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

When they first introduced self service tills in my local WH Smith, the machine itself tried to upsell the obligatory chocolate! After you pressed 'Finish and Pay' the message 'Would you like a giant block of chocolate for £1?' came up on the screen. I think they dropped it from the machines when they had to charge for plastic bags - I haven't seen it recently.

My dentist is the worst for upselling. I think it's down right rude to tell me I'd look better with teeth whitening, Botox, fillers or whatever else they are flogging this week.

YA absolutely NBU. But I think of the poor sales assistants who are pressured to sell, often they have targets and they're disciplined if they don't meet them. I once went into Superdrug and overheard the assistants saying they'd be in trouble if they didn't sell 19 special offer perfumes that day. They'd sold 1 and it was 2pm

The head honchos of these corporations ought to be fucking ashamed. Aside from getting a minimum wage employee to expect to be a super salesman, they are completely alienating their customers. I bet my bottom dollar not a single one who thinks of these crackpot ideas has ever walked a shop floor

I agree about the poor assistants, managers, waitors and waitresses who have to say all this over and over. Then reach targets and get grief if they cant.
Its not fair and must lead to resentment. Im always polite, but its still annoying even though i know its not their fault, just the job.
I think the customers should complain more to the people behind all this, the ones who dont have to say all this spill day in and out! Lets email and show them its not on? Start a 'customer riot'. If i knew how i would.

metalmum if you have scales at home and buy stamps you can do your own postage by looking it up on the Royal Mail site. All you need then is to ask for the proof of postage receipt in the PO.

This afternoon's transaction really plumbed new depths of ridiculousness. The item I want was half price with any other purchase - A saving of £7.50.

The sales assistant (bless him) suggested I buy a 50p post card to get the special offer. So I did. I now have a postcard I don't want to save £7.00

The world has gone mad.

gamerwidow - I get that at my dentists too. I'm an NHS patient but they also do private work. They're constantly trying to get me to have Invisalign braces or teeth whitening. With a low APR of course!

Its my big pet hate . Especially when it comes to pharmacies where people are vunreablle especially the elderly. But my ds was a mystery shopper and he had to list if staff did their piece. Eg asking for paint did they suggest tray, brush, white spirits you name it! Its a total pain.
My other ds worked in a well known coffee place and became expert at upselling although he hated it . They were trained and forced to do it. This makes have some sympathy with staff but l am adamant l will never succumb even if they go on their knees. I would love it to be declared unethical in medical areas.

@MiddlingMum Do you have to be so arsey to the shop assistants? Do you really think those WHSmith employees love asking everyone if they want this or that?

If you have a problem then take it up with head office. Don't make sarcastic and rude comments to the poor sod on minimum wage who will get disciplined if they don't upsell enough.

Can you give me your email address for the receipt? I just look the sales assistant in the eye hard and say no.

I've started to say yes as my friend's house flooded and luckily for the insurance she had most receipts on her email account. All the paper ones had been destroyed!

crazycatgirl I'm not arsey, but thank you for the suggestion I explain that I know it's their job and they have to do it. I do it with a smile and am scrupulously polite. However, if enough customer comments are passed on to higher management maybe they'll stop trying to upsell and making their staff do this. I have every sympathy for the poor people who have to do this.

An alternative view to the codeine/laxido situation. Prescriptions are free in Scotland (I know - it's a bone of contention everywhere) and we still get the omeprazole/laxatives where needed. Yes they were prescribed when charges were still in place, but I've also had them prescribed since the charges were scrapped. It is shit having to pay for medicine you need, and unfortunately medication tends to lead to more medication to deal with the side effects.
after an operation and loads of morphine/ketamine I was bunged up to hell, constipation is a real side effect

I rang to renew membersip of something yesterday. Usually it's an opportunity for them to try and get me to take extra stuff but yesterday she just confirmed what I had, took payment and then I was done. It was great!

middlingmum

It is up to the customer to complain and make suggestions to head office

Shop staff will be ignored

I find the forced customer service ridiculously annoying. I recently worked for a large supermarket chain and couldn't get over the amount of times this dick head supervisor kept hovering around my till, telling me to spark up conversation whilst putting their shopping through the till and that I'm not chatting to them enough... It's 6.30pm, people are fucking knackered from working their ass off all day and I'm sure the last thing they want is to chat about the fucking weather to some random person on a till- it certainly was when I used to work long hours! I couldn't bare it so left shortly after.

Wow!
It's weird that these companies don't notice that supermarkets.. The place where the equation of the most possible items with the least upselling interactions, are kicking the arse of nearly every other sector.

Ah well.

I can see me doing an up sell boycott now. Currys/Dixon have so far lost put on 23 years worth of business for misselling me a finance deal they made about £200 on. That's five washing machines, eight computers, six stereos, two Bluetooth speakers, about 30 cables, and five tellies.

Nice one!

I agree with the WHSmith upselling

Yes we could all write and complain to management - or vote with our feet and not go back!

Sometimes I'm just not surprised that certain shops go under - it's they way they see off customers with very American attitudes to selling

Also annoying is the exhortation to tell others about your purchase. You know, when Amazon tells you your order has been confirmed and then asks whether you're going to tweet, Facebook or email all your contacts about the triple pack of hard skin foot cream you've just bought.

The one that gets me is when you pay for something by card and the card reader asks if you want to make a donation to charity.

1. if i want to donate to charity I will
2. what is the corporation trying to achieve/gain by this
3. how the hell do i know if that donation actually goes to the charity.

While enquiring about the price of a broadband package today to be told "I BELIEVE that s*y are the best or I wouldn't be working for them"

We need the badge equivalent of the "no junk mail" stickers.

I have never bought an unplanned chocolate bar with my paper or an unplanned mascara with my ibuprofen because they only cost a bomb today whereas normally they cost two bombs..

However, if enough customer comments are passed on to higher management maybe they'll stop trying to upsell and making their staff do this.

Ha ha, nope. They make so much money from upselling that the any complaints they do get about it are just ignored (and no, staff won't pass on your comments ).

We need the badge equivalent of the "no junk mail" stickers.

Wouldn't make a difference; they'd still have to upsell because they'd get told off by their manager if they didnt.

My partner use to work for Smiths and the mark up on the upsells was really high and the target use to be 1 in every 10 customers and then went to 1 in 7 and then 1 in 6, also those vouchers that get shoved on you you have to make sure 95% of customers get those (use to be 80)

If the sales assistant fails to do it, then they get disciplined. The managers would also go through disciplinary procedure if their stores were not getting the target required.

Its a shame, because it was a great company to work for 20 odd years ago, when he first started, and they really cared about their staff. You would have staff members who had been there for 20-30 years plus. Then they started taking things away, and now it seems does not give a shit about customers or staff

@Butterymuffin - that's interesting. Amazon have never asked me that.