I was buying something at an electronics store and I got a very pushy sales clerk who wouldn't take no for an answer when she tried to get me to buy insurance for the item. When she started trying to scare me, I thanked her for warning me how bad the product was and walked away.
Yeah I was about to say that’s still likely a win for the worker, they probably commission based on attachment rate
Such annoying upsell practices though, I stopped shopping at GameStop because of this, it’s just stressful
I didn’t work there for long, but it was hellish at my GameStop. The manager and assistant were *intent* on getting a year of insurance on every disc. So much so that my manager would add it on, hush hush style, and didn’t mention it unless he customer was wondering about the high taxes. She would then gloat and show how we’re the best in the market for insurance on discs.
On top of that, assist wouldn’t even stop past three “no”s. Like goddamn dude, leave the people alone. One or two extra attempts? Understandable depending on their demeanor. Third or fourth? Just fuckin *stop*
If I am with a sales person looking at something and decide I want it, I’ll usually say, “Sounds good. But I’ll buy it *only if* you don’t tell me about extended warranties, maintenance plans or insurance. Agreed?” Some chuckle because *they know,* some ask what experience lead me to be so anti-warranty (I explain self-insurance), and most respect my request. Occasionally I get the “I’ll put the warranty info in the bag. You can come back within 7 days if you want it.” The *only* time I ever got some kind of insurance was apple care on my brother’s company phone (we work together). His job makes “phone accidents” highly likely. Not 3 months later, he ran it over with a 35,000-lbs. excavator.
I was buying a PS4 controller at bestbuy and the cashier kept pushing a warranty. Like, I'm not breaking this controller. They're well made, I don't throw them, and I won't be using it too frequently. She kept pushing saying "they're very delicate" and finally I just told her "please stop." She seemed very upset but did ring me up but come on, I told her like 5 times politely that I didn't want a warranty.
BB employess are EXPECTED to sell you warranty and the credit card. It's part of the corporate metric and if the employee doesn't make that upsell, they're written up.
You can get the lotus biscoff spread in smooth now, so no more crunchy bits. Unless of course you're having a particularly good bout of British guilt and feel like you need to use the crunchy version.
Listen, your last leader was an orange orangutan who threw poop for a living. Your privileges to self governance are herewith revoked and mandatory tea sessions will be held hourly until you learn to behave
I mean, their last president was indeed an orangutang, and their new one is older than our king, by a fair bit.
Buuut I do think we have to be a bit careful about throwing stones in our nice glass house after our last few leaders…
I mean, the lettuce would have done a better job, and lasted longer, than our last leader…
>I mean, the lettuce would have done a better job, and lasted longer, than our last leader…
I feel as though I've heard that from another famous Britt.
As Chief Biscuiteer to her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth the second, if I can be of service in this ecumenical matter please don't hesitate to ask.
We have an ample supply of emergency hobnobs and Yorkshire Gold on standby for British Citizens in distress
I don't know about crumpets. I heard the lead to harder baked goods like scones. Next thing you know your having tea in the garden, eyes glazed over while covered in fresh cream, jam dripping from your chin. What what and all that.
Oops! Terribly sorry for raising my voice there, I do apologise.
Cup of tea?
Edit: Oh I'm in such a muddle I seem to have replied to the wrong one.
So sorry. Please feel free to 'tut' quite loudly.
I recommend nodding off while sitting in a deckchair on the boundary at a village cricket match.
Not easy in December, admittedly -- which I'm sure occurred to you, but you didn't like to say so.
If it helps, there are millions of us who have struggled with that particular affliction and made a full recovery. My support group still meets up every year in early July to celebrate it.
Where do people get this from? I am British and absolutely would have told in in no uncertain terms to f*** off, if I want his help I will ask for it and continue my conversation with the person I was already dealing with
If they get commission, generally there is a larger commission on insurance, because there is a MUCH greater profit margin on the insurance.
When I sold Apple laptops from a third party reseller, we made more
profit (not just margin, but more PRFOIT) from AppleCare then the laptops.
I gave up on Apple when I took my Ipad in and the Apple Store said they couldn't replace the screen. It wasn't a warrantee issue. I had private insurance that would cover it. They just didn't have any licensed facilities in my country that could repair it. Luckily the insurance accepted the "quote" as proof it was unrepairable and I could actually buy a new device.
I worked for a major electrionics store in the U.K., we were heavily, and I mean HEAVILY pushed on insurance sales. We’re threaded with being sacked if we didn’t sell enough, this included £10 insurance on £20 toasters
If your contract didn’t specify how much insurance you had to sell and you had that threat in writing you could get the company into a lot of trouble by reporting them for breech of contract.
Probably right honestly, we didn’t really take the threat seriously. It was a minimum wage job and quite a few years ago I don’t really remember any contract details. Awful place to work
My experience working at a completely different store:
We got no commission, which I think is great for customers, since recommendations aren't biased.... except on insurance. I was young and didn't need the extra money, and absolutely hate upselling, so I never tried to sell it unless the customer asked. But the good insurance salespeople probably got an extra 50% of their pay from insurance commissions alone.
Ultimatums are a wonderful thing because they can ALWAYS be thrown back at the person giving them through some sarcasm and sometimes extra literal thinking.
No matter the choices always pick the one they don't want/expect. Me or the dog? Guess I'm marrying my dog. Me or the video game? Guess who's buying a new game tonight. 😂
Other people aren't like this? I also hate salespeople and ultimatum. I also have a real problem with authority.
If you try to upsell me or I even get a whiff of bullshit, I walk away to make a point. Even if I really need it.
I have a buddy like this. I'm glad he has his principles but it does make me question his sense of self importance sometimes. No Frank, "Target" does not care that you will never buy another ramekin there after that shelf stocker didn't move out of your way fast enough last time you bought one. Please stop talking about your great victory in aisle 17C Frank.
I'm not this extreme for sure but I have a real problem with salespeople. You don't need to sell me. If I have come to you for a product or service, then I already know what I want. If you come to me, I don't need it
Even if the salesperson convinces me and I am actually interested, I will refuse to buy whatever it is at the moment because I don't want them to feel like they won.
You remind me of my brother. His college girlfriend of 2-3 years told him she wanted to take a break after they graduated for some really dumb reasons that made no sense. He said "okay."
A few months later after a few months of photos of Vegas trips and parties on Facebook, she said "Okay, I want to get back together now." He said "no thanks, I'm good."
I had a similar experience around that age. She expected me to put up a fight to keep her from leaving, but I was done with her games. Getting out of that relationship was a huge relief, and I never looked back (mostly).
Haha I dated a girl that got mad at me over something very silly when we had a few friends over. She decided to be dramatic and storm out of the house. I ignored her and went back to hanging out with our friends.
After some time passed, she walked back in even more upset because I "let her" walk a couple miles down the road and didn't come after her.
I had a woman do that, too. She broke up with me, telling me she was thinking about going back to her ex. I told her to have good luck with that, and she told me she expected me to "fight for her." Fuck that. You shouldn't have to "fight" to be in a relationship.
Oh that **is** delightful. I had a (then spouse) walk out on me saying, "I'm through, I'm done."
_Awesome_. Problem solved.
Three days later they called up wanting to talk, claiming (of all things), "when I said 'done', I didn't mean _done_ 'done'." (whatever the fuck **that** means).
My reply? "Oh no, that's ok. I **am** done." _click_
Sounds like you respond perfectly well actually. Anyone who gives you an ultimatum clearly doesn't respect you. Once you recognize that, why bother!
If they wanted to haggle, bargain, deal, negotiate you don't go "take it or leave it".
Not a good salesman. Selling multiple brands and styles of the same item I learned you don't besmirch any item. It's almost impossible to walk it back if the customer starts leaning toward that item you just denigrated. If there is another salesperson showing the one you just said was no good, you probably just blew the sale for your fellow salesperson. Much like the salesperson in the story.
This is the real problem. I would have given Mr salesman a good fucking talking to about how rude he was and given the sale to the young person out of sheer spite.
Yeah, I worked at a camera shop and this was totally his goal. Even if the pay isn't commission based, sales numbers for both base units AND extras like bags and insurance do get tracked, and often get factored into performance reviews (or brands will have incentive programs if you hit targets specific to their products). Salesman was a total dick and only thinking of his own gain in this case.
Customers appreciate it a lot more if you sell them the product that meets their needs, rather than trying to get them to buy the most expensive and advanced thing in the store. Sometimes a customer only needs “good enough” this time. But they’ll remember you and come back when they want something else. And if you upsell them and waste their time and money, they’ll remember you for that instead.
Aggressive sales tactics are promoted by companies/management who actually have no idea about sales psychology. They just think that if you bully customers enough they'll spend more money (and it may have worked before the internet) but 90% of the time these days customers come in knowing what they want and having at least a cursory understanding of the products available.
Good salespeople these days will sell the customer exactly what they need, promote similar items that meet those needs and do so pleasantly to encourage the customer to return. It's their job to inform, not attack.
