Ted Baker Junk email

Ethelberta

Just thought I'll share my experience at Ted Baker Regent Street shop.

I was shopping with my friend from abroad, and she bought a skirt, and then went to pay, and do the Duty Free registration.

The shop assistant handed her a postcard sized card which said register to get junk email from Ted Baker (OK not exact words:p), and said to her to write her email address, as it is needed for Duty Free. I asked, for the Duty Free? really? on here? and he said yes. Just write the email address.

My friend and I both thought it was fishy, and as I had an email account specially for junk mail, I wrote that, and handed it back.

Few weeks later, the junk mail started arriving, tailored to my friend's country of residence:mad:
OK, I'm not going to do anything about this, as life it too short, but thought I'll share my experience.

Taking advantage of a tourist is not nice.
I wonder if they get points for getting email addresses?

agrinnall

Did she get her Duty Free refund? If so then I'm not sure why she's worrying too much, just unsubscribe.

Ethelberta

I haven't told her about the junk email, no need for her to have bad feelings about London and the shop she loves.

The email comes to MY email (I have an account for junk emails), so no harm done.
Easy to unsubscribe.

I'm just saying, it is cheeky for them to harvest email addresses from tourists (not good English) for their use when the shop assistant clearly said it is ONLY for duty free.

markelock

Ethelberta wrote: »

I haven't told her about the junk email, no need for her to have bad feelings about London and the shop she loves.

The email comes to MY email (I have an account for junk emails), so no harm done.
Easy to unsubscribe.

I'm just saying, it is cheeky for them to harvest email addresses from tourists (not good English) for their use when the shop assistant clearly said it is ONLY for duty free.

First World problems...

takman

Ethelberta wrote: »

I haven't told her about the junk email, no need for her to have bad feelings about London and the shop she loves.

The email comes to MY email (I have an account for junk emails), so no harm done.
Easy to unsubscribe.

I'm just saying, it is cheeky for them to harvest email addresses from tourists (not good English) for their use when the shop assistant clearly said it is ONLY for duty free.

What is the point in having an email just for junk?. You should have just given a fake email!.

MothballsWallet

I wonder if this is covered by the Data Protection Act (DPA)?

Companies are supposed to only collect personal data for valid purposes and inform you of what those are upfront.

If Ted Baker staff are asking for email addresses for the purposes of tourists getting a VAT refund (why would HMRC need that when they've got the other details) but then add people to their marketing list without explicit consent being given, I thought that would be a DPA breach?

JReacher1

MothballsWallet wrote: »

I wonder if this is covered by the Data Protection Act (DPA)?

Companies are supposed to only collect personal data for valid purposes and inform you of what those are upfront.

If Ted Baker staff are asking for email addresses for the purposes of tourists getting a VAT refund (why would HMRC need that when they've got the other details) but then add people to their marketing list without explicit consent being given, I thought that would be a DPA breach?

The OP said that the card did say on it "register to get junk mail from ted baker" although these weren't the exact words on the card it does seem likely that the card specified if you entered an email address you wild receive marketing messages. Therefore by putting your details on this card you are giving consent to be marketed to and it is not a DPA breach.

Ethelberta

The card did say register to get junk email, so I didn't want my friend to enter her email address.
She doesn't like junk mail.
That's why I asked the shop assistant what it was for, but he said it is only for Duty Free.

We went around many shops, but none of the other shops asked us for email address. If it was needed for duty free, then we would have written it on the duty free form, not the shop junk mail form.

That's why I wrote MY junk email address, but checked it often to see if duty free might be contacting her.

I wonder how many other tourist got caught in this. Especially non English fluent people.

esuhl

Ethelberta wrote: »

That's why I asked the shop assistant what it was for, but he said it is only for Duty Free.

I would've said, "Oh! I don't have an email address. Never mind. I'll buy all this stuff somewhere else."

I'm sure they would have decided to "let" you buy from them without an email address.

takman

Ethelberta wrote: »

The card did say register to get junk email, so I didn't want my friend to enter her email address.
She doesn't like junk mail.
That's why I asked the shop assistant what it was for, but he said it is only for Duty Free.

We went around many shops, but none of the other shops asked us for email address. If it was needed for duty free, then we would have written it on the duty free form, not the shop junk mail form.

That's why I wrote MY junk email address, but checked it often to see if duty free might be contacting her.

I wonder how many other tourist got caught in this. Especially non English fluent people.

But there was no reason to write down a valid email address at all!. If I ever have to write an email address for a special offer in a shop for example I just make one up!. I really can't see why your making such a big deal out if this :rotfl:

A shop can impose and conditions it wants for the sale of its goods and if you don't agree with it then just walk away.

Ethelberta

takman wrote: »

But there was no reason to write down a valid email address at all!. If I ever have to write an email address for a special offer in a shop for example I just make one up!. I really can't see why your making such a big deal out if this :rotfl:

A shop can impose and conditions it wants for the sale of its goods and if you don't agree with it then just walk away.

I know I know, but they said it was for Duty Free;)