I bought a cover for my Galaxy series phone from JB HiFi in a huge hurry on Monday as they were closing shop. I then realise that the cover I bought covers everything so will be unable to see the "edge tickers" that was the whole idea of getting the Edge in the first place in other words, the case defeats the purpose of the most special feature of the phone.
Happily I went to JB Hifi just on the 4th day to return as I believe I have made a hasty decision to purchase a $60 phone cover at the time the store had already officially closed ( says 6 08 pm) The entire mall closes at 6 pm so you can imagine how rush it must have been people wanting to knock off ( retail staff esp want to go home ) Anyways despite a clear receipt that was only dated 4 days ago. The staff ask for drivers license which I thought they only wanted to sight to make sure the photo matches the person asking the refund. ( even though stores 10 times bigger like Myers and DJ and Officeworks never ask for any photo ID when you have the store receipt to do refunds ) However what I have an issue is they took all my license info and entered into their computer.
Was that necessary? The Privacy Legislation clearly stated information collected must be for a purpose that necessitates its collection. ( Since bigger retail stores do not ask for that and take that info, why is JB an exception?) The legislation also states that when collecting personal information, one must state how long that information will be kept, what purpose was that information kept for and its relevance to the collection in the first place and how is this information kept and how can consumers access that information that was kept.
In this case a simple return of a case for phone ( $60, which in JB stores is probably considered a dirt cheap item ) with store receipt does not require picture ID let alone collecting and storing that information in JB's database.
I take it that they want a database of all customers that do returns to see if you have return goods before. I wonder what is the legal implications of this practice under legislation. Also what on earth is JB doing with my license information?
Any legal practitioner here? Which government department do you lodge a formal complain about this behavior?
To me, it doesn't seem unreasonable.
If you were shopping and lost the Item New and Sealed in the JB HiFi Bag w/Receipt and some random found it they could just take it to JB with some story to get a refund.
Later, you realise that you have lost it and go ape at them for giving the random a refund without getting some ID or checking.
Sure, they could ask to just see it, but what would they have without recording some details?
Maybe talk to Store Manager or Manager on Duty if you want to know why or ask them what their data retention policy is?
I don't see a reason to go all Mabo on them. lol