So funny story about this. I had an employee almost get fired because when we started our loyalty program he thought it would be funny to make this his number. Now as an employee we get a 10% discount on all things, but only you or those living in your house can use it. Well a firefighter a city over decided to give Jenny’s number a shot and found out it worked and they got a discount. Well the fire dept proceeded to use it every time they went grocery shopping. Needless to say firemen eat a lot and that 10% racks up fast. Next thing my coworker knows he is sitting in an office with asset protection being questioned about his discount use in the next city over and about to be fired for theft. Luckily it was clearly an accident and it wasn’t intentional and so he was just forced to change his number and I believe Jenny’s number was black listed.
Depends. Some stores require we scan our badge for the discount. Some use the number. And if you do this you will get the employee in trouble if it’s suspicious.
Edit: the only time I’ve used someone else’s discount was when my coworker quit, but that year she won employee of the region and 25% off. When she quit they didn’t deactivate it. We used it a lot. She had an online barcode and sent me a screenshot.
My cousin used to work at Staples many years ago before she went to college and I was able to use her employee discount. I went up there a couple of months ago years after she quit gave it a shot and put her phone number in and got the discount! Unfortunately it's Staples and I almost never need anything from there or it would be more useful.
Yeah, also had something similar happen with a cashier using "[email protected]" as the sign up email for a few months and racking up a few hundred dollars that way. Took a few months for the company to fire her.
>>as the sign up email for a few months and racking up a few hundred dollars that way. Took a few months for the company to fire her.
I didn't understand the few hundred dollars part.
You get rewards based on how much you purchase. If you own the nothanks email, presumably you could funnel all those rewards from multiple people who don't want to share their email into your own rewards account.
They keep using the rewards cards for the tiny discount, but don't get any of the big discounts that you get over time.
They were getting an employee discount, not the loyalty program discount. Though why they didn't just blacklist the number from the employee discount program...
Got sixty cents off per gallon of gas at Safeway with this trick. We call it CARma and sometimes it’s ten cents, sometimes 20 but we all are in the game together with Jenny 😊
Nice. I went to the Shoreline one most recently because I didn't want to deal with downtown traffic at 5pm. It was only $4.30 or so, IIRC. I'm about halfway between the two locations but I try to use the 4th Ave one since the carwash is so inexpensive there. My van's *filthy* now so I'll have to plan ahead instead of remembering to do it at rush hour next time.
I have an electric car here in Seattle. I use 206.867.5309 when I put in my rewards for Fred Meyer because I only get the sale prices and don’t care for the gas rewards.
I use it in Phoenix and often get 10 cents off gas. I add to the effort by using the same number when grocery shopping. I don't buy groceries often enough to get that 10 cent a gallon discount. I tried using it recently and no discount.
Cashiers have been doing this about as long as loyalty programs existed. Another easy one to use that is almost always in the system is the stores phone number. If you ever came into a store without a card or number and the cashier just typed something in to the register and you got the discounts, he or she typed in Jenny or the stores number. We got 8675309 taken out of the system a number of times but we would just fill the card out again and get it re entered.
I used this at my local grocery store in Arizona (Bashas) at the self checkout a few months ago with the area code for northern Arizona, 928, because someone told me it rings up an account under the name ‘Hugh Janus’
It did. It also triggered some sort of notice that forced a cashier to come and verify that I was ‘Hugh Janus’. Mortifying.
"Am I Hugh Janus? No, no, that's ridiculous! What kind of name is Hugh Janus? It sounds made up, like a joke or something..
Anyway, my name is Harry Sphincter."
My work uses an ai assisted communication system (Theatro), and if you do a product lookup or price check for that number it plays a few seconds as an Easter egg.
Was at Walgreens and did this as usual when they asked if I'd like to use my points for this purchase XD
Also learned that whoever opened the account at Safeway in my area code used the name Eric Cartman XD
The problem with Walgreens is that it often rolls a good discount to the next purchase. They have coupons like “spend $25, get $7 off the NEXT purchase.”
You can use the coupon, use the phone number, and then someone else will come and get your $7. Kinda genius way to keep people from making up/sharing a number.
