The ‘deceptive’ new payment rule irritating shoppers

 “I only wanted a $5 pair of earrings."

Image: Supplied / iStock

While many consumers want to support in-store shopping, an increasingly common practice is starting to creep into every exchange - and shoppers aren't sure they're comfortable.

On the Australia Reddit thread, one shopper detailed her exchange at a jewellery store before asking forum members if this had happened to them.

The response was overwhelming, with hundreds of comments in just a few hours to confirm that she is far from alone.

“I was just at a very popular costume jewellery shop at my local Westfield and decided to get some earrings,” the woman wrote.

“I was expecting it to be a quick tap-my-card and go when the sales lady says, ‘I just need your email to complete the purchase’ which makes me do a double-take as they are $5 earrings.”

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"It's just for a receipt"

The woman asks why her email is needed at this point and the cashier attempts to reassure her by saying, ‘we're not going to send you anything, it's just for your receipt.’

But when she pushes back to say she doesn’t need or want a receipt for a $5 purchase, the exchange continues.

“[the shop assistant says] ‘I can't complete the purchase without your email,’ and I reply, ‘I don't want to give you my email’ and she says ‘but I need to give you a receipt’.”

The woman asks for a paper receipt instead and after a hesitation the shop assistant says ‘okay’ but ultimately doesn’t give her anything before she leaves with the earrings.

“Is it just me or does it feel super deceptive to make it seem like they need my email to complete a purchase? Is it even legal?”

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"I had the exact same interaction"

Comments suggested that this was indeed common practice among a number of retailers.

“I had the exact same interaction with them,” said one poster.

“ They printed a receipt for me. I have a junk gmail address because companies need to earn my real email address.”

Many of the comments suggest getting around this new reality when shopping by using fake emails.

“I just used a temporary email and removed the account after windows installed.”

Or say you have no modern technology at all like this one user: “I just say: ‘I don’t have an email’  

“When they ask for my mobile phone number, I say: ‘I don’t have a mobile phone’ (even though I paid using my phone)

“It usually goes back and forth like this for a while until they get the picture.”

One person advises questioning the need for an email address in the first place.

“When I get told ‘I just need your email to complete the purchase,’I simply say ‘No you don't’ and they can choose whether to complete the sale or not. And it's unlikely I would ever return to that shop no matter what happens.”

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"You end up getting spammed"

Many of the comments related to the fact that by giving over your email for a ‘receipt’ you end up being spammed after they sell the data on.

As one savvy consumer wrote: “Businesses want your email to send you stuff so that you can be enticed to buy more. The reality is they rarely protect that data and so you end up getting spammed by 1000 emails a week selling you junk like Viagra, Russian mail order brides etc..”

Finally one Reddit user and customer with experience working in a jewellery store had some information from behind the scenes.

“I worked for the company that I believe you’re speaking about, emails are part of the KPIs the company tracks per store, the managers are freaking incessant about it (it’s one of the reasons I left). 

“When I was working the register if someone didn’t want to give me their email I’d be totally fine with it, I’d just give them the receipt printed and if they didn’t want a receipt at all I’d just input a fake email random letters and numbers at something like ‘Hootmail.com’.”

The commenter has some final words for those who chose to continue shopping in store rather than online.

“Please don’t be mad at the people working in the store. Me and my colleagues hated it and thought it was irritating as much as the customer if not more so because it was company issued policy but we were the ones that took the verbal abuse.”

Kidspot reached out to Lovisa for comment by phone and email, but had not received a reply by the time this piece was published. 

Originally published as The ‘deceptive’ new payment rule irritating shoppers