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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 Grin

OP posts:
DeadDoorpost · 03/08/2017 04:45

I'm amazed no-one mentioned Sports Direct...
Used to work there. And depending on the manager in the store it can really make a difference in whether you like upselling or loathe it. I can be really good at it when I want to Be, and pants when I'm not in the mood.
I had one manager once (new store and they hadn't had a mystery shop in 8 months of opening) who I absolutely hated. I was only there for 2 months before I transferred back to my usual store.. anyway, the mystery shopper came in and the manager pointed him out to me. I didn't once upsell anything I was supposed to just to annoy him. He'd been bullying me into working more hours when he knew I had an event coming up that I needed to sort out. Needless to say he got an incredibly bad report for that mystery shop. And I got away with not being yelled at for it (a miracle).
I had a similar experience with another manager in my main store. Now, this manager came in 2 times to help get the staff to sell, as her own store were breaking records. The only problem was that she was horrible. Threatened me while I was serving a customer, and pulled up aside out the back for talking back to her when I pointed out to her that I had in fact asked the customer about wanting a B4L when she was adamant I hadnt. I promised my own manager that day that if he stuck me on tills again with her there I would walk out and refuse to work my shift... he put me on footwear instead where she couldn't get hold of me the next shift (she tried, oh she tried). Funnily enough I sold a hell of a lot of shoe products that shift because it's something I liked doing and didn't have a demon breathing down my neck.

The staff all hate doing it in there, they really do. But what made a difference was the in-store competition that was going on between the staff.. We decided it was more fun and we had better results if we actually listened to the customer first and then found a way to help them if we could.. all the while trying to beat the current champion. And I was always honest with customers when they asked if i had to try and sell them something. They more often than not let me get on with it if i said yes.

NewPapaGuinea · 03/08/2017 05:18

This is why I love self service tills, although they try and upsell me a plastic bag every frickin' time

Yarp · 03/08/2017 05:23

I used to work in McDonald's in the 1980s. We had to do one Sell Up ('Is that Large fries") and one Suggestive Sell - real name- ("Would you like a pie with that?") per transaction.

I think that was probably right at the start of those sorts of business practices

PS. the cleaning cupboard was called the Janitor's Closet, the staff meeting was called a Rap Session, and the litter picking we had to do out in the street was called a Trash Walk. That went down well in 1980s Essex

Yarp · 03/08/2017 05:24

... I see some of the posts above are mixing up Selling Up and Suggestive Selling Wink

HenryIX · 03/08/2017 05:31

I popped into Asda yesterday for a few bits, I spent about £30. They asked for my postcode! I've never had that before in a supermarket. I just said 'no thanks' and the assistant sighed an overdramatic sigh and looked really grumpy.

crazyhorses3 · 03/08/2017 05:39

What a mad world we live in. Throwaway culture where nothing lasts five minutes because then we have to buy another one. All this pressure, pressure pressure to buy and have. No wonder there is so much depression and anxiety these days. Human interactions all seem to come down to money... sorry, a bit heavy but it depresses me.
The one that gets me is why it is necessary to buy a coffee in a paper cup and walk around town with it. What happened to waiting till you get home to put the kettle on, or actually sitting down to drink it in a proper cup?

Also the buckets of popcorn and coke at cinemas that no normal person could every eat anyway . Diabetes anyone?

unlucky83 · 03/08/2017 07:17

The email receipt thing is one of the reasons I have several email addresses. I always say no marketing etc. But still I alternate the email addresses I give out and I have a couple for things like that called similar to 'specialaccount ' followed by a random number -so say 6, 10, 14 .
They all forward to one account which I never give out, along with a couple of other accounts that I use for eg utility companies and another for friends etc.

It means that I am not giving out my name, the company gets the impression that I have many more than one account and if I get inundated with spam/junk I usually have a good idea who sold/passed on my email address....and cos they aren't important accounts I could (haven't needed to yet) just close that account down and not lose anything, not have to worry about giving anyone important another email address.
And I still have the receipts etc in my main email account...

The asking for personal details one that drives me insane is Kwik Fit .
Phone them up for a quote and they ask you for your name, address, postcode, telephone number and reg number. I just refuse to tell them. They have told me they need the reg number to identify the car so they could give me an accurate quote...I point out I have given them all the info they need to do that. The best one was for tyres - I gave them the tyre number - they gave me the accurate quote spiel so I pointed out I could have had the wheels changed post manufacture - with say low profile tyres - and therefore the reg number was less accurate.. in the end I stopped phoning them -they annoyed me too much.
I prefer to use an independent garage for things like that anyway and mainly asked Kwik fit for a quote for comparison - just in case the local garage started to try and rip me off . If Kwik fit were considerably cheaper I would have used them but on the whole the independent garage is cheaper/the same.

Also Kwik fit often gave me a fairly high quote and if I said I had a cheaper quote said they will price match/undercut it. I hate that - why not just given me your best price from the start instead of trying to maximise your mark up..Angry.

TroysMammy · 03/08/2017 07:23

Maybe not the same vein but I'm fed up of being asked when purchasing an item "do you want a bag?" I'm in Wales and it's nearly 6 years we have been paying for bags. It should now be up to the buyer to ask "could I have a bag please".

Macaroni46 · 03/08/2017 07:42

Or when trying to pay and you're asked for your name and address etc! Why? I just want to pay! Puts me right off...

Doobigetta · 03/08/2017 08:09

The post office has been mentioned a lot, but I had the ultimate upsell there- went into post a letter, and the assistant started interrogating me about my personal finances and tried to sell me a mortgage!

