Re: Retail Performance Stores asking for customer name. - Cycling Mob: Road Cycling, Mountain Biking and More

08-23-2003, 08:29 PM

"Ray Heindl" <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote in message
news:Xns93E0B36975BAAamfmssb@216.168.3.44...
> Sam Yorko <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote:
>
> > Went in to my local Performance to buy a Topeak Mountain Morph
> > pump (they're on sale). At the cash register, they demanded my
> > name to complete the purchase. Only after I almost walked out did
> > they relent on the demand.
> >
> > The excuse offered: in case I lost the receipt, they could look up
> > the transaction if I wanted to return my purchase.
>
> They apparently think it's better to insult their customers by assuming
> they're idiots than to admit they want to collect info for their
> marketing database.
>
> > Well, OK, that's the story being offered to the customers. And,
> > even believing for the moment that that >is< the only reason for
> > getting the customer name, that doesn't preclude some marketing
> > dweeb within Performance in the future deciding that there is all
> > this nice customer data just sitting around, and it's time to mine
> > it for marketing purposes.
> >
> > No thanks.
>
> Radio Shack used to ask for a phone number, even for the most trivial
> purchases. But they were always nice about my refusal to give them any
> info. Once enough people refuse at Performance they'll probably quit
> being obnoxious about it. If not, you can always vote with your feet.
> Or make up a name and address and let them waste the cost of mailing
> their innumerable catalogs.

Heh. Yeah, I like that idea. We should all use the same name, just to
cause a huge, inexplicable spike in the data.

-Barry