To be so tired of 'upselling'

[scaryclown]

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

B&Q - we purchased a toilet and the man said 'have you considered a his and hers toilet combination?'

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.

I also hate getting "how did we do" emails and texts - usually after buying online, especially when it is some delivery company or for some item that cost 99p!! "yeah, you were asked to deliver something, it came - what do you want, a medal?" or "yeah the replacement battery for my watch is outstandingly beautiful and my dream, er, battery!"

I feel for the sales staff. It must be soul destroying

I live abroad but my local pharmacy spends so much time promoting their loyalty card and offering other items that it takes forever to get served so I usually try to go elsewhere.

If anyone here is involved in designing these diktats, please think again.

WHSmith is the worst IMO. It's got the point where I won't go in there unless I absolutely have to. The till area is always groaning with great big bars of yucky Cadbury's sugar and vegetable oil product, sorry 'chocolate', and not only do I always get asked if I want one 'No thank you!' said very firmly, but they give you loads of stupid bits of paper, which I hand straight back. Arrgghhh!

We're supposed to upsell in the café I work in, none of us actually bother other than asking if someone wants a large drink. The MCM stuff has changed so it's no longer a set script, so when serving a regular who you know doesn't have a loyalty card and only buys one small drink, you can just get on with it.

The manager we had before this one was on at us to do it all the time, and used to drive us crazy. I hate doing it, and I hate having it done to me. Boots don't seem to do it, I like Boots, and the rare occasion I go into WHSmith I use the self scan.

I also feel sorry for people who have to do this as part of their job. You see sales assistants in stores like Savers having to offer Peter Andre perfume to old men who are unlikely to be the target market for that product. And it means longer queues because they have to ask everyone if they want crappy products.

I avoid a few shops now because of this - WH Smith is a little easier to use now they have self service but the tills still offer you extra products. Claire's Accessories is another culprit who offer tat at the till.

Yeah, just what the heck is a combination his and hers toilet? Surely not sitting down next to each other??

I got a call yesterday upselling my charity donation. 'Thanks for your monthly donation - would you like to double it?' I told him i dont earn much at the mo so I couldn't- long sales patter ensued - then 'how about just a bit more?'. I get that they have to fundraise and there just isnt enough money but i hate being asked for more- i already give because i think its a worthy cause. Just my personal bugbear.

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?

and maybe some chemo on the side? Or the lumber puncture is only a little extra..

I used to work for Burger King back in the early 90s. We had to offer a portion of onion rings (99p) with every meal. I actually did really well at up selling them and got 100% on every mystery shop I had. I won HMV vouchers and everything.

And when I finished college I got a job on the counter of a high street bank purely because I had a sales and service record.

It's very annoying now though I agree. Especially being asked for name/postcode/email addresses. I just say 'I'd rather not, thank you' and it shuts the conversation down.

It's not the staffs fault. And having done numerous sales jobs it has got to be one of the shittest jobs in the world. I am pretty good at sales but would much rather clean pub toilets than be in a sales job. It's soul destroying. You don't hit targets and you are in bother. You hit targets for 1 thing and the there is something else. Then you hit them all so your targets go up. You are constantly running just to stand still.

I did feel a bit satisfied when the PPI scandal happened tho. After refusing to upsell it to people it wouldn't benefit and being hauled over the coals many, many times for not having sold it I was tempted to track down my old area manager and say 'told ya!'.

We're trying to buy a house and also let the old one out at the moment. Every little thing comes back with "do you want to speak to our independent mortgage broker?". I assume they get paid even if they are "independent" because why have I been asked twenty times? It's so so annoying.

I totally agree with all of the above - but having worked in retail myself I do want to say to the people who 'give hard stares' and get frustrated with the staff - it really isn't their fault. And just makes us feel like crap for asking the questions we have to ask.

Also in regards to the email one.. now a lot of the time it is for a receipt, not marketing emails. The amount of people I saw who had lost their paper receipts and got angry they couldn't refund something - but then would refuse to take an email copy of the receipt - was baffling to me.

I find it relatively easy to upselling at the till, but sales assistants talking to me while I'm browsing can drive me nuts.

Molton Brown is the worst for this in my experience, I've only shopped in the Edinburgh branch but I expect they're all similar. It's only a small shop but last time I was in I was approached by 4 different SAs before I gave up and left. I wouldn't mind 'do you need help with anything' because it's easy to say 'no, just browsing for now, thanks'. But in MB, if you're looking at a stand they ask "what are you looking at?", which is a difficult question to get away from. Or they grab a random thing off a shelf and try to make you smell it/rub it on you etc.

