RADIO SHACK FASCISM
Reid E. Whitlock
encounteredthe salesperson requesting, at time of purchase, your last four
digits of your phone number (or was it SSAN?), and your address and name.
This is ostensibly "for our records". I pushed further (not having been in a
Radio Shack in a long time and not being aware of their proclivity for data
collection) "what EXACTLY will you do with this information?" I was told
that it would permit Radio Shack to send me promotional material (as if I
need more junk mail!). I said "no thank you". And told the gentleman that I
would not give him any of the information he had requested. At this point he
said "THEN I CANNOT SELL YOU THE DIGITAL ALARM CLOCK YOU ARE ATTEMPTING TO
BUY". He claimed that without **at least** my name being coded in, he could
not complete the transaction --- the computer wouldn't let him!!!
Now this seemed to me a particularly insidious form of big-brother fascism,
and I of course, made a scene in the store stating that as long as I paid
cash I had a right in a retail outlet for a purchase of under twenty five
lousy dollars, to remain ANONYMOUS! He said, according to Radio Shack, I did
not.
I personally think the store should be boycotted until it changes its
policy (nationwide, mind you), but what peeves me more is that chains/
franchise empires like this one use this tactic, tying us all in to master
databases to be used who-the-hell-knows-how ?
Geoff Miller
In article <whitlo...@vaxb.gbus.virginia.edu>
whit...@vaxb.gbus.virginia.edu (Reid E. Whitlock) writes:
>And told the gentleman that I would not give him any of the information
>he had requested. At this point he said "THEN I CANNOT SELL YOU THE
>DIGITAL ALARM CLOCK YOU ARE ATTEMPTING TO BUY". He claimed that without
>**at least** my name being coded in, he could not complete the transaction
>--- the computer wouldn't let him!!!
Next time, suggest that he simply enter a random number or name.
I've gotten around this by telling the guy that I'm already on their
mailing list. Since that's supposedly the reason they want this
personal information, they're left with no retort.
Geoff
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Geoff Miller + + + + + + + + Sun Microsystems
geo...@purplehaze.Corp.Sun.COM + + + + + + + + Menlo Park, California
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Bill Berbenich
In <whitlo...@vaxb.gbus.virginia.edu> whit...@vaxb.gbus.virginia.edu (Reid E. Whitlock) writes:
>Now this seemed to me a particularly insidious form of big-brother fascism,
>and I of course, made a scene in the store stating that as long as I paid
>cash I had a right in a retail outlet for a purchase of under twenty five
>lousy dollars, to remain ANONYMOUS! He said, according to Radio Shack, I did
>not.
You have a right to remain anonymous and buy under certain conditions. They
have a right to not accept your conditions and to refuse the sale. Case
closed. Neither one of you is compelled to accept the sales conditions of
the other, yet each has the right to attempt the transaction and then decide
whether the conditions are acceptable to you.
<Bang!>
"Mac, what's the next case on the docket?"
-Bill, LA Law, Class of '90
--
"Among free peoples, the open exchange of ideas
ultimately is our greatest security." - President Ronald Reagan
David Hinz Mfg 4-6987
:
: >Now this seemed to me a particularly insidious form of big-brother fascism,
: >and I of course, made a scene in the store stating that as long as I paid
: >cash I had a right in a retail outlet for a purchase of under twenty five
: >lousy dollars, to remain ANONYMOUS! He said, according to Radio Shack, I did
: >not.
I've never had problems with this. When they ask for my number, I just tell
them 'cash sale'. This has worked at several RS's in the Wisconsin area,
with minimal hassle.
I don't go to RS much anyway, because they haven't been worth a DAMN since they
started selling more consumer goods than hardware-hacker goods. Kinda like
Heathkit, who used to actually sell KITS. Imagine that. Now, you just go in
and buy the junk already assembled, instead of assembling the junk yourself.
ObPeeve: BDI Radio Shack salesmen who know NOTHING about what they are selling.
Last time I went in, one who I already knew to be useless greeted me with a
greasy "Can I hellllllllllllp you?", to which I replied "Probably not." Short,
to the point, and innefective. "Well, why don't you try me?", to which I
responded, "OK, I am looking for the components I need to debounce a SPST
switch used as a trigger on a TTL flip-flop". He left me alone after that.
Sometimes, you just have to be rude when dealing with RS.
