Obnoxious Business Practices
February 25, 2004
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Posted by Aubrey Turner
I went into the local branch of Friedman’s Jewelers this afternoon in search of a new earring. I found one and went to checkout when the clerk asked me for my name. This immediately set off alarm bells because I could see no reason for them to have that info. I asked him why it was needed and he said that he had to enter one to proceed through the sale. I asked him what they were going to do with the info and told him that I didn’t want to be put on any lists or get any crap from them. But I didn’t take the argument further, since he would be able to get my name from the credit card anyway. At least he understood that I didn’t want my personal info in their system and skipped the phone number.
But after he’d rung everything up he pulled out this fingerprint pad and started into this spiel about how they were doing it to prevent fraud and identity theft. I told him no way and that I’d void the sale if he insisted on a fingerprint. I was furious. When he saw my reaction he put the pad away and completed the sale anyway. I was still tempted to cancel the sale, but by this time he’d already run the credit card and he wasn’t insisting on the fingerprint.
But after all that nonsense, I will never set foot in that store again. Or any other branch of Friedman’s if that’s the way they run their business. I refuse to be treated like a criminal just to make a simple purchase.
Categories: Privacy
Holy cow! Definitely one to submit to Carnival of the Capitalists.
My name is Cash at Radio Shack.
If I’d been carrying $100 in cash, that’d be my name as well. This might be an incentive to use cash more in the future. I usually don’t carry more than $20-$50, so I tend to rely on my credit card.
You should NOT have given out your name! Even if they CAN read it from the credit card, they are not allowed to use it in their system. Otherwise they would already have the ability to load the name from the credit card into the computer system and only ask you for the phone number.
For every inch we give away, they will ask for more.
Next time, stand by the cashier and take names and numbers of all their meek customers. Then yell at the sheep for giving out their names.
I’ve always heard that they weren’t allowed to use the credit card info to populate their database or to augment their data-gathering. But I’ve never been able to find that documented anywhere, although I haven’t spent a lot of time looking for it.
Anyhow, perhaps it’s time to strengthen my resolve to not give out personal info. If the clerk says they can’t complete the sale without entering a name, then I’ll tell him he just lost a sale. If the company designs a system that forces data entry, then it’s their problem, not mine.
Pay cash, don’t use credit. It’s far too risky with today’s ineffectual FBI who cannot prosecute criminals who use your credit card for fraud.