To be fed up with shops demanding my email address for no good reason

[Levie]

I am so sick of this in shops! I just want to buy something, pay and walk out with my shopping. I don’t want to share my details with you. I don’t want to have my name & details put into your database. I don’t want to receive details of special offers.
I just tried to use a gift card I’d been given as a present. The sales assistant asked me for my email address. I asked why she needed it- ‘it’s so we can send you an email to say you’ve used the voucher’.
Me-‘that’s fine. I know I’ve used it so I don’t need an email’.
Her-‘if you don’t give me your email address then you can’t use this voucher’.
If I’d thought more quickly I’d just have given a made-up address. I will definitely do this next time! It doesn’t sit right with me that businesses are increasingly refusing to provide goods or services unless customers hand over their data.

I have an email address that is only used for junk like this

If businesses really wanted to there would be an easy way to create receipts similar to the ones you get when dropping off a Vinted item. But of course they'd rather have your details.

Exactly. I stood with my smart phone and said I'd never had an email address. They gave me a paper one in the end.

I'm old enough that they believe me when I say I don't have an email address. (I do, of course. Seven at the moment, I think)

I just tell them I'd rather not as I have to deal with a couple of hundred emails every day at work, and I can't face getting them at home as well.

@Levie

I hear ya. I am sick of this intrusive shite. I made one up on the spot some months back ... Said it was sabrefave9999999 @yahoo.com (made up obvs.) They said 'this is coming up as a non-existent email, have you given us an extra 9 or something? Is it dot co.uk???' So annoying that they were able to figure it out (that it was a fake email address) LOL! So I made one up (a mail.com one) as a throwaway one, and just give that one.

I also get sick of going into shops and them trying to upsell.

Savers: 'would you like one of the fragrances we have on offer? Beyonce's is only £30 today.' (That's not cheap for a fragrance I don't want!) Either that or they try to offload batteries onto me!

Then in the Cancer Research Charity Shop they ask me if I would like a raffle ticket - £2. For a raffle I will definitely not win.

WH Smiths (on the rare occasion I pop in there,) always tries to offload nearly out of date chocolate, and Terrys Chocolate Oranges!

And one checkout operator in Tesco (where I went the other week but hardly use) said I was 'a very silly woman' for not having their club card. Well, Mrs checkout operator, this 'very silly woman' won't be coming back here again. So you are a customer down now!

That's just a few examples. Upselling boils by blood! Yeah I KNOW they are told to say it la la la. I can still be pissed off by it!

I remember also several department stores (BHS, Debenhams, and M &S, and also New Look and H & M and several other clothes shops,) trying to push a storecard on you! They were proper annoyed when I constantly said no. Just fuck off and process my payment FFS!

If a shop refused to let me use a voucher if I didn't give them my email address I would absolutely shame them on Twitter, and complain to Head Office.

.

I always say no. For a start, I don't want to say my email address out loud when there are other customers stood behind me. I know 99% of them won't care, but it still compromises my confidentiality.

One shop near me that I use fairly often is terrible for this. So as soon as I make eye contact with the cashier, before they have a chance to speak, I smile and say "No upselling thank you, and I would like a paper receipt please." I am pleasant but very brisk.

I sound like a bossy headmistress but nobody has ever tried to disagree.

Dunelm is the worst for this. They rarely send offers so it’s absolutely pointless.

But I’m happy to give it to stores if they send me vouchers or if it makes returning items easier!

😂

Either tell them you’re not online, or set up a separate net email, to your normal one, and give them that. 🙂

I'm annoyed that every time I buy something online, they now email me frequently afterwards. It used to be that you had to tick a box to say you wanted to be sent offers or at least tick a box to say you don't want to be sent offers. Now it's just okay for then to treat you like you've subscribed to receive emails. Is this to do with Brexit and us now having a different 'GDPR'? Another law that changed and flew under the radar?

Every few months I have to go through my emails clogging up my inbox and get rid of the shopping ones and unsubscribe.

Does’t everyone have a burner type e-mail for spam?

😀 nice one. Here's another.
FredBlogsatgmail.com

Shop staff are often under a lot of pressure to get people to provide email addresses. I would think she made that bit up - saying you couldn’t use the voucher otherwise.

In such circs I think I’d just give a fake email. I’ve been known to give a false phone no. when ordering some small, probably one-off thing online, if they insist on one. Personal data is all too often sold on.

My daughter works in retail (women's clothing) and hates having to ask for email addresses. The assistants are pressured to do it and penalised if they don't meet targets. They have a till where they tell customers it doesn't issue paper receipts and it's email only. It's a load of bollocks of course and it's management that make the rules.

It only used to be shoe shops that upsold when they tried to sell you the special magic shoe cleaner! I used to say "and no, I don't want the polish" whenever I went to pay

Yes, I tried to buy a printer from Ryman's years ago and the shop assistant refused to sell it to me unless I gave her my email address. My email address includes my full name and there was a real creep standing behind me, so I didn't want him to hear it. I ended up walking out without a printer because of this. Absolute madness. And yes, the shop had tills that printed receipts, so it wasn't that.

They are lying when they say you cant use the voucher. Stand your ground and just insist you don't have an email address.
Likewise they are also lying when they claim they 'can't' print you a receipt but can only email it to you... Again stand your ground insist you do not have an email. They can of course print one. They just have targets to get lots of emails in the system for marketing purposes.

New Look are paperless, you can only get a receipt via email - or at least that’s what I was told a few months ago.

No, PECR still applies in the UK and you should report them if they are sending you marketing emails. Buying an item from them does not entitle them to send you marketing emails and you should always be able to unsubscribe.
Sports direct are a repeat offender for this i have noticed

Collecting, tracking and selling our data is big business for them.

I’ve already had an issue with this same retailer a few months ago!. I wouldn’t have gone back if it wasn’t for the £50 gift voucher!
Last time, the assistant didn’t listen when I said no to the email receipt and then said it was too late. She apparently couldn’t then give me a paper receipt because she had pressed the wrong button. I was very polite, but said I wasn’t prepared to give my email address and that I needed a paper receipt. It was her error and I know it was unintentional on her part, but the store was really unpleasant about this and made out that this was all my fault for not handing over my details. It was their system which caused the problem- not me.

I say 'no'. Annoys the crap out of me.