--
Dave Hinz - Opinions expressed are mine, not my employer's. Obviously.
hi...@picard.med.ge.com
01s...@ac.dal.ca
> Now this seemed to me a particularly insidious form of big-brother fascism,
> and I of course, made a scene in the store stating that as long as I paid
> cash I had a right in a retail outlet for a purchase of under twenty five
> lousy dollars, to remain ANONYMOUS! He said, according to Radio Shack, I did
> not.
>
Just do what I do and pick the name and number of someone you know and don't
like.
Uh oh. Good think nobody here knows my last name or phone number. I can just
inagine the amount of R.S. junk mail I'd be getting :-}
Mike
David B. Thomas
>responded, "OK, I am looking for the components I need to debounce a SPST
>switch used as a trigger on a TTL flip-flop". He left me alone after that.
>Sometimes, you just have to be rude when dealing with RS.
I used to work at the Tandy Consumer Repair Center here in Albuquerque,
fixing everything but the computers (those are easy, and can be delegated
to lesser technicians <grin>). We used to call the folks who work in the
retail stores "store pukes". They would always throw around the few buzzwords
they could think of to try and impress us. Yes, even in the face of
professionals, accredited by their own company, they would do this.
"The tape doesn't move when you try to record.. I'll bet it's the bias
oscillator." Like I said... store pukes.
My favorite store puke story is almost cute. I walk into a radio shack to
buy a tv antenna. I had in mind the little indoor rabbit ear type.
SP: May I help you?
ME: I need a tv antenna.
SP: Is it for a big tv or a little tv?
ME: (incredulous) What difference does THAT make?
SP: Well, for a big tv you need a big antenna. It needs a bigger signal.
ME: Wanna sign up for my new dating service?
[I had just started a new business venture, since defunct. This guy was
my first customer and he *did* find a neat wife! Hmmm she's a small woman..
I wonder what THAT means!]
ObPeeve: Bosses who do fun, exciting things with lawyers all day, leaving us
plebes to do more mundane things like read the net.
little david
--
Will hack Unix for food.
Russ Kepler
>ObPeeve: Bosses who do fun, exciting things with lawyers all day, leaving us
>plebes to do more mundane things like read the net.
<CRACK!> <CRACK!> <CRACK!> <CRACK!>
Any more of that shit and you'll be stuck with not only the MS-DOS
work but also the VMS...
-- Russ "The Whippings Will Continue Until Morale Improves" Kepler
--
.signature: not found. Create?
Nosy
< Those of you who have recently shopped in a Radio Shack outlet may have
< encounteredthe salesperson requesting, at time of purchase, your last four
< digits of your phone number (or was it SSAN?), and your address and name.
< This is ostensibly "for our records".
A friend...well, not really a friend, more of "some guy
named Sandy I used to know who was rather a jerk" once
told me that Radio Shack salespeople have a QUOTA of
names/addresses that they must meet per month....hence
the pushiness of some who may be, shall we say, a bit
low on the totem pole of Radio ShackDom.
Geoff's solution is appropriate to the level of
intelligence involved, although giving 01sybok's
name and address has a certain charm to it as well.
ObPeeve: I remember when Tandy first bought Radio Shack. A former
ham I knew at that time commented "There goes the
neighborhood". How right he was......
Rick Gordon
>ObPeeve: I remember when Tandy first bought Radio Shack. A former
> ham I knew at that time commented "There goes the
> neighborhood". How right he was......
The way I remember it, the neighborhood was headed in a downward spiral
at the point Tandy bought Allied, which up to that point had been a
fairly reliable vendor of Good Stuff.
--
Rick Gordon | "Loud is good."
ri...@netcom.com | -- Frank Loesser
Scott Jeffrey
> <In article <whitlo...@vaxb.gbus.virginia.edu> whit...@vaxb.gbus.virginia.edu (Reid E. Whitlock) writes:
>
> < Those of you who have recently shopped in a Radio Shack outlet may have
> < encounteredthe salesperson requesting, at time of purchase, your last four
> < digits of your phone number (or was it SSAN?), and your address and name.
> < This is ostensibly "for our records".
>
> A friend...well, not really a friend, more of "some guy
> named Sandy I used to know who was rather a jerk" once
> told me that Radio Shack salespeople have a QUOTA of
> names/addresses that they must meet per month....hence
> the pushiness of some who may be, shall we say, a bit
> low on the totem pole of Radio ShackDom.
Crimminy! What would they rather have, a cash sale or
a name (a _wrong_ name and #, if they use Geoff's solution) in their
bloody database? Their choice speaks volumes.
