It’s easier to make additional money off existing customers than to find new ones. Most companies have standard procedures to get us to buy just a bit more every time we make a purchase. From the, “would you like fries with that?” at McDonald’s to “would you like to sign up for an extended warranty?” at Best Buy to the endless pitches we have to endure just to activate a credit card, upsells are everywhere.

But we don’t have to take it. These companies take our valuable time and energy trying to get us to buy one more thing. Instead of simply grinning and bearing it, here’s some advice to help us avoid the upsell:

Etiquette expert Judith Martin, also known as Miss Manners, advises saying: “Thank you, but I’m not interested. Can we please just get on with our business?” Ouch! But she’s right. You don’t owe the company your undying attention.

Personally, the “We’re not interested” response works well for us when we’re being solicited by a person (either directly or via phone.) When it’s an automated phone message from a place I’m trying to contact, we either start hitting “0” to get to a real person. But ifweI can’t get away from it (which is the case with many of the credit card activation upsells you have to listen to while they “activate” your card (which probably takes three seconds in real time), we simply put the call on speakerphone, set down the phone, and do something else until we hear them give up. — Free Money Finance

Just say no to the ‘upsell’ [MSN Money]

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