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Retailers Deploy Databases Against Customers

Posted by michael on from the SELECT-bad_customer-FROM-megadatabase; dept.

A couple of people submitted this piece about retailers using databases to crack down on sub-optimal customers, such as those who return too many purchases to the store. Also has a few tidbits about other database blacklists that are available to companies. Customers avoid intrusive practices; although this story was written by the Washington Post and I have the URL to the original story available, I declined to link to washingtonpost.com because of their intrusive registration.

4 of 601 comments (clear)

  1. Easy solution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Pay with cash.

  2. The FCRA should be expanded. by Ph33r+th3+g(O)at · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Any such database, whether internal or not, is a de facto consumer reporting system and should be subject to the same requirements of disclosure, the same rebuttal process, and the same government oversight as credit bureau reports.

    --
    I too have felt the cold finger of injustice.
  3. Re:Related link by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm more annoyed by Best Buy lumping in 'People who only shop during a sale' with 'fraudsters and scammers trying to rip off the company.'

    And that's even before getting into their 'non-repair and replacement plans.'

  4. Oh boy... by the+arbiter · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Alright, here goes my karma...

    All I can say is "it's about time". Having worked in retail a goodly portion of my life (thankfully not any more) all I can say on reading this is that a system like this is really overdue.

    It's a small percentage of customers (my best guess, based on my experience, is about 2-3%) that abuse return privileges and monopolize the time of salespeople, but the percentage that does costs so much money and time that it's unbelievable...far more than the store would ever make in profit from these folks over a lifetime of shopping. To look at it another way, these groups of problem customers drive up costs just as much as shoplifters do (and in fact any retail business loses far more money to customers like the one cited in the article than they ever would from shoplifting).

    Customers have available to them, and rightfully use, systems to find the best deals for themselves. It doesn't strike me as being a problem that retailers finally have some of the same tools available to them. And they should use them as well.

    --
    Boycott everything - they're all trying to fuck you one way or another