If these stores never went for an upsell one of 2 tings would happen. Either they would go out of business, or the overall prices would raise on everything. I lot of people do not realize that those awesome deals you see in ads often are priced below what the store pays for them so in order to make any money off of you at all they must "attach" something else that makes money to the sale in order to turn a profit. This is also the reason places like Best Buy, Circuit City, Staples etc.. have such huge markups on accessories like cables. They sell you a PC for a $200.00 loss and make up that $200 when they sell you a USB cable, extended warranty, carrying case etc...

Good advice but do please aremember to not be a jerk about the whole thing. Truth is the salesperson who is pushing the upsell only is doing so because the have to. Having worked for many companies in sales I can attest to this practice. I was berated, threatened, and even faced punishment for not meeting a quota for tacking on extra sells, memberships, and upgrades. I figured if the customer wanted it they could ask for it, but apparently that isn't enough for these businesses. As a consumer I know it is annoying to deal with this but please remember the salesperson is probably just as annoyed about the whole situation as you are. A simple "No Thanks" in my opinion is quick to the point without leaving the employee feeling like a creep when you leave.

Your loss leaders are the ONLY reason I'm here. Personally, I live for the moment that some baggy pants sales bastard will try to upsell me. I take such pleasure in neutering all their "how to make a million" salesmanship training and undermining their stupid transparent neuro-linguistic programming scripts. Ohhh, what fun.

My favorite upsell tactic was something McDonalds used to do. They had a little program in their register that would generate a little side deal based on the amount of change you were going to get. The idea was that they would sell you something small so they would get a sale instead of giving you change. So they would say something like, "Instead of your change, would you like an apple pie or a couple of cookies?" If it was a lot of change, close to a dollar or so, they might even offer a burger or a shake. I only experienced this a few times in a few select locations a few years back. I'm sad to say I once fell for an apple pie upsell.

orlong -

In my experience in the retail world, while clearance items might eventually move below cost, the advertised sale items were always above the item cost. But yes, a

@orlong: Who's fault is it that stores price things below the threshold at which they make money? Not the consumers'. People would buy things at their real cost if they started out like that in the first place. They should know that it's ultimately a losing game to sell things at a loss. Eventually the law of diminishing returns comes into play and they have to either jack up prices or hope that the price of the item falls to meet what they're selling it for.

"No, my husband told me to buy this one. No, my husband told me to buy this one. No, my husband told me to buy this one."

Their heads almost explode. Sometimes they suggest "we" call him on my cell so they can try to tell him to tell me that he REALLY wants the 8 zillion upsells, but I always look sad and innocent and say, "No, he really doesn't like to be bothered at work."

I don't mind them trying to upsell one thing, but a dozen in one shot is ridiculous. That's right Best Buy, I'm talking to you. You can shove your magazines, warranties, and anything else extra right up your friggin' arsehole.

@Eyebrows McGee: Haha, I'm going to start saying that, and I'm a dude.

I'm trying to feel bad about the idea of businesses going under because of upsell resistance, but I can't seem to. If the only way they can turn a profit is to harass people at the point of sale, there's something very wrong with how they're doing business. I don't care if everyone does it. The business risk of offering a loss leader is that some customers will not purchase other goods to compensate. If it's causing losses in excess of what the business can bear, that's not my problem. They wrote the offer.

I once read that our (US) economy functions in a continual, intentional state of crisis. That unless there is an ongoing sense of intrinsic or extrinsic threat, the economic system has no energy. I suspect that consumption fatigue is setting in and will be a major factor in national economics for some years. It'll be interesting to see what happens.

The website that stuck in my mind as 'best use of an artifical structure (resembling choice) to create dozens of potential upsell oportunities': Dell

To their credit, they've gotten far better. It used to be page after page after page after page of mindless options before you could finalize an order. Today, it looks like they're cramming more items onto each page, but at least there are less pages to skip through.

@Eyebrows McGee:
"No, my husband told me to buy this one. No, my husband told me to buy this one. No, my husband told me to buy this one." "No, he really doesn't like to be bothered at work."

Priceless. I'm going to use it, too.

orlong,

If you were to look at the technology curve that companies like Best Buy deal in its in the shape of it is an reversed 'S'. Very pricy when first introduced and slides as the novelty wears off. At the end of the curve its at give away prices. That is the way of all tech stuff and most especially consumer tech stuff.

That item you think is a 'loss leader' is probably at the nadir of the curve. The back office has already done an in-shelf invoice rebate with the MFR and is still making a profit at the price advertised. Happens all the time. The biggest retailer in the world, WalMart, does this daily.

Am I the only person who just says "no, thank you" over and over? I don't try to mess with them, or anthing like that, I just politely decline.

Really, any time someone tries to sell me something I just say no. If they ask why, "I'm just not interested." If they persist, I'll usually repeat that a few times and then I'll hang up the phone or walk away.

