My privacy is being violated!

[Parts_Drone]

I'm sure some of the rest of you here has had this happen, you ask someone for their name and phone number for some reason (in this case so I could process a return) and they flip out and claim it's an invasion of privacy. A couple days ago a customer did just that, uttering such gems as "theres something called the privacy act you know!". So I simply told the customer to put his name and signature and make up a phone number if it made him feel better, crisis averted.

[Gravekeeper]

I like the paranoia flip outs. The caller is perfectly normal the entire call till you ask for the one red flag piece of information. It could be their number, their address, their last name.....but the second you ask for it they go "WHY DO YOU NEED THAT!??"

I had a woman do that to me AFTER she gave me her credit card info when I was just getting her shipping address. The CC number's fine, but god forbid I should know where she lives.

[Imogene]

"theres something called the privacy act you know!".

"Yes, sir/Ma'am/Other, there is a thing called the Privacy Act, it makes it illegal for me to give your information to others without your consent for me to do so. I don't see how this affects my collecting the info for our system, as it's the only way I'll be able to send out the item you requested."

[BusyBee]

We get people sometimes go spaz when we say we need a second phone number to contact them on, or an alternate contact that we could get a message to them through. Pretty stupid, I mean, we only want their info so that we can save THEM money by telling them to return late movies...

This reminds me of a sucky coworker I very briefly had once though. She was training to be a senior staff (full time) at our store. On I think the second day, while the manager was in the middle of taking her through something, she cuts him off mid-sentence to go "OMG I think my ex lives around here! I wonder if you have him on the computer!" She goes to the computer, looks up her ex (who, apparently, had had to move house and sever all contact with her because she WOULD NOT leave him alone when they broke up) and starts writing down his address and phone number!
Thank god she quit before she even finished the week of training. She was horrible.

[bigjimaz]

I love these people. The won't give you their name, address or phone number just for verification reasons, yet they have no qualms about signing a check over to a total stranger that contains all the same info AND the account number where all their money is.

[MissVendetta]

In the book shop we got customers who wanted to order a book and wanted that we would let them know when their book had arrived, but refused to give their names, addresses or phone numbers. "Why do you want to know that?!!?"
Err...no reason...

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

In the book shop we got customers who wanted to order a book and wanted that we would let them know when their book had arrived, but refused to give their names, addresses or phone numbers. "Why do you want to know that?!!?"
Err...no reason...

Well sir, we could just hire a psychic to telepathically search the area for your psychic trace and implant the command to come to our store and pick up the book. However to recoup the losses of hiring the psychic, we would also have the command implanted to purchase a large selection of our high-priced books that we can't seem to get rid of.

[Strikesfirmly]

"But why do you need that just to let me purchase X tiny item!?"

or

"I don't think you need to know that."

I don't care where you live, I'm just required to ask for whatever reason the corporate office asks. I'm even more required to ask since you plan to pay with check or credit.

But my percentage of sales with names has gone up. The manager created a name file for our store, so we can use that for when SCs pay up front after which the items must be returned out of hardware, the cash given to us, and the items rung up again in the separate electronics so inventory and the books for both stores are correct.

Now I just use that ID for people in a hurry or the Privacy Act SCs lol.

[BookstoreEscapee]

In the book shop we got customers who wanted to order a book and wanted that we would let them know when their book had arrived, but refused to give their names, addresses or phone numbers. "Why do you want to know that?!!?"
Err...no reason...

I hate those people! They say "I'll call you and check on it" and I'd think, no, you probably won't. sigh. If you look up the store phone number in the customer order search, you'll get a large number of current and past employees (usually I'd notice the store phone number before I realized the name was an employee) and the handful of people who refused to give a phone number.

[nick1091]

Man, if I had a nickle for every time I'd ask someone for some information to confirm their identity and account and got "You're NOT ALLOWED to ask me that!!" in response, I'd be a rich man.

Sorry sir, as fortune would have it you're not the only John Smith who has an account with us. I don't know what you think I'm going to do with that super-secret classified info aka your home phone number, but I assure you it's just to weed through the 1,000 other people that share your name.