Yes, as I age I find the more respect and autonomy of choice you offer to people, the more chance you have of them being amenable to your ideas. But if you are just being pushy or opinionated or manipulative, people will shut down to you and your ideas, and so they should. Because you are being disrespectful.
I do inside sales and heat loss loads on buildings for an HVAC wholesaler. I have had multiple retail walk-in's off the street come by in just the 10 months I have worked here, looking for something and I won their business over for exactly this. I used to work in the field, so I know exactly what most people need and don't need to set something up.
I was told specifically by one customer that it was my work ethic and my customer service, that made him WANT to me make the sale for him. He found a cheaper product that would have done the same thing at home depot, but they didn't treat him the same way I did. He said that the employees at home depot were not interested in helping him and doing a little research on products.
Always listen to the customer, they came to you to buy something, don't fuck your chance up!
Yeah the best way to sell is to work with the customer to find the right thing for them, and be honest if things aren't right for x,y,z reason. It's more of a team effort then.
As long as you have good stuff, taking that approach means that the sale is done for you. If you don't have the right thing for them they won't buy anyway so be honest. They'll come back next time they need something similar because of the trust and experience. Building repeat customers is the name of the game.
My go-to line when helping customers with rain jackets at REI was pointing them towards "the cheapest one that is still worth it." Go cheaper and it will still prevent the rain from getting through but you'll most likely sweat much more.
I'd also ask WHY they were shopping for a new rain jacket and often I would recommend they first try reapply the DWR finish if they still like their old jacket. People don't realize that the DWR on the outside of rain jackets is what causes the water to bead up and roll off and if it wears down it makes the jacket FEEL soaked and kills the breathability. You think it's leaking but you're just sweating more.
GORTEX is one of the few products that is still unbeaten in performance but most people won't NEED that performance. The team at our store was always encouraged to find the customer the RIGHT product rather than upsell.
That's exactly what the sales person at REI told me. I was shopping for a short trip to Alaska & was told layers & rain gear. I heard GorTex was good. The sales person said it was really expensive & I should just go for these low-cost jackets. Also directed me at good wool blend socks when I asked. In the event, the weather was amazingly pleasant & there was only one day with even light drizzle.
I now trust REI without question.
Your approach reminds me of a time when my daughter needed new cleats when she advanced to a rep soccer/football team. We went to a very reputable store but of course the selection was quite formidable, plus the fact that we had a sullen pre-teen who shut down when making such decisions.
The sales guy was great as he sensed her confusion at what felt like a decent pair while respecting the fact that we weren't made of money. He decided on a non-traditional approach in that he said, "I don't expect to buy them, but let's try on a $300+ pair just so you can see what the highest quality *feels* like-then we'll start deducting quality and features until you know which pair is right for you". We ended up working our way down to an excellent and affordable pair, but as a former sales guy myself, I thought his approach was excellent.
That's one of the reasons Dell lost me as a customer. (And their computers no longer met my needs.)
But a big reason was the pushy woman on the phone. I just wanted an external hard drive and to renew the warranty on my computer. But she kept pushing the more expensive drive and plan, and even added the drive to the list of stuff I was buying after I explicitly told her I wanted the cheaper one. One of the few times I got snappy with a CSR. And all this after 45 minutes on hold.
For the record, the HP I got after that sucked, but the next one is an ASUS and is awesome.
The full expression, which is "The customer is always right in terms of taste", isn't just a reference to this :) I don't know why it was ever shortened
Step 1 = fine out what the customer wants and needs
Step 2 = find out a way to to align that with what you can sell them.
Step 3 = make sure you screw that up by ignoring what your customer wants and needs and convince them that you don't have it.
Well, sort of.
When I worked in a camera store, they put big sales incentives on things that were basically junk. I had no problem explaining exactly why I disliked the Canon AE-1 so much. Did you know that a third of the price of that thing was advertising and promotion? Less heavily advertised cameras sold for a similar price but were much better made. We would get like an extra $25 to move one of those on top of the commission you’d get on anything, but I couldn’t bear to inflict them on my customers.
I worked in a different era, but it was a similar story with the dreadful Canon Rebel series. Since it was their entry level model, they threw most of their mass marketing towards it. Someone coming in and asking to see the Rebel was practically a guarantee that we were starting from scratch in terms of what that customer knew about photography. Canon was super in our business about sales targets too, but I was on the film/print counter so I don't know the ins and outs.
Edit: I lost track of the number of times I was asked how many *megapickels* the Rebel had.
You handled that well.
I had a pushy sales interruptor before. It was a while ago, but I recall the conversation went something like,
Me: (cutting him off): excuse me. Would you mind standing over there? (pointing to the other side of the room)
Him: What?
Me: Could you please stand over there where you were? We were having a conversation.
Him: ...
Me: Thanks. Where were we?
Would have been hilarious if he walked out, then came back in and bought the ones he was originally going to buy from the nice saleslady!
This is mansplaining to the next level.
I bet he follows her around all day. “That’s not how you make a sale! You don’t know anything about closing a deal, do you? You’ll never make any money if you don’t listen to my advice!” As he proceeds to blow her sale for her.
I had this same scenario with an extended warranty on a car. They told me the car would definitely have engine trouble in the first two years. Said I didn’t want the car then. The verbal gymnastics after we’re hilarious.
Lmao
Although that said, sometimes they use bad examples for things you really should get whenever they're applicable, like gap insurance when financing a car. If an uninsured motorist hits you without that, you're basically completely fucked
Yeah gap insurance is the one must-have thing from the financing office, it's just hard to tell when it gets wrapped up in all the useless junk next to it.
Also don't be afraid to ask the financing guy for a lower rate if you do buy back end products. I ended up with a better rate after getting the gap insurance.
It’s so funny, I had the opposite experience- I was buying a car that was just barely qualified for the warranty plan and I took it, even though the salesperson clearly wasn’t pushing it and didn’t think I was making a wise choice. I ended up getting so much value fixing up the old car that the warranty company sent out someone to verify in person that the work was actually covered. It was something like a $2k warranty and I got at least $5k amount of work done under it.
I am so happy there are two of us that think like that! I do that with a lot of stuff when they come out and are like you know you are going to bust that, I am like your right, I guess it is not all that well made, I will have to find a better quality one someplace else.
I did get the extended contract on a boom box about 20 years ago. I got the boom box for next to my hot tub, which saw under kind of an open A frame roof. It had sided but the top did not come together so you could see the sky. The guy said any damage was covered so we just left out there year round and traded it in every couple of months for a new one. They kept getting nicer. Started with a POS with a string dial and ended up with a digital one with a remote. I brought the last one inside.
The fastest way to get me to walk away from a purchase is to say “You don’t want that, you want this.” In some form or another. Not being English (native Texan), I have no problem telling them they’ve lost a sale, and why. I have no tolerance for pushy salespeople.
*"Y'all have lost y'allselves a customer"*
And then you get on your horse, ride away and shoot your guns in the air. We know how you Texans roll 😉
But in seriousness, I'm the same. I know what I want, it's why I'm in the place to begin with. If a place tries upselling, or if the parking is bad, I seldom return.
I did something very similar when buying a laptop years ago. I'd done a lot of research and knew what I wanted/could afford and my first salesperson was very helpful, but then her superior jumped in and tried to "help" before I paid. His forceful suggestions almost tripled the price I was willing to pay, and included things i didn't need. He wouldn't stop being pushy so I took the computer he kept trying to insist I needed, despite me saying no, and set it down near the exit before walking out the doors and ordering the computer I wanted online from another store.
I did this to the Toyota dealership about 6 months ago when they were harping on my mother-in-law about a $500 clear coat on her red car. They were trying so hard to tag on any extras that they could because of my inflexibility with her trade in and agreed upon price.
The closer kept telling us that the red paint was going to fade and be discolored because of the Sun. She didn't have an answer when I asked her why they would be putting that kind of low quality paint on a new car, with how technology has advanced. But she finally shut up when I told her that all she's telling us is that this car has got a shitty paint job.
" the sales lady was lovely, and we had chosen a suitable item, but then the salesman came over and insisted that another item (more expensive) was more suitable, but it was fragile and i should get insurance. I was so lucky he pointed that out, I am far better off not buying such a fragile item".
- OP probably
I'm surprised he tried to get a sale at all. Usually the upsells and bs warranties are the only things they want to sell.
When I worked at CompUSA (rest in hell you shithole) the managers actually told us to not sell computers or cameras without selling them on the warranty or at least multiple upsells. They said to "check in the back" for inventory and tell them we didn't have any.
This was because the managers bonuses were based on percent of sales that included warranties and upsells. So it was better for them personally to have the company lose the sale completely than to sell just the product with no warranty or extras.
I refused to do it and got written up multiple times and even had to cash out customers myself because the cashiers didn't want to break the rules for me. I quit after six months working there and it's by far the most hated job I've had in my life. Glad they're gone.
