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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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 Angry. The other customers in the queue looked like this Shock.

YABU or YANBU?

OP posts:
Aridane · 07/03/2015 12:07

LeSaor - not quite sure how you derived all that from the OP's posts...

GokTwo · 07/03/2015 12:10

Yes, you can just say "no thanks"-and I do but 3 times? Come on, that's incredibly annoying!

AlpacaPicnic · 07/03/2015 12:14

LeSaor... Projecting much?

ConfusedInBath · 07/03/2015 12:22

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Nomama · 07/03/2015 12:41

LeSaor... yup, me too!

I will stomp, sulk and even swish my way out of a shop when, despite being asked to stop, a salesman prefers to follow the script rather than make a sale.

I have no problem with them asking, just the continued mithering when the reply does not suit them/their sales targets.

I have no problem 'looking like a child' when heading for the door either. Usually because I have been made to feel like one by then!

I am never rude, Op wasn't either. I may mutter, but never swear... I just vote with my feet... a bit stompy and a bit muttery. Because, after many years of this sales strategy, I have been bothered, upset, patronised, ridiculed, annoyed and often forced to buy online. As the customer I feel that the cashiers may laugh behind my back, they may even lose their jobs, the company may not care, may not notice they lost my money... but given all of the unnecessarily shite trading strategies they choose to employ... I could not care less.

I am no less human or less likely to cry having been treated like a dickhead.

HTH [Big PA smile]

Tizwailor · 07/03/2015 13:23

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

finnbarrcar · 07/03/2015 13:25

Savers and Superdrug are weird shops for doing this. Superdrug are always trying to sell stamps and phonecards for some reason. It's incredibly annoying getting the hard sell when you just want to buy an essential in a short time space (like a lunch hour). Walking out is probably a good way of making them take on board that their sales tactics don't work.

The80sweregreat · 07/03/2015 16:02

Is a cheap store but i get this too all the time! When i say i have an allergy to strong perfume they look at me as if i have two heads. Its just a gimmick to sell more stuff as the things they do stock are so much cheaper than boots or supermarkets. Annoys me so much, but i have to think of the savings. Well done for showing your annoyance though. Maybe they will lay off the hard sell.

Shakey1500 · 07/03/2015 16:27

That would have pissed me off and I'd have left as well.

MehsMum · 07/03/2015 16:33

YANBU. I walked out of a cafe once after I'd been standing at the till for several minutes and the person serving had totally ignored me and been yammering on to another customer about some complicated cake order. All they had to say was, 'I'm sorry, I'll be with you in two minutes...'

Poor service drives me mad.

I have worked in a shop. My mother worked in a shop for years...

JudgeyHotPants · 07/03/2015 16:38

Most shops seem to be completely out of touch with what their customers want these days. I no longer shop at WH Smiths or the Bodyshop because of this kind of thing. I was sick and tired of going to the till and being asked "would you like a bar of chocolate/a nail file/lip balm/bottle of water etc, so I voted with my feet and went elsewhere. Surely if I'd wanted any of these things I'd have picked them up already? Plus most of the stuff they are up selling is just crap anyway.

I know staff are only doing their jobs and following orders, but their superiors are obviously clueless about how customers feel about it.

expatinscotland · 07/03/2015 16:46

Annoying but I'd have told her firmly that I just wanted the toothpaste.

YoureAllABunchOfBastards · 07/03/2015 18:00

The woman on the till in Sainsburys today was talking to her colleague as I got my bags ready - the gist was that they have been told they have to sell as many RND scratch cards as they can.

She offered me one at the end. I bought it because she had been dead nice and we had had a chat about crochet as I did my packing.

youarekiddingme · 07/03/2015 18:15

I've had exactly the same in savers. I went in with my friend and our dcs. Had various sun creams, shampoos etc. Kids had some wash bags each.mwenwere off on a caravan holiday together.
Get to til and I out basket on till shelf. Lady asks if I'd like to buy special offer bag of mini suncream.i reply it's fine we have everything we want thanks - then laughed and said - plus more that the kids have conned us into buying.
She then asks if we'd like perfume. I repeated no thanks we had what we wanted.
She then offered something else.
I waved over basket and said "just this please" she was about to continue Shock so I just turned my back on her and started a converstaion with friend. It took her about a further 20 seconds to cotton and and start actually ringing the items I'd apsaid inwas happy with through the till.

