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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To find these retail practices annoying

338 replies

Mistlewoeandwhine · 03/12/2019 15:54

  1. Having to pay 10% service charge added to the bill (with no pre mention of the fact) in Yo Sushi - which is expensive enough for what it is anyway. I only noticed when I read it on the receipt afterwards. I always tip waiting staff 10% anyway but I give it in cash to the actual server so I know they get it. If Yo Sushi want to pay their staff higher wages, they can do it themselves.

  2. Lush - I know some people hate it but I don’t. I like their products but I can assure you that I buy FAR LESS when some stranger is standing beside me, disturbing my rare moments of peace and making me smell stuff I’ve no interest in.
    Stop it Lush!

OP posts:
OrangeCinnamon · 03/12/2019 17:02

YANBU unreasonable is this just a British thing I wonder ?

Ive been in M & S twice over the last month when they have dimmed the lights in certain sections 15 mins before closing. Well F* you M & S if you won't allow me to actually see when I hold the coat up against my face am not buying it !

zukiecat · 03/12/2019 17:02

I hated having to upsell things when I worked at my local small supermarket.

We know you don't want these items, but we're told we must push it with every single customer. Being disciplined if we don't.

Believe me, checkout operators loathe and detest having to ask everyone all the time.

MrMeSeeks · 03/12/2019 17:05

I don’t go in lush now for this reason. I hate being bothered.
I know it’s not the staffs fault, they have to do it, but people constantly by me, talking to me makes me nervous. I end up leaving.
Now i simply don’t go in thee which is a shame as i do like their stuff.

SimonJT · 03/12/2019 17:05

Staff who wont leave you alone, I was followed around currys today at lunch time. I had gone in to buy a new fitbit, but after being hassled by the forth member of staff I left.

Staff giving things to children, I have had staff in lush, lego store etc attempt to put things in my sons hands. Er no thanks, he’s not having it, but some parents could then feel inadequate if they can’t afford whatever tat has been shoved in their childs hands.

Sugarplumfairy65 · 03/12/2019 17:05

Please don't have a go at sales staff for up selling at the till. They don't have a choice.
In a company that I used to work for, we faced disciplinary action if we didn't do it. A lot of people failed probation because they didn't sell enough.

dayswithaY · 03/12/2019 17:08

Debenhams asking me three times at the till if I want a Beauty Members thing to save money. Politely declined then the fourth time she said "I can't believe you don't want to save money - why not sign up?"

I work in retail and I would never do this, I just read peoples' signs and then back off.

HowlsMovingBungalow · 03/12/2019 17:09

Upselling at the till is forced upon retail workers. It isn't a choice, upsell or lose your job if you don't hit sales targets.
Agree @Sugarplum

OrangeCinnamon · 03/12/2019 17:10

Noone has said they have a go though @sugarplumfairy65 hopefully the likes of Lush and WHSmith will see this and change stupid practice

BatleyTownswomensGuild · 03/12/2019 17:11

Jeez, the staff at Lush make me want to scream....

No, I don't need help. No, I don't want to look at all the other product lines you want to up-sell me. No, I don't want to smell 5 different variations of the same item because, frankly, the smell is so overpowering I want to heave. Please don't follow me round the shop. Please don't waggle brightly coloured scented items in front of DS. Please just fuck off....

(Cue screaming rage.) Envy

OrangeCinnamon · 03/12/2019 17:12

I did say 'hopefully' . It is not all retail as above shows

BatleyTownswomensGuild · 03/12/2019 17:12

I appreciate what the other folks are saying about staff having no choice but to upsell. But I can't help thinking as a business strategy it backfires. For every customer who buys something, another walks out and refuses to come back....

BlaueLagune · 03/12/2019 17:13

The second i am approached by someone i head for the exit

Me too - very occasionally I actually want the help, but usually, oddly enough, I am capable of getting something off a shelf and walking to the till with it.

TheQueef · 03/12/2019 17:13

Bundles
No.
Stop it.
I can successfully buy fishfingers and chips and peas without needing it sodding bundled.
In fact, the word bundle.
Stop that.

HoldMyLobster · 03/12/2019 17:14

I live in the US where they are much worse for following you round the shop offering to help, and Lush is still by far the worst for it. I just won't go in there any more.

BlaueLagune · 03/12/2019 17:14

There have been a lot of threads about these practices on MN. I've asked before, but does anyone here actually work at the HQ of any retailers and do they ever feed back that people hate it and it drives them to shop online instead? I suppose they don't care if they get the sale online but who says you'll buy the item from the same retailer if you go online?

In terms of bad online practices, not saying who the courier is. Some sites are incredibly coy about it. If it's Hermes I don't want to buy fro you!

HowlsMovingBungalow · 03/12/2019 17:16

We had add ons to sale so the customer had already made a purchase - Clarkes do it with leather / suede cleaner. A customer can just say no but with my employer they could see how many add ons you sold every week and whether you hit your sales targets.

Wheresthesandman · 03/12/2019 17:16

I bought a pair of shoes in new look, used my card for a contactless payment and the girl behind the till said “and is X the best email address to email your receipt to?”. I started to say yes, and then realised I’d not actually given her my email address, so I asked her if they’d somehow linked my email address to my debit card and she wouldn’t/couldn’t give me a straight answer.

I know it wasn’t her fault, but that really bothered me. I can’t even really explain why though.

recycledbottle · 03/12/2019 17:22

I know this is about retail rather than hairdressers but I hate the way hairdressers are now retail also and they try and sell you products because a lot of the time it involves insulting the condition of your hair

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 03/12/2019 17:26

Superdrug and their point card shite.

I was badgered at the till to get one of these, with the promise that I would only get occasional emails with offers and promised "Oh we definitely won't spam you or anything like that!" (with tinkly little laugh).

They instantly started spamming me with multiple emails, before I'd even left the shop, and kept it up over the next few weeks.

I unsubscribed, as I'm sure any sane person would. What did that achieve, then?

LucaFritz · 03/12/2019 17:28

Is there some sort of training camp where lush dispatch there staff from Hmm I've never met anyone IRL who likes lush or would work for them i know with my anxiety i couldn't pester people like they do but i always wonder what the consequences are if they dont Hmm surely lush get complaints about it all the time so surely they know it doesn't work and drives people away Confused

LaurieFairyCake · 03/12/2019 17:29

Meal deals. The server tried to hold up the queue in Victoria station in the morning rush to try to insist I got the free crisis

I didn't want them. I said no thanks, then NO, then eventually "I don't give a crap that I've already paid for them, I DONT WANT THEM".

He just couldn't understand.

HowlsMovingBungalow · 03/12/2019 17:30

Don't blame you for not wanting the free crisis tbh Grin.

Ariadnepersephonecloud · 03/12/2019 17:30

Imo Lush stinks. Also even if I wanted to smell like I fell in a vat of perfume, after the numerous complaints about pushy sales staff I would never set foot inside a shop, I couldn't stand it!

LaurieFairyCake · 03/12/2019 17:31

The free CRISPS

LaurieFairyCake · 03/12/2019 17:31

Not crisis - I have enough crisis Grin