So I'm wandering around Home Despot today, looking for likely parts for a completely unrelated project, and all over the place there are displays of compact-fluorescent lightbulb six-packs for really cheap with an "instant rebate". The catch? Some conglomeration of local power companies, in conjunction with the EnergyStar organization, wants me to fill out a bunch of personal info on this stupid coupon to turn in before I get this rebate of like $6 or so on the package. Once again, an example of pandering to those who are willing to sell their privacy for a little perceived gain. . Wth are these people thinking?! If they're trying to encourage purchase and use of efficient light bulbs, the LAST thing they should be doing is dropping obstacles in the path. The cashier freely admitted that she didn't care what name or other info I put on the piece of paper, so I pulled some nonsense out of my nice person and walked out with the bulbs for cheap anyways. But on principle, this is idiotic on the part of the sponsoring organizations. I think it's time to hunt down the "Energy star" organization, or whoever's behind this campaign, and rip them a new one. . _H*
any time I buy the type of product that requires me to fill out a user profile you can bet your butt on two things 1)I'm paying cash 2)It's all lies and B.S. Thank you.
My wife and I were passing through a Nordstroms department store and saw something small we liked so we bought it. It was under $20 so I whipped out cash. The cashier asked for my last name. I said I was paying cash. She asked again. I asked why she cared. She said that the computer was asking for it. So I told her my name was Jackson; first name Andy. (for those not in the U.S., President Andrew Jackson's face is on the $20 bill) Wth?
wow, the world of retail is getting nosier and nosier. first it was your zipcode (i always gave some random number) and then the whole "instant rebate" requiring all your peronal info... and now they want last names for cash purchases??? ugh.
And in all such cases, I try to make the point, on *principle*, that they have no need to be collecting this information. . I just called NStar [the local power company running this campaign with Home Despot -- I think, I'm still not 100% sure I landed at the right desk] and the lady at the "energy efficiency" department totally agreed with my "why are you bothering" concern and said that she, too, would put down false information if faced with the rebate forms. But the guy who's really managing this thing wasn't at his desk, so I left a longish rant about it in his voicejail and said please discuss it with his secretarial-type who I *was* talking to about it for clarification, the gist of it all being why bother trying to collect this stuff -- especially when it's doomed to be substantially noised-up by people putting down false info [and no, the HD cashiers don't try to check ID, nor do they really care what goes on the little pieces of paper] so in essence, when the point is to get as many CF bulbs out there to replace incandescents, they're going at it all wrong. Hopefully he'll take it seriously. . Info gleaned along the way: EnergyStar is a government agency that does product evals to "qualify for the energy star logo", they have nothing to do with this. And the people at HD don't care, saying "you don't have to put anything down" [which is not what their front-liners are told, of course], resulting in conflicting interal "rules" about how it works. . I want the cheap lights, and I want to pay cash. Is that so much to goddamn ask? I won't even get into the Wal-mart-esque issue of how and where these things are being manufactured, because I'm sure that's a whole 'nother human-rights can of worms. . I like the "Andy Jackson" answer. You could even hold up the 20 and say "see, here's my picture ID." . _H*