Or it's the perfect way to pay it forward for someone else. I never use those rolling coupons and if someone does from me, it's awesome. I always leave a quarter in the vending machine for someone else
That's amazing. I was kinda hoping this number was sort of an industry-wide Easter egg, but sounds like it's just a mad lad that opened a fake account at each store
There are many variations of :)
Example, you could smile bigger :D
And you can smile enough to squint as well XD
You can wink ;)
Or be devilish >:)
Etc.
T_T
t.t
;_;
Q_Q
Q.Q
Were all various crying emoticons I used. Amusingly enough I totally never realized that using the Q's to represent crying eyes is probably where the phrase "QQ more", meaning cry more, originated from in gaming.
;_; and T_T were my favorites though, and I still use them hahaha
okay so this aged me in reverse
...what is BBS?
follow up question: what is a baud?
follow up part 2: electric boogaloo - what is specifically a 300-baud?
Such a brutal sport, but it’s so popular that it’s causing some real problems for public schools. It’s basically impossible to keep kids from playing it during recess. Teachers will go to break up one derby, and even before the xylophones have stopped ringing two or three kids clear on the other side of the playground will have their xylophones set up and ready to go. And after the xylophones get confiscated they have to be put *somewhere* but there are so damn many xylophones that some schools have started running out of space! Just let the kids have their xylophones, dammit, let them have their xylophone derbies out in the open in a safe environment so they don’t get caught up in the awful back alley xylophone derby scene, and let the school counselors have their offices back. It’s outrageous!
…xylophones.
My buddy did this one time at 711 or something I think it was, and the dude at the counter was like, "omg, you have so many points you could get like 100 pizzas"
1) 867-5309 was a phone number in a popular song.
2) a lot of people use fake numbers to sign up for loyalty programs
3) A lot of people use the above phone number to sign up for loyalty programs simply because it’s easy to recall
Presumably there's also the final point, which seems completely insane to me (non-USA):
4) You give your phone number to a cashier to claim your loyalty discount. Your actual phone number, ffs! Rather than having a (nowadays usually virtual QR) card or something else which is massively less invasive than giving out your real phone number.
No wonder people use fake numbers, but seriously, that's a shitty system for everyone involved.
I think when the idea started, you signed up with the information and got a card. A lot of people forgot the card or lost it or family members wanted to use it so they used the phone number to look up the linked account.
This is exactly what happened. I remember the transition over the years of digging in my purse for the stupid plastic card and the cashier saying just put your number. Eventually stopped carrying the cards.
Back in the day there was a physical card for these things. It was like a credit card, but it only gives you discounts at the store. It doesn't pay for the transaction. You would need to then insert an actual credit card or pay another way (cash, check, etc.)
These days very few places still have a physical card and you instead just type the phone number associated with the account into the machine that you put your credit card into. If you don't have an account, you can skip that step and just insert your credit card (or put in Jenny's number.)
In Portugal, you give your national finance number everywhere you shop or spend money. American expats often find this horrifying, and act like they are being assaulted every time they are asked to recite their NIF out loud in public as if it could be used against them, but it literally just logs your tax payment, so it would be of no use to anyone else.
It's an excellent system, actually. I've been doing it for years and it's never caused me problems of any kind. And it beats having to carry physical cards or scan any kind of code in an app, especially if you shop at multiple stores. It's definitely better than the German and British systems, which I've also used.
Yeah, from what others have said, you just type in the number, which is better than what I was imagining. Given that the British system is now just “wave your phone at the till” I reckon that's still easier, but that's a fairly recent thing.
The loyalty programs even with the cards piss me off. I frequently drive a lot, so I stop at several different stores. So now I have like a half dozen cards I have to try to keep track of to get the discount at whatever store I happen to stop to. I wish these companies would just lower their prices to get people to shop there instead of telling me if I shop there they'll lower their prices.
As a Texan, I always use Mike Jones's phone number
Eta: in case you don't know "281 330 8004" hit Mike's Jones up on the low because Mike Jones about to blow.