I also listen to the entire speil before saying no. Occasionally they do offer something I really am interested in. Besides, I don't like being rude.

A real problem for the poor minimum wage slaves is that their job performance sometimes isn't based on whether they show up, do their jobs, and have a neatly balanced drawer at the end of their shift--it's how many upsells they got in a day. My daughter worked for a mall-chain bookstore a couple of years ago, and was let go after six months, not because of her job performance itself, but because she had an unsatisfactory number of upsells (membership "benefits" cards, knick-knacks by the registers, "special today with qualifying purchase," etc). Her customer comment cards were overwhelmingly postitive, because she knew the merchandise, knew many of the customers and their preferences, and didn't bug the shit out of them to buy stuff they didn't want. Turns out that mattered for zero, because corporate wanted the free money of "benefit" cards more than actually selling anything tangible or making the real repeat customers happy. No surprise to anyone reading here, I know, but it was a reality slammer for my kid who'd been taught that working hard and well means success.

@getjustin:
Popeye's Fried Chicken does that, and my boyfriend almost always takes the bait.

@Ravenwaift:
I think there are ways to avoid listening to a lengthy spiel without being rude. The way I see it, if you politely decline early (when you know you're not going to go for the upsell), you avoid wasting your time and theirs. They can use that time to give the spiel to a more receptive audience.

@Eyebrows McGee: The reverse works just as well -- except that instead of sad and innocent, I go for harried and terrified.

@Charles Duffy: LOL.

I find it entertaining how many salespeople are willing to believe my marriage exists in 1950 as long as I look brainless enough.

(Also, my husband never makes technology, or insurance, or investment, or contractor-related decisions in this house. Which makes it funnier to me, because if they DID talk to him, he'd be like, "What the hell are you talking about?")

Personally, I've found a silver lining in being hearing-impaired in such situations. I wear BIG hearing aids (affectionately known as my Honkers), so I just point to them and say, "Sorry, hard-of-hearing--how much?"

The notion that they can't TALK to me flusters the socks right off of the sales robots. Better, it terminates their script COLD, about 99 times out of a hundred.

I simply neglect to add that I read lips ... and I pay and go away with no more pestering.

Well, my response is usually "I'm not interested." If the next statement is anything but progress on finalizing a sale/activating a credit card I then inform them that I said I was not interested and if I have to say it again I will cancel my order/credit card and go elsewhere.

It works most of the time, and the rest of the time I have the satisfaction of not purchasing or using a product from a company that cannot listen to me.

I've managed a Retail Store for over 10 years... the way to avoid the upsale is responding in a direct manner when asked. Don't use "na" or "I don't think so". Use the word NO.

Would you like to add extended protection? NO

It is soooo rare that someone will actually directly respond NO that most salespeople don't know how to deal with it, and they certainly aren't going to keep asking for additional addons with the extreme rejection you offered on the first.

"What part of NO do you not understand?" After a couple of negative responses, silence also works. Eventually they ask why you're not answering and you just say that as soon as we're talking about this purchase again, you'll return to the conversation. I've only had to resort to these a couple of times, most people actually do understand the words "no, thank you."

Rudeness on our part is probably never going to work. If they haven't been rude, you'll make them mad because you'll be jerk, and if they have been rude, they won't get it if you return the rudeness. It's pointless.

I did have to ask one guy if he wanted to make the sale or not. He didn't believe I'd leave if he kept trying to sell me the warranty-- so I left. Came back after lunch and bought from a different guy who understood "no."

ok, sometimes it pays to listen to the "upsell". hear me out here. when i used to work at an electronics retailer, we would constantly get ppl coming in for, say a digital camera. i would always try to gauge a customer by what they were looking to pay & pick the best camera in their range, but often i would also try to upsell them on a better unit. why? b/c i used almost all of the cameras we sold & i knew that the $229 casio exilim was worth the $60 more than the $169 canon a520.

now, you can use the camera w/o an sd card, but you're only gonna get 12 shots. & you can carry it around w/o a bag, but if you're anything like me, that camera won't last more than a month. screen protectors are also important to keep that lcd clean from scratches, etc., etc.

then, i'd ask if they were interested in a store card, which would essentially make all the accessories that i sold them free, along with 6-months or a year to pay it off interest free.

that's my upsell on a digital camera package (notice i almost never sold warranties - they're garbage even though i could make $5-10 off them). i ask you this - did i oversell them? i didn't think so. all of the items i mention are accessories that a person will end up buying eventually - i just found a way to hook them up for free. & i know ppl groan about store cards, but do you know a better way to save $30 or more on a purchase? i used to price survey our products over the interent & it was pretty difficult to beat them. sure, maybe you could find the camera for $30 less online, but then you were forking over $15 to ship it & it was coming from a vendor with more bad reviews than fantastic four.

sure, sometimes the upsell is b.s. but sometimes, you may encounter a knowledgeable sales associate that really does have your best interest in mind.

