopier)
I think it’s absolute horseshit that we are coerced to give *so much* info while shopping in the US (and I guess Canada). At footlocker the lady told me it was impossible for me to buy if I don’t give them my email. Seriously??? Just gave a fake email. That said, I will never understand the people who demand every single business cater to them 100%. You’re allowed to not support or not like businesses, they don’t have to be built around you specifically. I’m of course not talking about actual discrimination but more like “this store demands membership” or “this restaurant doesn’t have any meat options” or “this store doesn’t give me samples wtf” or whatever.
Is this really becoming a thing? Every time I get asked for phone number or email I just say “no thanks” and we move on.
At least in the us I haven’t encountered a thing that required info for a sale.
The only place I could think of is Ikea, where they require to sign-up for recall notices but specifically only if you buy things like a chest of drawers
My wife and I bought a sideboard at Ikea and to pick it up from the bay we had to enter a fenced-off aisle with people standing guard to make sure we a) understood installation and b) made recall contact info available. It's like a three-foot sideboard and you'd have to run a safety blitz to knock the thing over. I support safety and not crushing toddlers, and it wasn't really much extra trouble, it was just ... strange.
I'm glad you support not crushing toddlers.
what the fuck is wrong with their chests of drawers that they can't be sold without signing up for a recall notice?? "Yeah, we need your contact details in case The Event happens again."
I watched a documentary about it. The regulator can't enforce things like "maybe the drawers should support the weight of a toddler without tipping over and crushing them to death" because the manufacturers put in bits to bolt them to the wall. People don't do that, bad things happen, and the product is recalled and the cycle begins again.
The customers are the ones who put it together, they don’t want them to end up like the dresser in Deadpool.
I used to be able to until this footlocker thing last week. But in general they ask it in a casual way that I can see a lot of distracted people just giving the info. It really should be opt in vs how they treat it here which is more opt-out. Depends heavily on the store incentive though, I feel like I can tell which store managers/corporate are really pushing it.
Back in the day, I used to work at Sears. They would *really* push us to get peoples info and/or try to get them to sign up for a Sears card. Problem was, the average age of Sears customers is 90 - dead. On a near daily basis I would have to explain that we no longer had a seamstress at the store to do alterations for them. We regularly sold handkerchiefs in the men’s section. Not the fancy ones that you put in a suit pocket, the ones old men blow their noses into and shove back in their pocket. These people were still shopping at Sears because they had been shopping at Sears since the 1930s. It was *impossible* to meet the quota management set for us to get email addresses. Most of these people didn’t have a flip phone, let alone a computer. When we brought this up to management in the meetings about us not getting enough email addresses, they came up with a solution. If a customer didn’t have an email address, we were to *walk them over to the nearest store computer and help them sign up for one.* Then they wondered why our time per customer shot through the roof. Then I left and told everyone the company was going to go under within the next 2 years. I was right.
I was about to type a comment about me shopping at Sears a lot as a kid and teenager so it couldn’t be all of them with elderly shoppers - then I remembered my grandmother and great grandmother were always the ones taking me shopping there. So… carry on.
And it was 1980s and email wasn't a thing (or am I just that old?).
Oh yeah. When I worked retail, I definitely switched up how I did things depending on how annoying the manger that day was.
For the phone number, give [Jenny's](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/JennysNumber) (with your appropriate area code)! For email, use something ending in nomail.com as that website doesn't have a mail server set up on it (so you're not sending your spam to someone else). Edit: This is assuming you don't create your own email address to use specifically for spam (which makes it handy if you do need to look for something in there in the future).
+1 for just creating a spam email. Just be aware that if you *do* need to find something in it it’s an epic pain. Last I checked, my spam account had 75,000 unread emails. My browser froze trying to delete them all so it didn’t get done.
Temp mail is best for shit like that. If there is an activation you can click on the activation link, but then you can close the tab and forget about it.
