Shouldn’t that read, “Have you seen the clerks at this undisclosed store?”
I usually just ask if it’s necessary. They always smile and say not really. i’ve never seen a situation where the clerk really cares if you give your phone number or not.
Mine’s printed on my checks, so I feel foolish refusing to give it to them.
Oh, did I say Radio Shack? I meant the clerks at said undisclosed store which may or may not be called Radio Shack, may or may not tend to look like they fell out of the ugly tree and may or may not have hit every branch on the way down.
As others have said, please don’t take it out on the poor cashier, who DID NOT make up the policy and probably would be much happier without having to ask this question on every single transaction. Reserve your wrath for the morons who put this policy in place. Ask the cashier if there’s feedback forms available, so that you can express your indignation about the store’s policy of collecting phone numbers for felemarketing.
Well, if you’re writing a check, I would think they would have to have it.
Otherwise, just say, “867-5309”
Whoa. For a minute there I thought we were all gonna get lambasted by Lynn. Whew!
I give 'em the number. No, really. I don’t care if they call. My number’s listed. Heck, I don’t care if every single person in the store overhears and calls. Let them, say I! When I’m online, Callwave cheerfully takes their call. When I’m not online, the answering machine does.
I’d even post the # here… I’m that brazen! 
I once worked at a store where I was instructed to ask for patrons’ social security numbers when they presented a check. Most customers didn’t have a problem with it.
Dammit, Guin, I was going to say that…
Precisely why said unnamed store is so annoying; they ask even if you are paying cash. You go in there to buy a 10-cent connector, hand them a dollar bill, and they want to write a report on you. No thanks, I don’t need any more catalogs of crap mailed to me from the corporation that may or may not be named Tandy. Like I need a computer that’s 20 years out of date, or a lousy stereo that I can get for half the price at the store that may or may not be called Good Guys, or a remote-control toy car that only turns in one direction.:rolleyes:
But my name is not “Jenny”…
That would be <GASP> LYING!
I’m weak in the knees, I have to go lay down…
I work in retial and now the big thing is asking for e-mail, for our newsletter. Our ambitious cashier, instead of asking “Would you like recieve our on-line e-mail” will badger the customer saying, “And your e-mail is?”
I don’t do it, because I didn’t want to work at Radio Shack.
Another obscurely funny fake number you can use:
326-3827.
It’s the serial number Luke Skywalker reads off the garbage compactor door.
Linens N’ Things asks for your number, Honey Baked Ham Company asked me once as well. Both times I was paying with cash. I just give them a bogus number. I find it annoying but I don’t take it out on the cashier.
[hijack]
I’ve never had to take phone numbers from customers at my job, unless they were paying with a check OR returning something without a receipt (in which case we need to have information as to who was doing the returning, in case there’s ever a dispute down the line or something like that I dunno). However, for a month (ending tomorrow, thankfully), we were REQUIRED by the computer that runs our registers to input whether the customer was making a purchase for personal or business use, and the customer’s area code. Without typing that information in, we could NOT ACCESS THE REGISTER to ring things up, do a return, or even run a price check.
If the line was too long for anyone to want to fuck around with putting in zip codes and stuff we’d just hit Business and type in the store’s area code and not ask (this was also the policy if a customer preferred not to share their zip code), but if there was a manager nearby we had to ask or we’d get reprimanded.
As to why we were doing it? For some reason the customers were convinced that by giving us their zip code, we’d be able to get their ENTIRE ADDRESS and put them on a mailing list, or somehow track their purchases (and how, pray tell, would we know it was them, and not one of the hundreds or thousands who shared their zip code?). But no, it’s just that our store receives a percentage of the online orders from certain zips in our area, and how much and what zips was determined by this poll.
[/hijack]
You’d be amazed (or maybe you wouldn’t) at how many people think that when I ask them for their phone number - whether it’s for a return without a receipt, or even for paying with a check - that I’m either putting them on a phone-spam list or trying to get their number for my own personal gain. “If you call me, I’m going to call the police.” “Don’t worry, sir, I have no intention of ever calling you for any reason. Ever.”
I find this store policy bizarre. ASAIK, in Oz, they don’t do that kind of thing (at least, not where I shop). The only policy that comes close to this is when certain stores ask for your post/zip code, which I gather is to analyse where their customers are from.
The privacy act has finally arrived here in Oz (Victoria, at least) and most people are beginning to realise that their information is theirs, and that it is private, and that they don’t have to give it out.
For the OP:
Trust me I know how annoying this is.My current(but as of tomorrow NOT current…yay!)job actually REQUIRES us to ask that annoying question. When we get secret shopped by an outside company if we do NOT ask,we automatically fail. Our store is also ranked on the percentage of phone numbers we put in each week.If we fall below a certain percentage, our boss gets a write-up from her boss and then we all get yelled at. I really HATE asking for somebody’s phone number and if they tell me know,I just type in my own. The company doesn’t care WHOSE phone number it is as long as a certain percentage of phone numbers are in there.Ugh.
IDBB
This happened to me when I was at Garden Ridge Pottery recently buying some wrapping paper. They have little signs on the posts that they lights for the registers are on, that says they can better serve me if I give them my phone number, and that they promise promise not to use it for telemarketing.
First time they asked, I said no, and the girl just mashed a button and rang up my stuff.
I went back a couple weeks later to get another roll (my paper has to match exactly and I realized I didn’t have enough), and I’m rung up by some newish looking cute cashier boy. He asks for my phone number, and I just said, “No.” and he starts laughing then when he realizes I’m serious goes “Huh?”
“I can’t wring up anything without a phone number.”
“Well, they did it last time and it wasn’t a problem.”
“Why don’t you want to give me your number?”
The boy looked genuinely confused at why I didn’t think the store needed to know my number. He ended up giggling and typing in his number instead. If they’re going to use these policies on ignorant or apathetic customers, they should at least educate their employees on proper procedure if the customer declines to give them information.
I tell them no every time at Radio Shack. That is SO annoying.
Another good number to give out: 202-762-1401. “Naval Observatory Master Clock. At the tone, the time will be…”