Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6

Original poster

AIBU to walk out of the shop

126 replies

loveareadingthanks · 06/03/2015 14:04

Popped into Savers, cheap chemist/toiletries chain shop, in my lunchhour to buy a tube of toothpaste. queue at till (one queue, 2 servers). One server took ages with the person they were serving - picked up perfume pack and tried to sell it to her for mothers day 'this is on special offer, wouldn't it be a lovely present for mothers day' when the customer said no she kept on about it being a good mothers day present. Then she gave up, picked up another gift pack and tried to sell her that. Eventually just processed the items the customer had brought to the till. The other server wasn't doing any of this stuff, just ringing up the customers purchases.

So...I end up getting her as well. She started. She picked up item one, started talking and I interrupted her politely with 'no thank you'. She picked up item 2, started talking, I interrupted her politely with 'no thank you'. and thought ok, now she'll serve me. Well, she then picked up a third item and got as far as 'would you be interested in...' and I just walked off. As I got to the door she sort of shouted in a cross way at me 'Excuse Me! and waved my toothpaste at me 'Your toothpaste'. So I said I hadn't come in to be told to buy this that and the other, I'd just wanted toothpaste, and now I was going somewhere else. She looked like this . The other customers in the queue looked like this .

YABU or YANBU?

OP posts:

FuckItBucket · 06/03/2015 14:06

She's probably had a warning about not selling enough of them so is now trying to force it.

slicedfinger · 06/03/2015 14:07

Yanbu but you did end up putting yourself out too...

WorraLiberty · 06/03/2015 14:08

I think you let yourself down really

All you had to say the first time was, "No thank you. I'm in a hurry and just want to buy this".

guiltynetter · 06/03/2015 14:09

YABU. a bit overdramatic. you're the one who's lost out as presumably you have no toothpaste and have to ho elsewhere to buy it. while I admit it must have been reeeeally annoying of the woman trying to sell you stuff you should have said firmly 'just the toothpaste please' or if you wanted to kick up a fuss ask for the manager and explain what had happened and how the woman had been pushy.

assessment · 06/03/2015 14:09

nah that would've pissed me off too.

YWNBU

treaclesoda · 06/03/2015 14:09

I dream of the day when people all start marching out of shops that do the hard sell like this and then they start losing money to less pushy competitors. Problem is, they're all at it these days. Where can we take our business instead?

ThatBloodyWoman · 06/03/2015 14:10

I think yabu.
She wasn't being rude or offensive,just doing her job.

WorraLiberty · 06/03/2015 14:12

There's no need to go marching anywhere

All you need to do is firmly tell them that you wont be buying anything else

CatsCantTwerk · 06/03/2015 14:14

That would have annoyed me too. Yanbu.

I have actually walked out of my local co op twice in the last week, Not because they were trying to sell me things but because they have 1 till open whilst there are 3/4 other staff members stacking shelves or chatting in the back when there is a queue to the back of the shop. I will only wait so long for someone to open another till before putting everything back and leaving.

catsmother · 06/03/2015 14:17

I do sympathise with retail workers who've clearly been told they must upsell - you get it in Smiths, in McDs ('is that a large meal?' ... no, it's bloody not, I've have said if it was !) and Superdrug - however, it is bloody annoying, and where you have very persistent staff trying to fob off several different items, one after another, it does waste your time.

As Treacle said, if enough shoppers boycott places which do this, the bosses might just get the message about how off putting it is.

MsAspreyDiamonds · 06/03/2015 14:18

It drives me batty when they try to upsell all the time. I was in M&S cafe paying for hot drinks & cake when the cashier kept on asking if I would like to buy more hot drinks. She wouldn't take no for an answer so was a bit when I asked how much coffee she thought I could drink. I ordered a latte for myself and a tea for dh so why would I order another latte? She processed my order quite quickly after that.

ThatBloodyWoman · 06/03/2015 14:19

I don't get what it achieves to walk out.
The result is a higher blood pressure and the need to go somewhere else to buy what you were getting.
Just phone up,speak to the manager, and say you prefer not to have the hard sell at the till.

