You made me question myself now, was I being unreasonable?
Didn't even think that the clerk might have been just trying to help me out, I felt like this was a smart sales & marketing psychological trick to give up and go the way of least resistance to get me to sign up (obviously not by the clerk directly, but as part of their training on how to deal with customers).
But either way, thankfully I was polite and nice about it. I might have become too cynical about everything regarding my private info in the last few years.
Yeah at no point was I mad at the clerk and didn't show it at all that I was boiling inside, because its just their job and they have no say in it.
Haven't tried to say I don't have a number or come up with a fake number, but read this in the thread earlier and will probably give it a try next time!
When I was younger and lived at home we had "family accounts". When I went to a store I picked up the "family card" and used that. So similar experience!
Agreed. It used be worse here - at some point merchants wanted your social security number to create a unique customer identifier.
I will not describe how angry I felt hearing a shoe store clerk ask for my social security number (again, did not lash out at the clerk), but I was angry.
Similar experiences. I was thinking "that's it? Now i have to do this 5 times a week, recover on the weekend, and then again for the rest of my life?!".
People kept telling me you get used to it. I felt hopeless after couple of years because it didn't get better.
Now I realize that a full time job doesn't need to mean that you are a husk working your life away, always completely drained.
I used to ask the same question as OP, then I discovered this trick (with crap load of luck, I had tried to find a job that I'd enjoy for a long time before I got one).
Too bad politicians don't have to base their decisions on an expert opinion. Any credible person will answer that this is a bad idea, but the issue is "easy and quick solutions to difficult problems".
Nice of them to atleast offer an alternative!