Best Buy Refuses To Sell You An XM Radio Without Your Phone Number
Reader Travis would like to purchase an XM radio from Best Buy. Sadly for him, Best Buy refused to sell him the radio without first learning his phone number. Travis does not want to share his phone number with Best Buy, therefore Travis has no radio.
I recently had a situation with a Best Buy in Spokane Valley, WA. I was looking to purchase an XM satellite radio. I looked it all over and decided on which one I wanted. I picked up the box and took it to the front.Does anyone actually know why Best Buy needs your phone number in order to sell you an XM radio? We've never bought one, so maybe we're missing some key piece of information that will M. Night Shyamalan this whole situation for us. Anyone?You don't need to purchase a subscription, apparently you just call once you make the purchase and talk to XM and they set up your service. While trying to make the purchase, the cashier asked for my telephone number. I politely refused to give my telephone number.
She immediately developed an attitude (like so many you describe at Best Buy in your stories). She told me that she could not sell me the radio without my home phone number. I asked her where on the sign with the price tag that it said $149 + Phone Number. She said it doesn't say that, but she could not sell it to me without my phone number. I then asked her if there was a manager who could come talk to me. The manager came over and had a brief conversation with the cashier and then refused to sell me the radio without my home phone number. Both developed the same nasty attitudes that are described so often by people with stories about Best Buy.
I politely left and walked across the street to Circuit City, but they didn't sell the model I was interested in. Now I am torn...I will never give my phone number, but there is no where left locally to buy what I am looking for.
Does privacy not mean anything anymore? I guess what struck me as odd is that I just sensed the same attitude from the Best Buy cashiers that everyone else describes. I mean, they have a god complex or something. It is just strange. Does Best Buy teach it's employees to be that way? It must or it wouldn't be such a wide spread attitude.
Any ideas?
-Travis
(Photo:dlayphoto)
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Comments:
Want to to know why they need your number? Here's the answer:
Training sales personnel to get good customer data is so important. As I started to complete the form the clerk told me "As long as you put down your phone number you don't need to fill out the rest, we can look it up."Well, she is only partially correct. We provide a terrific service to our clients with great match rates for reverse look up of phone numbers, email addresses and more, but if you are only getting a cell phone number, which is what I did, you are probably missing an opportunity to grow your customer database and to communicate in the future with your customer. Cell phone numbers do not reverse append.
Why the hell couldn't he just give (509) 876-5309 and be done with it. Or buy the radio on eBay for half the price and then activate it later under another fictitious number. What a non-issue.
What's a siltation?
Whenever a company asks for my phone number I just tell them 555-555-1234. Its a lot easier then trying to explain why its really in no ones best interest to give their telephone number out to random businesses.
Why would reader Travis or anyone else that reads The Consumerist still shop at Best Buy?
gotta agree with the "make up a phone number" suggestion. I normally just give em mine and change the last digit. I know you shouldn't have to, but like showing your receipt at the door - sometimes just going with the flow and not getting stressed about it is the way to go for an easier life.
At some stores, I’m just asked for my ZIP code, or rarely my area code. I give my brother’s phone number if a store thinks that it needs that much information on me.
Real simple:
Best Buy probably has their software set up so that without a phone number, the Point-Of-Sale system can advance no farther. I once worked at a now closed National retailer that had a similar system in place; there was no way to gimmick it or go around that phone number screen without information.
The obvious answer is to give a phony telephone number each and every time asked for it. I use a variation on my actual number, just switching around the last four digits to anything that I think of at the moment.
@dorianh49: "A sedimentary material consisting of very fine particles intermediate in size between sand and clay."
I do this too. It's a jumbled variation I've been using for years and I almost give it as the real number sometimes.
But somewhere I wonder if someone actually has that number.
I don't specifically know about XM, but Sirius requires a phone number in order for my job to sell any Sirius equipment. My understanding is this is in case of either:
Customer return.
Technical Problem
Other Unforseen Problem.
Again,I don't specifically know about XM,but the phone number is used by Sirius,and Sirius alone. We don't have anything to do with the customers phone number besides putting it into the computer.
While there is nothing wrong with privacy,if the OP is that concerned that someone is going to maliciously use her phone number,use another number.Like a pizza places, for example.
Besides, with service activations that bill you monthly,it might be a good idea to give the company that is taking your money a way to contact you directly.
Do some research, find out what THAT best buy store's phone number is. Give them that number.
Tell them 1-800-eat-shit.
I give my phone number, the one I had 35 years ago…
@ClayS:
Because not all experiences are the same. I typically get good service at both the locations I regularly go to, but it might be because I manage my expectations.
I don't buy big ticket items without doing the research myself. I go in expecting to pay full price, and working my way down from there.
I use their own policies against them. Even if it means standing in line to get $1.10 off a DVD.
If I were in the same situation as the submitter, I would have done exactly what the first poster suggested, and give them a fake phone number.
Travis, you forgot to give us a derogatory physical description of the cashier you had trouble with that has no bearing on your consumer issue but shows what a fucking asshole you are!*
*Please note: Travis I don't think you're an asshole at all and I hope you find a better vendor for your XM radio! If you like I have an older Sirius radio I'd be happy to give you.
youeathshit => 968-328-47448
Well, hang on a second here guys, to play devil's advocate, why do we HAVE to tell them anything? Don't we have the right to pick & choose who or in this case what company we give information to?
If someone, anyone, wants to buy something at a store, why CAN'T they refuse to give out their phone number? Why do they have to make up a number to make the purchase?