> Geoff's solution is appropriate to the level of
> intelligence involved, although giving 01sybok's
> name and address has a certain charm to it as well.
Touche'.
ObPeeve: There's a sign in a [Cambodian] restaurant near my home which reads:
Luncheon Special
$4.99
and soup
Now, does this mean that they charge you $4.99 _and_ a bowl of soup
for the Special?
scooter
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+ sco...@hirgon.hw.stratus.com Flat Flip Flies Straight +
+ "Go to the forest and move." +
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Evil Engineer doin' it the Cowboy Way
Those of you who have recently shopped in a Radio Shack outlet may have
encounteredthe salesperson requesting, at time of purchase, your last four
digits of your phone number (or was it SSAN?), and your address and name.
This is ostensibly "for our records". I pushed further (not having been in a
Radio Shack in a long time and not being aware of their proclivity for data
collection) "what EXACTLY will you do with this information?" I was told
that it would permit Radio Shack to send me promotional material (as if I
need more junk mail!). I said "no thank you". And told the gentleman that I
would not give him any of the information he had requested. At this point he
said "THEN I CANNOT SELL YOU THE DIGITAL ALARM CLOCK YOU ARE ATTEMPTING TO
BUY". He claimed that without **at least** my name being coded in, he could
not complete the transaction --- the computer wouldn't let him!!!
The correct response was: "Oh, I guess I don't want the shitty Micronta
digital alarm clock I just shoved up your ass after all.." And walk out.
Now this seemed to me a particularly insidious form of big-brother fascism,
and I of course, made a scene in the store stating that as long as I paid
cash I had a right in a retail outlet for a purchase of under twenty five
lousy dollars, to remain ANONYMOUS! He said, according to Radio Shack,
I did not.
I personally think the store should be boycotted until it changes its
policy (nationwide, mind you), but what peeves me more is that chains/
franchise empires like this one use this tactic, tying us all in to master
databases to be used who-the-hell-knows-how ?
You can use one of MY numbers if you want: 0000 or 6969.
L.
"Yeh, Buddy.. | la...@psl.nmsu.edu (Larry Cunningham)| _~~_
I've got your COMPUTER! | % Physical Science Laboratory | (O)(-)
Right HERE!!" | New Mexico State University | /..\
(computer THIS!) | Las Cruces, New Mexico, USA 88003 | <>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are CORRECT, mine, and not PSLs or NMSUs..
Revered, now I live on. O did I do no evil, I wonder ever.
Reid E. Whitlock
There's now a sequal to my earlier article <whitlo...@vaxb.gbus.
virginia.edu>. Returning to the same store, emboldened by several of your
comments, I appeared to have renounced my earlier pugnaciousness, and agreed
to give them a "name, address and last four digits of the phone number".
This was the same clerk/order-taker as the time before.
"NAME": Joseph Bloh
so far so good
"ADDRESS" 123 First Street, Charlottesville 12345
what are you trying to prove --- you knoe that's not a Charlottesville zip
code! Look I'm with you on this one, but I have to follow company policy. I
have to cancel this sale.
AND SO IT GOES !!!!!
The moral of the story is that in this case, at least, having something to
fill in on the computer screen was NOT ENOUGH. It had to be, or have the
semblance of being, "correct".
Reid
242 lbs before cooking
>"NAME": Joseph Bloh
>"ADDRESS" 123 First Street, Charlottesville 12345
>
>what are you trying to prove --- you knoe that's not a Charlottesville zip
>code! Look I'm with you on this one, but I have to follow company policy. I
>have to cancel this sale.
Just for future reference, Joe, 12345 is the zip code in Schenectady,
New York.
Since they're insistant, go in and collect a metric shitload of little
bits off their odd-electronic-parts racks. I mean a hundred or so.
When he refuses to handle your cash sale without name and address,
leave all the stuff on the counter and exit.
andy
ba...@abingdon.sun.com
--
"If you add a teaspoon of wine to a barrel of sewage, you get sewage.
If you add a teaspoon of sewage to a barrel of wine, you get sewage.
This, my son, is entropy."
Seth Breidbart
whit...@vaxb.gbus.virginia.edu (Reid E. Whitlock) writes:
>There's now a sequal to my earlier article <whitlo...@vaxb.gbus.
>virginia.edu>. Returning to the same store, emboldened by several of your
>comments, I appeared to have renounced my earlier pugnaciousness, and agreed
>to give them a "name, address and last four digits of the phone number".
I don't remember it, but the address and phone number of RatShack have
been posted in misc.consumers. Most of their salesdroids don't
recognize them.
