Get Item Numbers First, Not Last

"In addition," she noted, "there's nothing more deflating than giving a lot of personal information to a company, only to then be told that the item you called to order is out of stock or back-ordered."

Park said that whenever she calls a company to order something and is asked to rattle off a string of personal information before being asked what item she wants to buy, "I can tell that their call center has been commandeered by the company's operations folks, and not the marketers or merchandisers."