Anyone have any data on how often a hard sell actually works compared to how often it causes the people who feel harassed by it it go to a competitor?
Years ago, I got the hardest hard sell I’ve ever seen from a department store clerk who would NOT take “No” for an answer as he tried to get me to sign up for the store’s credit card. For the only time in my life, I was emotionally prepared to make a big loud scene, but for the presence of a very entertaining fellow customer.
As I walked toward the register with my two shirts, another guy was walking away from it and talking to himself. He had this look on his face that was half amazement, half bewilderment and was saying something like “All I want to do is buy these pants” or something. Anyway, I got to the register, the young sales guy rings me up, and then asks if I’d like to sign up for the card, followed by the sales pitch of why this would be the best thing I could ever do. “No, thanks” I said.
He repeated the pitch. I said “No thanks” again.
He tries again. As I’m getting impatient, two other sales guys emerge from a door and walk by us. As they do, one of them nods toward my guy and says to me “Watch out for this guy! He’s relentless!” My guy stops mid-sentence and just stares open-mouthed at them as they walk on by. He can’t believe it- here he was, just about to convince this customer who’s already told him no twice to get the store card, and this other guy totally ruins it for him! Now he’s going to have to start all over! Which he does.
I said “I’m not interested in the card.” He says “I don’t think you understand. See, if you get this card…” and starts in on me AGAIN.
I’ve never been explosively angry in public before or since, but I could and would have absolutely blown a gasket and yelled in his face, in the quiet department store, that I DON’T WANT THE FUCKING CARD, NOW RING UP MY FUCKING PURCHASE RIGHT NOW!!! Except…
Somewhere during all this, that other customer had returned with his item, and was watching all this from the other side of the register area, behind the sales guy and in my line of sight over the sales guy’s shoulder. He was completely mocking the guy, pointing at him and mouthing the word “Asshole.” Then he’d point at his own crotch, mouth the word “Dick”, and point at the sales guy. It kept me amused enough to hold it together and just keep telling the sales guy no. In the end I declined the offer of the store credit card SIX times before he relented, which he followed with some insulting comment like “I guess some people just don’t like to save money” or some such.
There was no way the guy was not going to get himself fired sooner or later. If it hadn’t been for the other customer guy I’d have been quite happy to be the one to make it happen with a big public scene, but by the end I just wanted to leave. It would have done the store a huge favor, though.
That would have been a great time to visit the store office and complain, preferably with the other customer in tow. Especially with the clerk’s last comment.
I’m always prepared to make a very public scene when shit like this happens. My wife can see the signs and usually calms me down, but if I’m shopping alone, watch out. I’m never in so big a hurry that I can’t take an obnoxious sales-drone down a few pegs.
The smart ones are the ones who have an alternative prepared for assholes like me. If I say “no” to a request for a zip code, for example, the smart checkers just punch in their own number and move on.
A few years ago I got a part time job in a retail store to supplement the income from my full time job. One of the requirements of the job was that each employee had to sign up for their in store credit card. I spoke to the manager and told her I was working a second job to save up for a car (which was a lie but she didn’t know that) and that applying for a credit card would lower my credit score and directly impact my purchase price so she let me work there without applying for the card. I still think it is crap that they made you sign up for the card just so that the store could meet their numbers for the month.
I wanted to buy some pants at Penny’s a few years back. I wanted to pay cash. I learned that I could save X% by getting a JCPenny charge card. No thanks. The cashier argued. Repeatedly. I left, cash in hand, and bought pants elsewhere. And I haven’t shopped at JCP since.
No biggie, just complain with your wallet.
Really? You’ve never gotten “But … don’t you WANT to save money???”
Only one clerk has ever said that to me and it really pissed me off. I don’t remember my reply exactly but it would have been something like, do not insult my money management skills just because I choose not to be in your piece of shit program.
Occasionally when I’ve been offered the extended warranty on a $10 mouse or whatever at Best Buy, I just say, “No, I like LIVING ON THE EDGE!!” So far they’ve all just chuckled and rung me up.
Don’t think I’ve ever gotten the “Don’t you want to save money?” bit, but I think I’d use something similar: “No, I like throwing money away right and left! I’m too rich to care! Hahahahaha!!!”
Not that I can recall. But it’s been a while since I’ve shopped at any place that has their own credit card. And I already have reward cards for Borders and the grocery stores I usually shop at.