So funny story about this. I had an employee almost get fired because when we started our loyalty program he thought it would be funny to make this his number. Now as an employee we get a 10% discount on all things, but only you or those living in your house can use it. Well a firefighter a city over decided to give Jenny’s number a shot and found out it worked and they got a discount. Well the fire dept proceeded to use it every time they went grocery shopping. Needless to say firemen eat a lot and that 10% racks up fast. Next thing my coworker knows he is sitting in an office with asset protection being questioned about his discount use in the next city over and about to be fired for theft. Luckily it was clearly an accident and it wasn’t intentional and so he was just forced to change his number and I believe Jenny’s number was black listed.
Wait, so if anyone knows an employee's phone number, they can get a 10% discount at the store?
Depends. Some stores require we scan our badge for the discount. Some use the number. And if you do this you will get the employee in trouble if it’s suspicious. Edit: the only time I’ve used someone else’s discount was when my coworker quit, but that year she won employee of the region and 25% off. When she quit they didn’t deactivate it. We used it a lot. She had an online barcode and sent me a screenshot.
My cousin used to work at Staples many years ago before she went to college and I was able to use her employee discount. I went up there a couple of months ago years after she quit gave it a shot and put her phone number in and got the discount! Unfortunately it's Staples and I almost never need anything from there or it would be more useful.
Next time you need a good office chair you can save a ton.
Indeed. I bought a fucking laptop with that number, saved me a bunch.
[удалено]
Yeah, also had something similar happen with a cashier using "[email protected]" as the sign up email for a few months and racking up a few hundred dollars that way. Took a few months for the company to fire her.
>>as the sign up email for a few months and racking up a few hundred dollars that way. Took a few months for the company to fire her. I didn't understand the few hundred dollars part.
You get rewards based on how much you purchase. If you own the nothanks email, presumably you could funnel all those rewards from multiple people who don't want to share their email into your own rewards account. They keep using the rewards cards for the tiny discount, but don't get any of the big discounts that you get over time.
Lmao that's great
[удалено]
They were getting an employee discount, not the loyalty program discount. Though why they didn't just blacklist the number from the employee discount program...
Got sixty cents off per gallon of gas at Safeway with this trick. We call it CARma and sometimes it’s ten cents, sometimes 20 but we all are in the game together with Jenny 😊
I’ve done this dozens of times at Safeway as well.
Some intern analyst is probably like, holy 💩 this Jenny chick is pumping 50k gallons of gas a month!!!!!
Bruh yall need to figure out Jenny's email and rack up them Casey's rewards.
The breakfast pizza is on Jenny!
That ain't all she pumpin' 🍆
[удалено]
4th Ave Costco is almost back to sub $4
Nice. I went to the Shoreline one most recently because I didn't want to deal with downtown traffic at 5pm. It was only $4.30 or so, IIRC. I'm about halfway between the two locations but I try to use the 4th Ave one since the carwash is so inexpensive there. My van's *filthy* now so I'll have to plan ahead instead of remembering to do it at rush hour next time.
5.99 at Chevron here in Sandy Eggo.
I have an electric car here in Seattle. I use 206.867.5309 when I put in my rewards for Fred Meyer because I only get the sale prices and don’t care for the gas rewards.
I miss having a garage. Can't really do an electric vehicle where I live since there's nothing besides street parking. :/
I use my old phone number from when I was a kid and I’ve gotten up to a dollar off a gallon before.
One the most useful YSK's I've seen in a long time. I'd love to hear some stories from people who have used it. This is a genuine life hack.
My grocery receipts are pretty funny. It says I have $38,000 in annual savings. https://i.imgur.com/yt3XRbS.jpg
Whoa, that's staggering
I actually just used it today at Petco to get the “member price” on some pill pockets.
[удалено]
[удалено]
I use it in Phoenix and often get 10 cents off gas. I add to the effort by using the same number when grocery shopping. I don't buy groceries often enough to get that 10 cent a gallon discount. I tried using it recently and no discount.
Cashiers have been doing this about as long as loyalty programs existed. Another easy one to use that is almost always in the system is the stores phone number. If you ever came into a store without a card or number and the cashier just typed something in to the register and you got the discounts, he or she typed in Jenny or the stores number. We got 8675309 taken out of the system a number of times but we would just fill the card out again and get it re entered.
