I Told A Lie!!!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

This is unusual for me. I’m generally an honest person and, even if I weren’t, I am a terrible liar. If I set out to consciously tell a lie, I stammer and stutter and take a long time and look at the ground. If there is a simple way to tell if someone is lying, I will exhibit that behavior. And since telling even embarassing truths is better than being caught lying, I usually tell the truth.

Here’s what happened: Mrs. Pluto and I were shopping in the local mall. We went down to Sears and looked at their Vise-Grip pliers that were on sale, but they were out of stock and we had to get a raincheck. We walk out of Sears and Mrs. P. says she next has to stop at the Bon Marche and buy a new bra. Since I am generally unhelpful in this regard and as we are just passing Radio Shack, I volunteer to stop at Radio Shack and buy the cable we need to hook up our stereo video game to our mono TV set.

Now I know before I go in there that Radio Shack is going to ask for my address. But I don’t want any mail from them. I don’t want a catalog, a sale flyer, a special offer, a free sample, nothing at all. So I try to think of a way to get out of giving them my address. I’ve tried in the past to just refuse, but then they refuse to ring up the sale (and we really need this cable and I don’t know where else to get it). The OBVIOUS answer is to make up a fictitious address, but, like I said, I have this terrible time lying. It occurs to me that I could give them someone else’s address (my sister came to mind, I don’t know why) but that is still a lie and then someone else gets the annoying mail. So I realize I’m just going to have to sign up for some advertising. Ironically, while I’m waiting in line with my purchase, there’s a sign with a picture of the CEO of Radio Shack explaining that they absolutely must have your address but, if you sign a form, they will not send you any mail. (Hah! Do I look like I just fell off the turnip truck?)

So I buy my $2.79 cable and he asks me my name. I tell him. (Why?) And then my address. I tell him. (What a wimp!) He starts typing it in. He stops. He asks, “Was that 133rd Ave?”. It wasn’t, but at that moment my heart starts to pound, my breath gets short, I fell a rush of adrenalin – I can tell him A LIE! All I have to do is say yes!! No complicated stories, no details to verify, no way to get caught as long as I don’t faint dead away. I struggle with the word, but finally I get it out: “Yes!” He types it in, not realizing he has been duped! City? Zip Code? I tell him everything but it won’t do him any good. 133rd Avenue!! It will all end up at the Dead Letter Office!

I take my purchase, secure in my iniquity and walk with elation out of the store. You know, when you stop and think about it it wasn’t even really a lie! It was more like a misunderstanding – a miscommunication. And there was no controlling legal authority anyway. I misspoke. I only left a false impression.

Next time, though, I’m buying the bra!

2

See you in hell, you bastard.

3

Oh, BTW, that was

RADIOSHACK 01-3354
1706 S Sea Tac Mall
Federal Way, WA 98003-6037
(253) 839-1882

Just in case you needed an address.

4

It sometimes amazes me that Radio Shack is still in business. And my SIL works for them.

BTW, Target, Wal-Mart, etc, has a lot of the general usage things that RS does, without the hassle. The only thing I will buy at Radio Shack is D cell batteries, cause they are the only people who sell true D cell batteries (at least according to Consumer Reports, manny years ago)

BTW, if they won’t ring you up w/o an address, just start to walk away. They are hungrier for sales than a used car dealer.

5

Is this address thing something new?!? I know they used to hassle you for your phone number or zip code or something, but your ADDRESS?!?

I long ago quit giving people private information about myself for the privilage of buying stuff from them. It’s bad enough that the grocery stores tie discounts to those little spy cards they give out - at least with those, they’re actually paying you for the information they’re gathering. Radio Shack wants my address they can damn well kiss my ass.

6

They really won’t sell to you if you don’t give the
address? Here on the East Coast they shrug and give in.

Radio Shack is the weirdest place anyways. Maybe it’s different now, but for years and years, this supposed bastion of high technology still had its salespeople using
hand calculators to ring up sales.

7

A Radio Shack story, which I read on this page (author’s info is there, if you want it) in the rec.humor.funny archives:

I so want to pull this on the Radio Shack guy next time I’m there…

8

Great thread, pluto!

Forgive the hijack, please: since pluto ruled the Underworld wouldn’t he already be there when the rest of us Radio Shack scoffers arrived, muppetsoup?

I hate, hate, HATE this nasty little policy Radio Shack uses. C’mon, if I’m buying a $2.99 gizmo and paying cash for it their insistence on knowing my name and address is asinine. Their corporate “need” to know doesn’t override my basic rights of privacy. My reaction is avoid them like a plague zone and buy elsewhere if at all possible.

We’re really gonna have to work on that conscience of yours, pluto. We’ve tried our flat level best to corrupt you, you know! There are lies and then there are LIES. You didn’t lie to avoid responsibility for something; you lied to deflect an indefensible, cynical intrusion. It was a subtle act of protest. If you actually worry about it we’re gonna have to descend on you en masse and whup some kickass defiance into you. You fought ignorance and won.

Veb

(Sigh. Edited to correct the bolding I screwed up. One lousy little bracket omitted…Use preview. Preview is my friend.)

[Edited by TVeblen on 03-08-2001 at 06:42 PM]

9

Don’t feel so bad, pluto. I’ve been giving the Radio Shack lackeys assorted false addresses for quite awhile. They don’t listen anyway.