I know it's their job, and it all seems so unnatural they must be told exactly what to say. I always meant to email the HQ asking them to reconsider their training, but to be honest it's easier to just shop online.

I am a Store supervisor in a retailer mentioned in this thread. It gets drilled into myself and staff that we have to offer the customer an additional product with their purchases. I'm lenient as most our customer are regulars and are quick ins and outs,so I don't push staff to offer anything. But we are measured on sales of particular items, it changes every week. I just make sure they're on the till and clearly priced so that the customer can choose themselves if they'd like whatever we're selling. We do get tested by mystery shoppers and if we fail in this area, we are shamed.

We are also paid by external companies to offer other items, once again if we are caught out not doing that, we're shamed.

It's a hassle and when I'm shopping myself, I hate getting offered additional products at the till. If I wanted it I would've picked it up myself. And no you're not having my email address to send a receipt to.

It's the email thing that pisses me off the most. And then yesterday I bought some moisturiser from Clarins. It's the only thing I buy from them (the most expensive item of skincare I ever buy), but the saleswoman asked me for my name. I asked why and she said it's so they can build a profile of their customers, so they can always sell us exactly what we need. I said that I only ever bought the moisturiser so I didn't want to do it. She got quite shirty and said 'well lots of customers do want to do it and it makes ours and their lives easier'!! I get that it makes the salespeople's lives easier, but how would it make mine easier?! I don't want all my details stored on Clarins' computers to be shared around their company.

Here is a message to the assistant in Dwell in Bristol. You were so aggressive about getting my phone number before you would give the measurements of a sofa I walked out of the shop. I went on line and bought TWO large corner sectionals from
MADE.COM instead. They look lovely thank you for asking

I know upselling is a thing, but it gives me the rage! I had to threaten a charity we regularly donate to by direct debit with the withdrawal of all donations if they did not stop pestering us. Honestly, 1-2 pieces of mail per week plus a phone call. I am already donating as much as I can. Yes, I know people are suffering. Do piss off!!

They do it because it works, annoyingly.

I don't mind being sold to that much - I once allowed myself to be upsold cosmetics just out of sheer admiration of the selling skills of the sales lady. Not pushy, just really good.

The one that absolutely ticks me off is banks doing the upselll and packaging it as 'advice'. Natwest used to do this to me a lot. My response was to ask them if advice involved selling me financial products, as I was not interested in anything they were offering. I was clearing an overdraft I had with them. Soon as it was gone I moved banks. I'm now with tsb who still upsell, but it's not being presented as advice so I don't resent it as much!

I once got asked: "do you want to personalise your coffee?"

WTF DOES THAT EVEN MEAN???

I worked in a major department store. We literally had a script to work from and had to include all the key phrases/words. Managers would stand at the till point behind looking busy but were actually listening in. You'd get a telling off if you missed anything. I know at one point several staff members were given written warnings for not opening enough store cards.

I hated the pressure. It's not the staffs fault but it comes down from the top. They won't stop it as it does earn them (the business) more money.

Re: charity donations. I never do a monthly direct payment. I send a cheque a couple of times a year. Means they don't have my address or phone number so can't do the upselling thing (if they are a charity that does that). I would cease a regular donation for being pestered if I did the monthly thing.

I used to work in head office for a large retailer. I sat through many a presentation along the lines of 'if each customer spends 20p more, we will make an extra million quid this year'. There was never any thought to how much you're pissing off the customers with upselling crap, or how much of the sales assistant's time was being wasted.

The email thing pisses me off too. I don't want my spending habits to be on some database forever. Who knows who it gets sold on to?

Don't be angry at the staff, they have to ask or get into trouble.

Whilst at college I worked at Debenhams. I had to try and hard sell store cards and credit cards to everyone. If I didn't hit my target then the arsey manager would give you a 'telling off.' The worst thing was that it was the elderly or more financially vulnerable customers who were most likely to sign up. I couldn't wait to leave that job because I have morals. I would never work for that company again.

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?

I think I've read somewhere that this happens in countries where you pay for your own care, totally insane. But then, pretty sure I've been to the dentist before where they've tried to upsell completely unnecessary cosmetic work alongside a filling...

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?

Housemum I'm still laughing at that