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Guy buys shoes at Payless, starts getting unwanted circulars from them, sues
By adamg on Thu, 10/02/2014 - 7:57am
A man who twice bought shoes at the Payless store in Natick is suing the chain for allegedly violating a state law that prohibits companies from requiring address information for credit-card purchases.
In his lawsuit, filed this week in US District Court in Boston, Jeffrey Scolnick is seeking to become lead plaintiff in a class action he says could result in more than a $5-million payout by Payless. He alleges Payless used his Zip code, which clerks required him to provide, to ferret out his mailing address and begin bombarding him with junk mail that he never asked for.
Scolnick's lawsuit is the latest in a string of similar actions against national retailers since the Supreme Judicial Court ruled last year that Zip codes constitute the sort of personal information retailers can't make consumers hand over, under the state's consumer-privacy law.
Neighborhoods:
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
 Scolnick complaint | 120.86 KB |
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Comments
Tip of the day: when cashier
Tip of the day: when cashier clerk , who is only doing the job , asks for Zip , just give one that is not really yours. Example , State House is 02133 . No arguments , continuity of purchase , out the door.
Or
I hadn't thought of giving a different zip, I usually just say "No thanks" and have never had an argument about it. They don't require a zip code to complete the sale, they just make you think they do.
Better tip
Say "No Thankyou". You are not required to give it. He have it voluntarily, so I'm not sure how he would win this.
A lot of places ask for zip code just for shopper demographics. How will he prove they found his address through his zip code and not some other way; or how he and only get got fliers, rather than everyone in his zip code/town??
Yeah
I'd like to know this too. They only ask for a zipcode. I also question how he summed up that this was the reason why he was getting so many fliers.
And yes a simple "no thanks" would have worked. Not sure he plans on winning this since he had the option to say no. He also had the option not to shop there.
Also, must be nice to have enough money to sue people for this crappola. Seriously. But apparently not enough money so he didn't have to shop at payless.
PS - I'd like to know how the SJC can say that a zip code can be used as PI, since AVS requires a zipcode to process credit cards (or the actual card itself must be swiped to avoid AVS)
I prefer guy's tactic:
I prefer guy's tactic: identify that the store is making their employees ask a question that will lead to breaches of your state-mandated privacy rights, give a true answer, and then sue the store when they inevitably use your answer to break the law. That way, the store will be punished for doing illegal things, and we can all be spared the idiocy of Radio Shack asking for your goddamn ZIP code when you go buy 4 AA batteries.
Yes you could blow all the
Yes you could blow all the whistles, but you would have to first put the cashier on the spot, and invest all that time.
Interesting...
Someone still buys batteries or anything at all at Radio Shack?
Haven't been asked for Zip last couple of times in Radio Shack
Yeah, I still buy stuff there every once in awhile. There, I said it!
The worst right now is Sears (Yes, I am King of the Dying Retail Chains!), where the cashiers always ask for your phone number, in the same exact tone they ask you to wait for them to finish before swiping your card through the reader.
"No, thanks!" I always reply cheerfully.
Does he have a case if you volunteer the info?
I'm curious.
If they ask and you give them the info even though it wasn't required, does this guy have a case? I mean, they can ask anything, you don't have to answer. They just asked, and you answered. As long as they don't require the info for the transaction, they may be OK???
And even though the store requires the employees to ask, that doesn't mean the info is required.
I guess the question is if the store really required this info.
Just wondering.
I buy shoes at Payless
though never at the Natick store. Always pay with a credit card. No one has asked me for my zip code and I've received no mail from them.
So I'd say no, it's not required. Some stores even have those machines where you swipe the card yourself, but they are often not working, it seems.
I can't remember the last time any store has asked me for a zip code.
I'd be curious to know
if Mr. Scolnick has a history of lawsuits. Of course, suing is an industry, and real $pros$ use a stable of men and women with ostensibly clean backgrounds. That said, these companies are setting themselves up, and these types of suits are often legit.
Esq?
Yeah I was wondering if this guy is a lawyer, so he can start this silly lawsuit more or less for free.
PACER
Not great at navigating PACER, and I'll give it a little more time later if need be, but this Skolnick cat has 3 cases against large corporations this year on the books, one of which appears still open. I saw Apple and Petco, didn't see what the actual cases were yet. Worth looking into, if any of you are good at this type of thing.
Not a lawyer
He works at a large office supply retailer HQ in Framingham. Easy enough to find online. I used to work with him. His LinkedIn page shows that he is quite adept at self promotion. There is some angle here, but I'm not sure what it is.
$$$
The angle is to get lots of money.
I hope this guy actually wins.
Direct marketing is about as useful as a mosquito bite...just as fun too.
I'm also a hater of vendors signing me up for magazines:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/nextavenue/2014/04/16/when-magazines-you-don...
I wish these companies would all stop doing both.
Link explains why so many magazines have been in my mailbox
Thanks for this link. Could not figure out why I have been getting so many magazines for the past few months.
Sneaky
I have a friend who signs up for magazines with the name Jane Runnersworld Smith or Jane Cookinglight Smith or whatever, so then when she starts getting catalogs addressed to Jane [magazinetitle] Smith, she knows which magazine sold her out. I'm not sure whether she does anything with that information, but it's an interesting way to track how your info moves around.
Rolling Stone
I know that RS has a habit of selling their subscriber lists to tree-hugging charities, so to them I'm "Garrie C." so that I can tell who they passed my name to.
Yeah. "Oh, I'm sorry, I don
Yeah. "Oh, I'm sorry, I don't give that information out." No one ever argues with me. People in all sorts of contexts ask for information they're not entitled to. That doesn't obligate you to give it to them. Most people, though, have a fascinating, deeply-ingrained inability to not answer a direct question, often to the point of overshare. They're the people who tell strangers who've walked in off the street that their colleagues are in Mexico or out sick or in the hospital or at a funeral instead of saying, "She's not available right now; I can take a message or I can give you her card." Don't be those people.
Sweet, sweet litigation
The lawyers make a boatload of money (on both sides of the v.), and Payless will pass on the costs to their customers. All because of a little junk mail. Not really a net gain for society.
How do gas stations get away
How do gas stations get away with asking for your zip code as a credit card password?
That's AVS
That's AVS at work.
From my old credit card processing experience says... that if the machine is unattended where signature and CID code verification is not possible, a zip code must be used for AVS. This typically applies to gas pumps, and anywhere there is no attendant who will swipe and verify signature. (which 99% don't do anyways)
Its to prevent fraud. Gas pumps are notorious for fraud since there's no one to validate the card or the CID on the back.
And of course the SJC ruling probably means for data collection purposes, not AVS purposes. In short, as long as its used for credit card AVS its OK, but for anything else, it's illegal. (which is dumb considering how many people live in a zip code, it would be hard to identify it)
(PS - Just answered my own question from above!)