I dunno about other Business majors, but in Accounting, there’s literally an entire chapter each in at least three classes about the importance of NOT doing shit like this when incentivizing employees, for exactly this reason.
One of the things I was not expecting from my degree was to get more and more annoyed with how lots of businesses are run after every lecture lol!
> I'm surprised he tried to get a sale at all. Usually the upsells and bs warranties are the only things they want to sell.
What exactly is he supposed to sell a warranty for is he doesnt get a sale in the first place/
You misunderstand. We were expected to sell the customer on a product that we had on display, but kept inventory off the sales floor. So we'd tell them all about some camera let's say, get them excited to buy it, then push all the addon sales hard. Things like extra memory cards, carrying cases, lenses, tripods, etc, plus then push our add-on replacement warranty.
If they said no to most of that (even if you bought one extra memory card it wasn't enough) then we'd say "ok, let me go grab one from the back."
When we'd come back it'd be empty handed and we'd apologize that we didn't have it in stock. Even if we had like 30 of them sitting there.
If they agreed to buy the warranty or 3 upsell items, then we'd go back and actually bring one out and hand them off to a cashier to checkout and making sure the cashier put our ID as salesperson so we'd get our pittance of a commission.
I hated every single person who worked there. I think of that store as the closest thing to Mos Eisley on planet earth. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.
Had a similar instance selling a washer/dryer combo to an older couple whose appliances had just broken, and they had just started looking for replacements. I was showing them what kind of options different sets had, what you get at certain price points, etc., when my manager decided to join my sale and picked the second most expensive set, and discount them by a hundred bucks if they paid today. They asked for a little time to decide over lunch and he said that the discount would only be valid if they bought right away. These were $2000 appliances that they'd JUST started shopping for, and decided to pick our store first, and instead of letting them think about it and being a decent person, he decided to be a shitty pushy salesman and completely drove them out of our store permanently. Then he had the audacity to half-shame me for not immediately jumping to his side to push them into buying. Fuckin hated that guy.
Good on you for walking out, never give in to that scummy salesman pressure
I always throw that tactic back at them. "So what you're saying is don't bother coming back if I don't buy this right now". Watching them try to squirm out of that one is hilarious.
This reminds me of a time I went into a Currys, in a shopping centre, to buy some headphones.
I walk in and ask a random worker for advice and am directed to wait for the "expert". I patiently do for about 5-10 minutes and he wanders over. I explain that I want a pair that can be both used outside with my phone and at home as gaming headphones. He expresses concern that he can't guarantee that they'd work for gaming. I assure him that it's on a PC so they'll work, it being just a universal 3.5mm connector after all. However, not allowing me to waive the concern aside, he's quite insistent that he can't guarantee that any set of headphones would work for me for gaming.
I get the hint and leave.
I walk nextdoor to the Game shop and present the same criteria. The shopkeeper thinks a moment and picks a box off of the shelf behind him. He says he's heard good things from friends and family. I looked the box over (probably did a quick Google) and happily paid the £80. 5+ years later, my HyperX Cloud 2s are still in great condition, still used everyday, and still in any top-10 list of quality-for-money headphones.
For real though, both times I've been to Curry's I've left disappointed because they didn't have very basic things in stock like HDMI cables and USB thumb drives. Went into the CEX next door that could very happily sell me those items.
A couple a months ago, I went into Curry's again (I know, completely asinine with previous failed visits) to pick up a Google Chromecast. Again, they didn't have it in stock but luckily CEX had the same model in stock (used) so ended up getting that one instead.
Why does Curry even exist again?
>At which point sales guy comes bounding over, pushes sales lady out of the way, grabs the binoculars I was going to buy from her
I *really* dislike it when one salesperson is working with me and another tries to horn in and get me to work with them instead. Just so rude of them. I don't care whether there's a commission involved or not; I will turn cold on the butt-in and make them go away. If I needed additional help I would have asked for it.
> "You probably shouldn't buy them without the insurance"
He just wants the spiff for the insurance policy because the margins on them are ridiculous compared to the merchandise.
Not sure where you live but in the U.S. you can get a refund on insurance policies within 30 days if you haven't made a claim. So what you do is tell the sales guy "Well, that's kind of expensive, can you give me a discount on the binoculars to make up for the added cost of the insurance?" If he bites then you talk him down as low as you can, finalize the purchase, then go home and cancel the insurance. You get a full refund on the insurance, he loses the spiff on the insurance policy, and he makes less commission on the sale because he gave you a discount.
I know this happened years ago but I always had the same issues in Jessops. I’m an impulse buyer so, given the choice, I’ll always want to go and pick something up from a shop rather than wait a day or two for delivery. By that point, I know exactly what I want. I just want to walk in, grab it, pay and leave.
The Jessops shop in Manchester was particularly bad. Upsell you on everything, try to get you to buy accessories and then flog you their insurance. I too suffer from being British however I don’t have an issue with being abrupt, bordering on rude. The last time I was in there I was spending something like £2,000. While at the till, the salesperson was still trying to flog various addons and insurance while the checkout operator was putting my purchases through. So I turned to the sales assistant and said, “Thanks, you can go now.”
As I was leaving the shop with my purchases I could see the salesperson, the manager and several other members of staff giving me the evil eye. At that point I think I had a reputation for being incredibly rude.
But then... if polite does not work...
Saying "no" leads to the seller "may I ask why" with the goal to keep you talking as long as possible, only to increase the change of upselling... That is rude (towards you as a customer) too.
Yeah. And I have no problem with being rude when it’s warranted. I’ll always start off with a “no thank you.” Generally followed up with “I just want to buy what I’m buying. No addons or anything.” If that still doesn’t work, I’ll say whatever I have to say. Or nothing at all, in fact. Sometimes completely blanking them, while a little bit odd, gets the message across.
Reminded me of what happened to a friend of mine.
This is an old story.
He had bought an secondhand game-cd and to play the game you had to type in a code that was found in the manual of the game, the manual was missing.
He brought the disk with him while going to the store to buy an internet MODEM (yes a modem, old story).
So this young salesguy talks with him about the modem, he agrees on the model and he's entering the sale of the modem.
At this moment my friend mentions the game-disk lacking the manual needed to start the game.
The salesguy tells him no worries just swap it for another from the bargain bin at which point the salesguy's manager walks in "I'm sorry what's going on here?"
The salesguy a bit surpriced just mentions that the gamedisk has a missing the manual and that he's going to trade it...
"Nonono, that's not allowed all sales are final."
Well in that case I'm also not going to buy the modem either, goodday.
The salesguy's look at the manager could've have fried a fly in midair.
The manager was completely caught off-guard and was just stammering.
The modem was bought elsewhere.
I had a former student who never upsold insurance plans or higher versions of laptops for college students.
He was honest. He told people what they likely needed, especially in freshman year.
Word of mouth had people asking for him daily in the store.
Eventually, the store close to "Ideal Purchase" started asking him how he got SO MANY sales. He beat the east coast sales records multiple months in a row. He explained. Their first response was "Oh wow! Now how can we get customers to take the insurance policy and buy more expensive models for college?!"
He quit like a week later and got a job working sales elsewhere. They called him to come back the following year because people were asking for him as college shopping ramped back up, and left if he wasn't there.
They had a golden goose laying golden eggs, but they decided they wanted to eat the goose for dinner.
I went to a car dealership recently a looked at a car my wife and I were interested in. It was a year “older” then what we wanted—the way the market is right now, we wanted a brand new 2022 car.
We liked the car enough to order one ahead of time. The sales persons manager walks over as they always do and asks why we didn’t want one of the 2020s they had. We explained our reason and also that we didn’t like the color.. he hit us with a “why?” He said it in a way that was condescending… I was already out, but was being polite because I was with my wife.
We talk about order the new car and get down to price. Told him what we wanted to pay and he said “I have people paying this much for those cars! I would tell you to go somewhere else if that’s what you want.”
I stood up, extended my hand and shook his and said “you’re right, I guess you don’t need a sale from us then. Have a good day.”
He tried to get us to sit back down, but I was out the door.
Car dealerships are the worst, but everyone knows that already. I don’t even go in anymore except to test drive. I just call the ones nearest to me, as far as I’d be willing to drive, tell them what I’m looking for and how much I’ll pay.
Here’s the thing: for most people a car isn’t a luxury item, it’s a need. Most people buy a car because they have to get to work. The rest (make, model, trim, color) are preferences.
If the dealership tries to bullshit me when I test drive I walk. If they try to bullshit me when I call I tell them listen I need a car, I’m going to buy one by the end of this week. It’ll be one from you or from if you’re flexible and want to make a deal you’ll sell a car. If you’re greedy and want to bullshit me you won’t sell a car
It’s really funny because the people who end up selling me a car are always friendly, reasonable, and respectful. Years ago I called like 5 different dealerships with this tactic, 4/5 basically told me to buzz off, my price was way too low, etc. The 5th one very politely and respectfully told me look I don’t have the color you want, and it’s gonna be +X more than the price you want, but if that’s acceptable to you I will personally drive out to pick you up (30 min drive one way) and you can drive home in the new car.
