To think this is dam cheeky of Clark’s shoes

[Lilylay]

We there yesterday to get Ds measures for school shoes and buy some. We have not got a lot of money but I have e put some aside to get DS these shoes as we have found Clark’s last longer so are better value in the long run.
When we got there the women came over the measure Ds feet and also asked him to tap his favourite colour on the screen. He got measure and we picked out some shoes
When the women came back with the right size she had three other boxes with her and took out the school shoes and put them on Ds. We were happy and said we were having them.
She then turned to Ds and says look at these wonderful green trainers and if your mummy and daddy get you these as well as your new school shoes they will get 20% off the trainers.

Now lucky for us we had just been in sports direct and get DS some trainers from there so Ds just say “I have got some new ones thank”
I am not at all happy with the selling technique and say to the women that I know she will a been asked to do this by her boss but could she feed back Clark’s have now lost a sale due to this tactic. We walked out and I have ordered some shoes online that have good reviews and are guaranteed for a year.
Incidentally there was a child having meltdown but his mum was saying she could not afford the trainers. The mum looked so upset.
AIBU to think this is not one at all

I hate the new iPad measuring system that gets the child to enter their age and favourite colour

How are they obtaining consent for the unnecessary information and what are they doing with the data afterward?

Its entirely inappropriate to target children like this. Any upselling should be directed at the adults only. Its exactly this kind of behaviour that deters people from using retail shops rather than online.

You were the loser and all you had to do was ask to speak to the manager and say you were unhappy with the pressurised sales pitch

If its a franchise I'd be even more inclined to go straight to the brand owner.

CLARKS IS A FRANCHISE.

www.clarks.com/franchisee.html

I am not defending the behaviour in that store but bear in mind the person running it has invested a huge amount of personal capital and are at the mercy of the high street.

If you are unhappy with upselling, it's best to make it known to the store not the company, so they can change the way they sell.

The same thing happened to us yesterday too, I heard them all saying it to customers. i just said no thanks.
On a side note the trainers and most of the shoes have gone horrible anyway. The trainers are all that horrible netting material, the leather has gone. Sports Direct have much better stuff at a better price.

We had the same thing in our clarks, quite a lot of pressure to buy the shoes and then the trainers.

Yes clarks trainers are overpriced for the quality these days. School shoes you expect to pay for but not sure why the trainers are so pricey

I think you had the right attitude, OP: you know it's not the employee's fault, but whoever thought up the hard sell should be made aware that they are losing customers because of it.

I hate sales people who target children before consulting the adults who will be footing the bill.
We have a family "rule" that when we eat out only one drink of fizzy pop will be bought per child... both for health and financial reasons - if they are thirsty they can drink tap water (the same as the adults: one glass of wine, or a bottle between 5 and then water.)

The waiting staff at one particular restaurant that we used to go to with my sister's family from time to time invariably asked the children if they want another drink before "checking" with the parents that it was OK...we stopped going there when the kids were younger - now they share the bottle of wine or have a beer. Just the one.
Kids are an easy target and unscrupulous vendors know it.

This happened to us a few months ago. We went in for school shoes for my 3 year old, now I consider £40 for a tiny pair of shoes expensive, but given how much she'd wear them I opted to get some properly fitted.

We went in and I picked 2 pairs to try, I was quite specific. Lady came out with 5 boxes, the ones I asked for, 2 more similar style that weren't on the shop floor and a mystery box. I looked at them when she brought them out but she didn't want me to look at the 5th and whispered to me "I'm sorry my boss is stood right there so I have to bring them, don't open them". So I sneaked a peak when my daughter was busy trying on the shoes. Bright pink trainers she'd have lost her shit for! If she'd have shown them her she'd have lost the sale as our daughter would have had a meltdown for the lovely pink shoes over the black ones. There was no 20% off offer at the time (not that that makes any difference!), the bosses are just hopeful you'll spend £80 on shoes when you've gone in for 1 pair of school shoes!

The woman serving us was lovely, she had 2 children of her own and explained it's a ridiculous idea, she was clearly embarrassed doing it and only did it because someone was watching. I said to my husband "I'm going to complain". Now I say this a lot but then don't bother but this time I was so annoyed I did write a complaint on their website (I gave the shop assistant shining feedback though). I pointed out it puts me off buying from them again. I suggested they stop this ridiculous idea.

I nearly posted on here about it at the time, seems like they've stepped it up asking children to pick their favourite colour and then offering 20% off. It's a really horrible tactic to gain more sales.

We had exactly the same thing. I was buying 2 x school shoes and 2 x plimsoles = £100! I was not impressed that she brought out trainers to show my eldest daughter without even asking me first.

Lol at dam.

I actually quite like some adult Clark’s shoes but I’d never go there for childrens shoes any more.

It’s amazing how many people still think the only way to buy your child a pair of shoes is to have Clark’s measure you. Even when they nearly always say “sorry we haven’t got F but shall we just try D” or whatever the daft width fitting things are these days.

And the shoes fall apart after the first term anyway, might as well go to Shoe Zone imho.

I refuse to go to Clarks anymore. The last pair of shoes my DS had lasted just over half a term before falling in bits, the pair before that did the same but lasted a term. Now I buy Treads. They have a system which lasts a whole size and they're guaranteed for a year. His first pair did well over a year, then he outgrew them. His second pair have done a term and a half and just need a wipe over ready for the new term.

