Aggressive salesman insults me to try sell

[catcul]

Why do some people think that insulting your customer is a good sales strategy? Why do they think that chasing customers is a good idea? I was in a mall in Norfork, VA, when this cell phone salesman started approaching me. My social phobia started flaring up and I was almost running to avoid him. He basically said that I can upgrade my phone; I just kept moving.

I thought about that after reading Ben_Who's comment. At first, I thought I should've done the following.

SM: Salesman
Me:

SM: Wouldn't you like to upgrade that phone?
Me: If you can guess the area code on my phone, I'll stick around. If you can't, I'm leaving.
SM: 757
Me: That is incorrect, good-bye.

I realize now that I handled it perfectly when it happened.

-----

HotelMinion's story reminded me of this story from NotAlwaysWorking.com:
Making Up And Breaking Down

[Jetfire]

I don't know why sales people--especially *commissioned* sales people--think it's a good idea to insult customers. There are plenty of businesses that will be happy to take our money, and *not* be douches about it.

Especially since the time those "sales people" spend trying to get a sale from a resistant customer, who knows how many possible customers are passing them by and/or are being turned off by the hard sell they are seeing being made.

Unless the place is dead to begin with (at which point one customer won't make a stitch of difference), just let the resistant ones go and focus on the interested ones.

Luckily in my city those types of sellers aren't all that common. Our main mall has 1 booth (set up in the short hall between WalMart and the rest of the mall) and they're constantly trying to flag people down, and they do snare quite a few people (I rarely don't see one of them doing their demo and often two or even three people are doing a demo at once), but they are quick to move on to greener pastures if there's no interest shown.

For me, I am not a social person; I'm very much an introverted personality, though I have no problems in crowds; just when I'm the focus of a crowd. So overall, I'll ignore those stalls (esp when I'm at a mall in Vegas) and keep on walking.

Mom's more of an extrovert, and she does often get snared by some of those sellers, but she's learning her lessons fast. She's getting the knack of saying No and moving on without pausing.

[Argus]

If he was the owner, *could* he have been fired? Just a ?...

It's a store in a mall. I imagine the absence of that offender could be made a condition for lease renewal.

[wolfie]

I had a manager when I worked at a make up counter who would take the product of the day, a make up brush and would go up to people and start applying it without asking. She thought her sales staff were "lazy" for not wanting to do the same.

That is assult and customers would RUN from her.

And if the people she tries applying it to are allergic to some of the ingredients (not uncommon), it's assault with a deadly weapon.

[winner every time]

I despise salesmen like that... I try to avoid them like the plague. It's bad enough when I'm getting badgered, but I don't at all take kindly to being touched.

I've gotten to the place where I have no cumpunction over bitching them out in the middle of the mall if they carry on after I've said "no, thank you".

Since I've grown my hair out again, I've been getting annoyed by the hair straightening iron people. They get such a look of disappointment when they ask me how long it takes me to straighten my hair only to find out it's naturally this poker-straight....

I find the hair straightening people equally annoying, but in my case, it's because I've encountered quite a few who insist that I MUST desire straight hair. Oh, the disappointment when I inform them that I actually am quite fond of my curls. Also, why should I spend hours heat-damaging my hair to get it 'wavy' at best (for only a few hours too - my hair doesn't take to straightening), when all I have to do is mouse, tossle, and go about my day?

[thatcrazyredhead]

Yeah, the mineral make-up people love me. I was walking through the mall one time and the girl at the mineral mask-up kiosk tried to stop me, asking, "What kind of make-up do you use?" She looked so crestfallen (and somewhat confused) when I replied "I don't" without even slowing down.

My poor husband has one if those faces that seems to encourage people to approach him. Since we've been together, I've taught him not to even make eye contact with the kiosk sales people. Otherwise we'd be suck there while he tried to find a nice way to disentangle himself, cuz he's not the kind of guy to just tell them to fuck off.

[Grendus]

Meanwhile, the guys selling the utensils and T-shirts that I might actually be interested in are sitting there reading a magazine and leaving me to browse in peace. I got a "Let me know if you see anything you're interested in" from one of them yesterday.