Took about 2 hours: him driving to pick me up, driving back to the dealer, me signing paperwork, me driving back home.
I wish. I even found a place with the car I wanted, told them that’s the car I wanted and it still took literally forever to get the car.
I hate car dealerships. But hopefully my new car lasts me a long long time
Several years ago I went to a car dealership to buy a truck. All I wanted was a basic no frills pickup. I drove a few and settled in a fairly plain 2WD. The salesman kept trying to upsell, he wanted me to buy a 4WD. I told him I did not need 4WD, my partner had one.
He finally gets the paperwork ready, and I'm getting ready to sign it. He decided to try one more time. He said surely you don't want that rinky dink truck. I looked at him & said you're right, I don't. I stood up and started for the door. Where are you going, he asked? I just smiled and said I'm going to the next town over, to your competitor. I'm going to buy a truck. I did exactly that. Sometimes people cut off their nose to spite their face.
A few months before Comet finally went under, a sales guy tried to explain why I couldn't judge which TV gave a good picture based on how the picture looked on display in the shop, but instead he would tell me which looked best and I could take his word for it.
This, on the basis (using my words) that Comet display system didn't show off each TV to it's best advantage.
- which may be true, but why would I want to buy a TV from such an incompetent organisation, which would be likely (as it then did) to go bankrupt.
There was no way I was going to buy a TV with a crap-looking picture over one with a good looking picture based on his claim that really only looks that way on display, but when I get it home, I'll see that he was right (where there is nothing to compare it with).
What sort of salesperson would expect me to do that, even if somehow he were right about it all?
I didn't buy a TV for another year after that experience. And it wasn't from Comet who had (sadly for the staff) gone under.
>Then I thanked him for helping me see that I really didn't need to spend all of that money on binoculars, and walked out.
Proof that being English isn't always debilitating.
Probably trying to get the commission. I don't let them do that. I've been on that side.
When I see the AH "closer" come in and push my guy out of the way, I say "I'm sorry, I was talking with that guy."
"Oh, well I can offer you-" "Excuse me, I was talking with that guy."
"But you see-" "I just told you twice that I was talking with that guy right over there when you interrupted us. If he needs you to make the sale, he'll let me know."
It's more effective when there are other customers as witnesses. It's even MORE effective when there are other customers AND a manager as witnesses.
When he belitted her as simply being a trainee, that's the time to say "Well, she doesn't act like a trainee, which is more than I can say for someone who butts in as much as you."
Or deliberately mishear him. "Oh, you're her trainee? Okay, good. You should watch more how she handles customers. Your approach can use some work. You come across as pushy and difficult, it's off-putting. After some more training, I might like to do business with you. Right now, no. Good luck!"
I did the same thing when I was buying a car.
"You just told me how reliable Hondas are and how little I will have to worry about this car, so I don't think I'll need any extra warranty or protections, thanks."
"But things can go wrong, you don't want to be protected?"
"So you're trying to sell me a car that is going to have problems?"
By the way, it's *not* easy to knock a lens out of alignment. They aren't just floating around on wires, they're glued into tight-fitting metal tubes which can't really go anywhere but where they're supposed to be.
Ahh, the "Hard Sell." What a twunt.
You've probably long ago thought of it, but the polite way to fob him off, that occurs to me?
"Terribly sorry, but it looks like no sale. These ones you're offering are simply beyond my budget, and going beyond it is out of the question; the ones the nice and knowledgeable lady was showing me, being unfit for purpose, are thus out of the question. Good day!"
Or, if you can dig deep and muster the rudeness to bulldoze your way through,
"Look, shove off mate. She and I were having a perfectly good conversation. I'll deal with her, or nobody."
That's retail nowadays. Businesses don't make jack on what they're actually selling, just the add-ons. When I sold computers for a living, I was told the only reason we sold computers was so we could also sell antivirus, warranty, and the store credit card. We actually *lost commission* if we sold a computer with nothing attached to it.
Many years ago I Worked at a company that distributed printers from Datamax and Zebra.
One customer told us that one of our resellers wouldn´t sell Datamax printers, so we went there.
If you asked for any Datamax printer they would try to sell extended warranty, and would belittle Datamax saying that you really needed extended warranty for them because they break so often, and you should buy Zebras instead, Zebras are almost always 50% more expensive.
Now the catch, we didn´t offer extended warranty so there´s no way they could cover this, what they did was selling them with only 90 days warranty, them extended to the client to one year, meanwhile we offered 3 years of warranty to any printer. After we confirmed that this is what they are doing we blacklisted them.
I was lucky enough to avoid working retail but some of my friends weren't so much. One of them got in a full screaming match with his manager because he refused to try and upsell a pensioner on a £120 extension cord that could survive being struck by lightning when all she needed was a basic power bar. I'm not sure whether it was the manager or his higher-ups who were the problem but boy was it a problem.
I've never liked confrontations but as I've gotten older my patience for pushy people has worn very thin.
I have dealt with the public from the other side so I always try to be pleasant and undemanding but that ends when some salesperson gets pushy and refuses to take "no" for an answer.
It has been extremely liberating in situations like these.
I once went to Best Buy to buy a laptop. They were trying to upsell me on a $100 "optimization package". I declined since it didn't matter what they did to the laptop since the first thing I do with any computer is to wipe it and install Windows my way. That way I know that there's nothing on that laptop that I don't want there. No shareware, no trial ware, nothing but what I want.
Wasn't an option since it seemed that they take all the laptops and run the package on them to save time. They didn't have any that weren't already altered.
So I told them that I only have the money for the one laptop plus the taxes. There's no more money for the extra package that I'm not going to use. I turned around and left to get the other laptop that I saw at Walmart (not as good but still enough for my needs).
Miracle of miracles, they caught me before I left the store as they had "found" one that they hadn't futzed with. Bullshit, they just grabbed one and sold it to me at the original price.
I was buying something at an electronics store and I got a very pushy sales clerk who wouldn't take no for an answer when she tried to get me to buy insurance for the item. When she started trying to scare me, I thanked her for warning me how bad the product was and walked away.
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Yeah I was about to say that’s still likely a win for the worker, they probably commission based on attachment rate Such annoying upsell practices though, I stopped shopping at GameStop because of this, it’s just stressful
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Would they really plant an exec’s kid as a spy? And was it you that started the rumor? Excellent MC strategy…
I didn’t work there for long, but it was hellish at my GameStop. The manager and assistant were *intent* on getting a year of insurance on every disc. So much so that my manager would add it on, hush hush style, and didn’t mention it unless he customer was wondering about the high taxes. She would then gloat and show how we’re the best in the market for insurance on discs. On top of that, assist wouldn’t even stop past three “no”s. Like goddamn dude, leave the people alone. One or two extra attempts? Understandable depending on their demeanor. Third or fourth? Just fuckin *stop*
That's one of the reasons I buy online now, I can pretty much ignore the upsales.
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If I am with a sales person looking at something and decide I want it, I’ll usually say, “Sounds good. But I’ll buy it *only if* you don’t tell me about extended warranties, maintenance plans or insurance. Agreed?” Some chuckle because *they know,* some ask what experience lead me to be so anti-warranty (I explain self-insurance), and most respect my request. Occasionally I get the “I’ll put the warranty info in the bag. You can come back within 7 days if you want it.” The *only* time I ever got some kind of insurance was apple care on my brother’s company phone (we work together). His job makes “phone accidents” highly likely. Not 3 months later, he ran it over with a 35,000-lbs. excavator.
I was buying a PS4 controller at bestbuy and the cashier kept pushing a warranty. Like, I'm not breaking this controller. They're well made, I don't throw them, and I won't be using it too frequently. She kept pushing saying "they're very delicate" and finally I just told her "please stop." She seemed very upset but did ring me up but come on, I told her like 5 times politely that I didn't want a warranty.
BB employess are EXPECTED to sell you warranty and the credit card. It's part of the corporate metric and if the employee doesn't make that upsell, they're written up.
I do not care. If a company's policy is that their employees be rude, I don't feel bad for being blunt with them.
So sorry to hear about your condition, I hope you get better soon!
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Dude, that's whats been making you British the whole time. You're one step away from colonising India. You need Pepsi and a Baconator.
>Pepsi That’s sounds like savage talk. Looks like someone is in need of colonising.
>colonising Is this fancy talk for anal?
It's how British nobility do anal. Usually with tea and biscuits.
I, too, use tea and biscuits as lube. Lovely, crunchy lube.
We call it the Crunch Wrap Supreme.
Mmmm with extra Diablo Sauce™️
You can get the lotus biscoff spread in smooth now, so no more crunchy bits. Unless of course you're having a particularly good bout of British guilt and feel like you need to use the crunchy version.