I go to Clarkes outlet shop, about half the price and have never had the sales technique

That's really annoying i had similar when I went into lush yesterday soon as I walked through the door I was stopped by 3 staff members who just kept bothering me and my children asking what we wanted, I said oh it's okay thank you I've just come to get the intergalactic bath bomb,
one of them then showed my children the children's strawberry bath bombs and dobbed them on the nose telling them they should have one, my two are 2&4 so they think that I'm now buying one, I said no! The other one is behind me offering me more bathbombs, and the third is asking me if I want to sample creams. Aaah never again.

I've never ever rated clarkes as I company..

However the clarkes outlet store is amazing. Look for outlet shop, its usually more than half price and you can see all the shoes they have rather than waiting for the stock room shenanigans. Also all staff in the outlet have been truly remarkable!!

Haven't been to Clarks in years, since two consecutive pairs of shoes wore out (or more accurately pretty much fell to bits) within half a term. I don't expect to have to pay £300 a year for school shoes. I now go to Tesco where an £18 pair lasts a term and a half.

@Lilylay It's called upselling, (as a few pps have said,) and it stinks and I am sick of it. Should be stopped. Esepcially when it's targeting children...'Would you like a cut price terrys chocolate orange with your magazine?' Errrrm no ta.

On a slightly different tangent; when my DD was 15-16 ish, she had this thing about wanting an iphone, and the contract was £40 a month. (10 years back.) She said she would pay for it herself. A salesperson at a well known mobile phone shop told her she was too young to sign the contract, but said I can sign it. So anything she racked upon it (like overseas calls, premium rate calls, and if she went over her data, or text or call allowance etc,) would fall to ME to pay.

I refused to sign, she sulked for a bit, he looked disappointed at the lack of a sale. I didn't give a fuck.

We got her a PAYG phone plan instead. She got a fancy phone herself 2 or so years later.

I refuse to go to Clarks anymore. The last pair of shoes my DS had lasted just over half a term before falling in bits, the pair before that did the same but lasted a term. Now I buy Treads.

Treads look interesting.

If the Clarks I've already bought, for cheaper than their shops, don’t last at least till spring - I may well be tempted.

This last year all the shoes across several price brackets have had really poor performance. I've gone for sturdy looking Clarks designs so am hopeful, but we'll see.

They did it to me last week and I bought the trainers. I was so upset and annoyed by myself for doing that. We should keep this thread bumped so we can let everyone know what to expect

Yep we bought treads shoes last year for DS14. They really did last the whole year and DS walks 4 miles a day. It is only that he wants a different style this year that he will be getting new ones.

www.treads-shoes.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMInIvGm6Cb5AIVxud3Ch14nANzEAAYAiAAEgKbNPD_BwE

Thank you for the warning. I need to get school shoes for both of my kids in the next week, and the brilliant independent shoe shop near us has sadly closed down.

I was considering Clarks as it's our nearest, but after reading this, I will go to John Lewis instead.

I have put in a complaint to Clark's about this exact scenario!

Went in with DD (who is being assessed for ASD) for school shoes. She got measured picked out a pair and exactly as you describe the woman came out with lots of shoes. She said she had bought a couple of other school alternatives just incase the fit wasnt right on the ones she wanted.

School shoes tried on, perfect fit and DD very happy. Then the shop assistant said to her "oh and I bought out a pair of trainers you may like" then turned to me and said they have to advise a pair of sports shoes as they are in the offer. DD started whinging that she wanted the trainers which were overpriced and she has not long had new ones..

It ended in DD having a huge meltdown and me feeling humiliated and frustrated in the store because I just cannot afford £45 school shoes plus an additional pair. Disgusting.

Absolutely disgusting behaviour from Clark’s! How dare they try and manipulate children. This technique is horrid and also actually demeans the staff working in there. Must be horrible for them too.

I've stopped buying Clark's. I did for years and we also have a Discount store nearby so they tend to be half price there for the exact same ones. But they just don't last.

Our school isn't strict about shoes, so they just wear what they like, one of mine has some timberland boots, another has doc Martins, another uggs boots and my other has trainers. They are in such good condition and still fit that I've not bought new ones, but I've bought them all new trainers and my daughter liked some school shoes in m&s.

The year before last I bought Clark's and some from ASDA to go back, they preferred the look of the ASDA ones and they lasted significantly longer than the Clark's ones. So I've just abandoned Clark's. My sin saw seem boots last year in Clark's, so we went in and got them but they wore so quickly it was ridiculous. Hence buying the timberland ones which are like new.

Maybe it's just my kids feet but they just seem useless for mine, I wouldn't mind paying it they didn't look used within a week!

My son worked at Clark’s during his uni holidays and the pressure to get multi-sales get really annoyed him. He would start a sale and if one of the pushier staff thought it looked like a potential multi-sale they would take over the sale. I thought it was really sneaky.

He had to offer polish etc when he was ringing up the sale at the till and said he was amazed at the number of people who seemed delighted to be reminded and happily bought the extra stuff.

I can’t stand up selling and I don’t understand why so many companies do it.

I’d like retailers to use the following rules. I’m happy to pay a fair price for goods and I’m a loyal customer to businesses where I’m treated well
No up-selling
No pressurised selling
No complicated offers
Simple and straightforward pricing
Simple and ‘honest’ packaging