I don’t have Metro card, however, I go there with one of my friends, or I get temporary card for a visit. If you ever visited Metro, you may know that they ask your name, company you work for, cell number, company number, date of birth and what not, for issuing temporary or permanent card.
Thanks God, they don’t ask me about my B-Form, my night cream, food I like, places I love to go or about my Girl Friend. But you know what, the information they collect from me for issuing the card – and then comparing it with what I shop, they get complete details of my likes and dislikes.
My point is that why Metro like to know about my company’s mobile number for just selling me shampoo?
I know such issues are least addressed in Pakistan, revealing personal identity is least cared about, but I won’t allow them collect my data and then build a data bank that they can sell to anyone.
My question is, if there is any authority in Pakistan that allows them collect all this information? If there are rule of practices available?
I tried to dig this out, by contacting consumer protection office, Competition Commission and couple of other concerning institutes but found no authentic justification.
I have been to Wal Mart and Carrefour (in China and US), which are hell bigger retailers then Metro, when you go there they don’t mess you with any details or stuff. You just buy and get out. Yes they do have membership cards but those are like royalty based like discounts and all you know.
On a side note (not related with the headline, but I guess I should discuss it here), there are no chairs/benches for senior citizen or handicapped – or even if a youngster want to sit and rest after miles of walk, there is nothing relieving for him/her.
Another observation, Zeeshan Shafqat (a.k.a bites85) takes help of crutches to walk. He went there and crossed the security gate, which of course beeped due to crutches. At airports (which are big sensitive places) any airport like in US you walk through it, they know you are with crutches so the security alarm beeps – but they leave it as they are not blind.
However, at Metro, 18 years old Zeeshan was asked to revert back and walk without crutches to clear security check – no words on it, but just itna kahon ga – Aqal na howay tay mojan hi mojan
