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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!genrad!panda!talcott!harvard!bu-cs!root
From: root@bu-cs.UUCP (Barry Shein)
Newsgroups: net.consumers
Subject: Re: Cashier wants zipcode?
Message-ID: <826@bu-cs.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 27-Dec-85 18:43:08 EST
Article-I.D.: bu-cs.826
Posted: Fri Dec 27 18:43:08 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 28-Dec-85 13:14:36 EST
References: <40@decwrl.UUCP> <256@agrigene.UUCP> <453@ihdev.UUCP>, <1298@ihuxn.UUCP>
Organization: Boston Univ Comp. Sci.
Lines: 31

Re: being asked for things like full name and address even when paying
cash, 'only doing their job'...

Radio Schlock here does this I assume for mailing lists for their
catalogs. I find smiling wryly and with a slight tone of boredom
announcing (overly loud helps) REFUSED works. With me it's not so
much the privacy (they get my address etc when I pay with plastic
anyhow) but the stupid delay over throwing a buck down for a battery
or some other trivial sale when you are in a rush. The other thing
I do is just say BOSTON UNIVERSITY and leave it at that (it's right
down the block from my office so I run in there a lot for some piece
of trivia in a jam, usually in a terrible rush, if I weren't I would
be buying from a *real* dealer...$50 for an RS232 cable my foot!)

I have found that when people say 'I am just doing my job' answering
"so am I" in a serious tone works, ya just gotta believe in your heart
that your needs are as important to you as theirs are to them.

The local Cable company pulled this on me over a shutoff charge
(they admitted having the check but hadn't "processed" it yet
when the due date hit, they had it for three days!) Of course, the
person on the other end of the phone defended with 'just doing my
job' in response to which I announced *my* new business policies
which would include demanding credit for even 5 minute interruptions
in service and making sure my neighbors did the same until they start
to realize that their 'policies' can profit from treating people like
human beings, I am going to find out if I can demand my credits in writing
also, making it cost them to hold onto stupid policies is a good defense,
ask to see managers, ask for the wonderful policies in writing etc etc.

	-Barry Shein, Boston University