ZIP CODES!

[JLRodgers]

That's another thing: I f*cking asked for your ZIP CODE! Not your phone number, not your f*cking PIN, not your address! Your F*CKING ZIP CODE! Oh, and, by the way, Yes, you paid with cash. No, that won't stop me from asking for your zip code. I have to ask EVERYONE!
Also: NO, I can't send you garbage mail with your zip code, short of letter bombing your entire county! We don't keep any of that sort of non-pertinent information from your credit card. We get your name, your card number, and your signature, then we ask for your zip code! I cannot feasibly send you junk mail without spending wasted man hours looking through a phone book for your name and address.

Well... depending on the town, a name + zip can get mail delivered to you. My Zip+4 (with nothing else) can get a letter delivered to me directly.

[Fandangoose]

Hey Brother carrier...

But yes that is fun to look at sometimes or when I'm in the truck and delivering mail and how I must magically know the zip code of a city on the other side of the state. Or how I'm to know the various postal codes of other countries...

Aethian, I WISH I were a carrier! I'm actually a DCO at one of the remaining RECs (Pittsburgh). I've taken the battery tests many times and still haven't gotten a carrier job. The 473 really ticks me off - I walk away feeling that I've aced the test - including the memorization section - but I get screwed by the "profile" section at the end every time! The highest score I've gotten is an 84 (some people claim that 87 is the new 100) but mostly I receive low 70s. What's your secret? Or did you become a carrier via the old 470 battery?

[Andara Bledin]

I, personally, don't see why anyone really has a problem with giving out their ZIP code. Of course, I live in a large, densely-populated city, but even if my city had only 500 people, I'd still wonder what all the fuss was about.

^-.-^

[Gurndigarn]

I, personally, don't see why anyone really has a problem with giving out their ZIP code. Of course, I live in a large, densely-populated city, but even if my city had only 500 people, I'd still wonder what all the fuss was about.

It's not them having the code, per se. The problem is, I want out of here. Take my money and stop asking me pointless questions. I do not want to answer any personal information that I can't see a point for.

Overreacting? The problem is that marketing people don't stop unless someone makes them stop. Period. If they get no complaints, then they decide that simply collecting general demographical information isn't sufficient, and they need to start tagging their customers and releasing them into the wild collecting phone numbers, or addresses, or whatnot... delaying lines even more, poking thier noses into personal lives even more, and otherwise making everyone's life just a little less personal.

I found it interesting that Radio Shack actually had to advertise to the world that they stopped data collecting. They had actually pissed that many people off.

I simply make something up. It's the easiest way to make sure the data is flawed, so that maybe people will stop doing it.

[edible_hat]

Well... depending on the town, a name + zip can get mail delivered to you. My Zip+4 (with nothing else) can get a letter delivered to me directly.

My grandmother once received a letter (for her) addressed with just her surname and suburb. Not even the state was on there!

[Fandangoose]

My grandmother once received a letter (for her) addressed with just her surname and suburb. Not even the state was on there!

Once upon a time, if a letter was going to the same city the sender lived in, you could just write the addressee's name and literally "City" below that, and it would get there! Some people (who must have been around since those days) still do it. Naturally this makes the computers which read mail destination addresses throw fits and we receive those letter images so we can try to tell the system where to send them.

[Andara Bledin]

Generally speaking, stores collect location-based information to know whether or not they should open up a new store in a certain location.

I can certainly understand merely refusing to give it out as a general protest, but giving out false information does nothing to disuade them; after all, they have no way to know that you've given false information unless it is impossible for the information you gave to be accurate, and they've already allowed for a certain percentage of inaccurate information already.

^-.-^

[Imogene]

I can certainly understand merely refusing to give it out as a general protest, but giving out false information does nothing to disuade them

And in some cases, for instance, my store, they can fire us if you give us false info. Yes, because I should know all 100000 combinations of numbers to make up zip codes, and then know which ones are real. Hell, I can hardly name the states. Much less the myriad thousands of counties in each. If I am given a zip code, I type that in. If it's not a real zip code, how the F am I to know? I'm the messenger, not the sender.

