to not want to give my address etc in shops when I buy something?

[ameliagrey]

You know how it goes- you go to the till and they ask for your postcode and if you are on their maling list.

I have now started to refuse because it's all about collecting data for marketing- but it also means they are building up a profile of what i buy, sizes etc etc , and when.

I feel it's all getting too much like Big Brother.

When I have refused to give my details the assts look shocked and try to persuade me saying it's so i can be "sent offers".

OP - do you have a clubcard/nectar card/similar?

Hecate

We are also amused...

No I don't- and we both know why!

One of my family is a data analyst for a multinational store and I know exactly what goes on with loyalty cards :)

Fair enough then (i also have a good idea of what can be done with such data)

YANBU. I started a thread about this when I visited three shops in a row and was asked for personal details.

I'm lax with personal info generally but I just don't get why it's become normal to be expected to pass it over with every purchase.

so can ayone explain why shops want an address when you return something? I thought it was to prevent credit card fraud by employees or anyone else- is that not so?

:o Hecate SW1A 2AA #10 is good :o

ameliagrey, a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, b4 I had children and Choices Video went out of business, they trained me on refunds as Asst Mgr. I was told that you had to have full details on a refund form as it was a very easy way for employees to give their friends cash gifts. Apparently all refund forms were analysed at head office to ensure they were valid, accurate, not duplicates and not signed by the employee!!!!

Trusting company.

PS On another note, I was also once told that if employees have access to funds more than 100% of their salary, they are more likely to steal i.e. if you earn £10K but have access to over £100K, you might be found with your hands in the till!

PPS Check my maths!

PPPS No, YANBU, it's an invasion of privacy and it's sinister because they don't say why they need the information

Credit card fraud should be prevented by a) checking the card number on the receipt matches the card being presented for a refund and b) ensuring you enter PIN/sign for refund (ie, you are the cardholder).

Addresses for refunds are mainly, as Bertie posted upthread, to check that there is not a frequently returning customer with high value/dodgy returns which would indicate the possibility of refund fraud. Having the customer's details also indicates (especially in the case of cash refunds) that there was a customer who received a refund and that it is not the cashier collecting discarded receipts and refunding themselves iyswim. Address details are checked at head office and again, if there was a high level of discrepancies (post code not matching with street name given for example) then the store would be investigated and put on report.

What goes on with loyalty cards then? If there's some big terrifying secret do we need to know? I have a boots and a Tesco one. Should I be cutting them up?

Don't do storecards though. Dont mind giving out my postcode, but wouldnt do the number unless it was for a TV. If it means I cant get an item I would go elsewhere and they would lose my business.

Don't get asked a lot though. cant afford to shop at the places mentioned

With your loyalty card someone- like one of my relatives you has a Masters degree in maths etc- will spend their entire day sifting through your puchases and profile you. You will be known as a certain type of customer. This info can then be sold to other companies.

This info is stored in a data warehouse. You are then targeted with offers, and if you give your mobile phone number you can be targeted while you are walking past a shop where you might want to buy something!

I am told though that if you ever buy anything with a credit card that the above can be used and often is.

I've seen a store doing market research on the "distance travelled" thing and they set it up very differently - there was a sign explaining that the till would prompt staff to ask a sample of customers for the first part of their postcode and why that was useful to them. Respect to Scotmid!

thanks for the explanation ameliagrey nothing that I wasnt aware of anyway.

The White Company always do this. I ask why, then decline.

If you have a loyalty card and fairly regularly shop at a retailer you would be amazed at how much information they can find out about you.

Before you've even made a purchase they've got your postcode and your age. They could use Experian to build a surprisingly complete portrait of you based on just that.

Then they can look at your weekly shop. If you shop weekly at the same retailer it is amazing what they can establish about you. They know from a change in spending patterns, a little shift to buying the budget range rather than mid range if you're worried about money at the moment. If you save on food but splurge on haircare that tells them a lot about your priorities and what you're interested in or if you buy organic, if you suddenly start or stop buying something regularly. They know all about your health, if you have an ongoing complaint you treat with OTC medicine and if you get points on prescriptions they know about that too. They know when you've potty trained your babies, when you've weaned them. They can see if you're impulse driven or carefully consider purchases. There are hundreds of thousands of little patterns which they recognise and use to catagorize you. Combined with other service such as TGI they can then expand that out to tell you ALL about yourself.

The idea of all of this is that they can then tailor offers which you are most likely to be interested in and therefore buy. If they sell on their data, they'll use all those catagories they put you in to sell lists of data to other people - so if you're looking to market to people with young children who are health aware, earn above £40,000 p/a and live in London then they can knock you out a totally tailored list of people who fit that catagory.

Likewise, they'll sell anonymised data onto other companies which they can use to influence their marketing/product development - e.g. they'll tell you an average basket or what type of person generally buys what with what.

If you don't want to be marketed at, tick the box that says don't send me stuff. It's not the dark arts, it's just the same as your local shopkeeper in the 50s knowing that Mrs.Smith always buys one thing and Mr.Lucky gets a roast on Sunday and drawing the customer's attention to something else they might be interested in buying based on that.

Amelia - there are names for certain 'types' of customers, aren't there? Iirc there's a daily mail one :)

Others are equally flattering!

Or make up a postcode like NO1 2NO! Then they should get the message!