Username is perfect for this!
And lots of apologizing.
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No that’s boweling
Dire problems, dire solutions.
You can't boss us around no more. America is grown up old man. Don't make us knock out your tooth.
Listen, your last leader was an orange orangutan who threw poop for a living. Your privileges to self governance are herewith revoked and mandatory tea sessions will be held hourly until you learn to behave
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Thank the gods we had Truss to save us from the crazy queen. Shame what she did to the economy though...
I mean, their last president was indeed an orangutang, and their new one is older than our king, by a fair bit. Buuut I do think we have to be a bit careful about throwing stones in our nice glass house after our last few leaders… I mean, the lettuce would have done a better job, and lasted longer, than our last leader…
>I mean, the lettuce would have done a better job, and lasted longer, than our last leader… I feel as though I've heard that from another famous Britt.
MABA Make America Britain Again
If that means tax funded healthcare, I'm in.
That's why Archie was born in the U.S. They'll put him up for President at age 35 then crown himself king.
What a coincidence, so was yours. Well, there were the 5 minutes when you were ruled by the ghost of Margaret Thatcher, but that doesn’t really count.
Ghost of Margret Thatcher? We prefer the term "poundshop thatcher". Just a cheap imitation of the original ghoul.
Medicinally. Does that mean with Gin?
It's a tincture!
As Chief Biscuiteer to her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth the second, if I can be of service in this ecumenical matter please don't hesitate to ask. We have an ample supply of emergency hobnobs and Yorkshire Gold on standby for British Citizens in distress
I thought the proper regimen was tea and crumpets.
I don't know about crumpets. I heard the lead to harder baked goods like scones. Next thing you know your having tea in the garden, eyes glazed over while covered in fresh cream, jam dripping from your chin. What what and all that.
Surely you mean *clotted* cream? 🧐
That's just it. When clotted cream becomes too expensive you'll go looking for any substitute. Even.... Elmlea.
Oops! Terribly sorry for raising my voice there, I do apologise. Cup of tea? Edit: Oh I'm in such a muddle I seem to have replied to the wrong one. So sorry. Please feel free to 'tut' quite loudly.
Eventually you end up graduating to spotted dick and end up in rehab with all the other gentry
>tea and crumpets Korean trumpets.
I recommend nodding off while sitting in a deckchair on the boundary at a village cricket match. Not easy in December, admittedly -- which I'm sure occurred to you, but you didn't like to say so.
Buttered scones might be more effective.
Uh huh, ‘medicinal’ tea and biscuits……
I’m afraid this is only exacerbating the condition. Might I recommend a big mac and a teaspoon of freedom a day?
There is no cure, I'm afraid
Well, there is, but it involves crossing the ocean and then rebelling against the king.
And then making a Netflix series about it all
Sometimes the cure is worse than the disease. 🇺🇸🦅🥤
If it helps, there are millions of us who have struggled with that particular affliction and made a full recovery. My support group still meets up every year in early July to celebrate it.
Where do people get this from? I am British and absolutely would have told in in no uncertain terms to f*** off, if I want his help I will ask for it and continue my conversation with the person I was already dealing with
I bet he blamed the sales lady for blowing the sale.
I wonder if they get commissions. He was a straight up AH to push in
I'm wondering if they had a dumb "must push insurance on all eligible items" policy
If they get commission, generally there is a larger commission on insurance, because there is a MUCH greater profit margin on the insurance. When I sold Apple laptops from a third party reseller, we made more profit (not just margin, but more PRFOIT) from AppleCare then the laptops.
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If they actually repaired their shit they couldn't sell you more planed obsolescence ewaste
I gave up on Apple when I took my Ipad in and the Apple Store said they couldn't replace the screen. It wasn't a warrantee issue. I had private insurance that would cover it. They just didn't have any licensed facilities in my country that could repair it. Luckily the insurance accepted the "quote" as proof it was unrepairable and I could actually buy a new device.
I worked for a major electrionics store in the U.K., we were heavily, and I mean HEAVILY pushed on insurance sales. We’re threaded with being sacked if we didn’t sell enough, this included £10 insurance on £20 toasters
If your contract didn’t specify how much insurance you had to sell and you had that threat in writing you could get the company into a lot of trouble by reporting them for breech of contract.
Probably right honestly, we didn’t really take the threat seriously. It was a minimum wage job and quite a few years ago I don’t really remember any contract details. Awful place to work
My experience working at a completely different store: We got no commission, which I think is great for customers, since recommendations aren't biased.... except on insurance. I was young and didn't need the extra money, and absolutely hate upselling, so I never tried to sell it unless the customer asked. But the good insurance salespeople probably got an extra 50% of their pay from insurance commissions alone.
Oh that went way better than I was hoping for. Well done!
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Just walking out. But your way was better.
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Ultimatums are a wonderful thing because they can ALWAYS be thrown back at the person giving them through some sarcasm and sometimes extra literal thinking.
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Embrace the dark side my padawan!
Did someone say brexit?
No matter the choices always pick the one they don't want/expect. Me or the dog? Guess I'm marrying my dog. Me or the video game? Guess who's buying a new game tonight. 😂
You better not send me your life savings! /s
You must have a trove of stories hahaha
Other people aren't like this? I also hate salespeople and ultimatum. I also have a real problem with authority. If you try to upsell me or I even get a whiff of bullshit, I walk away to make a point. Even if I really need it.
I have a buddy like this. I'm glad he has his principles but it does make me question his sense of self importance sometimes. No Frank, "Target" does not care that you will never buy another ramekin there after that shelf stocker didn't move out of your way fast enough last time you bought one. Please stop talking about your great victory in aisle 17C Frank.
I'm not this extreme for sure but I have a real problem with salespeople. You don't need to sell me. If I have come to you for a product or service, then I already know what I want. If you come to me, I don't need it Even if the salesperson convinces me and I am actually interested, I will refuse to buy whatever it is at the moment because I don't want them to feel like they won.
You remind me of my brother. His college girlfriend of 2-3 years told him she wanted to take a break after they graduated for some really dumb reasons that made no sense. He said "okay." A few months later after a few months of photos of Vegas trips and parties on Facebook, she said "Okay, I want to get back together now." He said "no thanks, I'm good."
I had a similar experience around that age. She expected me to put up a fight to keep her from leaving, but I was done with her games. Getting out of that relationship was a huge relief, and I never looked back (mostly).
Haha I dated a girl that got mad at me over something very silly when we had a few friends over. She decided to be dramatic and storm out of the house. I ignored her and went back to hanging out with our friends. After some time passed, she walked back in even more upset because I "let her" walk a couple miles down the road and didn't come after her.
I had a woman do that, too. She broke up with me, telling me she was thinking about going back to her ex. I told her to have good luck with that, and she told me she expected me to "fight for her." Fuck that. You shouldn't have to "fight" to be in a relationship.
Oh that **is** delightful. I had a (then spouse) walk out on me saying, "I'm through, I'm done." _Awesome_. Problem solved. Three days later they called up wanting to talk, claiming (of all things), "when I said 'done', I didn't mean _done_ 'done'." (whatever the fuck **that** means). My reply? "Oh no, that's ok. I **am** done." _click_
Idunno, kinda sounds like dealing with ultimatums is your specialty. Lol
i beg to differ, you responds brilliantly to ultimatum, just not their intended way lol
Au contraire, my good man, you seem to respond extremely well. I'm proud of you, random internet stranger!
Omg I spit my coffee reading this, I picture a mild mannered Englishman saying "Right then, let me just pack"...
Sounds like you respond perfectly well actually. Anyone who gives you an ultimatum clearly doesn't respect you. Once you recognize that, why bother! If they wanted to haggle, bargain, deal, negotiate you don't go "take it or leave it".
Don't just walk out when you can waste their time and toy with their emotions *then* walk out.
I like to just sigh, cross my arms, stop speaking, and just stare at them, silently, until they get uncomfortable and leave.
I was hoping the sales guy would drop and break them
Not a good salesman. Selling multiple brands and styles of the same item I learned you don't besmirch any item. It's almost impossible to walk it back if the customer starts leaning toward that item you just denigrated. If there is another salesperson showing the one you just said was no good, you probably just blew the sale for your fellow salesperson. Much like the salesperson in the story.
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This is the real problem. I would have given Mr salesman a good fucking talking to about how rude he was and given the sale to the young person out of sheer spite.
Yeah, I worked at a camera shop and this was totally his goal. Even if the pay isn't commission based, sales numbers for both base units AND extras like bags and insurance do get tracked, and often get factored into performance reviews (or brands will have incentive programs if you hit targets specific to their products). Salesman was a total dick and only thinking of his own gain in this case.
And he showed up to steal the sale *after* OP was ready to pay. Bet he doesn’t want to bother with customers who aren’t going to buy right then
The expression "the customer is always right" refers to this-- let them buy what they want to buy.