I really hate upsells. In fact, I hate them so much, if I overlook something in a purchase or the upsell is something I do want, I will still turn it down (unless it's a one-time deal that can't be beat, usually isn't though).

A clerk at best buy particularly annoyed me yesterday, as I was buying some controllers for my Wii and she kept saying I should get the replacement plan. They are controllers, come on! If they break, I'll just go and buy a new one.

So the secret is to politely decline? Shocking!

A week ago my girlfriend and I took a weekend shopping trip. Every single store we visited tried to get us to open a store credit account. My favorite was Pier 1 that told us they had people open an account, get the 10% discount for the day, and then just cancel the card right away. "It doesn't hurt your credit any," the saleswoman told us. After we declined, she tried to sell us on it again to save "$15 on your $150 purchase!"

We declined to open an account anywhere.

Funny thing: as I was reading this article, a telemarketer calls me on my cell phone telling me I've been entered in some sort of contest! So I put the phone down and go about my business, letting them talk their own ear off.

My policy is to do most of my shopping online these days. It makes inter-store comparisons easy, I can read other customer's reviews of the products, and I don't have to deal with salespeople.

Every year the financial reports seem to get worse for brick-and-mortar retail stores, and there's a good reason for it.

@Eyebrows McGee: I should try that one, and watch their brains explode as they realize they're in Massachusetts, and I could be telling the truth. :-)

@xkaluv: Yeah, I almost always just say, "No, thank you", and they just stop. My favorite was when I bought a laptop at Best Buy (*); the guy started his upsell spiel with trying to sell me antivirus software, and I said, "No, thanks; I'm going to be running Linux on it.". He just shut down immediately; he obviously knew there was no way his scripts would work on me. :-)

(*) Yeah, Best Buy's not great; but I'd done my research. I got a dual-core laptop with a gig of RAM, and wireless that works under Linux, for $850 (in fall 2006), and I didn't have to drive to Circuit City.

@orlong: I'm guessing you've never taken economics, have you? Supply / demand curves? Elasticity of Demand? [tap] [tap] is this thing on?

If companies sell products above the price that consumers are willing to pay, they will go out of business. That will reduce supply, and if elasticity is such that consumers are now ready to pay more, then someone else will sell it to them at that price. On the other hand, if reduced supply doesn't affect prices then you've got an item that you'll either sell at the lower price or you won't sell at all. The consumer never gets hurt because they either pay the lowest price that the market will allow, or they don't want the product to begin with.

As my econ teacher used to say, That's life in the big city.

@Mobileray2: Firmly but politely denying an attempt to sell me something I don't want isn't what I consider rude. Failing to just do the business I came to do and shoving something I didn't ask for in my face, on the other hand, is. If I am buying something and offered something I don't want, I say "No thank you, I'm not interested" in a tone that says "Shut up. Right now." But I've done it politely. If you then push the matter when I have indicated that it is not only closed, it is six feet under, I will get even more firm in my refusal -- and if you then push it beyond that, I drop what I'm holding and walk out of the store -- leaving you to clean up the mess you created by ignoring my verbal cue to drop the matter.

"Someone else forced me to be rude" doesn't mean it's not still rude -- and you were given several cues indicating that your "upsell" wasn't appreciated.

Fortunately, most sales people will catch the cue at the first step, and I hope that you would too (you seem like you probably would) but there are those that just can't seem to stop being pushy rude gits.

@organizedhome: My hearing aid isn't all that noticeable. I wanted a silver one (Phonak Savia) but my audiologist forgot to ask me what color I wanted and I got a flesh-toned one. If it ever breaks and needs service, though, I will ask him to have the case replaced with a silver one. It does have a silver europlug adapter attached -- but even so, most clerks don't notice it.

I can, however, turn it off if I have to be subjected to some crap I don't want to know about, or in noisy environments. The downside is idiotic businesses that say "call us" -- after I've used email to contact them.

I usually write back telling them that if I wanted to call them in the first place I would have.

I try to give the sales guys a bit of slack since I know far to well what it's like to be in their shoes. Even if you're not on commission, it's amazing how much pressure management will put on you to sell this crap.

I always figured I did my job as long as I told them about it and didn't bother with pushing them into it (most of the time).

The hardest part is that stores like Best Buy are corporate whores and sell anything and everything. Netflix, cable service, MSN Internet. Why on earth does any of that apply to someone buying a car stereo?

@charlieriley: but it was a reality slammer for my kid who'd been taught that working hard and well means success.

It still does! Just not in worthless professions like sales. I had the same problem because I was far too honest to lie to customers as I was told to do sometimes. I'm lucky I never got fired, but they didn't watch enough to realize that I would never stoop to their tactics.