10

They never asked me for my address. But then, I don’t remember the last time I needed any cheap-ass Tandy crap.

I’d tell them I live at 000 Myndjour Business Lane, Privacy NY 11200

11

Just after some clarification… I live in Australia. We have Tandy stores, but not Radio Shack.

WHY do you have to give them your address to buy something? Is this a legal requirement? Why on Earth would anyone buy from a store with such an invasive policy?

12

I’ve purchased at radio shack and given them my address, and I have never once received a piece of junk mail from them (directly).

I’ve gotten fliers in the newspaper, but nothing from RS.

I must’ve slipped below their radar somehow :slight_smile: happy day.

13

QUOTE]*Originally posted by cazzle *
**WHY do you have to give them your address to buy something? Is this a legal requirement? Why on Earth would anyone buy from a store with such an invasive policy? **
[/QUOTE]

It is certainly not a legal requirement, just an annoying marketing tactic. I don’t know for certain how they use the data they collect. Mrs. Pluto works retail and she says that for one month each year they ask their customers for their ZIP code (that’s a postal zone code in the USA). They (her employers) told her that was to determine where to build new stores, etc.

As far as Radio Shack goes I avoid going in there for just that reason UNLESS I’m growing desperate. They tend to have a wider selection of unusual electrical and electronic items than anywhere else. When I was a kid it was the only place you could buy esoteric things like resistors and tuning capacitors and DPDT switches. But, although their prices are generally low, their products tend to be low-quality. In spite of this, I can’t believe they still persist in a practice that is notorious for infuriating their customers. They must lose a lot of sales and I can’t see that they get anything substantial in return. But, like I said, there was this sign from their CEO!

Finally, you can in fact buy stuff there and refuse to give your address. The problem is that, in my experience, it overloads the sales help. They tend not to be the sharpest knives in the drawer to begin with, if you catch my drift. My point was that you facile liars out there (take a bow, Veb) easily weasel out of a situation like that while congenitally honest people like me get taken advantage of. I was just celebrating my little taste of life in your world!

14

I used to work for “The Shack” back when they asked you for the last 4 digits of your phone# along with the address.
Lemme tell ya, that didn’t go over very well… I actually had customers walk right out of the store on me. Now they just ask for the zip code, much better.

Anyway, they told us that the address was just used to send out sale flyers once a month, we didn’t sell it to anybody or anything like that. That said, the dude working there should process your order without hassling you over the address. They absolutely do not HAVE to get your address. They’re supposed to ask on every order but if you say “I’d rather not, thanks” then they should just send it through.

Anything else is just bad training by the managmement, all too common these days.

15

“Master of the Underworld” is the 3rd thing I think of when I think pluto. After the dog and the planet (<- yes, I know the planet is named after the god), of course. Kids these days - call me old fashioned, but I refuse to call these Greek Gods by these new-fangled “Roman” names. Give me Hades and Zeus any day. Jupiter, my ass.

16

Maybe it’s a sign of my lack of moral integrity, but I don’t think telling the salesclerk that I live at 000 Myndjour Buisness Lane is a lie.

A lie is meant to deceive and that response is not deceptive. Unless you are really stupid, that is. It’s quite clear what is meant by giving that as an address. In fact, I think I’d insist the salesclerk take it. I want to make it clear what I think of that invasive practice of insisting on an address.

17

You sure did tell a lie.

“I’ve tried in the past to just refuse, but then they refuse to ring up the sale”

Yeah right Pluto.

I’m an ex-Radio Shack manager and unless they’ve changed their “request for address” policy from when I pressed the retail vocation eject button in 1986 (unlikely) it is a request (albeit an obnoxious one to some folks, and understandably so) is not an order and if they will not sell you the merchandise without the address I’m pretty sure you’ve got the basis for some sort of civil action.

If this was meant to be an amusing fictional tale it was quite droll but I yet to see ANY Radio Shack that will refuse custom unless they get the address. In the unlikely event this tale of tribulation is true call the Regional Manager (not the District Mananger) and raise holy hell.

18

It really does happen, astro.

Just for the record, pluto is almost painfully honest. (We keep WORKING on him but it just hasn’t taken.) What he wrote is completely consistent with the person he’s shown himself to be over a long posting-life. You may find his account hard to believe but your accusation truly is unjust.

I believe him implicitly, both for the reputation he’s established here and because I’ve had the same experience. (Radio Shack in eastern Iowa.) The clerk refused to ring up the sale unless I provided my home address. (This was, hmmm, maybe 5-6 years ago? It’s been a while.) I put my $2.00 gizmo down on the counter, gathered up my cash and left.

Maybe it was just poor training, management, whatever. I had no reason to assume the clerk wasn’t acting w/in policy. My Ex had complained about the same thing but it involved that particular store as well so maybe it was just the proverbial “bad apple”.

Anyway, maybe it shouldn’t happen, but it DOES. If you don’t believe me I’d be quite happy to email you the exact address of the store (if it’s still in business).

Veb

19

depending on the size of your town, if all they have wrong is the street name, there’s a chance you’ll get their advertising anyhow.

I recently made some controversial comments (who me? :eek: ) in the local paper, they identified me by name and hometown only, some one who objected to my remarks sent me an anonymous hate mail thing, addressed only to my name and home town, and I got it. :mad:

20

Shame on you, Pluto. I have never told a lie.