MaisyPops · 03/08/2017 08:19

Costa and other coffee places annoy me when I ask for a latte and then they reply 'that's a medium latte?' No. Just a regular latte. If I wanted a medium, I'd ask.

WH Smith seems to not get that they used to be a decent shop with decent products. Now it's 80% tat with extortionate drinks and chocolate. Maybe there's a link between time spent getting poor staff to push chocolate and a drop in their takings. Just stock stuff people want to buy.

emilybrontescorset · 03/08/2017 08:27

Oh yes sports direct - would you like this disgusting bag which no one In Their right mind would be seen dead with, it's only a £1.
Or do you want to buy this ugly overpriced plastic bottle? Err no.

WhatToDoAboutThis2017 · 03/08/2017 08:43

I used to work in McDonald's in the 1980s. We had to do one Sell Up ('Is that Large fries") and one Suggestive Sell - real name- ("Would you like a pie with that?") per transaction.

I work there now. We don't do any suggestive sell and are not asked to. We do, however, check what size food the customer wants when ordering, because a lot of people will not say large when they want large.

(We also can't start putting your meal through the till anyway until you give us a size.)

PS. the cleaning cupboard was called the Janitor's Closet, the staff meeting was called a Rap Session, and the litter picking we had to do out in the street was called a Trash Walk. That went down well in 1980s Essex

None of this is true either, for any of the stores in my region.

This is why I love self service tills, although they try and upsell me a plastic bag every frickin' time

That's not upwelling, that's asking you to tell them how many bags you're using so you can be charged for it.

troodiedoo · 03/08/2017 08:51

Lush annoy me with this - always ask if you want a little pot of moisturiser for a pound. They say profits are for charity. That's only more pressure if you ask me. So many young people use that shop and they are not wise to it - they genuinely think the assistant is being their friend.

They also just come up to you when you're browsing and start waffling on. You can't even say no thanks because they haven't asked you anything. So you just look at them with disdain. They must be fed up of that look!

NewPapaGuinea · 03/08/2017 08:57

"This is why I love self service tills, although they try and upsell me a plastic bag every frickin' time"

That's not upwelling, that's asking you to tell them how many bags you're using so you can be charged for it.

Yeah, twas a joke 😂

WhatToDoAboutThis2017 · 03/08/2017 09:02

Glad to hear it Grin However some people really are that stupid.

littlespeckledfrog · 03/08/2017 09:06

Clarks, buying shoes for a 2yo. 'We have trainers on special offer if you buy them with the shoes?' 'No, thank you.' Brings out trainers with the shoes to try on. 'Look, they have dinosaurs on and light up!' 'NO, THANK YOU.'

Very unimpressed.

sizeofalentil · 03/08/2017 09:13

I was buying a pack of jumbo tampons in Superdrug once and the young male sales assistant said "On your period? We've got painkillers and Dairy Milk on offer today."

Wasn't sure if I was horrified or impressed.

Yarp · 03/08/2017 09:14

WhattoDo

Glad to hear it

Don't get me wrong. I loved working there. But it seemed pretty Americanised for a time when the concept of 'service' was pretty new to Brits.
The first McDonalds came to our town in 1979 and I worked there from 1985-1991
I loved the camaraderie and the fast pace of it. Not so much the Saturday night fights...

WhatToDoAboutThis2017 · 03/08/2017 09:27

Don't get me wrong. I loved working there. But it seemed pretty Americanised for a time when the concept of 'service' was pretty new to Brits

Thankfully it seems it is not so Americanised anymore Grin

I loved the camaraderie and the fast pace of it. Not so much the Saturday night fights...

Also thankfully we don't have fights in ours!

paxillin · 03/08/2017 09:37

I walked out of a shoe shop without buying shoes because of that one, littlespeckledfrog, with a then-tantruming toddler. Upselling is cheeky if done to a toddler with no concept of money. Pure parent-blackmail. You buy this sweet/ toy or I'll send you on your way with a crying child because I will wave it in front of his nose and you have to make clear he can't have it. Didn't go back to that shop for years.

crazycatgal · 03/08/2017 10:54

@MaisyPops Isn't a medium and a regular latte the same thing? If you ask for a regular coke in McDonalds you get given the medium size not the small.

corythatwas · 03/08/2017 12:02

crazyhorses, in some respects we seem to be moving back to the Dickensian era where most urban households (unless wealthy) did not have much in the way of cooking facilities or spare space so a lot of eating (and socialising) took place out of the house. Think of all those pie shops. And David Copperfield ordering takeaways. But of course they had non-disposable utensils in those days. Perhaps that is what we need to go back to.

PeachPearPotato · 03/08/2017 12:12

Drives me mad too. Not as mad though as the emails for almost every single purchase asking me if I am happy with it Angry. I would have told them if I wasn't!

ClementineWardrobe · 03/08/2017 12:16

I worked for TopShop 20 years ago; there were targets to sell the topshop card. I hated it, the interest was extortionate and the shop was aimed at a young crowd. No one needs a pair of ripped jeans and a vest in six colours at 39% interest.
What annoyed me most was that there was a purple and white form to complete for the application, the customer only needed to answer the white parts, the purple part was small print no one ever read, but buried on that purple part was the tiny weeny little box - in purple, not white - which you needed to tick for 'no bumph/don't share my information with loads of other companies'

I used to point it out very clearly to customers so they could make the choice. I hated those cards.