@Aaron Pratt: Every single store we visited tried to get us to open a store credit account.

Of course they did. Credit is a huge profit for most places. Since I've recently sworn off all credit of any kind, I'm experimenting with turn-down phrases for situations like these.

My current front-runner is "No thank you. Purchasing on credit only supports animal molesters and I don't support animal molestation."

What are they supposed to say to that?

If companies truly believe that "it's easier to make additional money off existing customers than to find new ones," how come so many of them treat their current customers so badly?

The "upsell" is just a way of getting more money up front. That way companies don't have to care how many consumers leave after having horrible experiences with customer support, billing issues, bad repairs, product breakage and unfulfilled warranties.

I'm a big just keep repeating "no thank you," person, though often my tone will get more annoyed the more I have to say it, because usually I'm trying to buy a $1 battery or some cheap resistors at Radio Shack, and they keep trying to sell me a cell phone, even though mine is sticking out of my front pocket.

"Gee, I only came in here to spend a dollar, but sure, I'll blow a couple hundred on a last minute whim purchase."

@acambras:

You can get bait at Popeyes? Live or artificial?

The only upsell I buy is a road hazard replacement policy for new tires. I always get the largest, widest, longest lasting and, thus, most expensive tires Sears offers. Even one puncture pays more than the cost, and I always get at least one, given the condition of the streets in NYC. My last flat was a bolt through the sidewall after 5,000 miles, completely unpatchable. Sears gave me a brand new one with no argument, and you can go to any Sears in the country.

I always say "no thank you" to upsells but with credit card offers, I usually just say, "I already have one, thank you." That takes care of things quickly.

@Fuzzy_Duffel_Bag: $1 battery at radioshack? when's the last time you went in there?!?

@RandomHookup:

Depends on what you're fishing for, I guess. If I ever need to get my boyfriend to do something, I can just dangle a bag of Cajun Hot Wings in front of him. ;-)

The hardest part is that stores like Best Buy are corporate whores and sell anything and everything. Netflix, cable service, MSN Internet. Why on earth does any of that apply to someone buying a car stereo?

@jeremyduffy: That's what I can't tolerate about upsells. I have no problem being told about related products. In fact, last time I bought a video game console I should have been upsold: it didn't come with a controller. I had to go back out and buy one. I normally don't get the upsell but it's not annoying to be asked if I have everything I need to start using what I came in for.

I do not like being asked to make a completely random purchase just because I came in the store. It's stupid. It has nothing to do with anything except them getting more money. It reminds me of the South Park episode where one of the kids gave a homeless guy a $20 and the homeless guy asks, "Got any more?"

@etinterrapax: @LTS!:
If your looking at a loss leader and you say that, they will say fine go buy it somewhere else. They arent going to fret over a lost sale that goes out "dry" as they dont make anything on it

One thing I'd like to add on the "hit 0 to get to a real person" bit--check from time to time to see if you have gotten through.

I work at a call center, and just a few days ago I had a call pop up where the person was just steadily hitting the 0 button. At one point I even heard him in the background loudly cursing about automated systems. In the brief pauses between the next button push, I kept trying to get his attention, but he never heard me.

We are told that if a call comes in and there isn't a response in two minutes, to transfer the call to our sup's extention. Since it wasn't a case where I was on hold, and knew there *was* someone on the line, I waited for four. Finally I transfered it over, and tried contacting the customer on the "can be reached" number we had on file, but no answer.

So even if it is a long wait--check every so often and see if you got through. Otherwise you are defeating your own purpose.

@humphrmi:

It doesnt matter what the supply and or demand is, Best Buy, Circuit City, Comp USA, and Fry's will ALWAYS have that $400 laptop in the ad that cost them $649 to buy. They do it to get you in the store in the hopes they can make money off of you in other ways. In general yes the supply and demand will dictate the cost of an item, but there will always be loss leaders. Sure circuit City could stop selling ad pieces for less than cost but then everyone would go to the stores that DO do it, therefore reducing Circuit City's business. Add in the fact that a lot of the time people try to upsell you from the ad piece is it isnt the item you need. A lot of people here know what they need because they are tech savvy but you get someone who wants to play Half Life 2 on their PC and they want the $400 laptop, it is a diservice to sell them that because it will NOT play the game that they want. Then they complain they are being upsold when in reality it wont do what they want it to.

Most of the time it doesn't bother me. The only times it does are when I'm calling to activate a credit card (this is supposed to be a security measure, NOT a sales opportunity) and...

When KBToys asks you if you want to buy batteries. They are so deeply indoctrinated that you can buy a pack of playing cards and they will STILL ask you if you would like to buy batteries! At least have the decency to only upsell me something relevant to the purchase.