On Monday, November 30, 2015 at 9:09:57 AM UTC-5, wrote:

He says "Can I get your phone number, area code first?"

Just make up a number in the 911 area code. Sometimes they don't notice.


That's awesome!

I always give them the office number of a senator or congresscritter.
I figure if Senator Pocketstuffer gets enough junk calls, maybe (s)he will do something about these abusive practices.

I just say "No, thank you" and the transaction proceeds. No abuse, no spam calls. No store is
going to prevent you from purchasing your items if you don't give them a phone number. If they
ever tried that, I'd leave the items on the counter and walk.


At our "HF" Princess Auto they use the phone number as a
search tool for returns - when you don't have the sales slip ..
.. though - to their credit - they still honoured my recent return
without finding it in their system - so I'm on my third
2 free ones 1/2 inch torque wrench, over 8 years ...
.. it's still the same crappy excuse for a tool ..
John T.


For anything I think I will ever need to return or exchange, I store the
receipt in an appropriate file. Tools, Auto, Home, Appliances, etc. On
those rare occasions when a phone number is required, such as many on-line
orders, I use my landline phone number. We *never* answer that line. It has
a standard answering machine on it so it's easy to scan through any
messages that get left. No need to "log in" or anything like that.

The vast majority of telemarketing systems just hang up when they get
a machine so most of the time there isn't even a message to erase. When
there is a message, it's typically a reminder for a dental appointment
or something somewhat important that I don't mind getting.