Make up an address and move along. When you get your cash back, proudly proclaim that you made one up and give them the finger.

Make. One. Up.

This guy makes $6.25/hr at radio-f'ing-shack. He types values into a computer. If he can't click "next", no go.

1-2-3 Seasame Street
Anywhere, US 11111

This is when lying can come in handy.
"Where do you live?"
"123 Whatever St."

"Phone number?"
"646-559-9901"

Always end your fake numbers with 9901. In most of the US, this is a test number at the exchange. It avoids some poor sap getting telemarketing calls meant for you.

It's not normal practice to ask for an address in stores, but if the store has that policy - before sure to read it before you buy.

The store may have had issues of people buying with cash and then returining damaged or incomplete products back for full refund.

It is pretty easy for knowledgeable criminals to make packages look like they've never been opened or just return a fake/copied product.

So yes, in a way the store is saying they don't trust you if you buy with cash and are retuning an item.

There was a story a few days ago about a guy retuning computers back to BestBuy, but he had take out components from the systems.

@thirdgen:

Incorrect, in most of NEW YORK 9901 is the CO exchange test number, this is NYNEX specific pre-AT&T/verizon takeovers.

The correct address to give is:

1600 Pennsylvania Ave
Washington DC 20500

Phone :202-456-1414

I've been using the White House as my default phony address for 20+ years and even now it's very rare that the clerk gets the joke.

A lot of times this is more to avoid internal bogus returns rather than hurt the customer... I'm afraid the customers have to deal with the company (or companies) not trusting there employees.

@Edge23:

This is not a written policy of RadioShack, it's just something they do, you won't find it on the back of the receipt or on a sign in the store. They used to ask you for this info for marketing purposes just to buy a pack of friggen batteries, apparently they're trying to collect it on return instead.

The store I work for requires a name and address for all returns. Occassionally someone objects to giving the information, but they usually comply when I explain that the main reason is to stop employee theft. The name and address requirement makes it a bit harder for employees to do fake returns and pocket the money as well as making it a little easier for loss prevention to find internal theft if they find a bunch of returns with fake addresses done by one employee. However, our return policy signs also clearly state that we require certain information to process a return so customers shouldn't be surprised by the requirement.
We also used to send random comment cards to people who had returned items to make sure that the employee doing the return handled it in a professional and friendly manner.

@Lucky225:
Places outside of Metro New York have telephones!?! Since when!?!

I kid, i kid, I thought 9901 was universal. In Westchester County, NY, dialing just 9901 reads you back your number (or at least used to).

@thirdgen:

I know someone in Westchester, it's always been 958 for number read back.
In any event I always give out test numbers as well =)

You could use 1313 Mockingbird Lane
as well.

as for the phone...there's always the stand by of
867-5309

Now, I dare you NOT to have that song in your head all day!!

mwaaaah!!

@celticgina: Oh Herman, you jokester!

I think you should always give the address/phone of a competitor. Like the nearest Best Buy.

@GothGirl:

Precisely why my work does it. though it's voluntary, as in if the customer doesnt' fill it out, they still got the refund.

But yeah, it's not about not trusting the CONSUMER, it's about making sure that employees aren't scamming the system.

I ask them what the store address is, then parrot it back to them. Seldom to they even blink. Scary.

The one I use is:

123 Freedom Drive
Liberty, California 90210

If the man in # 123 on Freedom Drive is reading this, I apologize sincerely for the last 15 years of junk mail and soliciting phone calls.

@randombob:

Yeah cause an employee can't make up fake info just as easily as a customer can.

Again.. it never ceases to amaze me how much crap people convince themselves of in order to feel better about being a slave..

Give your address to Tandy Corp or the TERRORISTS WIN!

Grab a business card off the counter or better yet just read the info off the receipt, give them the stores address and phone number+1. I doubt any regular employee (other than manager)would recognize the address, the phone no. they will comment how close it is to the stores NO.

@CamilleR: You can find some other way of solving your problems that don't involve invading customers' privacy. Zero sympathy.

@Lucky225: Incorrect. It is written policy that the address is REQUIRED for returns. It's on the back of the receipt. Unless you're unlucky and get the store manager, you can just give any random address and the CSR won't care.

