Suuuuuure. You forgot your Zip Code.

[South Texan]

I was in line at a Red Box DVD/Blu-ray machine yesterday. The skanky looking young woman in front of me was selecting movies. The machine told her she had selected the maximum number of discs allowed to be rented at one time.

She then pulled a credit card out of her wallet. After she swiped it, the machine asked her to enter the Zip Code for the billing address for the card. She hesitated and looked around nervously. Then she turned and asked me what the Zip Code was for where we were. (Side note: I happen to live in an area where the boundaries of three Zip Codes meet.) I told her the machine wanted the Zip Code for the card, not the machine's location. She then asked me what my Zip Code was. I gave her my “are you kidding me?” look and asked her why she did not know her own Zip Code.

She replied a little hesitantly that she had forgotten it. I told her to look at her driver’s license that I could see in her wallet. She then got a REALLY freaked out look on her face and walked away quickly.

I can only hope the card’s real owner already had reported it as stolen.

[SecurityWench]

Yeesh! I hope so too. Scammers need to do their homework.

[Sleepwalker]

I've asked that before... of course, I lived across the street from the gas station in question and had just moved/updated my infos. :P Who gets rental movies on a stolen credit card? Live a little!

[PepperElf]

granted i can say i've forgotten mine before
but that's usually in conjunction with moving to a new ship.*

and i've brain farted on my current one... which is really sad cos... i grew up here too

tho i've never brain farted on the machines tho.



*(tho it was fun giving them the ship's zip when they ask for it for a survey)

[TexasT]

Who gets rental movies on a stolen credit card? Live a little!

She's probably stealing them.

[Justin]

Just make one up? Can't be that difficult...

I may be over judging her intelligence however.

[Shalom]

*(tho it was fun giving them the ship's zip when they ask for it for a survey)

Funnier when they get into sweepstakes mailings.

"Yes! You qualify for the first-prize drawing for a custom built new home in beautiful APO, NY..."

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Just make one up? Can't be that difficult...

I may be over judging her intelligence however.

It's next to impossible. Because if you enter in an invalid zip code, the pos won't take it. It will say "invalid zip code" and ask again.

I know this because I had a similar thing happen last week. Sometimes I don't know mine. I know that sounds kind of weird, just trust me. That's how my brain works. In fact, usually, I don't. If I am tired, stressed, whatever. It's a string a numbers and I have dyscalculia.

I don't know my phone number, either. Actually, I never know that one. It's full of sevens and fives and threes and those are pretty much the worst ones to have to work with. But I never call me, so whatev.

But anyways, yeah. The conversation went thusly:

Clerk: It wants your billing code.
Me: I don't know what a billing code is.
Clerk: Your zip code.
Me: Oh. Yeah, I don't know what that is. Can you not just override it?
Clerk: You don't know your zip code?
Me: Nope.
Clerk: I can't do it without your zip code.
Me: I guess we have a situation, then, don't we?

Turned out, surprise surprise, she actually could do it without the zip code. Knock me over with a freaking feather.

I'm sure she either thought I was abyssmally stupid or just screwing with her. Meh. However, had she asked for ID following that little exchange, I would have been happy to give it to her. The fact that the chick in the OP's story got a little freaked out certainly looks suspect.

[JPD]

The small town I lived in used to have different zip-codes for different parts of town, then a while ago they changed it so the whole town had one zip code. My bank accounts were opened after the change had happened, but I know several people that have one credit card associated with the old zip code, and another one associated with the new zip code.

In addition each subset of town used to be called that subset, and now it's all 'town name' which makes it hard to verify the town over the phone, without giving them more then one answer.

[wagegoth]

She's probably stealing them.

And it would be very hard to find her, as the only record of her using the card would probably be a poor quality, security video.

[infinitemonkies]

It doesn't surprise me at all anymore when someone doesn't know their own postal code. In my professional experience, I'd say that about 75% of of the general population doesn't have their zip/postal code memorized.

Hell, I'm not even surprised anymore when a grown adult doesn't know what a postal code is.

[Andara Bledin]

I can understand someone in the general US not getting what you want when you ask for a postal code, because unless you do work that involves international shipments, you've likely never heard the term. This country is pretty huge, after all, and most people hardly leave their home state.

As for knowing my own info, I make a point whenever I move to have a little crib sheet with all the necessary data so I don't have to inconvenience clerks who are only just doing their jobs.

^-.-^

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I'm a little embarassed about my phone number problem. I can usually recall my postal code (not always, but usually) but there is no way in hell I will be able to learn my phone number. I never call it, it's a cell phone.

I could remember the land line, but that has gone away and now I have a number I will never call.

I just saved it as the first contact on my cell phone. If I need it, I can just open my contacts and there it is at the top.

[XCashier]

Clerk: It wants your billing code.
Me: I don't know what a billing code is.
Clerk: Your zip code.
Me: Oh. Yeah, I don't know what that is. Can you not just override it?
Clerk: You don't know your zip code?
Me: Nope.
Clerk: I can't do it without your zip code.
Me: I guess we have a situation, then, don't we?

Turned out, surprise surprise, she actually could do it without the zip code. Knock me over with a freaking feather.

The Fabric Store has started asking customers for their zip code (yet another Brilliant Idea™ from Corporate who thinks we don't have enough to do ). The cash register won't let you finish the transaction without a zip code. Some customers really freak out about giving their zip code, as if we're going to hunt through thousands of other people who live there and find them!

If the customer, for some reason, refuses to give their zip code, I just enter the store's zip code. I honestly don't care enough to fight over the customer's zip code.