If, however, I did get asked that I’d probably give some smart-ass answer like, “No, I’m living off the proceeds of my Mega-Million lottery winnings.”
There are many registration-required websites that send mail to whatever alias I registered under to 1234 Nunnayobidness Avenue.
I live in the land of Minnesota Nice, so maybe it’s different here, but I’ve never had to explain myself when I refuse a credit card app/loyalty club at the register. I say politely, “No thanks,” and the clerk rings up the order, and off I go. If the pressure did elevate, I would repeat “No thank you” pointedly, being sure to make eye contact, and if it went beyond that I would leave my purchases on the counter and go to the store down the street.
Appearing to have a discussion about it with the voices in your head works pretty well, too.
Just so we’re clear: management tells cashiers to do this. And then management adds that undercover shoppers will be sent in to make sure you’re doing this.
Quoting because so many people seem to miss this point. If you give reasons then you show that you’re willing to have a discussion. If you repeat some version of No like a robot then there’s nothing to discuss.
I’ll admit that sometimes I do just have to hang up/walk away/etc. But if you’re finding that you have this problem every day, anytime you buy something, then I suggest a new approach.
I have no problem with them asking; like I said, sometimes I am interested in the program. (Barnes & Noble card? Yes please!) So there’s no joy from me if the OP’er complaint is that he’s being asked at all.
But ask once, accept the answer, and move on. (To be fair, most do.) Cashiers who want to argue, or follow up with the snarky “I guess you’re just not interested in saving money” – that’s a legitimate complaint, IMO.
I’ve got no problem with giving them a zip code. There’s 5 of them in my area, I just give them the one their store is in.
My phone number is always “unlisted” though.
I used to give fake names(usually dead rock stars) & my local police station phone number and address when I would be pressed for info at check-outs.
Makes me wonder if they have ever stopped getting junk mail for John Bohnam & Jim Morrison.
I had this happen to me once: I was buying the fourth-edition D&D books at Books-a-Million for the suggested price of something like $97, and the cashier really really wanted me to get the BaM credit card, only $10 cost for a 10% discount, I’d almost make it back on the purchase price alone. I refused, and she persisted, and I refused, and she offered contemptuously to kick in the extra thirty cents herself so that it wouldn’t cost me any more, and I still refused, and finally shaking her head in disbelief, she rung me up.
I didn’t complain at her or tell her my real reason, because I’m afraid it wasn’t so honorable. Less than two weeks later, my delayed order from walmart.com came in (something like 59.95 for the books), and so I returned the still-in-shrinkwrap books to BaM that I’d gotten from Walmart, checking “found better price elsewhere” on the return slip. Her discount would’ve done me no good.
I’m not proud of it, but sometimes an addict has to have his fix, and sometimes a jonesing addict is still hunting for the best price.
Which is why it’s pointless to complain to the cashier. Even local store managment can’t probally do anything.
The only time I got really pissed off over this was at Borders. I wasn’t in a very good mood to begin with. The cashier asked if I wanted a Rewards card. I smiled and said “No thank you”. She asked again, adding the word sure. I said “No thank you” again, this time without smiling. She asked again and started going into a sales pitch and I cut her off mid-sentence and said “I already said no twice”. She got upset and said “Fine, you don’t have to be rude about it”. That’s when I got pissed and told her “I’m not the one being rude, you are. I said no 3 times and you kept asking me. Now go get your manager”. I then complained to the manager about her harassing me then accusing me of being rude after she kept ignoring my Nos. Then I left without buying anything (I don’t even remember what I was buying). It was her calling me rude that pissed me off.
My father is NOT someone a cashier should try to pull this on. He’s caused several scences at Best Buy (which is the absolute last place he’ll look for something), including yelling and cursing. Especially asking for any kind of personal info for a cash sale. He’ll launched straight into profanity if the cashier try’s to tell he they “need” or won’t take the first no for an answer.
I once had a cashier say flat out, “(sigh) I’m contractually obligated to ask you if you’d like to donate $1 to SomeCharityWhoseNameIHaveForgotten” as he rang up my purchase.
Yes, I know this. That’s why I’m always careful to be polite the first couple of times. Management or Corporate HQ also sometimes ties bonuses to the percentage of loyalty cards a clerk scans and/or has applicants for, and that’s when some clerks get very aggressive about the issue.
So far, I haven’t left my merchandise at the checkout counter because of this issue, though a couple of times I’ve been tempted.