or is it okay to destroy trees in order to qualify for the Next VIP sale?

[CrispyFB]

First off don't get me started on the whole unsolicited massive hardback catalogue left on my doorstep a few times a year that I get charged four quid or whatever that they never mentioned when I first ordered online. Nor the making it clear except in small print that it was a credit account.

So today I rang Next to change address. Not that they would let me do this online (yet another rant, every other company does) and when I rang them up to change address not only did they want my password, my address, date of birth, telephone number but they refused to do it unless I gave them the last four digits of my last card used too.

That was crappy enough. But no, the coup-de-grace.

Me: "I don't want your catalogue any more"

Call-taker: "Okay, but you won't qualify for any VIP sales any more"

Me: "So you're telling me I have to (pay to) receive a massive hardback book that goes straight in the recycling in order to get 'preferential' treatment on your sales? Oh, okay, so I used one of them to stuff down the side of the bed to keep a pillow in place better once, but that's not the point."

Call-taker (without any sense of humour whatsoever): "Yes, that's the criteria"

Me: "So I have to kill some trees in order to qualify for your VIP sale now?"

Call-taker (who has no doubt heard a similar line a hundred times a day): "Yes"

Me: "I can't have that on my conscience, so take the catalogue away."

Call-taker: "You'll lose access to VIP sales etc etc"

Me: "Whatever.."

I'm half expecting they have some lame "we plant as many trees as we destroy" scheme in place but that's not the point, is it? I think I will close my account altogether in protest because there is just so much wrong with them. Their clothes are over-priced anyway except in the sale and I only like their children's stuff anyhow and that's gone downhill of late.

The next sale is the biggest overhyped waste of time ever.

Who goes and queues at 6 in the morning on Boxing Day to buy that tat?

WineNot - They won't deliver to a work address? Charming! Though given how unhelpful they are, I can't say I am exactly surprised.

I did buy a nice pair of jeans that fitted very well from them once, and a nice dress in the sales, but I think that is it for adult stuff! The children stuff at least is not quite as obsessed over pink and blue as a lot of them and does show some originality - it's just it's priced too high and isn't worth bothering with except in the sale. And then it's never in the right size. So I gave up going in a long time ago.

Don't get me started on Next...

We used to get unsolicited catalogues from various companies, Next included, that used to go in the bin (talking about 17 yrs ao). I never ever used them. In fact, I'd never even shopped in the Next shop either.

About a year after moving house, the woman who moved in our old place ordered stuff fraudulently in mine / husbands name from Next, Littlewoods and GUS and didn't pay. Totalled over £700.

Despite providing Next evidence of our house move they wouldn't accept that it wasn't our debt and were obnoxious on the phone. It took 4 letters, official bill/post forwarding evidence and finally a threat to take them to court to make them back off and accept that the debt was nothing to do with us. Together with regular checks on our credit rating to make sure they didn't blacklist us it took nearly a year to sort out. I didn't set foot in a Next shop until 3 yrs ago.

Sounds like a stunt a cable firm pulled on me once that trashed my credit rating! These things would never happen if the calltakers applied common sense or had a bit of freedom to do something that isn't on the script like think for themselves and escalate something..