McDonald’s is looking for ways to reverse its decline in customer traffic and appeal to younger consumers so it can stay relevant. While fresh beef and functioning ice cream machines are important parts of the fast food giant’s future plans, even more important will be a mobile ordering app that will let it collect data on customers and offer them carefully tailored deals and upsells. [More]
upsells
This Supermarket Poster Was Not Meant To Be Seen By The Public
By 9.30.14
We all know that businesses have motivational signs and slogans that managers use out of sight of the public. But someone at this supermarket is probably going to get the boot after posting a sign on the front window encouraging employees to wring more cash out of customers. [More]
Dell Thinks That Second Hard Drive Bay Is Just A Big Hole
By 3.22.12
Spencer’s Dell laptop has two hard drive bays. That’s pretty cool, and he decided to take advantage of this by using it to install a hard drive. But no one at Dell has ever heard of such a crazy thing, and you can’t order any of the parts needed to actually hold or connect the drive from Dell’s site. Because that would be simple and easy. [More]
Supermarkets Manipulating Multiples To Get You To Buy More
By 7.19.11
Supermarkets are rolling out the apparent discounts more than ever. Ten for $10! Five for $5! And shoppers, thinking they’re getting a deal, are gobbling it up. Never mind that you can get the same price if you just bought one of the items. [More]
Chase Punishes You For Not Earning Enough Money
By 3.23.11
Since they can’t extract money from our pockets with cascading overdrafts anymore, banks have to get creative. Bradley learned that these indignities add up when the bank deems you insufficiently profitable, and charges a fee on your no-longer-free checking account. Never mind that Bradley is a college student. He doesn’t have a lot of money on hand, and from Chase’s point of view, not nibbling away at his patience and his money now could lead to another 60 years of business from him. Theoretically. [More]
USPS Out Of Regular Mail, Only Fancy Mail Left
By 9.22.10
Leesha says her local post office has gone upsell crazy. They wouldn’t let her mail a letter without sitting through an extended spiel about express and upgraded options. When she tried to fast-forward through the song and dance, the guy behind the counter snapped. Or, as the saying goes, “went postal.” [More]
GameStop Selling Download Codes At Retail
By 8.20.10
Sick of being left out of the party as Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo sell downloads to gamers directly through their consoles, GameStop has started hocking downloadable content codes at all of its 4,400 stores, Game Informer reports. [More]
Geek Squad Will Turn On Your Ebook Device For You For $29.99
By 8.4.10
The best way to understand Geek Squad is to realize that they will help you with anything if it means they can charge you a fee. Want batteries in your remote control? Having trouble putting a USB plug into its port? Need to know the time? OPTIMIZE IT WITH GEEK SQUAD. Those are just solid business ideas and not (yet) actual services, but Geek Squad’s real offerings are almost as absurd. For example, Nate from the-digital-reader.com snapped this photo of their newish “eBook Device Setup” service for your Nook or Sony Reader, which promises to turn it on (“provide a functionality check”) and show you how to read (“what to expect when you take the device home”). [More]
Chase Banker: I Hate That We're Required To Pull People Out Of Line To Offer Upsells
By 7.31.10
Chase now requires bankers to drag customers waiting for a teller out of line so they can upsell other bank products. One longtime banker wrote in to apologize for the practice, which “blatantly exploits a customer’s trust,” and to encourage customers to call Chase and tell them that they hate it, too. Read the banker’s full heartfelt note, after the jump. [More]
AMC Guarantees Upsell Or Your Popcorn Is Free
By 7.10.10
Bad moviegoers, you haven’t been spending nearly enough on overpriced concessions. Don’t worry though, AMC is going to make you a promise: if they don’t offer you an upsell on your next visit to the concession stand, you’re going to get a free small bag of popcorn. [More]
Verizon's Robots Won't Stop Trying To Get Me To Pay For Bulk Text Messaging
By 4.8.10
Matt isn’t big on text messaging, which is why he says Verizon has assaulted him with robocalls to get him to get in on the labor-intensive, thumb-cramping, erratic driver-inspiring phenomenon. [More]
Comcast Wants $2.25 A Month Not To List My Digital Voice Number
By 4.1.10
Through an online chat with a CSR, Max found out Comcast would charge him $2.25 a month NOT to list his digital voice number. When he bitterly turned down the not-so-generous offer, the CSR still asked him to leave positive feedback. Find out how he responded by perusing this chat excerpt: [More]
I Don't Want A Savings Account, Fifth Third: Please Stop Calling Me
By 3.25.10
Brad is a customer of Fifth Third Bank. He’s annoyed at the bank’s marketing practices. He tells Consumerist that when he transferred a large amount of money from his account with a credit union, Fifth Third decided that he clearly had too much money, and they wanted to help him open a savings account to remedy that situation. Well, that’s not what they said, but close enough. [More]
Dell Just Calls This $150 Upsell What It Is
By 3.18.10
Dell has given up even pretending to be subtle. They’ve just gone ahead and call their offer of in-home programming for your Logitech Harmony remote control what it is–an upsell. [More]
Crazy Cruise Line Telemarketer Pulls Out Every Trick In The Book
By 3.8.10
John Tedesco of the San Antonio Express-News was badgered last week by a telemarketer who wouldn’t take no for an answer. He decided to keep her talking for a while to see how many ways she’d try to get him to hand over his credit card number for a “free” cruise. Here were all the tricks she used during her sales pitch. [More]
A Best Buy Dude Lied To My Friend To Convince Him To Buy An iPod
By 3.2.10
Nathan says a Best Buy salesman lied about the amount of memory on the last iPod left in stock in order to get his friend to buy it. [More]
Capital One Calls To Dun For Payment Before It's Even Due
By 11.3.09
Cory says Capital One‘s Collection Department called his mother-in-law the other day in an attempt to reach him, which was weird because his account is in good standing. Their reason? They just wanted to remind him that his credit card payment was due soon. Oh, and to try to upsell him.
FTC Wants Your Input On How To Improve AnnualCreditReport.com
By 10.12.09
The problem with annualcreditreport.com—other than its name—is that getting your reports from the site is a little like dealing with GoDaddy: you have to deal with upsells and side-sells at every step. You can indeed get your free credit reports from the site, but you’ll also have to keep turning down other offers from the three participating bureaus. Hell, there are even ads (sorry, “sponsor” links) on the home page, the one place where you’d hope for the least consumer confusion.
