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.

That's a point (and completely off topic) I haven't been offered a store card in years. Do you want to put this £5.99 purchase on one of our cards... No.

Had one this week wanting me to enter my phone number to receive the receipt.

No I don’t want text messages off you all
the time thanks.

Just say no thanks. End of.

I had very nearly the same but slightly worse in an office supplies store in Bahrain, where I was working. The printer in my office ran out of ink and I knew that the process for ordering more cartridges through our procurement team would take weeks, so I went to the shop, money in hand, found the printer cartridge and took it to the till.

They demanded my personal mobile phone number and wouldn't sell me a printer cartridge without it.

What would then happen is that you got a nuisance call the next day in halting English asking you to complete a customer satisfaction survey. I put it down to Bahrain being an unsophisticated place, but it seems this nonsense is creeping in to the UK as well.

Why can't we just swap goods for money like we used to?

You can say no. I have done so and (gasp) the sky didn't fall.

Nearly all will offer a non email option but is just hard to get to. You perhaps had a member of staff who didn't know to offer other options

I refuse every single time to give my email address when asked this question. Or: I give one I make up on the spot. I also ask 'Why?' and when I'm given some flannel by the shop I tell them I know my rights and I'm not obliged to give them any private information. I also tell them I'll be happy to speak to a manager. Further, I raise my voice a little so that others can hear me. I'm not rude, but I am assertive and I'm quite happy to stand my ground. I have a pet hate of being told I must give my postcode when I return a purchase. Again, I know my rights and my refund is not dependant on giving out my postcode. I'm always told: 'Its company policy' to which I reply: 'Ok, so what exactly is the policy?' They soon back off!

Just say you don't have one?

Before you made that banal, condescending, sarcastic comment, did you read the bit where people (including the OP) said that in some cases, the retailer wouldn't sell them the product unless they give them their email address?! 🙄

The staff shouldn't tell blatant lies, of course; but their jobs are at risk if they don't get a high enough percentage of email addresses from all the customers whom they serve - so they're very strongly incentivised to tell you any old rubbish in order to protect their livelihood.

New Look have gone totally paperless with their receipts (unless that was some flannel from the branch / cashier when I asked for a paper receipt). Makes me way less likely to shop there.

I've not shopped there in years after I heard a staff member criticise a customer after she had an issue with her bank card. They had nothing to say when I said they were out of order.

@PassingStranger
I did?

I was told the same in our local branch,, however, when we were at a different store my teen went to the checkout and they gave her a paper receipt. I assumed due to her age maybe? But clearly disproves their point.

It does annoy me and I really should set up a separate email address for this as mine has my full name. I just think they complain we don't use the high street and that shops will close and then make stupid decisions like this passing us off.

The words are no thanks I don't have an email address.

It annoys me because I don’t want to spell out my personal information in a public place. Also if it gets mistyped then I don’t have a receipt. I wonder if they’d give you the benefit of the doubt if you turned up without one and said it was never recieved?

Exactly this. Give them....

[email protected]

....every time, then never look at the account, until you need the receipt for a refund.

It's a lie. My DD works there. They're told to stay stuff like that to get the email addresses. DD avoids the till work as much as possible because she hates having to do it.

Aah, thank you. Very interesting.
If I ever go back there (unlikely now) I will stand my ground.
I gave my email address reluctantly and, to add salt to the wound, never even got the e-receipt. Good thing I wanted to keep the item.
Cheeky sods.

I do feel sorry for older people, as a society we really are doing our best to exclude them.

Just read the other responses about New Look. I feel a solo boycott coming on!

New Look are terrible for aggressive behaviour around receipts. I've been in 3 different branches and each time I've had the assistant treating me with hostility when I say no thank you to giving my email address.

One tried to take my clothes hostage, she grabbed them when I said no to an email receipt. She said I had to give her my email address and implied she wouldn't give me my purchase unless I did as she said. It felt like I was back at high school being bullied by the mean girls. I asked her to give me a refund if she couldn't give me the clothes I'd just paid for. She looked at me like I was shit on her shoe, as though I'd murdered her nan. Then abra fucking cadabra, a paper receipt magically appeared! She practically chucked the clothes at me.

My other New Look experiences haven't been as bad as that but still quite nasty. It really puts me off shopping there. I've been a regular customer for over 20 years. I still shop there occasionally but begrudgingly and if there's any way I can get a similar item from somewhere else, I will shop elsewhere.

Yes, we could all go to the faff of creating a special email address but I can't be arsed. I've already got 5 email addresses for work/university/volunteering/personal - all with their own passwords to remember. I'm not creating another one just for retailers' benefit to save them a few quid on till roll.

Just say u haven’t got one.

Buying stamps in the post office:

Clerk: Do you want to top up your mobile phone today?
Me: No thank you.
Clerk: Do you want to get better rates on your savings today?
Me: remains silent (Clerk didn't press it.)

I am sure they legally have to give you a receipt if you pay for goods and I’m not sure they can insist on using your email address.

Many older people won’t have an email address. My nanna didn’t even know what email was! To be honest she didn’t even know what a mobile phone was