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CVS, DSW latest chains sued over alleged misuse of consumer Zip codes
By adamg on Thu, 09/12/2013 - 9:28am
In lawsuits filed yesterday, several Massachusetts residents accused the two chains of requiring them to hand over their Zip codes to buy stuff with credit cards and then using the digits to ferret out their home addresses and mercilessly send them junk mail.
The suits, both filed in US District Court by the same Chicago law firm, note that earlier this year, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled the practice is a violation of the state's consumer-privacy law.
The plaintiffs are seeking to be named the leads in class-action lawsuits and then $25 per incident, treble damages and lawyers' fees. Previously filed suits name Michaels, Bed Bath and Beyond, J. Crew and Sur la Table and the Container Store.
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Comments
These suits should be tossed.
These suits should be tossed. When the DSW clerk would ask me that my reply was, "I don't want to give this information." And, the purchase went forward. People sometimes don't stop to think.
Remember the real problem
Bear in mind that junk mail isn't the problem, it's the symptom. The problem is that the companies are gathering and storing personal information about their customers in violation of the law.
To people who say, "What's the big deal with junk mail?" I offer this analogy: You come home to find that someone has been in your house, as evidenced by muddy footprints that aren't yours, in the front hall. You complain to the police, and some people slam you, saying, "What's the big deal with a couple of footprints? just get a paper towel and clean them up." To those people: It's not the footprints, stupid.
Also remember that both DSW
Also remember that both DSW and CVS have loyalty cards. Customers that use loyalty cards must realize that that gives the merchant all the info they need.....
People do this to themselves, in my opinion.
The CVS self-checkout has a
The CVS self-checkout has a "courtesy card" button, which gets you the discounts without an actual card.
You don't get the coupons and extrabucks, but I consider those scams anyway.
Not a scam if you're poor and need the savings
I started dabbling in the whole couponing thing when I was in between jobs and dirt poor. Not "extreme couponing"... just careful use of sales, coupons, loyalty cards, extrabucks, etc.
In my experience CVS has some of the best deals. Yes the extrabucks eventually expire, but if you regularly shop at CVS that isn't a problem. I've gotten bars of deodorant for free (effectively, taking the extrabucks into account), large tubes of high-quality toothpaste for $1, four boxes of Cheerios for $4, etc. When you have no money, this stuff matters. I'm making good money now, but I still go for the easy deals when I see them.
The coupons they give me are a mixed bag. Some are for stuff I need, some are for stuff I would never want, and the "20% off your next shopping trip" ones are rarely useful due to all the exclusions.
They advertise things like
They advertise things like "toothpaste $2.50, and we'll give you an extrabuck, so it's like getting it for $1.50".
No it's not. It's like getting it for $2.50, plus you get some more overpriced stuff in the deal.
There are better ways to save money if you're poor.
Coupons
Coupons always seem to be a bunch of phony baloney to me. They're an illusion, the cost you think you are saving is just built in somewhere else. And the worst thing is when you attempt to use a coupon and the employee at the checkout has no idea what it is. It becomes a 3-4 person operation as another employee comes over to see what the holdup is, and another, until some manager finally emerges from a hidden room somewhere to clear things up. It's not worth it.
Totally worth it
I regularly use coupons for household purchases. Although most of our grocery bill is fresh produce and meat, not packaged goods, I still usually save 20-35% per trip. That's a couple thousand dollars a year - not chump change for our family.
I'm not obsessive about it (my coupon holder is often an unorganized mess), and I don't spend huge amounts of time on it - I clip coupons from the Sunday paper (~15 minutes, but I do it while watching tv or listening to radio) and visit coupons.com once a week (about 10 minutes to go through the list and print the ones I want).
It helps that I know which items/brands I like and don't save coupons for ones that I wouldn't otherwise buy. So its easier to spot when something I like is on sale and I have a coupon - that's when I save bigtime. Being in Rosi, I'm close to several supermarkets, so I can take advantage of what's on sale where. I make sure to use the double-dollar-coupon specials when they're offered (Roche Bros and S&S do this off-and-on thru the year). And I'm not shy about quickly checking my receipts and getting full credit at the service desk when I get overcharged (which happens way more than most people think!)
Admittedly, someone living downtown probably wouldn't see as much savings. And if I was in the burbs driving 10 miles in different directions to get to the various stores, I'd be eating my savings in gas. Luckily location and discipline mean I can save quite a lot with coupons.