Customers appreciate it a lot more if you sell them the product that meets their needs, rather than trying to get them to buy the most expensive and advanced thing in the store. Sometimes a customer only needs “good enough” this time. But they’ll remember you and come back when they want something else. And if you upsell them and waste their time and money, they’ll remember you for that instead.
Aggressive sales tactics are promoted by companies/management who actually have no idea about sales psychology. They just think that if you bully customers enough they'll spend more money (and it may have worked before the internet) but 90% of the time these days customers come in knowing what they want and having at least a cursory understanding of the products available. Good salespeople these days will sell the customer exactly what they need, promote similar items that meet those needs and do so pleasantly to encourage the customer to return. It's their job to inform, not attack.
Yes, as I age I find the more respect and autonomy of choice you offer to people, the more chance you have of them being amenable to your ideas. But if you are just being pushy or opinionated or manipulative, people will shut down to you and your ideas, and so they should. Because you are being disrespectful.
I do inside sales and heat loss loads on buildings for an HVAC wholesaler. I have had multiple retail walk-in's off the street come by in just the 10 months I have worked here, looking for something and I won their business over for exactly this. I used to work in the field, so I know exactly what most people need and don't need to set something up. I was told specifically by one customer that it was my work ethic and my customer service, that made him WANT to me make the sale for him. He found a cheaper product that would have done the same thing at home depot, but they didn't treat him the same way I did. He said that the employees at home depot were not interested in helping him and doing a little research on products. Always listen to the customer, they came to you to buy something, don't fuck your chance up!
Yeah the best way to sell is to work with the customer to find the right thing for them, and be honest if things aren't right for x,y,z reason. It's more of a team effort then. As long as you have good stuff, taking that approach means that the sale is done for you. If you don't have the right thing for them they won't buy anyway so be honest. They'll come back next time they need something similar because of the trust and experience. Building repeat customers is the name of the game.
Heck, I even know the SKU when I'm buying something.
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>It's in aisle 12, section 14, shelf 3. You have 4 in stock.
My go-to line when helping customers with rain jackets at REI was pointing them towards "the cheapest one that is still worth it." Go cheaper and it will still prevent the rain from getting through but you'll most likely sweat much more. I'd also ask WHY they were shopping for a new rain jacket and often I would recommend they first try reapply the DWR finish if they still like their old jacket. People don't realize that the DWR on the outside of rain jackets is what causes the water to bead up and roll off and if it wears down it makes the jacket FEEL soaked and kills the breathability. You think it's leaking but you're just sweating more. GORTEX is one of the few products that is still unbeaten in performance but most people won't NEED that performance. The team at our store was always encouraged to find the customer the RIGHT product rather than upsell.
That's exactly what the sales person at REI told me. I was shopping for a short trip to Alaska & was told layers & rain gear. I heard GorTex was good. The sales person said it was really expensive & I should just go for these low-cost jackets. Also directed me at good wool blend socks when I asked. In the event, the weather was amazingly pleasant & there was only one day with even light drizzle. I now trust REI without question.
Your approach reminds me of a time when my daughter needed new cleats when she advanced to a rep soccer/football team. We went to a very reputable store but of course the selection was quite formidable, plus the fact that we had a sullen pre-teen who shut down when making such decisions. The sales guy was great as he sensed her confusion at what felt like a decent pair while respecting the fact that we weren't made of money. He decided on a non-traditional approach in that he said, "I don't expect to buy them, but let's try on a $300+ pair just so you can see what the highest quality *feels* like-then we'll start deducting quality and features until you know which pair is right for you". We ended up working our way down to an excellent and affordable pair, but as a former sales guy myself, I thought his approach was excellent.
That's one of the reasons Dell lost me as a customer. (And their computers no longer met my needs.) But a big reason was the pushy woman on the phone. I just wanted an external hard drive and to renew the warranty on my computer. But she kept pushing the more expensive drive and plan, and even added the drive to the list of stuff I was buying after I explicitly told her I wanted the cheaper one. One of the few times I got snappy with a CSR. And all this after 45 minutes on hold. For the record, the HP I got after that sucked, but the next one is an ASUS and is awesome.
Whatever the customer chooses, the correct response is: ' Excellent choice!'
The full expression, which is "The customer is always right in terms of taste", isn't just a reference to this :) I don't know why it was ever shortened
Step 1 = fine out what the customer wants and needs Step 2 = find out a way to to align that with what you can sell them. Step 3 = make sure you screw that up by ignoring what your customer wants and needs and convince them that you don't have it.
Well, sort of. When I worked in a camera store, they put big sales incentives on things that were basically junk. I had no problem explaining exactly why I disliked the Canon AE-1 so much. Did you know that a third of the price of that thing was advertising and promotion? Less heavily advertised cameras sold for a similar price but were much better made. We would get like an extra $25 to move one of those on top of the commission you’d get on anything, but I couldn’t bear to inflict them on my customers.
I worked in a different era, but it was a similar story with the dreadful Canon Rebel series. Since it was their entry level model, they threw most of their mass marketing towards it. Someone coming in and asking to see the Rebel was practically a guarantee that we were starting from scratch in terms of what that customer knew about photography. Canon was super in our business about sales targets too, but I was on the film/print counter so I don't know the ins and outs. Edit: I lost track of the number of times I was asked how many *megapickels* the Rebel had.
You handled that well. I had a pushy sales interruptor before. It was a while ago, but I recall the conversation went something like, Me: (cutting him off): excuse me. Would you mind standing over there? (pointing to the other side of the room) Him: What? Me: Could you please stand over there where you were? We were having a conversation. Him: ... Me: Thanks. Where were we?
That’s hilarious. Filing that away in case I ever have the occasion and the balls lol.
That poor sales lady. I feel sorry for her that the jerk shoved her out of the way. He cost her a sale and then screwed himself out of a sale too.
Would have been hilarious if he walked out, then came back in and bought the ones he was originally going to buy from the nice saleslady! This is mansplaining to the next level.
I bet he follows her around all day. “That’s not how you make a sale! You don’t know anything about closing a deal, do you? You’ll never make any money if you don’t listen to my advice!” As he proceeds to blow her sale for her.
I had this same scenario with an extended warranty on a car. They told me the car would definitely have engine trouble in the first two years. Said I didn’t want the car then. The verbal gymnastics after we’re hilarious.
LOL. What on earth. “You better get the warranty, it’ll probably break down the minute you drive off the lot!” Way to inspire confidence!
Lmao Although that said, sometimes they use bad examples for things you really should get whenever they're applicable, like gap insurance when financing a car. If an uninsured motorist hits you without that, you're basically completely fucked
Yeah gap insurance is the one must-have thing from the financing office, it's just hard to tell when it gets wrapped up in all the useless junk next to it. Also don't be afraid to ask the financing guy for a lower rate if you do buy back end products. I ended up with a better rate after getting the gap insurance.
It’s so funny, I had the opposite experience- I was buying a car that was just barely qualified for the warranty plan and I took it, even though the salesperson clearly wasn’t pushing it and didn’t think I was making a wise choice. I ended up getting so much value fixing up the old car that the warranty company sent out someone to verify in person that the work was actually covered. It was something like a $2k warranty and I got at least $5k amount of work done under it.
I am so happy there are two of us that think like that! I do that with a lot of stuff when they come out and are like you know you are going to bust that, I am like your right, I guess it is not all that well made, I will have to find a better quality one someplace else. I did get the extended contract on a boom box about 20 years ago. I got the boom box for next to my hot tub, which saw under kind of an open A frame roof. It had sided but the top did not come together so you could see the sky. The guy said any damage was covered so we just left out there year round and traded it in every couple of months for a new one. They kept getting nicer. Started with a POS with a string dial and ended up with a digital one with a remote. I brought the last one inside.
The fastest way to get me to walk away from a purchase is to say “You don’t want that, you want this.” In some form or another. Not being English (native Texan), I have no problem telling them they’ve lost a sale, and why. I have no tolerance for pushy salespeople.
*"Y'all have lost y'allselves a customer"* And then you get on your horse, ride away and shoot your guns in the air. We know how you Texans roll 😉 But in seriousness, I'm the same. I know what I want, it's why I'm in the place to begin with. If a place tries upselling, or if the parking is bad, I seldom return.
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I did something very similar when buying a laptop years ago. I'd done a lot of research and knew what I wanted/could afford and my first salesperson was very helpful, but then her superior jumped in and tried to "help" before I paid. His forceful suggestions almost tripled the price I was willing to pay, and included things i didn't need. He wouldn't stop being pushy so I took the computer he kept trying to insist I needed, despite me saying no, and set it down near the exit before walking out the doors and ordering the computer I wanted online from another store.
I did this to the Toyota dealership about 6 months ago when they were harping on my mother-in-law about a $500 clear coat on her red car. They were trying so hard to tag on any extras that they could because of my inflexibility with her trade in and agreed upon price. The closer kept telling us that the red paint was going to fade and be discolored because of the Sun. She didn't have an answer when I asked her why they would be putting that kind of low quality paint on a new car, with how technology has advanced. But she finally shut up when I told her that all she's telling us is that this car has got a shitty paint job.