!Peeve: The RatShacks around here will refrain from insisting on your
name, if you ask them politely.
!Peeve: Zaro's Bread Basket cashiers hand me the coins from my change
first.
ObPeeve: Their prices are still too high.
++++++++++++++++++++Seth se...@fid.morgan.com++++++++++++++++++++
Fuck that. Anyone who'd put up with that kind of abuse is clearly
mentally defective, dogshit on the lawnmower wheel of society, and
deserves to be called home early by father Darwin. The rest of us
have anough on our collective plate without some roundheeled bimbo
screeching because she's getting slapped around by her dirtbag
boyfriend. Screw `em both -- what they really need is an RPG round
or three through their living room window. That'd be a favor to the
gene pool, not to mention the ambient noise level of their community.
--Geoff Miller
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Esther Lumsdon
>In article <ATAYLOR.92...@gauss.nmsu.edu>, ata...@nmsu.edu (Nosy) writes:
>> <In article <whitlo...@vaxb.gbus.virginia.edu> whit...@vaxb.gbus.virginia.edu (Reid E. Whitlock) writes:
>>
>> < Those of you who have recently shopped in a Radio Shack outlet may have
>> < encounteredthe salesperson requesting, at time of purchase, your last four
>> < digits of your phone number (or was it SSAN?), and your address and name.
>> < This is ostensibly "for our records".
>>
>> A friend...well, not really a friend, more of "some guy
>> named Sandy I used to know who was rather a jerk" once
>> told me that Radio Shack salespeople have a QUOTA of
>> names/addresses that they must meet per month....hence
>> the pushiness of some who may be, shall we say, a bit
>> low on the totem pole of Radio ShackDom.
> Crimminy! What would they rather have, a cash sale or
>a name (a _wrong_ name and #, if they use Geoff's solution) in their
>bloody database? Their choice speaks volumes.
>> Geoff's solution is appropriate to the level of
>> intelligence involved, although giving 01sybok's
>> name and address has a certain charm to it as well.
My spouse worked in several Radio Shack stores while attending college.
The salespeople do have a quota of names to get, and they are punished
by not filling it. When a customer declined to give a name and address (they
used to ask for name and address to make a sale, not just 4 digits of phone
number), he used to enter the district manager's name and home address.
He did it for years after quitting the Shack, until he could no longer
remember the address :-)
Shack employees are not punished for creatively meeting the quota requirement.
I suggest that you provide the information for a another Radio Shack store
to the salesclerk, or politely advise him to be creative with your refusal.
The clerk won't get far in Shack without creativity.
--
------ Esther Lumsdon employed by, not speaking for, Verdix Corporation
It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice.
est...@verdix.com or esther%verdi...@uunet.uu.net
Carl Makin
> I personally think the store should be boycotted until it changes its
> policy (nationwide, mind you), but what peeves me more is that chains/
Worldwide actually. :-( Only here they haven't got the computer
yet.
> franchise empires like this one use this tactic, tying us all in to master
> databases to be used who-the-hell-knows-how ?
Actually a better tactic is to make up a reasonable sounding name
and give the address and phone of a local political creature. :-)
Carl.
--
Carl Makin, MVS/ESA Systems Programmer, VAX/VMS Dabbler.
Dept. Health, Housing and Community Services, Canberra, Australia.
sserve.cc.adfa.oz.au!hhcs!makinc - UUCP
mak...@hhcs.gov.au - Internet
vk1...@vk1kcm.act.aus.oc - Packet Radio
"I'm from the Government and I'm here to help you."
Reykja Sigurdsson
> (Reid E. Whitlock) writes:
> >"NAME": Joseph Bloh
> >"ADDRESS" 123 First Street, Charlottesville 12345
> >
> >what are you trying to prove --- you knoe that's not a Charlottesville zip
> >code! Look I'm with you on this one, but I have to follow company policy. I
> >have to cancel this sale.
Perhaps coming up with something reasonably authenticis the
answer. Give them the address and name of someone you don't like --
particularly given that they will be inundated with junk mail until
a few days before Ragnarok!
I always give them an address in Iceland. It completely
throws them off. "Well, " I smile kindly, "I am onlya visitor here."
Those who refuse to mind their business deserve whatever
they get!
Recall when they used to demand phone numbers on credit card
purchases? That drove me mad! In fact, I used to give them the number
of the local state hospital! ;-)
-reykjavik
The seeking of wisdom is the highest virtue-
--Odin--