I just go straight to Market
I just go straight to Market Basket.
Coupons For The Most Unhealthy Products
I agree that coupons are often a bad deal for consumers. Typically, they're for the most unhealthy processed food items, or else for household products for which there are much less expensive alternatives and/or the base item price is higher than it might be without coupons. Obviously, the merchants wouldn't bother with all the overhead of coupons unless they increased their own bottom line.
I agree
CVS has some good deals. Those extrabucks are very useful, I just use them for something else I need.
I've never been asked for my zipcode, but I do have the loyalty card. The only mail I receive from them are the occasional % off coupon.
Don't fill out the loyalty
Don't fill out the loyalty card information or use false information. And don't use a card to pay and allow them to associate that data with that loyalty card.
Better yet, don't shop at CVS at all.
But only if you let them.
But only if you let them.
If you're that concerned about your privacy
then don't give them your zip code when they ask. Or, better still, pay with cash.
And receiving junk mail is hardly the same as breaking and entering. Time for you to remove your tinfoil hat and realize this issue is not worth the waste of time and expense of frivilous lawsuits.
Point completely missed
It isn't the junk mail... it's the fact that they have accessed information that you didn't give them, in order to send junk mail and do whatever else they are doing with it.
If you don't think privacy theft is as bad as B&E, then you've obviously never been a victim of it. It's much worse. And if you think your data is secure in the hands of a retailer, just google "TJX data breach."
Thanks for your insightful commentary, though.
Oh I get your point alright.
However, given that the store has your name from the credit card, there are several ways they could figure out your address to send you mailings, even if they didn't have your zip code.
And you're confusing privacy theft with identity theft. While I agree that identity theft is very serious, I don't recall haearing one example of identity theft that resulted from a store using peoples zip codes for marketing purposes. Also, people's zip codes and addresses are information that's freely available to the public. Just look in any telephone directory for one.
The argument that this is an unacceptable breach of privacy is kind of like the "I don't want to wear a seat belt because I'm opposed to the government telling me what to do in MY car" argument you always hear. Both are complete utter nonsnense and only prove the increasing lack of common sense we have as a society.
And, if this practice is against state law, then why isn't the state taking these companies to court. Oh right, because perhaps the law makes no praqctical sense based on the non-criminal results of violating the law - i.e. sending junk mail to people.
But you just keep hiding under your tinfoil hat and promoting all those conspiracy theories.
Anons who make sensible posts like this...
... deserve a nom de web. ;~}
Again, I'm not sure about
Again, I'm not sure about this. There are other reasons consumers are asked for zip code, for card protection. Certain customer/business functions require a zip code for mag stripe security purposes when using a debit/credit card. It is to combat rampant credit card.
You buy gas at a pump and it asks for zip code authoriztion to make sure the person using the card is legit. We recently had someone testing about 50 white cards at one of our locations. Since we had to take off the zip code authorization, all cards were active and free to be used. If that person was asked the billin zip, he wouldn't have gotten past the first card.
So this law does have negative consequences to the consumer and business alike.
Nothing takes the place of
Nothing takes the place of watching what's going on at your business.
If you knew this was happening, why didn't you call the police?
stopping at wrong place
The suit doesn't say you can't use the zip code for card protection. What there suing over is taking that zip code and getting mailing information that they then use for marketing.
And to everyone else who suggests not giving the zip code--the stores don't tell you what it's for. The clerks often don't know either. Most people assume it's for card verification. I always assumed they were collecting to see where customers were generally from to determine where to open additional stores.
These attorneys
are trolls and nothing more. They will get their 1/3rd, and then distribute the pennies to the masses.
Completely anti-business.
Trolls or not, if the
Trolls or not, if the business practices are in violation of the law, the businesses can be sued. They could operate legally if they want, but they are betting that the marketing information is worth more than some piddling fine and cost of legal fees.
Hey, sometimes the asshole is a marketing executive.
Yup
Another half-baked boneheaded statute interpreted by the courts to give the plaintiff's bar a blank check to rack up fees.
These cases will settle, the attorneys will get millions, and anyone who shopped at CVS / DSW will get a $3 coupon. "Justice"
I'd prefer if there weren't a
I'd prefer if there weren't a huge payout that mostly went to the lawyers, and instead state regulators just fixed the problem.
CVS junk snail-mail is not especially voluminous
and what little they send, is generally useful -- 20% off coupons and the like.