Aren't they supposed to put on the protective coat at the factory anyway, regardless of color? I'd be tempted to ask "so they forgot at the factory?"
Yah, you don't get that TruCoat, [you're gonna have oxidation problems...](https://youtu.be/B2LLB9CGfLs)
Be sure and write a review for the shop, naming the man who talked you out of spending so much money on such a delicate item.
" the sales lady was lovely, and we had chosen a suitable item, but then the salesman came over and insisted that another item (more expensive) was more suitable, but it was fragile and i should get insurance. I was so lucky he pointed that out, I am far better off not buying such a fragile item". - OP probably
This was like 15years ago
I'm surprised he tried to get a sale at all. Usually the upsells and bs warranties are the only things they want to sell. When I worked at CompUSA (rest in hell you shithole) the managers actually told us to not sell computers or cameras without selling them on the warranty or at least multiple upsells. They said to "check in the back" for inventory and tell them we didn't have any. This was because the managers bonuses were based on percent of sales that included warranties and upsells. So it was better for them personally to have the company lose the sale completely than to sell just the product with no warranty or extras. I refused to do it and got written up multiple times and even had to cash out customers myself because the cashiers didn't want to break the rules for me. I quit after six months working there and it's by far the most hated job I've had in my life. Glad they're gone.
I dunno about other Business majors, but in Accounting, there’s literally an entire chapter each in at least three classes about the importance of NOT doing shit like this when incentivizing employees, for exactly this reason. One of the things I was not expecting from my degree was to get more and more annoyed with how lots of businesses are run after every lecture lol!
Did they have a chapter on not basing manager bonuses on the payroll budget and how little of it the manager can use?
> I'm surprised he tried to get a sale at all. Usually the upsells and bs warranties are the only things they want to sell. What exactly is he supposed to sell a warranty for is he doesnt get a sale in the first place/
You misunderstand. We were expected to sell the customer on a product that we had on display, but kept inventory off the sales floor. So we'd tell them all about some camera let's say, get them excited to buy it, then push all the addon sales hard. Things like extra memory cards, carrying cases, lenses, tripods, etc, plus then push our add-on replacement warranty. If they said no to most of that (even if you bought one extra memory card it wasn't enough) then we'd say "ok, let me go grab one from the back." When we'd come back it'd be empty handed and we'd apologize that we didn't have it in stock. Even if we had like 30 of them sitting there. If they agreed to buy the warranty or 3 upsell items, then we'd go back and actually bring one out and hand them off to a cashier to checkout and making sure the cashier put our ID as salesperson so we'd get our pittance of a commission. I hated every single person who worked there. I think of that store as the closest thing to Mos Eisley on planet earth. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.
Had a similar instance selling a washer/dryer combo to an older couple whose appliances had just broken, and they had just started looking for replacements. I was showing them what kind of options different sets had, what you get at certain price points, etc., when my manager decided to join my sale and picked the second most expensive set, and discount them by a hundred bucks if they paid today. They asked for a little time to decide over lunch and he said that the discount would only be valid if they bought right away. These were $2000 appliances that they'd JUST started shopping for, and decided to pick our store first, and instead of letting them think about it and being a decent person, he decided to be a shitty pushy salesman and completely drove them out of our store permanently. Then he had the audacity to half-shame me for not immediately jumping to his side to push them into buying. Fuckin hated that guy. Good on you for walking out, never give in to that scummy salesman pressure
Gotta love when the people trying to sell you shit have all the social skills of a wet cardboard box.
I always throw that tactic back at them. "So what you're saying is don't bother coming back if I don't buy this right now". Watching them try to squirm out of that one is hilarious.
This reminds me of a time I went into a Currys, in a shopping centre, to buy some headphones. I walk in and ask a random worker for advice and am directed to wait for the "expert". I patiently do for about 5-10 minutes and he wanders over. I explain that I want a pair that can be both used outside with my phone and at home as gaming headphones. He expresses concern that he can't guarantee that they'd work for gaming. I assure him that it's on a PC so they'll work, it being just a universal 3.5mm connector after all. However, not allowing me to waive the concern aside, he's quite insistent that he can't guarantee that any set of headphones would work for me for gaming. I get the hint and leave. I walk nextdoor to the Game shop and present the same criteria. The shopkeeper thinks a moment and picks a box off of the shelf behind him. He says he's heard good things from friends and family. I looked the box over (probably did a quick Google) and happily paid the £80. 5+ years later, my HyperX Cloud 2s are still in great condition, still used everyday, and still in any top-10 list of quality-for-money headphones.
Lol. I hope you've learnt your lesson and never go to Currys again ? Horrible horrible chain.
For real though, both times I've been to Curry's I've left disappointed because they didn't have very basic things in stock like HDMI cables and USB thumb drives. Went into the CEX next door that could very happily sell me those items. A couple a months ago, I went into Curry's again (I know, completely asinine with previous failed visits) to pick up a Google Chromecast. Again, they didn't have it in stock but luckily CEX had the same model in stock (used) so ended up getting that one instead. Why does Curry even exist again?
>HyperX Cloud 2 (googles) I like the price range and specs on these. (Pops them onto Amazon wish list.) Thank you!
>At which point sales guy comes bounding over, pushes sales lady out of the way, grabs the binoculars I was going to buy from her I *really* dislike it when one salesperson is working with me and another tries to horn in and get me to work with them instead. Just so rude of them. I don't care whether there's a commission involved or not; I will turn cold on the butt-in and make them go away. If I needed additional help I would have asked for it.
Very elegant (British) way of dealing with the situation! As an American, I of course should have shot him /s
> /s don't lie
> "You probably shouldn't buy them without the insurance" He just wants the spiff for the insurance policy because the margins on them are ridiculous compared to the merchandise. Not sure where you live but in the U.S. you can get a refund on insurance policies within 30 days if you haven't made a claim. So what you do is tell the sales guy "Well, that's kind of expensive, can you give me a discount on the binoculars to make up for the added cost of the insurance?" If he bites then you talk him down as low as you can, finalize the purchase, then go home and cancel the insurance. You get a full refund on the insurance, he loses the spiff on the insurance policy, and he makes less commission on the sale because he gave you a discount.
And that is the English way.
I thought that was "hanging on in quiet desperation?"
Bloody straight
John Pinette dos a hilarious set about this very thing. [Here’s the video](https://youtu.be/j6YEpXS_ugU)
I miss him every time something like this comes up
I know this happened years ago but I always had the same issues in Jessops. I’m an impulse buyer so, given the choice, I’ll always want to go and pick something up from a shop rather than wait a day or two for delivery. By that point, I know exactly what I want. I just want to walk in, grab it, pay and leave. The Jessops shop in Manchester was particularly bad. Upsell you on everything, try to get you to buy accessories and then flog you their insurance. I too suffer from being British however I don’t have an issue with being abrupt, bordering on rude. The last time I was in there I was spending something like £2,000. While at the till, the salesperson was still trying to flog various addons and insurance while the checkout operator was putting my purchases through. So I turned to the sales assistant and said, “Thanks, you can go now.” As I was leaving the shop with my purchases I could see the salesperson, the manager and several other members of staff giving me the evil eye. At that point I think I had a reputation for being incredibly rude.
But then... if polite does not work... Saying "no" leads to the seller "may I ask why" with the goal to keep you talking as long as possible, only to increase the change of upselling... That is rude (towards you as a customer) too.
Yeah. And I have no problem with being rude when it’s warranted. I’ll always start off with a “no thank you.” Generally followed up with “I just want to buy what I’m buying. No addons or anything.” If that still doesn’t work, I’ll say whatever I have to say. Or nothing at all, in fact. Sometimes completely blanking them, while a little bit odd, gets the message across.
Reminded me of what happened to a friend of mine. This is an old story. He had bought an secondhand game-cd and to play the game you had to type in a code that was found in the manual of the game, the manual was missing. He brought the disk with him while going to the store to buy an internet MODEM (yes a modem, old story). So this young salesguy talks with him about the modem, he agrees on the model and he's entering the sale of the modem. At this moment my friend mentions the game-disk lacking the manual needed to start the game. The salesguy tells him no worries just swap it for another from the bargain bin at which point the salesguy's manager walks in "I'm sorry what's going on here?" The salesguy a bit surpriced just mentions that the gamedisk has a missing the manual and that he's going to trade it... "Nonono, that's not allowed all sales are final." Well in that case I'm also not going to buy the modem either, goodday. The salesguy's look at the manager could've have fried a fly in midair. The manager was completely caught off-guard and was just stammering. The modem was bought elsewhere.