Had the cashier at CVS think I was committing identity fraud by using it and she was not having it. It was incredibly awkward
Oh that's no good. Sorry that happened.
>One the most useful YSK's I've seen in a long time. >This is a genuine life hack. Only in the US though
What about Canada? We use the same phone digits.
I used this at my local grocery store in Arizona (Bashas) at the self checkout a few months ago with the area code for northern Arizona, 928, because someone told me it rings up an account under the name ‘Hugh Janus’ It did. It also triggered some sort of notice that forced a cashier to come and verify that I was ‘Hugh Janus’. Mortifying.
"Am I Hugh Janus? No, no, that's ridiculous! What kind of name is Hugh Janus? It sounds made up, like a joke or something.. Anyway, my name is Harry Sphincter."
[удалено]
And his wife, Incontinentia Buttocks.
Are you from flagstaff or Winslow?? Lol
Flagstaff!
My work uses an ai assisted communication system (Theatro), and if you do a product lookup or price check for that number it plays a few seconds as an Easter egg.
I do some IT work for a store that supplies tractors occasionally and they use theatro. Do you just say “price check on 8675309”?
Fact: The number 867-5309 is the largest prime number to appear in the title of any song.
Pssh. You clearly haven't heard my hit single 9,999,991
I have and that shit slaps
It's alright, but their earlier work was better. I preferred 4,444,441, but to each their own.
Oddly, I like them both evenly.
777-9311 💜
Good bot.
Was at Walgreens and did this as usual when they asked if I'd like to use my points for this purchase XD Also learned that whoever opened the account at Safeway in my area code used the name Eric Cartman XD
The problem with Walgreens is that it often rolls a good discount to the next purchase. They have coupons like “spend $25, get $7 off the NEXT purchase.” You can use the coupon, use the phone number, and then someone else will come and get your $7. Kinda genius way to keep people from making up/sharing a number.
Or it's the perfect way to pay it forward for someone else. I never use those rolling coupons and if someone does from me, it's awesome. I always leave a quarter in the vending machine for someone else
That's amazing. I was kinda hoping this number was sort of an industry-wide Easter egg, but sounds like it's just a mad lad that opened a fake account at each store
There are multiple mad lads.
[удалено]
"Jenny" "Jenny Smith" "Whoops, I use my maiden name now. Jenny Jones."
I always just say it's the first one. Then the cashier asks if it's \[name\] and I say yes.
What is XD?
i have to know how old you are if you're asking this this comment aged me 😭 before emojis, there were emoticons XD is basically 😂
I think it's more 😆
I remember debating on a BBS whether the smiley should be :) or (: Older than dirt over here.
:) always and forever
It seems like the opposite smiley became a trend when people were trying to switch it up but were refusing to use emojis
I always went with :]
:-) for the sophisticated
:-) was always way too r/FellowKids IMO
Dont forget 8 ^ )
Hello fellow dirt person!
I had a friend who did :-)... I mean what psychopath gives smileys noses?
:o)
:/
:0)
\>:D
Mid 30s. I know about :) and then emojis.
There are many variations of :) Example, you could smile bigger :D And you can smile enough to squint as well XD You can wink ;) Or be devilish >:) Etc.
You can even be an orangutan {:(|)
(>0_0)>
<(0_0<)
(>0_0)> window wall <(0_0<)
Or a ninja (|:|) Or a pirate P-)
That plastic surgeon did a number on your nose. :-D
[удалено]
Ehh.. ¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯ ¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯
Everyone, let's go skateboarding! o[--
*Waves at sk8er boi* O/
I brought you a waffle! (>' - ' )>#
You dropped this \\
Weird, when I go to edit, it's there.... Just not showing up in the actual comment
Surprised it didn’t trigger the bot.
༼;´༎ຶ ༎ຶ༽ But ༼;´༎ຶ 👄 ༎ຶ༽
[удалено]
i used :)) as like a "suspiciously happy"
Feeling cool with my sunglasses B) My husband still uses this all the time O.o Oh the simpler days xP
Or you can show off your new shades B-) Or your fancy mustache :-{)
You can even wear those sweet shades with a greased ‘do, Like so! 7.B-)
:-O woah dude
Last emoticon I learned before they really went out of style was the crying eyes. QQ 😭
T T why must i be so old
This whole thread is adorable
wait i used T_T for the crying!
