Yesterday someone knocked on the door and on the security cam I saw an apparent utility worker. Some type of uniform, hard hat, and a hi-visibility vest. Normally I ignore anyone at the door, but decided it might be important as I’d seen city construction workers down the street.
He was selling siding. Once I realized it was just a sales spiel I ignored him and shut the door. Never said a word to the asshole, since this type of crap doesn’t deserve civility.
Anyway, dressing up as a city worker is a new one for me. Got any stories to share? New tactics the bottom feeders have tried on you?
The moment I note that anyone is trying a “tactic” on me is the moment they lose the sale. There’s never anything on offer that can’t be bought elsewhere so I just make my excuses and leave, actually I wouldn’t even make an excuse, I’d just say “I won’t bother” and leave.
In cases where the product is bought already (like car hire) any attempt to up-sell is met with a terse “no thank you” and no further explanation offered other than I don’t want it or need it.
In the situation you described I’d be reporting them to trading standards, that’s bullshit and deserves to be called out. There has also been a tendency recently to ask for email details etc. when buying electronics. I refuse all of it and just tell them that I don’t give out that information. Someone did push back on that a couple of years ago when I was at the cashdesk with a laptop. They said they couldn’t sell it to me until I gave them my email address. I said “fine” left it on the desk, walked out and bought it elsewhere.
I had that one too a while back - buying a printer and they said they couldn’t possibly sell it to me unless I gave my email address. I just gazed into the middle distance and said (as if to myself) “I wonder if [competitor store] has such a weird limitation”. Oddly, they suddenly found a way to sell me the item without needing my email address.
In terms of new, slimy techniques, one that’s fairly new to me is:
Someone finds me on Linkedin and sends me a connection request (which I recognise as commercial and ignore)
They manage to figure out my work email address and send me an email asking if there’s a convenient day next week when they can visit and sell me shit. I junk the email.
They phone through to the company and try to get someone else to remind me that I have agreed to a meeting with them on Wednesday. Usually at this point, they are told to go away.
On one or two occasions: they turn up as if I had agreed to a meeting with them and I get called down to reception, whereupon they try to make smalltalk chat as if we’re old friends, until we get to the point where I have to say “Uh, sorry, who are you and why are you here?”, then send them away with a flea in their ear.
Dang. I thought of another one that happened this week as well.
Found an official looking warning in the mailbox about the upcoming R-22 refrigerant phase-out. It contained a bunch of scare words with dire warnings about the effects on my A/C should I not call the “official” number to schedule an inspection. Obviously a scam with the “This is your last warning!” bullshit. I wonder if anyone actually falls for this stuff? And if they do, why would they give their business to scammers once they realize it’s BS?
Here’s one I’ve encountered recently – furniture stores with “free” delivery. Free delivery means they will drive the truck to your house and unload the furniture on the curb. If you want them to actually bring it into the house, they want to tack on a $40 or $50 surcharge.
We had someone come to our door recently wearing one of those vests and resembling a utility worker. Turns out he was going around advertising his tree trimming/removal service (Mrs. J. was hanging over my shoulder sighing loudly during his spiel, impatient for me to cut him off).
Yes, a slimeoid sales tactic.
I’ve also learned that if an “official”-looking piece of mail shows up in your mailbox with a warning emblazoned on the front (“Do Not Destroy This”), it’s desirable to tear it up immediately.
I have noticed a trend over the past decade where they don’t show the real price of anything, they just put “3 for 5.99” or “5 for 15.99” or whatever.
Sales are also affected by this: “Now get 4 for 9.99!” and sometimes you don’t need to buy 4 and other times you need to buy 4. Sometimes it’s written “…must buy 4” and sometimes it isn’t.
The only more annoying behavior was at a major pharmacy, where they had everything plastered with nice low prices that had “with card” on them. I always found those to be insulting in a “You’re a chump if you don’t give us all of your personal information for our tracking card!” way.
I got a very official-looking letter in the mail yesterday.
It was from “Domain Listings” and they wanted me to sign up for a $228 service to list my domain on their Internet Directory.
My wife’s birthday was coming up; occasionally at Xmas time we’ll tell each other what we might like using our Amazon Wish List or Shopping List. So when I got an email with a link to her Wish List, I clicked, and ordered her the watercolor markers. And was happy to only spend $30 on her gift.
It turned out the email was from Amazon and sent without her knowledge. The watercolor markers had been on the list since last Xmas, and she really wasn’t interested in them anymore. I was able to cancel before delivery, but was pretty pissed at Amazon — enough so that I went out and bought what she actually wanted at a local store! It did cost 6x more than the markers.
Some scumbag local car dealer (independent, ie “Fly-By-Night”) goes on TV with his little kid, and says all the cars he sells come with ‘Lifetime Warranties’ and that this kid will be around to honor them. :rolleyes:
Right. That place will be gone in 6 months. And that piece of shit you bought from him will be dead in 7.
Shortly before they closed permanently, I was at CompUSA buying a desktop computer. I was at the register paying and the cashier asked me if I wanted the extended warranty. I told him no, definitely not.
When he asked me a second time I looked him in the eye and calmly told him I’d already answered that question and I was offended that he was asking me again. When he very nervously suggested that the extended warranty was actually a bargain, I told him I’d buy a computer elsewhere, and walked out.
I know the feeling, they’ve pissed you off and you can’t let them know you are going to blink if pushed so you need to break out the acting skills and turn up the offence.
When I walked out I knew it was exactly the same price elsewhere and I didn’t need it right then so I could afford to not give a toss and expend zero energy in having a bit of fun with them.
I guess not new but i’m currently pissed about it. Bought a new car, got Sirius XM for 3 months. After that, they gave me a good deal at $70 for a year so I took it. All this done on computer. The year is now up. I got an automatic renewal notice with the shiny new price of $21 a month. Doesn’t sound like it should be allowable to have an automatic renewal at almost 4X the price. But the thing that is really steaming my buns is that when you go online to cancel, there is only a phone number. There should be a law that if you can set up an account completely online, you should be able to cancel it the same way. A friend of mine told me she had the same thing and it took her an hour on the phone to get it cancelled. Yay.
Former (and never ever again) Sirius customer here. Got the same thing with my new truck, but after spending so much effort to cancel several years ago, I’ve refused all the offers to continue it. I checked, and there are over 100 emails from them so far. Never read a single one, but I’m saving them out of curiosity (when will they actually give up?).
Weird thing is, I actually like the service. But I refuse to get trapped in their constant renewal web again.
When I get that, I say, “Wait a minute. Are you saying that this thing is so cheaply made that it’ll break down so quickly? Never mind. I’ll buy something else.”