[Kara]

I like the paranoia flip outs. The caller is perfectly normal the entire call till you ask for the one red flag piece of information. It could be their number, their address, their last name.....but the second you ask for it they go "WHY DO YOU NEED THAT!??"

Yet, paradoxically, these are the same customers who don't understand why I can't give them phone numbers from their call records, have to ask them to confirm their address for me since I can't read it to them, or give them their own mobile phone #. Because these things are all considered "personal" information and just in case you aren't who you say you are, we can't give it out.

All SC's in unison: "Well, that's just stupid!"

No, it's protecting you. There have been so many times a violent, unstable ex has called in or had a friend call in and got someone who gave them information such as the accountholder's name and address, and it ended very badly (we're talking the accountholder calling in later screaming due to now dealing with death threats, vandalism, even physical violence).

[Noelegy]

"Yes, sir/Ma'am/Other, there is a thing called the Privacy Act, it makes it illegal for me to give your information to others without your consent for me to do so. I don't see how this affects my collecting the info for our system, as it's the only way I'll be able to send out the item you requested."

Reminds me of the rash of clients lately who think that HIPAA laws prevent them from giving me ANY information about the patient, even though I explain that they indicated that insurance should be billed, but did not provide us with the insurance policy numbers.

[nekoro]

I'm sure some of the rest of you here has had this happen, you ask someone for their name and phone number for some reason (in this case so I could process a return) and they flip out and claim it's an invasion of privacy. A couple days ago a customer did just that, uttering such gems as "theres something called the privacy act you know!". So I simply told the customer to put his name and signature and make up a phone number if it made him feel better, crisis averted.

I can do you one better.

"Can I have your Social Security Number please?"
"Oh, sure, it's xxx-xx-xxxx."
"Thank you, can I have your phone number please?"
"WHAT?!?! I'M NOT GIVING YOU THAT, YOU'LL SELL IT! YOU CAN'T ASK FOR THAT, IT'S ILLEGALLLL!!!!!"

O.o

[RecoveringKinkoid]

"I don't care where you live, I'm just required to ask for whatever reason the corporate office asks."

I'm one of these people who don't give that out. I realize you are required to ask for it, so I'm never nasty to the clerk. But I'm not required to give it out, so unless I feel a store has a reasonable need for it, I don't give it out. I don't give out any info at cash registers, actually, as I'm not there to fill out a marketing or demographics poll. I'm there to exchange goods for money.

If I'm paying with a check, I'll give it. And if I'm having delivery or whatever done, I'll give it. But just to buy a box of nails or a book or a pair of socks? Forget it. It IS a privacy thing, and I have a right to decide what I do with my personal info.

Not a single clerk has been able to tell me why that info is collected. Not one. And sometimes I do ask, just out of curiosity. Usually they look at me, stunned, then say "uhhh....I don't know" or "the register wants it" or "so we can send you coupons" (interesting, didn't know the mail worked that way . Not a single one of them will come out and admit it's for marketing purposes. Probably they don't know. That's okay. Like I said, I don't really care about the why of it.

If I notice it's a manager ringing me up, I will politely voice my displeasure at being asked for personal info, but otherwise, I just say "No, I don't give that out." And frequently get treated like I just called someone's mom a nasty name for it.

90 percent of the time, the info asked for is not needed for the transaction. More people should stop just blithely giving out their personal info like unthinking cows and sheep just because they are asked for it. These same people complain when their lives are interrupted by telemarketers. They need to think about why that might happen.

[greensinestro]

I get this a lot myself. I used to particularly get it working in phone repair and customer service. My favorites were the ones who would claim that caller ID violates a person's privacy if their number is unlisted, plus many of these people feel a credit for paying for that each month is due to them. Yet, why did they never feel it wrong to have the number of the person they were calling? Shouldn't that person be entitled to theirs as well? "You have my number, address, etc, so why can't I have yours?"

In repair, we actually would get calls on that. "I want to have my phone looked at. It's giving out my name and number on other people's caller ID when I call out, and I have an unpublished phone number." And then, when you would look at this dingbat's records, he also had caller ID! So, it was all right for him to identify his calls, but he didn't want people to identify him!