The woman behind me and my friend then piped up "I think she's finally got it!"

I don't think walking out is overly dramatic. It doesn't feel right when as the customer you are't valued enough to be heard.

SteveBrucesNose · 07/03/2015 18:20

The other day I did similar Blush

The guy rang my stuff through the till, said if you spend just £5 more, you get this free gift set. No thanks, I'll just take this, says I.

We have these that are only £5.50, why not take that and you get this free stuff. No thank you, I don't need it, here's my card and I'll just pay thanks.

The guy stands with my card in hand, how about this, this'll take you over thd limit to get this fantastic set for absolutely nothing. Me: actually, I'll be costing me £5 for it because I dont want the other thing. Please can I just pay?

He starts with another item I dont want. I asked for my card back and he wouldn't give it to me. Had to get the manager over to get my card back and he told his boss that I hadnt spent enough for the freebie, I told him i didn't want it do could I pay for what I wanted? The manager started on thd hard sell them. I snatched my card back and flounced out.

Not my finest hour but what utter bullshit.

captainfarrell · 07/03/2015 18:45

HA HA HA op you go girl! Iv'e reacted like this before, and yes i know i';ve only put myself out but sometimes you just need to let em have it! I bet you felt better for it!!

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 07/03/2015 18:49

YABU. .I bet she bloody hates having to offer people all sorts of crap every time she serves someone.

DrSethHazlittMD · 07/03/2015 18:56

To those who think the OP was being unreasonable: if this was a cold caller on the phone or on your doorstep and you told them after their first attempt to sell you something you didn't want, would you STILL smile/speak nicely if they persisted after you politely said no? I suspect the majority of you would put the phone down or shut the door on them.

This upselling thing is NO different in my book. I appreciate they've been told to do this, but asking once is sufficient and acceptable. To try again, not just once more but a third time, either with the same product or another product, is ridiculous.

I, too, vote with my feet and avoid places that do this, even if it means dumping a basket of shopping.

KatieKaye · 07/03/2015 19:06

It was crap customer service, whether or not the cashier does or does not like having to offer additional products.

She could have done her sales pitch while actually serving the customer at the same time, instead of driving them away by being both annoying and incompetent. Her technique was doubly incompetent because not only was she losing sales, she was also taking ages to serve people, increasing the possibility of people looking at the huge queue and deciding it wasn't worth waiting so long.

I had a job where I had to do similar upselling. But I listened to the customer and tried not to piss them off.

hiddenhome · 07/03/2015 19:19

This us why I do all my shopping online. The only shop I visit is Lidl because they don't do online orders.

A shopping visit is full of these irritations.

my2centsis · 07/03/2015 20:05

Only read op... YAnbu about how annoying that would of been... But you made yourself look like a fool

floradora · 07/03/2015 20:20

YANBU - I hate this hard sell and the implication that you as a customer are so gullible and unaware you might not even know what you want! Those who are defending the cashier on the grounds it's her job and she has targets and quotas etc - yes fair enough but a tiny sliver of interpersonal skills and awareness of the customer's reactions go a long way. If the customer makes it clear she doesn't want the product you are pushing, accept that she is a responsible intelligent adult and back off! I have had a similar reaction to waiters/ air stewards offering tea or coffee and following my polite "no thank you" with "Are you sure?"
Yes, I am sure, yes, surprisingly I am capable of knowing my own (adult, rational) mind sufficiently well to decide FOR MYSELF whether I want a tea or coffee!!
Or , like the OP, whether or not I want to buy an item for a present just because e the budget chemist's cashier suggested it!

MissDuke · 07/03/2015 22:00

Shops don't want customers waiting too long - there is no way this assistant should have done this without even ringing in the sale. YANBU - she was!!!

MidniteScribbler · 07/03/2015 22:18

The hard sell is annoying enough, but when they try and tack it on to a special holiday such as Mother's Day, they need to be careful because they don't know that the day may be upsetting to someone. My mother died when I was a teenager, and every year I have to endure someone idiot salesperson trying to convince me to buy something for my mother. One even went so far as to say 'Don't you care about your mother?' after I politely refused three times his 'helpful' offers of upselling.

passmethewineplease · 07/03/2015 22:24

yanbu to be annoyed. It is annoying.

However she probably has to do that to keep her job.

I used to hate doing it but if I didnt my manager would have me in the office. If I still didn't then my regional manager would. No fun for anyone

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