Horrible interaction in New Look

I didn't know about the child benefit form. But I do know that's outrageously dishonest - official government forms like this can be picked up by anyone from the Post Office. They are certainly not gatekept by unscrupulous marketing organisations masquerading as parenting support clubs!

Mumsnet kicked up a real stink about these people at the time, if I remember rightly. I think they campaigned about it, showing the power this site can have as a pressure group, not just as a forum for general chat or support. My DC is now almost 11, so clearly ours was a similar era.

Really hope they've knocked it on the head.

Now when they ask I just say I don't have one.

Wow this is weird! I posted on my own social media about an identical situation last year in New Look.

'What's your email for your receipt'
'I'll just have a paper one thanks'
'We don't do them anymore'
'Okay, I'll just use my bank transaction as evidence if I need to return anything'
'Fine I'll give you a paper receipt. But just be aware next time you come in you WILL be asked for your email'
'... okay!?'

It was so bizarre and weirdly threatening.

I'm not giving them my email address.

Anyway I emailed head office and they fell over themselves apologising and said their stance is that an e-receipt is the default, but any customer that doesn't want to share their email for this must be given a paper one, and if it happens again to speak to a manager or show them the correspondence between the head office and I.

I find it interesting they don't even ask anymore if you'll share your email for a receipt, they just ask for it as if it's a given. I've seen them spin around the till for customers to input it if the customer says oh it's a long one or a tricky email. They just assume they're entitled to it.

It's my personal info and I don't feel I need to share my contact details with a shop in order to buy something. It doesn't happen elsewhere. Plus they abuse it by signing you up to the newsletter without even asking permission. I'm sure they're breaching GDPR on that side, because they're using data for a purpose customers haven't consented to.

This is absolutely correct, a VAT registered organisation is legally bound to provide a VAT receipt. I think the issue was paper versus electronic though.

We all know a simple press of a till button will generate a paper receipt but these poor girls/lads are constantly under the kosh to meet their KPIs, they get a bollocking if they don’t and collecting email addresses is a big one. My now adult daughters did a long spell at NL each, post GCSEs.

Gov.uk site has this which would indicate that they are acceptable:

This is my issue.

I prefer a digital receipt and download the apps for all the shops I normally frequent so I have a digital record of my purchases.

However, I have been caught out so many times with emailed receipts that never arrive. My email address is not particularly unusual or hard to spell either.

Now, if it is a large purchase or if I know there's a high possibility I will need the receipt I will either insist on a paper receipt or wait until the email comes through before leaving the shop. I usually tell a little white lie about my reason for needing a paper receipt as they're taught to overcome all the usual reasons. Something they can't argue with like 'it's a long story, but I'm supposed to be somewhere else at the moment'

For other purchases I always ask to enter my own email address (most customer service assistants are more than happy for you to do this if their tech allows it)

I was wondering this the other day as my niece is pregnant and I was sharing my experience of a postnatal ward!! When I had DD almost 12 years ago they basically held the child benefit form (at the time the only way to claim child benefit) hostage until they spoke to you. Which is an awful tactic and they should never have been the ones to have them in their possession. I was very ill after having DD having lost a lot of blood and needing surgery so my DH basically told her to give the form and bugger off when she opened my curtain without calling out first. I complained about their presence in general as at the time there was a lot of anger about them and rightly so - nobody who isn’t a HCP should have access to women and babies on maternity wards.

Data data data
Capitalism cannot make bricks without clay

Funny someone should have just made the comment about medical history. Those Bounty reps who used to be on maternity wards (are they still? They're never mentioned now so I'm hoping not) tried that number mere hours after I'd given birth. I doubt the same thing would happen to men who were vulnerable patients - and women whose bodies have just been through a major medical event are vulnerable.

I wasn't as gracious as I might have been. When she came back a second time and opened my curtains without even asking or warning me, I was more forceful. I also noticed her eyeing up my confidential notes - doubtless in pursuit of the personal information she was seeking - and immediately turned them to face the bed.

These days, when people ask someone a question, there seems to be an automatic assumption that they'll be given whatever it is they want. See also requests to swap seats on planes.

No. And bollocks to being 'polite'. Abrasiveness is the only language persistent people like this understand.

Well personally I don’t think forms of torture and interrogation are the only ways one can have a horrible experience but I guess we’re all different

I think young people do customer service differently, I'm in my 50s and am often surprised and things like no eye contact, not handing you your goods or bag that you bought just stepping back, and also being quite firm and going straight to assertive if you ask for anything that's not standard. But then the general public are a lot ruder and more difficult than when I did retail in the 1990s.

I have sympathy with retail staff and particularly those with nasty targets. I talk all day in a call centre style job so words usually come to me fairly easily, I'd be able to argue back in the OPs situation. But it is upsetting to be drawn into an unexpected argument when you just wanted to go and buy some clothes.

Poor old New Look are struggling enough, whoever has the bright idea to tell retail staff to gather emails and overcome objections should spend a week on the shop floor actually doing it. And also check data privacy legislation and the illegality of taking data for one purpose and using it for a different one.

It was poor customer service for sure - but she asked if OP had an email address, she didn't try and waterboard her medical history out of her.

Annoying, yes, but personally I wouldn't call it horrible.

Giving them your email address means that they can send you marketing communications and you can’t opt out. It’s sneaky.

OP was spoken down to and belittled while someone tried to wheedle personal information out of her. Thats a horrible experience

I don’t get this modern day “Don’t be anything but sickly sweet nice to customer service staff, even when they’re awful or lazy or have given a bad service to you, because they might be having a bad day and that trumps whatever you need from them”. I worked in retail as a student and I managed to not be a cunt to customers even on a bad day

YANBU to want a paper receipt.

YABU to call it a "horrible interaction", get a grip

We should do a mumsnet flash mob and coordinate a visit to our nearest NL to buy a scrunchie, then insist on having a printed receipt! 😉 (this is a joke btw).

I'd imagine they had some sort of incentive that week where they had to get x number of email addresses. But still, it's very off putting.

I thought we'd left 'be kind' in 2021?

A previous post has reminded me about an online item I bought from Tu. I paid by bank card but when I needed a refund it came back as nectar points. She didn't tell me that at the till. I complained on the web chat but they didn't care. Be aware.

You do. You just have to decide to do it.

I'd complain to head office OP - you might get a voucher and can treat yourself! I'd have not been impressed with this, fellow paper receipt asker!

It is the Daily Mail. The first time I started a thread on Mumsnet, it ended up in the Daily Mail. I was absolutely mortified. You should have seen some of the comments on there. I asked them to retract it but they refused. It also ended up in another awful rag. 😖 If it does end up in the Daily Mail, avoid the comment section like the plague, OP! I was called a fat smelly loser! NICE.