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 ··· 11 12

Original poster

To be so tired of 'upselling'

290 replies

scaryclown · 02/08/2017 10:01

It's just bloody relentless! I took a bike into a nice independent bike shop today. It's a £45 fix, yet all the conversation was about 'time to buy a new bike', every day I say 'single espresso' to be met with 'double?'
I swear I'm going to punch someone!.

Throwing away a perfectly good bike to meet some oily dickhead sales target!?

Jesus

OP posts:

Cantseethewoods · 02/08/2017 10:44

The upgrade to sweet potato fries is the one I hate. On what planet is a sweet potato fry an upgrade?

The80sweregreat · 02/08/2017 10:44

TV repair shops are like Hen's teeth!
thats the trouble these days, dont mend, just buy new. then get conned into 'extended warrenties, add on's, extra this and that'
wasnt like this in the old days.

maudeismyfavouritepony · 02/08/2017 10:46

And what is a grab bag? Who eats a grab bag size of crisps? What was wrong with the normal size. I hate going to local shop with DCs to buy some crisps as a treat and being confronted with a stand of 'grab bags'

DP came home with a grab bag of McCains crinkle steak things the other day with his lunch, not far off 300 calories and he wonders why he is overweight

Portion control is out of the window it seems.

Spuddington · 02/08/2017 10:46

I have to upsell. If I don't hit my target each month I get penalised.

I know it's annoying. Nobody really wants a large Coke.

treaclesoda · 02/08/2017 10:46

There are so many people who post on mumsnet who say they find it too hard to be assertive and say no, or that they can't get rid of salespeople (even on their own doorstep) that I assume if a similar pattern is played out across the population there must be a lot of people buying the perfume/chocolate because they somehow feel obliged to.

CockacidalManiac · 02/08/2017 10:48

The pressure in retail is from our bosses; 'sell the project, not the product.'
They'd like us to try to constantly sell addons. I tend to just ignore them.

emilybrontescorset · 02/08/2017 10:48

I don't like being approached in the street by anyone trying to sell me something.

Jaxhog · 02/08/2017 10:48

I've developed a special frown for these situations. Now I rarely get asked.

DonttouchthatLarry · 02/08/2017 10:53

I hate it but really feel sorry for the staff - an ad for a job in WH Smith states 'Targeted on having appropriate Till Point Conversations with every customer to add on sales and increase the average transaction value.'

I used to work in a bookshop where we left customers to browse and only spoke to them if they asked us something. We were taken over by a guy who owned a chain of shoe shops and he wanted us to stand by the door, greet customers and ask them what they were looking for. We explained to him that people browse quietly and undisturbed for hours in bookshops and it wasn't like selling shoes and their associated care products! We all refused to do it as it would drive customers away (and to wear the ridiculous uniforms he wanted to introduce!).

BitOfANameChange · 02/08/2017 10:54

I hate it but I don't blame the staff as I know it's what they've been asked to do. I email their HQs instead.

Formalyknownas99 · 02/08/2017 10:54

Having been burnt before I believe that extended warranties on cars are a waste of money...the small print always seems to give the dealership a get out from honouring any claims...anyway...years ago, purchased a car, at the closing stages salesmen was putting pressure on for the warranty, I made my feelings very clear, he gave up with a huff and a puff and said " let's hope you don't crash and burn on leaving the showroom...YOU'LL REGRET IT"!
I actually walked away, really...from the sale, the car EVERYTHING! His face was a picture ［grin]

NashvilleQueen · 02/08/2017 10:55

In a similar vein I'm fed up of being asked for an email address for just buying an item in a shop. Dorothy Perkins, H&M etc. Just so they can send me a load of shit emails ten times a day for the rest of my life. I am here in person buying an item with actual money. Give me a receipt and I'll be on my way. We don't need to correspond afterwards.

GinAndToast · 02/08/2017 10:55

OP, incidentally on bikes I have discovered a local charity who mend bikes at cost using mostly reclaimed parts, and also do up donated bikes and sell them on.

I will never buy a "new" bike again when I can get a perfectly working and clean second hand bike for £50, or fix my daughter's bike up for £25 to pass down.