[JLRodgers]

And in some cases, for instance, my store, they can fire us if you give us false info. Yes, because I should know all 100000 combinations of numbers to make up zip codes, and then know which ones are real. Hell, I can hardly name the states. Much less the myriad thousands of counties in each. If I am given a zip code, I type that in. If it's not a real zip code, how the F am I to know? I'm the messenger, not the sender.

If accurate ones were that important, the program should have a list (capable of being updated) of all valid zip codes -- and display on the monitor where the zip code is for.

But even so, someone could give a valid zipcode-- for the county over -- and you'd never be the wiser! Huh... come to think of it, how would the managers know? Or is it just "you can be fired if a zipcode is invalid"? Guess it doesn't matter, it's a dumb policy either way.

[sarahj]

I thought the idea of stores getting customers' zip codes was so they could figure out where a good location for a new store would be? And there are many people who complain about customers not wanting to give zip codes, yet people on here admit to getting annoyed and refusing to tell their zip code? I don't see why a zip/postal code is so personal that it cannot be given out. I would not just give out my phone number, of course, but with a postal code there is no way of directly contacting the customer, which is what customers disagree with anyway.

Yes, employers are stupid for threatening to fire cashiers over this, but I don't see why anyone would withhold their zip code when they know they could cause the cashier to get into trouble. (I want to add that giving the wrong zip code, as long as it is valid, seems perfectly acceptable to me if you feel you really can't give out your own.) That's my anyway.

[TryNotToBeThatOne]

The post office in a small town in my state really impressed someone. I had bought an odd little item from the creator & wanted a refill (neat all-in-one crayon pencil thing) and addressed it to "X-thingy Lady, Town, State, zip" & that's it. It reached her. This was years before the internet, btw.

I usually give my real zip, because frankly it just doesn't matter that much to me. But it's really fun when I am waaaaay out of town. The clerk just kind of blinks at me before they enter the number.

[JLRodgers]

....I usually give my real zip, because frankly it just doesn't matter that much to me. But it's really fun when I am waaaaay out of town. The clerk just kind of blinks at me before they enter the number.

That reminded me of when I went out to Los Angeles and Long Beach once. I was asked my zip code and said "I'm actually from Illinois" It threw off the employee for a few seconds and said "well we'll try it" I gave it to him/her (can't remember) and the employee commented about how it was used for new store locations.

[Imogene]

and display on the monitor where the zip code is for.

Or is it just "you can be fired if a zipcode is invalid"?

If we were running on anything more complex than the PSII POS that we are, that might actually be possible....

And, the memo, as I read it, states we can be fired for making up fake zipcodes. And, apparently, they will interpret invalid zip codes as the cashier doing something wrong. It's not the customers, oh, no, never.

[Andara Bledin]

That reminded me of when I went out to Los Angeles and Long Beach once.

Hey, you were in my town! Did you wave?

^-.-^

[RecoveringKinkoid]

For those wondering why people don't want to give out their zip code, I'll give my reasons.

1. It's not pertinent to the transaction. Hate long, slow lines? Imagine how much faster the lines would be if the cashier was allowed to just, you know, ring you up instead of having to take a demographics survey/direct marketing info gathering/ selling magazines/selling credit/ all of the above.

2. People are far too used to giving out any information anyone asks for. What's the big deal, you ask? Exactly. Some people ask "what's the big deal" when asked for their phone number or even more personal info, as we've discussed on other boards. People should be less careless about what info they give out. They should not be "used to" it. Because little by little, the level of privacy invasion increases, and with it our tolerance of same.

3. I dont' want an advertising blast to happen in my area. The landfills are full enough.

4. I don't particularly want a store in my area. Sprawl is bad enough, and so is traffic. I live in a semi-rural area for a reason.

5. It puts the cashiers in a bad place. It's not my problem that they get in trouble over it. I don't want them to get in trouble, but I"m sticking to my guns regardless. If management is going to stoop to the level of stupidity that Juwl is describing, they will do so with no help from me. Maybe if it's clear that it annoys enough customers, then they will knock it off. It seemed to work for Lowes, at least. They quit asking for phone numbers. In fact, I notice a couple businesses that used to do it dont' anymore. Food for thought.