Hacker News Reader

Comment by mrhappyunhappy | Hacker News Reader

I was at the mall one day buying something. The cashier said “what’s your cell number?” My reply was “no”. They looked at me shocked and bewildered but the shock was all mine. Who in their right mind asks for a cell number from a shopper? Any time anyone asks me for phone number I just say “no”, seems to work.

View on HN

I would steer away from being rude to the average cashier, and instead complain to their corporate overlords.

As someone who worked in retail, it was equally uncomfortable for me to ask as it was for the customer to answer.

I'm confused. If you ask me a question, answering 'No' seems to be an option... How is it rude to reply that way?

I'm well aware cashiers are people, and want to treat them that way.

---

> Would you like to upgrade to a large?

> Nope.

---

> Can we just get your phone number?

> No...

I think the parent took the literal answer of “no” to be a bit terse, depends on how you read that example conversation. I doubt anyone is arguing it’s actually rude to refuse to provide a phone number, just to not be snarky when doing so.

If it’s uncomfortable to ask then don’t take my response personally. I don’t do it to be rude, just found this to be the most effective way of making a statement without saying much more - which is more likely to make the cashier upset given my resting tone.

Radio Shack used to always want a bunch of information from you for their database, whenever you would buy anything, cash or not. It was good training in refusing to participate in data harvesting that, 30 years after my first nervous "No", is more relevant and necessary than ever.

No isn't rude.

I've got to agree with this. You're ultimately just being rude to a minimum wage worker who has to follow a script or be fired.

What would be a non-rude approach in you opinion? >can we have your phone number? >Yes. walks away

tThe initial'no' as presented was completely valid, polite response.

I'm not saying you should say yes to be agreeable. Just be polite but firm. I would say something along the lines of "I don't want to give out my phone number sorry." or even just shaking your head back and forth works.

"Do you have a phone number" "No" comes off as you being irritated and will make the staff member feel like a dick for just doing their job.

I'm not saying you must always be polite. If somebody is being a pushy asshole push back. However if you can take a few seconds to make a minimum wage drone not feel as bad about their job its well worth it.

Maybe you shouldn't do things that you know are wrong.

but he has children to feed and mortgage of pay. clearly doing immoral things is the lesser of the two evils in this scenario.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com