I like this address:
2121 W Harrison St
Chicago, IL 60612-3705
Phone: (312) 666-0500

It's the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office.
Not too many people to complain there!

@Buran: Yeah. Some places ask to see your ID. That's better, right? Right? Oh, my mistake.

@conjecture:

Never seen it on the back of any receipt from purchases I've made there or on any sign in the store, but I'll take your word for it for now.

@witeowl:

It only takes 5 seconds to give your address out ;)

//sarcasm

PO Box 961090
Fort Worth, TX 76161-5004
(817) 415-3011

That would be the address to Radio Shack corporate sales office and the number to their main switchboard.

@LibertyReign: For real.

It's amusing that companies like Radio Shack, Target, Best Buy, et al lie to consumers constantly about what our private info will be used for, then turn around it sell it until we're bombarded with junk mail, SPAM, and telemarketing calls, and then have the gall to get pissy when customers refuse to disclose their info any longer.

If these companies hadn't abused our trust in the first place, most people probably would comply.

They do this because it helps them identify serial returners and retail renters. After you return too much crap, they stop letting you return stiff. Its not just Radio Shack that does it either and quite frankly if I owned a business I would do the same thing. The problem is too many paranoid freaks think that everyone is out to get them and that by providing this info will deluge them with crap mail that they could just throw away instead of bitching about it, but most times its only used for internal purposes. FYI there is no law that a place HAS to return ANYTHING unless defective. If you want something bad enough to buy it then KEEP it instead of buying it knowing full well that you will be returning it and taking the cheap way out.

@Buran: Who's looking for sympathy?
As I mentioned, our posted policy is that we require names and addresses for returns. If the customer doesn't like that policy, he or she is free to shop and do returns somewhere else.

I think a new rule ought to be that in order to display advertising in our homes (TV Newspaper etc) for the store they must provide the CEO's address, phone number and SSN.

I worked there for 8.5 years. If you think giving the information is bad, consider how the person who has to ask you for it must feel. It's demoralizing.

Salespeople really have no control over this stuff. They're scrapping by at, or barely above minimum wage. The store manager has to sign off on these receipts and those guys are about as interchangeable as the salespeople.

RadioShack operates a veritable gestapo of loss prevention people. I recommend that you don't shop there unless you have to. The prices are always higher, and since they removed all of their own brands, the quality of their products is substandard.

@Gorky: It has nothing to do with paranoia and everything to do with our time and our money:

# The average American household receives unsolicited junk mail equal to 1.5 trees every year-more than 100 million trees for all U.S. households combined.

# 44 percent of junk mail is thrown away unopened, but only half that much junk mail (22 percent) is recycled.

# Americans pay $370 million annually to dispose of junk mail that doesn't get recycled.

# On average, Americans spend 8 months opening junk mail in the course of their lives.

I can think of thousands of better ways our time, energy, and tax dollars can be put to use.

Honest customers should not have to suffer because a store sells shoddy merchandise; let the store take it up with the manufacturers. And employee theft accounts for the vast majority of retailer loss, not "serial returners" as you call them.

@Imaginary_Friend:

Amen. I love how Wal*Mart thinks they're so cute with ID required on returns, and only so many per month per ID. Only one problem - TX ID & DL #s are both different numbers, so you can actually get double the amount of returns just by changing which ID you choose to show them.

I worked Loss Prevention at Target 20+ years ago, and even back then Target had a similar policy. It was to make sure the returns were legitimate, and that the cashier wasn't just taking money from the register and ringing out a cash return from some receipt found in the trash. We actually took the information in loss prevention and mailed "survey" cards to all Cash return customers asking why they maid the return and verifying they were happy with the service they received. The real purpose was to see if anyone called and said, I didn't make a return?

Simple as that, no desire to put you on a double secret marketing list, just wanting to prevent employee skimmage, which is where most losses occur.

I'm pretty sure that today stores also use this information to track "serial" returners, folks that like to buy and return items they only have a short term use for.

From a consumer's point of view, it's to our benefit that stores try to control their losses, as it's difficult to offer good prices if your losing money on non-sales.

Id say "excuse me" and walk outside, look at their address, and give it to them. Use a phone number of an old girlfriend you dont like.