Make sure you show a receipt when you leave. IT'S THE LAW. Bwahahahahaha
Memorize the local phone number for time & temperature.
::shrugs::
That's it.
@boxjockey68:
You can refuse to provide the information just the same as the store can refuse to sell you the goods without it. Unless your state has some sort of law that says otherwise, they could demand your social security number, and if you don't provide it, they could refuse the sale.
This happened to me at a Whole Foods a while ago. Instead of an attitude, the cashier pulled "the smirk." I shopped there all the time and that was the first I heard of them needing my phone number for a CASH purchase -- which I wasn't willing to give. I was hungry, it was lunchtime and my hour was ticking away. I was starting to get real pissed! After the cashier continued to play cute with me, I told him, "I'm not giving you my number." I left the purchases on the counter and walked the heck out.
I complained on their corporate website and the store manager responded, saying that the cashier should not have done that, will get extra training, blah blah blah. I still didn't go back for months 'cause I didn't like what happened. Only recently have I gone back. I have never seen that cashier again, and the company still does not have my number -- which is as it should be.
Buy the unit direct from XM. You're getting the service from them anyway.
Make.
One.
Up.
I can't believe stores still ask for your phone number. Most places just ask for your zip code now. Fine with me, it's not like I'm the only person living in my zip code.
But I agree with everyone else.. just give a fake number. I usually give the number to my local movie theater listings. Since no human answers that line, there's no real harm in it.
Also, Best Buy tracks you down with your credit card. Back in the days, I used to buy blank CDR's and MiniDiscs there. A few months later, I received some (worthless) coupons for CDR's and MiniDiscs. What a coincidence, eh?
The other day I was picking up a Christmas gift at Pier One and was asked "Could I have your phone number?" I said, simply, "No." (much to my cousin's shock). She did the transaction without it. I've never heard of anyone refusing a sale for failure to give a number.
When all else fails give them a fake number or just shop elsewhere after notifying a manager why.
I always go with local area code + 867-5309. Every now and again a cashier will catch it and just laugh.
Buy it from an XM retailer online. They're cheaper there sometimes and I've bought from several different XM retailers without trouble. Best Buy usually overprices their radios. Case in point, my NeXus 25 would've cost twice as much there when I bought it a while back, but I went online (or maybe even it was at Wal-Mart) for $50.
About attitude and customer service..........it has sunk so low that i think what is next is for retailers to just tell the customer to "Fuck-Off" when they see fit.
go to the local phone book and give the cashier the phone number for the Best Buy you are currently standing in. I would be willing to be that most cashiers wouldn't know the phone number to the store and you could walk away and get a good laugh.
@LilKoko: "I have never seen that cashier again, and the company still does not have my number -- which is as it should be."
Yes they do, you called their corporate offices... call-logs...
Ahhhh, Spokane. I ran as far from thee as I could, and yet the stories keep coming.
Agree with the 'make one up' sentiment. Should give them the Circuit City's!!
They probably use the number as a primary key in their customer database.
Also, I don't know why Travis didn't just make up a number. He could have reversed the tables and asked the cashier and manager for their personal numbers and made it a condition of the sale. That would have been an interesting conversation.
@Silversmok3:
If he was activating it at the store, I could understand, but he was going to activate it at home. I have Sirius, and I didn't have a problem giving them all of my info when I activated it, but why does BB need it, especially since he is doing the activation later.
"I'm from Canada. Put in whatever you want." Alternately, "I'm from the States. Put in whatever you want." "I'm on vacation, put in whatever you want". Works like a charm in Best Buys in both Amherst, NY and Oakville, ON.
The only place I could see it being a problem is if it's tied into a refund.
If they demand a postal code, I give them the code for a post office box.
I always use my ex's phone number :)
Give the phone number of the store. I'm sure the cashier knows what it is. They probably won't realize until you give them the last digit.
Since we are making up numbers, heres mine. I am a Star Trek nerd, and I know the hull number of the Enterprise is NCC 1701, so make a phone number 622(NCC)-1701. Maybe Consumerist can create a database of fake numbers that spell out things to throw at these places that insist on a number.
@pylon83: Er, not really true all the time - it depends on the state that has "jurisdiction".
Usually you are not legally compelled to provide your Social Security number to private businesses unless you are involved in a transaction in which the Internal Revenue Service requires notification. The company has the right to refuse you service for failing to provide this information in some states.
BUT state law can protect consumers. For instance in some states like New Mexico law N.M. Stat. Ann. § 57-12B-1 et seq.:
Prohibits a business from requiring a consumer's SSN as a condition for the consumer to lease or purchase products, goods or services from the business. A company acquiring or using SSNs of consumers shall adopt internal policies that (1) limit access to the SSNs to those employees authorized to have access to that information to perform their duties; and (2) hold employees responsible if the SSNs are released to unauthorized persons.
See [www.gao.gov] for more info on your own state laws.
"It's unlisted" also works.
Oh, Tommy Tutone. There's an alternative to the "Jenny" number called the Reject Hotline. They have them set up for most states, and the caller gets a voicemail message that basically tells them the person who gave them that number wants nothing to do with them.
www.rejectionhotline.com
Oooh, I just found out it's in Spanish, too!
Give them a number of a local Circuit City.
So what happens if you don't own a telephone (or at least tell them that)? Does that mean you can not shop there? That doesn't sound right.
Buy it online.
Give a fake phone number.