Anybody Else Have This Happen - Half Price Books (First Vanity Ever)

Self ^ | Self

[Swordmaker]

In Chicago it is the law to provide this information when selling used CD's. There must be a lot of stolen CD's in the city

This is probably the Pawnshop law that most cities have in their ordinances. This is a legitimate requirement. It is the business's and the public's interest to require the seller's information whenever a business buys a used item. It is designed to prevent the sale of stolen property.

When I ran a gun shop in Sacramento many years ago, we had to enter a description of EVERYTHING we bought used or second hand from an individual and submit the records to the police pawn shop detail.... we also had to keep the used item for 30 days before we could sell it to give them time to check records. If it came up on the "stolen property" list, we had to surrender it and we were not compensated for what we paid... but, after the 30 days were up, we were free and clear to sell it... and lost nothing even if was reported stolen. Our policy, however, was to notify the purchaser if possible, refund their money and turn it in. We would rather take the loss than have a valued customer face the risk of possessing stolen property.

[Boonie Rat]

You got a discount card from Monica Lewinsky?

Willy made me do it

Boonie Rat

MACV SOCOM, PhuBai/Hue '65-'66

[slimer]

You would be shocked at the creativity of employees these days.

Another good reason not to provide them with personal information.

One might believe that any personal information you provide a business goes into a data base where only managers and execs have access to this information. Not so. Anyone with a little ambition and a reason can access customers personal information from the companies data base, including low level employees.... How low?... How about registered sex offenders?

[Boonie Rat]

Your actions would mark you as a thief or a loon and I'm sure they do NOT want your business.

As a HPB customer for nine years, they they lost my business yesterday.

Boonie Rat

MACV SOCOM, PhuBai/Hue '65-'66

[Boonie Rat]

They prolly had you on file.

I seriously doubt it, I routinely refuse to supply "required" information for private corporations unless they can provide me with a PRINTED copy of the law requiring it. I have done this for many years. If they insist, I take my business elsewhere. Simple.

Boonie Rat

MACV SOCOM, PhuBai/Hue '65-'66

[dts32041]

No this in addition to the pawn shop law.

It was targeted at used record CD shops only, the kicker was the new licensing fee (tax). Can't figure out how the mob is going to do it though.

[gnarledmaw]

No need to be creative that way any more. Gift Cards are the game now.

Jane Soccermom gets a gift card and tries to use it. Cashier gets indignant and claims that its been stolen and must be confiscated. Jane, embarassed and caught flat footed by the claim, offers to pay another way. Jane leaves store wondering what just happened. Cashier pockets and spends card later or sells it to friend.

If it occurs to you, demand to see a manager and raise a huge stink. At this point cashier knows that theyre busted, they reswipe the card and this time it magically works! Mustve just been some fuzz on the card or something...

[BenR2]

you plan on going to Radio Shack, look up THEIR phone number before you go. When they ask for your phone number give the the number you looked up.

EXCELLENT advice! LOL.

[BenR2]

With Radio Shack and others, I've found that saying "I prefer remaining a man of mystery" works (Of course, the fact that I'm very large and giving them my "I'm not in the mood to be f---'ed with" look might contribute to it)

I love it!

[BenR2]

I will only purchase from Radio Shack as a last resort and then only with cash. When they ask for my phone number I tell them that it is unlisted and my name is Johnny Cash, works every time.

ANOTHER excellent riposte. I'm beginning to see that I am greatly lacking in imagination!

[BenR2]

I will only purchase from Radio Shack as a last resort and then only with cash. When they ask for my phone number I tell them that it is unlisted and my name is Johnny Cash, works every time.

ANOTHER excellent riposte. I'm beginning to see that I am greatly lacking in imagination!

[BenR2]

Radio Shack discontinued the practice company-wide about 3-weeks ago. I can't say if the word has trickled down to all of the stores yet.

No. My experience is about a year old or so -- it just rankled me so.

Apparently, the company execs have caught on.