@witeowl: Writing it down is different from just looking at it.

that is normal. old news. when i worked at pier 1 imports, we had to have customers who returned stuff fill out a little paper for returns. its dual purpose. it makes sure the employee isn't pocketing the money and it gives a paper trail.

@Midtowner: i had no problems asking people to sign a paper saying they returned an item and i didn't pocket their money. i don't think its demoralizing. i felt my old company's policy for returns was a good one.

@whydidnt: Guess what? We don't give a shit. As customers, we want to buy stuff and go home; if the product doesn't perform as advertised, we want a quick and simple return process. If Target or Radio Shack or Best Buy have such a horrendous problem with employee theft, then they need to fix that problem on their own time and not needlessly inconvenience their paying customers.

Actually, the only reason I ask anymore is because I hate people coming in and saying "I lost my receipt, can I return this? But I just bought it yesterday, why not?!" I've gotten to the point where I feel creepy asking for addresses, so I just don't. Phone numbers are fine for me, and when they're not in the system, names. Anyway, it's not company policy to -require- them. There are ways around it.

@Greasy Thumb Guzik: I only use that for voting.

The best fake phone numbers to use end in 9945, not 9901. In many telephone exchanges, 9945 is a 1000 cycle tone. Sometimes, it's quite loud.

@sgtyukon:

Again, area specific, just like new york. 0002 is miliwatt 1000 cycle tone in california, other areas it's 0020, it really just depends on where you are.

Demoralizing? Wow, that's dramatic.

Stores have been asking for this info for returns as long as I can remember - at least 25 years. Move along.

Besides, unless your product is defective, the transaction is over and the store doesn't owe you a thing. You wanna return it, you play by their rules now.

@Imaginary_Friend: Providing an address makes returning a defective product unreasonably long and complicated? My 4 year old daughter doesn't seem to have a problem telling me her address.

I used to work for the shack.

They rate you on name and address percentage.

80% is the goal.

You get reamed by mgt if you don't meet it.

@Imaginary_Friend:

Very little of the junk mail I receive is actually addressed to me. Most of it is just bulk advertising that's delivered to everyone.

Most of the junk mail that is addressed to me is from credit card companies. I doubt that they bought my name from some retail store that I returned a package of batteries to.

I used to work at the shack. Yes, they told us to take address for returns. But we had several fake address already in the "system" to use when someone didn't want to give their name. I would ask, and if they decline, no big deal. I would use a fake entry. The system is to dumb to know its fake. Another thing. The database is location specific. If you give you name at store #1, store #2 can't see it. Sure the names get uploaded to a main server somewhere, but the indivudal stores can't do a nationwide search.

1059 West Addison
Chicago, IL 60613

p.s. I hate Illinois nazis!

@Televiper: I'm sure she's very cute too, but would you want her giving her name and address out to every Tom, Dick, and Harry who demands it?

If the product is defective and the customer paid cash, then yes, that is unreasonable. The store can return the defective merchandise to the manufacturer, so why hassle your cash-paying customers? If it was charged to a credit card, obviously, the card should be presented for a refund, but that's it.

As I said before, if these companies had not abused out info in the first place, this wouldn't be an issue. A few people have pointed out that we've been giving out this info for years; yes, that's true. And look where this has lead. People are bombarded at every turn with junk mail, SPAM, and annoying phone calls. Companies routinely sell, compile, and give away info on their customers to other businesses whom the customer wants no part of. There's an entire industry built on marketing analytics and harvesting people's info. We're sick of it and some people are going to the extreme of paying cash for all of their purchases so they don't have to deal with this crap.

These nosy merchants are shooting themselves in the foot. Customers will either find somewhere else to shop or start routinely giving false info. Requiring names and addresses solves nothing; it alienates good customers and does nothing to address the real problems of employee theft and organized shoplifters. Dishonest employees will continue to cause losses and organized crime rings will always be too smart to use their real IDs.

@mizmoose:

That would be 1060 W. Addison. Wrigley is on the north side of the street, so it's address must be an even number.

I checked it on SCMODS.

Like CamilleR said, it's something we have to do. It's designed so random employees can't just ring up a bunch of fake returns and pocket the money. Employees have been caught when corporate did follow-ups on suspicious receipts by contacting the supposed name and address taken.

@