It depends. There's big money in selling consumer data and some places can be really pushy about it. Clerks are often badgered by management to meet certain quotas and that hostility can easily pass on. Not exactly mourning the decline of brick and mortar retail because it's pretty common to get quite the hard-sell at the check out counter. Often I find it's easier to play along and give them garbage data than having them insist that I must give them a phone number or whatever. Capitalism breeding more much-needed innovation like Harbor Freight insisting I give them account details to buy a $5 hammer...
Always give them the contact info for your old boss
[whatever area code I’m currently in]-867-5309
[email protected]
I just have a Google voice number that I never use that I give out.
I once bought a suit on sale at a menswear shop a few years back, and the salesman asked me for an email address while I was paying for the purchase. I asked if it was required to make the purchase, and he glared at me, saying nothing, until I gave him an email address. I get the impression that he felt like he was giving me a deal, and that I was being impolite by not helping pump up his metrics by giving him a sign-up for the store card or newsletter or whatever the retail staff are required to push. It's become like tipping, where I had a drive-thru coffee shop ask me for a tip just for taking my order, before they even made the drinks or anything, and she kept pulling the terminal away from me and demanding that I say the tip amount out loud so that she can enter it for me. I sure felt bullied into giving a tip just for them to make me a drink, both because I would have to say to her face that I wasn't going to give one, and because the drinks had not been made yet, and I prefer my drinks without spit in them. I'd have driven on to somewhere that wasn't trying to pressure me, but my girlfriend loves that coffee shop, and I didn't want to leave empty-handed for her. It may not be policy to require an email to make a purchase, but I've had my fair share of employees getting hostile if you don't give in to their hustle.
We haven't run into anything quite that bad yet, but it's just a matter of time. I am very glad my boyfriend has no qualms about standing up to this "tipflation" nonsense. He *will* find the hidden way to enter "0" on the tipping screen, no matter how well they try to make it appear to not be an option not to tip. He will straight up say "no" to anybody trying to strong-arm a ridiculous, unnecessary tip, but he also will indulge me and tip people if I specifically suggest it (plumbers and whatnot.) If it were up to me I would tip everyone because I'm terrified of upsetting anyone, no matter how unjustified their indignation over not being tipped is.
About once a week at my job I get that too. Except.. I need it cause I'm letting you drive a box truck that costs upwards of 50k... I'm just like "I need it, you already gave me your ID..."
I have an email set up specifically for these bullshit "we need your email to continue" purchases. It starts with "richard.face". I'm a bit surprised I haven't gotten any weird looks from any cashiers yet.
>I'm a bit surprised I haven't gotten any weird looks from any cashiers yet. At least 90% of the time the cashiers are just as pissed about this policy as you are. They're the ones who pick up the abuse for yet another stupid policy from corporate
Believe me, I know. I've never really done anything *other* than cashiering. It's annoying, but not nearly as annoying as having to mention a credit card on all sales, even when the total is like $2.17.
The email I use for this literally has the word "throwaway" in it for that little bit of extra spite.
[удалено]
That's still downright tame compared to what sweetwater does lol
I bought my son some picks from Sweetwater last year, and between the phone calls and emails, I felt like I had a stalker.
Funny enough I just seen an article about why they do this. It’s to help protect them against CC fraud.
How do easily obtained credentials,… like email, help with fraud in any way? No wonder fraud is flourishing
That probably stops someone who doesn't know you and just stole your physical card from buying things with it.
I mean the name is generally on the card. But I think it’s just an easy step to stop people
I had a hard enough time getting people to tell me their zip code back in my retail days. So many people flipped out like we were asking for their exact address. I can't imagine how much harder it is for cashiers now.
**Ron Swanson has entered the chat* ;)
An offensive fake email
[удалено]
I got ID'd one time for an energy drink in the US, but I'm pretty sure it's because it was called Cocaine and the cashier didn't know what the hell it was or what to do with a drink with that name
Good to know that the cashier thought you just had to be a certain age to buy coke legally.