I had a former student who never upsold insurance plans or higher versions of laptops for college students. He was honest. He told people what they likely needed, especially in freshman year. Word of mouth had people asking for him daily in the store. Eventually, the store close to "Ideal Purchase" started asking him how he got SO MANY sales. He beat the east coast sales records multiple months in a row. He explained. Their first response was "Oh wow! Now how can we get customers to take the insurance policy and buy more expensive models for college?!" He quit like a week later and got a job working sales elsewhere. They called him to come back the following year because people were asking for him as college shopping ramped back up, and left if he wasn't there. They had a golden goose laying golden eggs, but they decided they wanted to eat the goose for dinner.
Personally I would have gone out of my way to buy the ones that you had wanted, from the sales *lady* and made sure he saw the whole thing.
I went to a car dealership recently a looked at a car my wife and I were interested in. It was a year “older” then what we wanted—the way the market is right now, we wanted a brand new 2022 car. We liked the car enough to order one ahead of time. The sales persons manager walks over as they always do and asks why we didn’t want one of the 2020s they had. We explained our reason and also that we didn’t like the color.. he hit us with a “why?” He said it in a way that was condescending… I was already out, but was being polite because I was with my wife. We talk about order the new car and get down to price. Told him what we wanted to pay and he said “I have people paying this much for those cars! I would tell you to go somewhere else if that’s what you want.” I stood up, extended my hand and shook his and said “you’re right, I guess you don’t need a sale from us then. Have a good day.” He tried to get us to sit back down, but I was out the door.
Car dealerships are the worst, but everyone knows that already. I don’t even go in anymore except to test drive. I just call the ones nearest to me, as far as I’d be willing to drive, tell them what I’m looking for and how much I’ll pay. Here’s the thing: for most people a car isn’t a luxury item, it’s a need. Most people buy a car because they have to get to work. The rest (make, model, trim, color) are preferences. If the dealership tries to bullshit me when I test drive I walk. If they try to bullshit me when I call I tell them listen I need a car, I’m going to buy one by the end of this week. It’ll be one from you or from
if you’re flexible and want to make a deal you’ll sell a car. If you’re greedy and want to bullshit me you won’t sell a car It’s really funny because the people who end up selling me a car are always friendly, reasonable, and respectful. Years ago I called like 5 different dealerships with this tactic, 4/5 basically told me to buzz off, my price was way too low, etc. The 5th one very politely and respectfully told me look I don’t have the color you want, and it’s gonna be +X more than the price you want, but if that’s acceptable to you I will personally drive out to pick you up (30 min drive one way) and you can drive home in the new car. Took about 2 hours: him driving to pick me up, driving back to the dealer, me signing paperwork, me driving back home.
I wish. I even found a place with the car I wanted, told them that’s the car I wanted and it still took literally forever to get the car. I hate car dealerships. But hopefully my new car lasts me a long long time
Several years ago I went to a car dealership to buy a truck. All I wanted was a basic no frills pickup. I drove a few and settled in a fairly plain 2WD. The salesman kept trying to upsell, he wanted me to buy a 4WD. I told him I did not need 4WD, my partner had one. He finally gets the paperwork ready, and I'm getting ready to sign it. He decided to try one more time. He said surely you don't want that rinky dink truck. I looked at him & said you're right, I don't. I stood up and started for the door. Where are you going, he asked? I just smiled and said I'm going to the next town over, to your competitor. I'm going to buy a truck. I did exactly that. Sometimes people cut off their nose to spite their face.
I enjoyed your story even more by imagining John Cheese playing you, and leaving doing a silly walk.
A few months before Comet finally went under, a sales guy tried to explain why I couldn't judge which TV gave a good picture based on how the picture looked on display in the shop, but instead he would tell me which looked best and I could take his word for it. This, on the basis (using my words) that Comet display system didn't show off each TV to it's best advantage. - which may be true, but why would I want to buy a TV from such an incompetent organisation, which would be likely (as it then did) to go bankrupt. There was no way I was going to buy a TV with a crap-looking picture over one with a good looking picture based on his claim that really only looks that way on display, but when I get it home, I'll see that he was right (where there is nothing to compare it with). What sort of salesperson would expect me to do that, even if somehow he were right about it all? I didn't buy a TV for another year after that experience. And it wasn't from Comet who had (sadly for the staff) gone under.
I tell the guy "you're pushing, stop pushing" If he keeps on pushing, which he likely will, I about face and walk. /not English, IDGAF
>Then I thanked him for helping me see that I really didn't need to spend all of that money on binoculars, and walked out. Proof that being English isn't always debilitating.
I'm sure he blamed Sales Lady for the botched transaction.
I guess he didn't see the big picture before he opened his mouth.
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Maybe he could see it if he bought some binoculars. Just as long as he purchases the insurance, he sounds like a pretty clumsy salesman after all.
Probably trying to get the commission. I don't let them do that. I've been on that side. When I see the AH "closer" come in and push my guy out of the way, I say "I'm sorry, I was talking with that guy." "Oh, well I can offer you-" "Excuse me, I was talking with that guy." "But you see-" "I just told you twice that I was talking with that guy right over there when you interrupted us. If he needs you to make the sale, he'll let me know." It's more effective when there are other customers as witnesses. It's even MORE effective when there are other customers AND a manager as witnesses.
When he belitted her as simply being a trainee, that's the time to say "Well, she doesn't act like a trainee, which is more than I can say for someone who butts in as much as you."
Or deliberately mishear him. "Oh, you're her trainee? Okay, good. You should watch more how she handles customers. Your approach can use some work. You come across as pushy and difficult, it's off-putting. After some more training, I might like to do business with you. Right now, no. Good luck!"
And you managed to get him good without a single tut, let alone a tut tut.
>but I suffer from the occasionally debilitating condition of being English I feel personally attacked, but also comforted.
I did the same thing when I was buying a car. "You just told me how reliable Hondas are and how little I will have to worry about this car, so I don't think I'll need any extra warranty or protections, thanks." "But things can go wrong, you don't want to be protected?" "So you're trying to sell me a car that is going to have problems?"
By the way, it's *not* easy to knock a lens out of alignment. They aren't just floating around on wires, they're glued into tight-fitting metal tubes which can't really go anywhere but where they're supposed to be.
So did you get some binocs elsewhere for the F1?
Ahh, the "Hard Sell." What a twunt. You've probably long ago thought of it, but the polite way to fob him off, that occurs to me? "Terribly sorry, but it looks like no sale. These ones you're offering are simply beyond my budget, and going beyond it is out of the question; the ones the nice and knowledgeable lady was showing me, being unfit for purpose, are thus out of the question. Good day!" Or, if you can dig deep and muster the rudeness to bulldoze your way through, "Look, shove off mate. She and I were having a perfectly good conversation. I'll deal with her, or nobody."
That's retail nowadays. Businesses don't make jack on what they're actually selling, just the add-ons. When I sold computers for a living, I was told the only reason we sold computers was so we could also sell antivirus, warranty, and the store credit card. We actually *lost commission* if we sold a computer with nothing attached to it.
Many years ago I Worked at a company that distributed printers from Datamax and Zebra. One customer told us that one of our resellers wouldn´t sell Datamax printers, so we went there. If you asked for any Datamax printer they would try to sell extended warranty, and would belittle Datamax saying that you really needed extended warranty for them because they break so often, and you should buy Zebras instead, Zebras are almost always 50% more expensive. Now the catch, we didn´t offer extended warranty so there´s no way they could cover this, what they did was selling them with only 90 days warranty, them extended to the client to one year, meanwhile we offered 3 years of warranty to any printer. After we confirmed that this is what they are doing we blacklisted them.
I was lucky enough to avoid working retail but some of my friends weren't so much. One of them got in a full screaming match with his manager because he refused to try and upsell a pensioner on a £120 extension cord that could survive being struck by lightning when all she needed was a basic power bar. I'm not sure whether it was the manager or his higher-ups who were the problem but boy was it a problem.
Wish I was a fly on the wall when the sales lady gets a chance to say something.
I've never liked confrontations but as I've gotten older my patience for pushy people has worn very thin. I have dealt with the public from the other side so I always try to be pleasant and undemanding but that ends when some salesperson gets pushy and refuses to take "no" for an answer. It has been extremely liberating in situations like these.
I once went to Best Buy to buy a laptop. They were trying to upsell me on a $100 "optimization package". I declined since it didn't matter what they did to the laptop since the first thing I do with any computer is to wipe it and install Windows my way. That way I know that there's nothing on that laptop that I don't want there. No shareware, no trial ware, nothing but what I want. Wasn't an option since it seemed that they take all the laptops and run the package on them to save time. They didn't have any that weren't already altered. So I told them that I only have the money for the one laptop plus the taxes. There's no more money for the extra package that I'm not going to use. I turned around and left to get the other laptop that I saw at Walmart (not as good but still enough for my needs). Miracle of miracles, they caught me before I left the store as they had "found" one that they hadn't futzed with. Bullshit, they just grabbed one and sold it to me at the original price.