I also hate up selling. I am expecting a call from AA today as I have free breakdown cover I just registered for. They will give me the hard sell to upgrade. I don't want it. It's a waste of their time and mine 🙄

Formalyknownas99 · 02/08/2017 10:55

Fluffycloudland77 · 02/08/2017 10:55

My mum halted an oven sale when they tried to sell an extended warranty, she politely said if it's that unreliable I'll not bother.

I don't think they expected her to do that.

I just say no Thankyou. They have to do it so there's no point being rude.

CockacidalManiac · 02/08/2017 10:56

I hate it but I don't blame the staff as I know it's what they've been asked to do. I email their HQs instead.

If everyone did this, it'd make our jobs a lot easier. Hopefully it'd start to reverse the process too.

Beerwench · 02/08/2017 10:57

It is soul destroying for the staff! I thankfully work somewhere now where I don't have to trot out a bloody script to every single customer but I've worked for a large retailer that gives staff targets for selling offer products at the till. You miss your target 2 weeks in a row and it's off to the office for you! Despite the fact you may work a set pattern and mainly serve the same customers every day who you know fine well won't want a gigantic bar of chocolate or a packet of flippin' haribo because they say no every day! But get caught out not doing it and you'd get a bollocking.
It's really irritating though being the customer too but I try and be polite when refusing because I've been on the other side of it too.
As another poster said, greedy companies wanting to squeeze everything out of the staff and customers. I've even had to attend an upselling course to make sure I know how to force a bit more from customers!
Maybe if every time we are upsold to we complained to head office they'd get the message?!

Liiinoo · 02/08/2017 10:57

It can be annoying but it can be very lucrative for the store so it won't stop. I used to manage a small photo processing kiosk (in the olden days when people had cameras with film in them). We started up selling people from the standard print size to the plus size and paying an extra £1 for an extra set of prints. The profit for the store doubled and I got all sorts of bonuses.

BraveButShaking · 02/08/2017 11:01

I had to do this back in the 90s in mid Norfolk. W/e job in Stead and Simpson. I'd have to ask whether someone wanted the crappy- matching handbag to go with their crappy- shoes.

CherryLips1980 · 02/08/2017 11:01

I have just left a job because anyone who was mystery shopped and didn't offer a loyalty card/upsell/sell an own brand product/get someone to leave a review on the review site on every single sale got disciplinary procedures started.

BraveButShaking · 02/08/2017 11:02

Strike out fail. crappy

Housemum · 02/08/2017 11:02

It's been around for years - I had a Saturday job in the 1980s in a shoe shop and we had a target for "fancies" which basically meant tights/polish/insoles. Drove me mad then. Think the pressure from companies on their employees is even worse now - we did it to win stuff (free tights/socks to the top seller each week) but I get the impression that people are penalised now for not upselling.

Think I'll get a placard round my neck saying:

I want the size I ordered, I don't want to go large
I'll tell you if I want fries
I'll give you a loyalty card if I have one

Glad I work for the NHS so I don't have to upsell anything! - maybe next time someone comes in for a blood test I should ask if they'd like a chest X ray with that?

Finola1step · 02/08/2017 11:03

I worked for WH Smith 25 years ago. Back then, it was a decent retailer. With the best selection of magazines on the high street, good book, cd and video departments. Great stationary. Staff who knew their stock.

Now it has turned into an over priced book sellers and stationers but with a bargain basement feel. And no, I don't want a whacking great bar of cheap chocolate with my birthday card and wrapping paper.

ShatnersBassoon · 02/08/2017 11:04

It's a worthwhile activity for the retailers, so they're not going to stop doing it any time soon. The poor staff get to not only repeatedly ask the annoying question but also field the snappy responses.

I do wish WHSmith would pack it in with the ludicrous £2 sweets 'offers' though - don't they realise we all know those things are £1 in every pound shop/Home Bargains/supermarket...? The assistants must feel shit every time someone falls for it!

000PuraVida000 · 02/08/2017 11:05

Next time someone tries to tell you not to fix, but to buy a new one just remind them how environmentally unfriendly that is

I agree OP

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6 ··· 11 12