Surveys, surveys, surveys

Posted on October 7th, 2003 in my ramblings.

I don’t like surveys.

There is some kind of survey going on right now with a whole bunch of retailers in my area where they will ask me what my postal code is. They don’t know why, they just say it’s some kind of “new survey”. From memory, I’ve encountered this at:

  • Grand & Toy
  • Michael’s
  • Canadian Tire

Always, the postal code is typed in directly into the register terminal, which says to me that it is associated to the transaction. Also, they cannot complete the transaction without getting a postal code. Umm… no thanks. Being mostly wary of my privacy, and the way that information can theoretically be linked back to me, I’ve been giving out bogus codes. Usually ‘H0H0H0’ – this is the postal code that Canada Post uses for letters to Santa Claus that children send. The North Pole should be represented! Usually I’ve got no problems with this, a few times I’ve even gotten a smile from a cashier. Sometimes they’ve refused to take Santa’s postal code though. So I’ve got another idea – use a postal code for Nunavut. The postal code for Resolute, Nunavut is X0A0V0. I’m gonna go with that. Maybe I can give them pointers on polar bear safety to make it convincing.

 

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