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

Data data data
Capitalism cannot make bricks without clay

I was wondering this the other day as my niece is pregnant and I was sharing my experience of a postnatal ward!! When I had DD almost 12 years ago they basically held the child benefit form (at the time the only way to claim child benefit) hostage until they spoke to you. Which is an awful tactic and they should never have been the ones to have them in their possession. I was very ill after having DD having lost a lot of blood and needing surgery so my DH basically told her to give the form and bugger off when she opened my curtain without calling out first. I complained about their presence in general as at the time there was a lot of anger about them and rightly so - nobody who isn’t a HCP should have access to women and babies on maternity wards.

This is my issue.

I prefer a digital receipt and download the apps for all the shops I normally frequent so I have a digital record of my purchases.

However, I have been caught out so many times with emailed receipts that never arrive. My email address is not particularly unusual or hard to spell either.

Now, if it is a large purchase or if I know there's a high possibility I will need the receipt I will either insist on a paper receipt or wait until the email comes through before leaving the shop. I usually tell a little white lie about my reason for needing a paper receipt as they're taught to overcome all the usual reasons. Something they can't argue with like 'it's a long story, but I'm supposed to be somewhere else at the moment'

For other purchases I always ask to enter my own email address (most customer service assistants are more than happy for you to do this if their tech allows it)

Gov.uk site has this which would indicate that they are acceptable:

This is absolutely correct, a VAT registered organisation is legally bound to provide a VAT receipt. I think the issue was paper versus electronic though.

We all know a simple press of a till button will generate a paper receipt but these poor girls/lads are constantly under the kosh to meet their KPIs, they get a bollocking if they don’t and collecting email addresses is a big one. My now adult daughters did a long spell at NL each, post GCSEs.

Wow this is weird! I posted on my own social media about an identical situation last year in New Look.

'What's your email for your receipt'
'I'll just have a paper one thanks'
'We don't do them anymore'
'Okay, I'll just use my bank transaction as evidence if I need to return anything'
'Fine I'll give you a paper receipt. But just be aware next time you come in you WILL be asked for your email'
'... okay!?'

It was so bizarre and weirdly threatening.

I'm not giving them my email address.

Anyway I emailed head office and they fell over themselves apologising and said their stance is that an e-receipt is the default, but any customer that doesn't want to share their email for this must be given a paper one, and if it happens again to speak to a manager or show them the correspondence between the head office and I.

I find it interesting they don't even ask anymore if you'll share your email for a receipt, they just ask for it as if it's a given. I've seen them spin around the till for customers to input it if the customer says oh it's a long one or a tricky email. They just assume they're entitled to it.

It's my personal info and I don't feel I need to share my contact details with a shop in order to buy something. It doesn't happen elsewhere. Plus they abuse it by signing you up to the newsletter without even asking permission. I'm sure they're breaching GDPR on that side, because they're using data for a purpose customers haven't consented to.

Now when they ask I just say I don't have one.

I didn't know about the child benefit form. But I do know that's outrageously dishonest - official government forms like this can be picked up by anyone from the Post Office. They are certainly not gatekept by unscrupulous marketing organisations masquerading as parenting support clubs!

Mumsnet kicked up a real stink about these people at the time, if I remember rightly. I think they campaigned about it, showing the power this site can have as a pressure group, not just as a forum for general chat or support. My DC is now almost 11, so clearly ours was a similar era.

Really hope they've knocked it on the head.

I just say because I don't want to and thst seems to shut the conversation down.

You're not wrong to be annoyed. I always ask for a paper receipt too, purely because my email address is my name and my surname is long, uncommon and always needs spelling out. I can't be arsed with that at the till.

I used to shop at New Look a lot but it never appeals to me anymore. Our local one just looks run down and full of rails of sale clothes. The nice one at the retail park closed.

Dont know if high pressure tactics to get personal info out of someone (which an email or telephone number is ) is a breach of any consumer or data privacy laws but it bloody should be.

Back in the day in many shops you had to provide name, address and tel no when returning items. I think so they could check up and make sure the sales assistant wasn't pocketing cash or products.

So I am not that surprised they ask for an email address, but any contact method should be sufficient.

Yes it actually is, under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations, which are being upgraded by the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act with effect from April.

The new law will make it easier to establish that aggressive practices were followed. However, it has to affect a consumer's "transactional decision". By the time they are demanding email addresses, you've actually already bought the item and made the transactional decision.

It's my personal info and I don't feel I need to share my contact details with a shop in order to buy something. It doesn't happen elsewhere. Plus they abuse it by signing you up to the newsletter without even asking permission. I'm sure they're breaching GDPR on that side, because they're using data for a purpose customers haven't consented to

Yes you are absolutely right.

And it's a breach of the GDPR in other ways too - if you collect personal information, you need to need it. Do you need an email address for someone to buy something in a shop? Maybe, for eg a candle or an electronic item, for product recall purposes*. But if I am buying a t-shirt? Unlikely.

• there are new EU laws about product safety that apply in Northern Ireland, so expect more requests for email addresses in shops there

You can opt out and it should be easy, eg just clicking the unsubscribe button, but it's still a step you have to take that you shouldn't do.

AND asking for email addresses makes the queue to pay longer.

It's a constant well of surprises that people are so persistent about extracting contact details, and assume an entitlement to that information simply because they've asked for it

Also when they call you and ask you to prove who you are.

Erm - you called me. How about you prove who you are!

Haven’t RTFT except for the OP and first few responses but YANBU.

I don’t shop in New Look but I've been asked for my email address in Dunelm. I just say no thanks, I’ll have a paper receipt. Never had an argument.

However, just in case I ever encounter a really pushy assistant who insists on an email receipt, I pre-emptively created a burner email address that I now use only for this purpose or for when I don’t want to give my real one. Every now and then I go into it and clear out all the spam emails. Very satisfying it is too.

Exactly this.

So many retail companies target their employees with obtaining an email address for marketing purposes.

Once they have your email, you’ve opted in to communications from them, so they can send you promotional emails until you opt out.

Tell them that if they care so much about the environment they should stop selling polyester crap!

I gpt the eye rolling when I didn't want to give my email address and a sigh when paying with cash.

Blimey, the cheap clothes are just to get you through the door, the real profit comes from selling your information to third parties ☹️

Haha! I should have proof read that 😆

Paper receipts under the guise of saving the planet, aggghhh winds me up! Stop making so many plastic shoes instead. They just want our data. And New Look, even though they do have some nice things, have lost their way. I'm surprised they are still going. They certainly won't be much longer if they continue to piss off customers.

For a fast fashion retail outlet to say this would make me hoot with laughter. This industry is one of the worst culprits on a fast-track to destroying the planet!

I shop vintage whenever possible. This isn't only for environmental reasons - that's a sideways benefit - but because the quality of items available on the high street has gone through the floor as prices have gone through the ceiling.

Badly-cut polyester just doesn't appeal. And 'vegan' shoes are far worse for the planet than leather ones.

The emailed receipts are becoming more popular. I’m not keen on it either.
I’ve made a new email address similar to- receipts @ address. com
They often can’t spell receipts quick enough so offer a paper one ha ha.