CarbeDiem · 06/03/2015 14:21

She probably didn't need to go overboard but having worked in retail before I know that sales assistants don't push for fun. she will have been told/forced to sell sell sell.
Possibly the other server was her superior = where the sell order came from, so maybe she felt under pressure. It's also possible she is new to the job and hasn't yet realised how to read customers who say no to the first offer - tend not to be interested in further offers.

So for me it's -Yabu.
Plus you now have to go and queue in another shop.

starfishmummy · 06/03/2015 14:21

I would feel the same. And I once abandoned my trolley in a supermarket.....

LadySybilLikesSloeGin · 06/03/2015 14:24

WHSmiths still do this. Even at the bloody self service check out the pissing machine asks you if you want to buy chocolate It's called up-sell. Lots of shops make their employee's do this at the till and it's really annoying. Superdrug do this too - stamps, mobile phone top up, mascara. If I wanted one I'd have picked one up on the way around, no?

confusedandemployed · 06/03/2015 14:24

I would feel the same, but I still think you were probably being a bit U. Nevertheless I would have reacted the same.

Totality22 · 06/03/2015 14:32

All you had to do was smile and say politely "I heard you with the person in front of me and I just want my toothpaste today thanks" as she started her spiel.

londonrach · 06/03/2015 14:33

Poor lady. Superdrug, poundland etc all on that upsale push and their staff have to do it. Had discussion with lady in poundland who says she feels like a broken record by the end of the day. Its not nice for everyone concerned (staff and customers) but nothing stops you smiling sweetly and saying no thanks. How you did it was very rude and could get lady in trouble if cctv. Yabu and very rude to someone just doing their job. I can understand why you did it but there was a nicer way of doing it.

Original poster

loveareadingthanks · 06/03/2015 14:34

I'm not in urgent need for toothpaste, haven't actually gone anywhere else. Will pick some up at supermarket next big shop, just I know the stuff in this shop can be a lot cheaper so thought I'd grab one.

I don't mind a bit of normal upselling. The WH Smiths 'would you like any half price sweets or chocolate' or 'any cakes with that' if I'm buying a tea somewhere. But they normally just mention it while they are ringing up your other items. This woman didn't touch anything in your basket, she stood there picking up item after item trying to sell them to you instead of serving you (not at the same time). So it really held up the queue and I just found it quite irritating. If you want to sell me something while you are serving me, fine no skin off my nose. Try to keep selling me multiple items instead of serving me, not going to have my time wasted. (I wasn't rude though, did answer her politely the first two times, then just walked away.)

OP posts:

londonrach · 06/03/2015 14:35

Upsell not upsale...

Bakeoffcake · 06/03/2015 14:36

So you left the toothpaste and then had to go to another shop, find the toothpaste, queue up and pay for it? What a stupid thing to have done.

You should have just told her nicely, that you didn't want any special offers and could you just buy your toothpaste.

Original poster

loveareadingthanks · 06/03/2015 14:37

'nothing stops you smiling sweetly and saying no thanks.'

I did. Twice. Very politely. The third item she picked up to sell me was the kicker. Did I have to stand and listen to sales talks on 3 items, 4 items, 10 items? When all I wanted was a poor little tube of toothpaste?

OP posts:

LadySybilLikesSloeGin · 06/03/2015 14:38

They need to make badges "please don't try to sell me something!" so that the shop assistants know not to bother. It's seriously annoying going shopping here. You have to dodge the chuggers and the vast amounts of big issue sellers (there's 2 in one street on some of the roads), then you have to go through all of this when you do finally get into a shop, then you get to the bus stop only to be asked for money by a beggar (I usually don't carry spare change as I've just been fleeced in WHSmiths so they turn and ask ds )

fredfredgeorgejnr · 06/03/2015 14:39

YANBU, losing the sale entirely is a good way of showing that their sales tactics are broken.

Sure you're out the toothpaste, but carrying on with your custom when the service is bad does not penalise the bad service.

KittensOnAPlane · 06/03/2015 14:39

Nice one - voting with your feet!! If more people did this, then they would have to re-think how much pressure they put on the staff/customers

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6

Swipe left for the next trending thread