[TriLUG] CompUSA closing stores

[Kevin Otte]

On Wed, Feb 28, 2007 at 12:56:18PM -0500, Greg Brown wrote:
> My favorite was one of my very few (and last) visits to Tiger Direct:
> 
> Them: Will this be cash, debit, or charge?

Me: Credit

> Them: What is your phone number?

Me: I don't have a phone.

Them: But we need a phone number for our database.  We won't call you.

Me: The only purpose of having a telephone number is to call it.  No.

At this point I was in a bit of a hurry having stood in line for the last
half hour and remembered that I had bought stuff from them mail order before
moving down here.  I gave them that phone number and they were able to
recall the record.  They asked for my ID and used that to "update" the
record.  That's right, they now have my NC address and my OH phone number in
their precious database.  Their story of fraud prevention is farcical at
best.

If they'd have just told me that it was the easiest primary key for their
database since _most_ people have one, I'd have been just fine with that and
gladly made one up on the spot.  It's their continued insistance that annoys
me.

Tiger Direct is not the only company guilty of this.  Many retailers are now
doing this, much to my frustration.  There was a long time I would not even
step foot in a Radio Shack because they required a phone number even for a
*cash* transaction.

My recommendation: Get a free account at sipphone.com.  Their phone numbers
are in the nonexistant area code of 747, but I'm sure most retailers can't
be bothered to check such things.  In addition to thwarting evil data
collection, you can now start playing with some neat VoIP/Asterisk action. :)

-- 
Kevin Otte, N8VNR
nivex at nivex.net
http://www.nivex.net/

-=-

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." 
-- George Santayana

"It seems no one reads Santayana anymore."
-- Cdr. Susan Ivanova, Babylon 5