Mahua Moitra says can’t even buy trousers for dad without giving phone number, tags Decathlon on Twitter

Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra posted a complaint against sporting brand Decathlon in a cutting tweet on Thursday. In her post, Mahua Moitra described her experience as she visited the Decathlon store at Ansal Plaza in Delhi-NCR today afternoon.

Mahua Moitra bought a pair of trousers for her father from Decathlon and was asked to provide her phone number and email address at the billing counter. Displeased, Mahua Moitra refused and tweeted straight from the store, censuring Decathlon for “violating privacy laws and consumer laws”.

“Want to buy my dad trousers for Rs 1499 in CASH at @Decathlon_India Ansal Plaza & manager insists I need to put in my mobile number & email ID to purchase. Sorry @Decathlon_India, you are violating privacy laws & consumer laws by insisting on this. Am at store currently (sic.),” Mahua Moitra tweeted.

See her post here:

Want to buy my dad trousers for 1499 in CASH at @Decathlon_India Ansal Plaza & manager insists I need to put in my mobile number & email
ID to purchase.
Sorry @Decathlon_India you are violating privacy laws & consumer laws by insisting on this. Am at store currently.

— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) April 28, 2022

Soon after her post went viral, Mahua Moitra received a text from a Supreme Court lawyer, a screenshot of which she posted on her timeline. She also added that the manager had “finally put in his number & got me out of store (with dad’s trousers). But @Decathlon_India needs to reconfigure now.”

Received this message from a top lawyer at the Supreme Court just now. The sweet manager finally put in his number & got me out of store (with dad’s trousers) But @Decathlon_India needs to reconfigure now. pic.twitter.com/Ez4OxGDuJJ

— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) April 28, 2022

Although she praised the manager, Mahua Moitra clearly wasn’t impressed with her experience at Decathlon.

I always buy stuff in UK from @DecathlonUK & they NEVER ask for mobile num & only for email if one wants paperless receipt.
So clearly only Indian arm wants to fool customers here. Not nice @Decathlon_India

— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) April 28, 2022

Social media users had several opinions in response to Mahua Moitra’s complaint against Decathlon. Here are some of the tweets:

No need to give your number or email ID. You can ask them to give it in writing to you on the company letter head that they will NOT sell you the trousers without your personal data! See how they fall in place !!

— Tehseen Poonawalla Official (@tehseenp) April 28, 2022

This has become a story everywhere, but they don’t insist like this.
And normally they are happy with the mobile number only so that they can send spam messages…

— (@shaunakhub) April 28, 2022

Yes i also faced this some time back , i told the floor manager either you take cash and give me product without number and email or i leave , they took the cash and said we don’t mis use your number or email. I said maybe but still i don’t want to give, my choice.

— Pranay Merchant (@Lamore_Marchand) April 28, 2022

As I know decathlon provided 2 yrs warranty on its major products. In case if you have any issue within warranty period then how can find purchasing details ?
May be this is the reason !!

— Shafaq Khan (@onlyshafaq) April 28, 2022

This is so that if you were to misplace your cash receipt and change your mind later for return/exchange, they can look up on the transaction using your mobile no./email id.

— Piyu Dutta (@PiyuduttaPiyu) April 28, 2022

What do you think about Mahua Moitra’s post?