Horrible interaction in New Look

[lanbro]

Just bought something in New Look, interaction at the till as follows:

Till operator: what's your email for your receipt?
Me: no thanks, I'd like a paper copy please
TO: it's a digital receipt
Me: I know, but I'd prefer a paper copy please
TO: what, you don't have an email address?!
Me: of course, but I'd like a paper copy
TO: fine, it'll take a minute. Why don't you want to give me your email?
Me: I get 100s of spam emails, I don't need anymore thanks
TO: OK, no need to get angry!
Me: I'm not angry but I'm cross that you're being so persistent when I said I didn't want to (may have sounded louder than intended)
TO: don't speak to me like that! That's it I've had enough, don't talk to me!

I said fine, I'd talk to the manager, who happened to just approach the till area. Clearly backed her staff up, unsurprisingly, TO denied the part of the conversation where she'd incredulously enquired about me even having an email, and tried to withhold my paper receipt. I just stated to please give me my receipt but I was furious! Customer service non existent. I understand why they want to send receipts but me saying no should have been accepted surely, and not pushed on me, in a snotty manner

Both TO and manager late teens/early 20s, probably working for NW on not much above so I wouldn't take it further but it's really annoyed me!

YABU she was just trying to do her job
YANBU Terrible customer service

So what if you don’t have an email address
or use any devices.
Surely they have an obligation to give you a receipt

What happens with Argos if you don’t have an email address. Do u know?

I don’t mind TOO much in principle giving my email address but they always spell my name incorrectly so I don’t receive my receipts. So it’s completely pointless really.

even when I spell it out for them it’s still not correct.

@lanbro

I think set up a different receipts email address. It is kind of easier to return things etc with an email record, despite the spam. But I agree, you should have had the option and the interaction was uncalled for.

I refuse to give an email unless it means that I get a discount. I use a junk email address then.

I have had some push back when I've refused but I just repeat I don't want to give my email an did like a paper receipt. I don't bother to explain or argue.

Ironically not really. Streaming/Amazon aside if I want to buy something I usually go to the shop as I can't be doing with the hassle of returns 🤣

I think this is annoying and I would have been a bit annoyed but I think the fact you described yourself as 'furious' and that you described the situation as 'horrible' is a bit over the top. Life is too short to get so worked up about shite like this.
The fact you said that your voice might have been louder than you intended sounds like the staff might have had a point in being annoyed with you too.

Yeah that'll be great. Even less shops in town. More unemployed. It'll be wonderful!!! In fact they should shut everything down n they you can all shop at home n have to pay for returns!!

I wasn't, the interaction is as I've described. I often make a point to compliment excellent service but to be honest I would rarely complain about poor service, I just don't go again.

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.

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!

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

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.

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

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.

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).

YANBU to want a paper receipt.

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

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

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

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

Thank you, spot on!

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.

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.

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

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.