[BenR2]

Radio Shack had been doing this for decades, and I heard they very recently stopped. Back in the 1970s, in the Washington D.C. area, there was a heavily publicized case of a Radio Shack based bruglary ring, run by RS employees using this information. They'd go through the records for the addresses of people who bought expensive electronic equipment, and then go to the home and steal it, and fence it. It always amazed me that RS continued to ask for this information (even for tiny cash purchases!) after this scam was publicized. I always flatly refused to give them any info whatsoever, and they never pushed me for it.

Excellent background information.

The other thing that rankled me is that the person ahead of me in line was an attractive (and unaccompanied) wisdom. If I had been up to no good, the clerk supplied me with all I needed to track her down by requiring her to recite her telephone number and address aloud for all to hear. OUTRAGEOUS!

[BenR2]

I always smile and say 'Unlisted and unpublished." The clerk then uses a special code and the transaction continues.

What a great reply! Especially for a female not desiring to release potentially compromising info.

[mlmr]

Thank you. I don't have half the sales callers that other people have.

[mlmr]

And you could tell the neighborhood just from the number name.... You know, the old days had class!!

[BenR2]

Thank you. I don't have half the sales callers that other people have.

Then, you are BLESSED indeed! LOL.

[Devil_Anse]

Your post covered the bases on this sort of thing as well as any I've seen.

And I am aghast to learn about that theft ring of Radio Shack employees! Glad I have never been too into expensive electronics!

I once knew of a woman who would hang around the post office. She would, at times, casually remove the waste bag from the trash can. In it, of course, were hundreds of credit card offers sent to the people who maintained P.O. boxes at that post office. She'd fill in the acceptance form on one, using the name of the actual addressee. Then she'd quickly put in a change of address.

She got several credit cards this way, and ran up quite a bill on each of them.

Last time I saw her, she was headed to federal prison. The postmaster had developed quite a file on her.

Now, when I or my spouse get a credit card offer, I always tear it up in small pieces, and even throw parts of it in different trash cans (sort of like the way Jeffrey Dahmer disposed of bodies.)

Another interesting fraud I ran across was this: Man writes check to X, for $60.00. X writes in the word "One- to the far left of the word "Sixty." He also puts a 1 to the left of the 60, in the space where the amount is written numerically. Thus, the check now reads: "Pay to the order of X. One-Sixty and no/100 Dollars."

So now when writing a check, I always start the verbal part way at the far margin of the paper--leaving no room to insert the word "One," or "Two," etc.

When asked for "work number," usually at Wal-mart or a grocery, I give them the number, with one random digit changed. That has cut way down on the number of junk calls my work number gets--but I have never found such calls to be as annoying there as they are at home.

Some of us may have a work phone line and a personal phone line which we maintain. I don't mind giving the work number out to places that use that as my "customer number." Since I want the public to know it anyway, a few more calls aren't that big a deal. I also maintain a work mailing address, which I freely give if asked my address. Once again, since many comparative strangers are given this address every day, anyway, I don't mind a store having it.

(Of course, for those little "rebate" forms, you can't use a P.O. box, so you just have to decide whether getting the $10.00 rebate is worth having your physical address on yet another list.)

[Devil_Anse]

Re: "having to" give a phone number to a merchant

You know how we all have certain "PIN" numbers which we must memorize, or keep in a special place in the old wallet? Why not make up a 7-digit number, and use it routinely for your "phone number" when asked by merchants? It could be kept or memorized by us.

Yes, it would be humorous if someone else actually had that phone number and found later that they couldn't use their OWN phone number. But that's not likely, and besides, it would be kind of fun to be asked to explain WHY you used that made-up number. One would get a chance to give a store a piece of their mind about the whole practice!

If I write a check, and I know I have every intention of paying immediately for the merchandise (regardless of the state of my bank account), and that I AM paying for it, I don't see why I can't just give them the first number that pops into my head, when they ask for "work number." One can also tell them, "I don't have a work number." (Then you could say, "Boy, that unemployment extension came through just in time! Whew!")

[Publius6961]

It's the corporate way of fumbling through the shoplifting problem...good on ya.

Shoplifters have receipts now?