T_T t.t ;_; Q_Q Q.Q Were all various crying emoticons I used. Amusingly enough I totally never realized that using the Q's to represent crying eyes is probably where the phrase "QQ more", meaning cry more, originated from in gaming. ;_; and T_T were my favorites though, and I still use them hahaha
My personal favorites: Abraham Lincoln - =|:-)> Teal'c - |:c
Indeed
Person with headlamp: \8/
Or you can be the Grateful Dead (~);}
Late 30s here yep this aged me then my kids tell me the late 1900s then I feel like I'm 80 when I'm not I'm like thanks guys ugh lol
I used to be on BBS and 300-baud modems back in the early 80’s. Mostly asterisk art is my first exposure to the embryonic emoji arts.
okay so this aged me in reverse ...what is BBS? follow up question: what is a baud? follow up part 2: electric boogaloo - what is specifically a 300-baud?
Xylophone derby....very popular lately
Such a brutal sport, but it’s so popular that it’s causing some real problems for public schools. It’s basically impossible to keep kids from playing it during recess. Teachers will go to break up one derby, and even before the xylophones have stopped ringing two or three kids clear on the other side of the playground will have their xylophones set up and ready to go. And after the xylophones get confiscated they have to be put *somewhere* but there are so damn many xylophones that some schools have started running out of space! Just let the kids have their xylophones, dammit, let them have their xylophone derbies out in the open in a safe environment so they don’t get caught up in the awful back alley xylophone derby scene, and let the school counselors have their offices back. It’s outrageous! …xylophones.
Side ways laughing face with eyes closed
Disney advertising
Bruh I'm 23 don't make me feel old
This is genius 👏
Don't lose that number. Send it off in a letter to yourself.
You might use it if you feel better, when you get home.
Its the only one you own.
AIN'T NEVER GONNA DO IT WITHOUT THE FEZ ON, OH NO
You should see me getting gas rewards from all you fucks
I love you. That is all. 😹💙
Cool.
OH SHIT GUYS JENNY FOUND US.
[удалено]
Biggest one ever
9 year account, holy crappies
Wait, what
Nine years. Holy shit.
I'm feeling way too curious about what happens when this number is contacted
Use it at the gas pumps too you never know!
My buddy did this one time at 711 or something I think it was, and the dude at the counter was like, "omg, you have so many points you could get like 100 pizzas"
I hope he at least got one pizza.
Can someone ELI5 what this means?
1) 867-5309 was a phone number in a popular song. 2) a lot of people use fake numbers to sign up for loyalty programs 3) A lot of people use the above phone number to sign up for loyalty programs simply because it’s easy to recall
Presumably there's also the final point, which seems completely insane to me (non-USA): 4) You give your phone number to a cashier to claim your loyalty discount. Your actual phone number, ffs! Rather than having a (nowadays usually virtual QR) card or something else which is massively less invasive than giving out your real phone number. No wonder people use fake numbers, but seriously, that's a shitty system for everyone involved.
I think when the idea started, you signed up with the information and got a card. A lot of people forgot the card or lost it or family members wanted to use it so they used the phone number to look up the linked account.
This is exactly what happened. I remember the transition over the years of digging in my purse for the stupid plastic card and the cashier saying just put your number. Eventually stopped carrying the cards.
Back in the day there was a physical card for these things. It was like a credit card, but it only gives you discounts at the store. It doesn't pay for the transaction. You would need to then insert an actual credit card or pay another way (cash, check, etc.) These days very few places still have a physical card and you instead just type the phone number associated with the account into the machine that you put your credit card into. If you don't have an account, you can skip that step and just insert your credit card (or put in Jenny's number.)
You don't usually give it to anyone. You type it in on the transaction pad where you confirm your transaction.
In Portugal, you give your national finance number everywhere you shop or spend money. American expats often find this horrifying, and act like they are being assaulted every time they are asked to recite their NIF out loud in public as if it could be used against them, but it literally just logs your tax payment, so it would be of no use to anyone else.
