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I was in our local Vodafone shop at the weekend with my wife with the intention of buying a mobile phone for her. She picked the one she wanted and handed £100 to the sales person, only to be told that we could not use cash to purchase this particular phone, only a credit or debit card. I was dumbfounded.
We were given some garbage about them having to track who they sold the phone to and the only way to do this was to use a card to make the purchase.
We walked out empty handed and went to purchase the same phone at the same price at Argos. CASH !
In these tough times I'd have thought any business would want a sale using any legal tender, obviously not.
I noticed later that the Orange shop 100yds up the road was now boarded up.
Maybe there's a lesson there somewhere....
Over here you can't buy any mobile phone anymore without using your bank account for the transaction, or a credit card - unless the company already has your data. Which sounds very similar to what they said at Vodaphone...
Quote: Over here you can't buy any mobile phone anymore without using your bank account for the transaction, or a credit card - unless the company already has your data. Which sounds very similar to what they said at Vodaphone...
But Argos let me buy with cash...they don't have any details about me.....?
I was told by my local Jaguar centre only to pay for parts using cheque or card as they had stopped taking cash,i asked them if they would take cash for a new XF they said no to that as well.
I work for myself and the day that i stop taking cash will be the day i give up, it never shows you up by not working and it does not get returned unpaid by the banks.
lol I really didn't know that 
Quote: Quote:Over here you can't buy any mobile phone anymore without using your bank account for the transaction, or a credit card - unless the company already has your data. Which sounds very similar to what they said at Vodaphone...But Argos let me buy with cash...they don't have any details about me.....?
As an ex-phone retail store manager, i can say that the main reason will be to prevent box breaking.
Certain individuals would go from store to store buying up PAYG phones in their hundreds and within 48 hours they would be unlocked and on their way to India where they're worth a lot more.
We would often ring our local Argos and give descriptions of individuals. If we then saw them with an Argos bag we would report this to our HO who would remind Argos of their T&C's regarding the sale of their phones.
The phone you bought has an imei number and you are on their cctv so your not as anonymous as you may think.
Yes - in many ways the loss leader model seems to have gone crazy in certain industries and I can't help thinking that this works against the average consumer. All loss leaders are essentially a 'con' of some kind in the sense that the consumer's custom is gained with a compelling offer that hides costs elsewhere.
Cash payments allow you to break the model (including making furture advertising/marketing revenue more difficult) and I can see why that would be discouraged by retailers. But as a consumer - go for it and hope that just maybe a more open cost model will show up as a result.
Sorry, I thought it said "cats no longer legal tender".
Wrong forum
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