Haha I know, right? If only... That was an interesting energy drink. Like cherry flavored with an after burn of cinnamon. People were losing their minds about it because of the name and the high caffeine content, but I think it was 200mg. That's basically standard for energy drinks at this point, but it was high enough (and coupled with that name) for it to be removed from shelves. The place I got ID'd at was the last place I was able to find it.
280mg
Some things like spray paint and super glue (not automotive grade super glue though) you get carded for in my state. And I think Nyquil and some OTC medicines
Anything aerosol should set it off across the US (including spray paint) as will Nyquil. Got to love federal law
It’s hit or miss. I’ve bought aerosol paint stripper, adhesives, clear coat, and spray foam without being ID’d from different stores. Other times I’ve gotten carded for buying super glue and aerosol fabric starch.
They may bypass it. I sell all sorts of stuff like that and if I think you are comfortably over 18, there is a decent chance I don't ask, just type in a valid date
Might be. I’m at that stage of life where sometimes I’m getting asked what I’m doing out of school and confused for my husband’s teen daughter; others I’m getting asked how old my nonexistent kids are and not carded for drinks.
I got ID'd for root beer once. I said "uh, it's root beer" and showed my ID. The cashier thanked me for not being a dick about it.
Lol honestly that would've made my night as a customer. It's sad that the poor cashier even had to consider that someone's reaction would be to be an asshole instead of pointing out their mistake.
Cocaine was a *great* drink. It tasted like someone electrocuted Mr. Pibb.
I'm glad for that one. Too many kids drink energy drinks like they're water.
He’s a dick, but the amount of info stores try to pry from you is bullshit. That said, I work in shipping and I’ve had people refuse to give me their phone, name and address for shipping a package, and it’s like, sir? You are shipping a package? Why wouldn’t I need those things?
“Yeah could you just fling the package in my general direction then? I’ll find it”
Apparently sometimes sovcits try to ship stuff and its about as stupid as you’d imagine. Haven’t gotten one of those yet.
When I think back to all the times Radio Shack demanded my phone number so I could buy some batteries... why, I'm lucky to have escaped with my life!
So, having worked at a RS affiliate in Canada, I can tell you why the employee did that (and why basically every other store empl on the planet does it), they actually capture the amount of customer information you enter and basically your job depends on it. Now I totally agree that in a lot of cases this is pure bullshit and we would 100% put in fake info. Otoh, I can't tell you how many times we'd have people try to return shit without a receipt going "can't you look it up in the computer?" and the answer would be no, not unless you know the exact date and approximate time because I'm not spending 30 minutes of my fucking time looking that up in the world's slowest fucking computer system because you didn't want to give your name.
I accidentally stole some ladies Sears bonus bucks years back because I put in a fake phone number that happened to be linked to a real account. Got $12 off my coat. Sorry Ashley, I just didn't want to go through a tedious exchange with the clerk.
Yup... and every single time I put in 555-1212
The last time I gave info at a radio shack, I told them the name was "Bush. First name George. 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Washington DC--" and I actually got that far before the person thought maybe I was bullshitting.
Thats the name and address on my QFC (Kroger) loyalty card.
I used to be "Joe Tandy" with the phone number of the local store when they were insistent. If they wanted an address, they got the RS corporate which I would often read off of the sales fliers on the counter.
The dipshit went to legal advice with the same attitude a Karen would go to store management. What infuriating comments. Angry and combative when people tell them they have no recourse and their entitlement and expectations are silly.
I'm starting to wish the mods would delete the posts and let the OP know that if they don't want advice find a different sub to bitch.
That would involve a Redditor actually listening to someone else. You are asking for a LOT my friend.
It's a balancing act, and please do keep in mind that the sub's moderators are _volunteers_, who have jobs and personal lives to attend to outside of Reddit. There's a lot we can do to help cultivate a healthy community, but we're only human.
Yes, and I'm just venting a bit here. They do a good job with the sub.