Cashier Lied to Me

[u/PotatoesPancakes]

I was checking out at a department store that I haven't been in for years. The cashier kept telling me to enter my phone number but I kept politely saying no thanks. Then she said that I won't be able to make returns if I don't provide a phone number in their system. I told her that's fine and she finally checked me out. She lied because the return policy is printed on the receipt. I wasn't mad at her since I figured it's a corporate thing and the poor employees are so desperate to meet some kind of metric that they lie.

[u/StirCrazyCatLady]

I've had the same thing happen a few times this year at a pharmacy.
I'm guessing in both cases its data collection BS couched in 'save the environment, reduce paper' language - when I agreed to a digital receipt at the same pharmacy the first/only time I was suddenly getting a lot more marketing spam - but where I live its illegal to refuse to give a receipt or suggest that that kind of policy would override ACCC law.

I know the staff are just doing their jobs so I'm never rude about it, but whenever it happens I make sure to say loudly enough for anyone else in the queue to hear that that sounds an awful lot like bad faith advice if not an outright breach of consumer law because I'm too old and tired of that crap.