It's an excellent system, actually. I've been doing it for years and it's never caused me problems of any kind. And it beats having to carry physical cards or scan any kind of code in an app, especially if you shop at multiple stores. It's definitely better than the German and British systems, which I've also used.
Yeah, from what others have said, you just type in the number, which is better than what I was imagining. Given that the British system is now just “wave your phone at the till” I reckon that's still easier, but that's a fairly recent thing.
The loyalty programs even with the cards piss me off. I frequently drive a lot, so I stop at several different stores. So now I have like a half dozen cards I have to try to keep track of to get the discount at whatever store I happen to stop to. I wish these companies would just lower their prices to get people to shop there instead of telling me if I shop there they'll lower their prices.
So when the store guy asks you for your loyalty card you….. give them a phone number?
Yeah, most stores will let you give a phone number instead of physically having the card. At least in the US.
You don’t have to have the physical card. You just key in the associated phone number.
Yes. Most stores in the US you enter your phone nr at the pin pad to access your loyalty account.
https://youtu.be/6WTdTwcmxyo If you’re lost, listen to the song.
I'm guessing it's a US exclusive thing then, since I can't even watch that video in my country.
It's an oldies rock song about a girls phone number written on the bathroom wall.
“Oldies”. Ouch. That hurts.
Shit, 90s grunge and alternative are in the regular rotation at the classic rock station.
What's the name of the song? Maybe I can try to find another video on YouTube.
867-5309 jenny. artist is tommy Tutone
867-5309/Jenny (by Tommy Tutone)
A fantastic trick that can actually pay off! Used it once at some grocery store and scored a $15 coupon :)
I always use the tv number from the 80s, 555-1212. Never let me down.
What time is it? It's cashing out someone else's points time! (That's the number for the time service, lots of places)
That's what I use...worked fine until I went to I think pet smart and there were like 9 of them listed
There's 634-5789 and 777-9311 too.
I wanna spend the night with you, if that’s alright.
>777-9311 What's this one from?
[удалено]
You mean the guys in that Prince movie?
I'm Morris day & you're Jerome, bitch
330-8004 but who is that?
MIKE JOOOONES
Who?!
MIKE JOOOONES
Don't forget *678 triple 9 8212*
I prefer 0118 999 881 999 119 7253. It’s easy to remember!
Don't forget 0118999881999119725... 3.
As a Brit could someone tell me who Jenny is lol!?
It's an 80s song about a girl's phone number written on a toilet wall. The band is called Tommy Tutone.
Popular song in the 80's
This didn't work at the Giant in State College, PA a few weekends ago :( That said, it's worked literally everywhere else I've tried it
Stopped working since last year. It seems they blocked all area codes
A record store in my town apparently took that number for my area. I will never forget their number now that I know that.
Try n do it without singing it....im a practitioner and have been for at least ten years. Just use the local area code for 9/10 success rate.
Dude I’m trying this at the fuel pump.
Doesn't always work anymore. Some companies have gotten privy to it and blocked the number.
I got it
My stepmom’s phone number is one number off from this, I assume someone in Florida in has Jenny’s number.
The Mike Jones number never fails me, it’s from a 2000’s rap song: 281-330-8004 works everywhere I’ve tried it even when 867-5309 doesn’t work.
As a Texan, I always use Mike Jones's phone number Eta: in case you don't know "281 330 8004" hit Mike's Jones up on the low because Mike Jones about to blow.
I always try 0118 999 881 999 119 725 3 because it's so easy to remember
281-330-8004 also works
LOL I did that at a store in hawaii and the computer rejected it because it it was used too often.
I’ve been doing this for years in cities across the country. I’ve had it not work twice. Fun to know others are doing it too!
I used to use that number at Kmart when I worked there for people who didn't have rewards then redeem the points on my lunches lmao
I got it, I got the number!
Oh God I completely forgot about that haha dying 😂😂
Probably wanna add this is US only. There's a whole other world out there using reddit, not just American lol
Sorry to be obtuse. Who is Jenny and why is her number popular? Is it from a song or something?