The guys selling things people are interested in don't need to chase people down. The guys who assault customers tend to be selling things that customers won't seek out on their own.

[Kanalah]

It's people like that that keep me out of our local malls.

Well, that and a lack of fabric stores in malls.

[wolfie]

It's people like that that keep me out of our local mallsmauls.

Fixed that for you. Considering what the crowds are going to be like on Black Friday, the homonym is a more accurate description.

[Kanalah]

yeah. I'm just generally anti-social I guess. Never got the appeal of spending money for fun.

Course any spending money I have I buy things the kidlets need or fabric.

[Tama]

The Maul? You guys live in Ankh-Morpork?

[XCashier]

The Maul? You guys live in Ankh-Morpork?

Well, go there on Black Friday, you're likely to see the Silver Horde wreaking havoc...

[ozcatbug]

I've had several pushy salesmen try to push their wares on me despite a very definite "NO" from me.

One was trying to get me to buy a hair straightener. No go for me, as I have dead straight hair. Not even a kink or tiny hint of a wave. Funny that mum always has people asking where she got her "perm" done. Entirely natural in her case. Obviously missed those genes.

Another salesman tried to get me to buy hair extensions. I was walking by and he told me he could extend my hair to my waist if I wanted. I did play around with him and told him that I could see him extending other people's hair to their waist, but not mine. He insisted that he could, and promised his product was so good that no one would be able to tell. I insisted he couldn't extend my hair to my waist, then took my hair out of the bun I had it in. Yep, the resulting plait extended beyond my waist. It was so long I could sit on it. Told the guy he had learned an important lesson, make sure you know the hair length of the customer before promising to apply extensions that are shorter than the natural length.

The last one I believe I have mentioned before, and he was the worst. I have very reactive skin and some severe allergies to ingredients commonly found in cosmetics. So I am very careful with trying new products. As I was walking by a kiosk in one shopping centre one of the salesmen slapped some cream into my hand. I hadn't even looked at the kiosk, I was just walking by to get to a department store, but I stopped, looked at my hand, looked at the guy, and asked him what the hell he had just put on my hand. He starts in on his spiel, but I interrupt and say what is in the cream. He tells me to rub it into my hands, but I say I want to know the ingredients because I am allergic to a lot of stuff. Well that starts him on the hypoallergenic, all natural ingredients of the magic wonder cream, but I start to panic when I can feel my hand getting warm, plus my nose starts to itch like a sneeze is going to happen. I tell the guy that I need to get the cream off as I'm allergic, and he still insists it's all natural so totally non-allergenic, when I say that it has lavender in it, which I am highly allergic to. I then attempt to rub the cream off onto his top as he won't get me a cloth, but he jumps back and gets me a tissue. I then inform the guy that I was going to the chemist to get some anti-histimines, and he would be reimbursing me as soon as I got back. By then he could see that my skin was turning red where the cream had touched it. I went and got my pills, sneezing every time I got a whiff of the lavender scent, and a woman at the pharmacy showed me where to clean off the residue. I then took my receipt back to the kiosk, where the guy was still insisting to his coworker that it was all natural so couldn't cause allergies, but they both agreed to pay for my tablets, especially when they could see the mark on my hand. I know now I could have taken it further, but I just wanted to get out of there.

[Monterey Jack]

Considering how every establishment that sells food these days has a "Please inform server if any member of your party has a food allergy" plaque right at the register, it boggles the mind that any salesman would be colossally stupid enough to rub any sort of ointment or cream or spray onto a prospective customer's skin without their consent. Allergies don't just relate to things people eat, you idiots!

[FenigDurak]

Since I've grown my hair out again, I've been getting annoyed by the hair straightening iron people. They get such a look of disappointment when they ask me how long it takes me to straighten my hair only to find out it's naturally this poker-straight....

I get the same thing. They offer me an iron, I say no thanks, and they call after me with promises that their iron is better than what I currently use. Only once did I turn around and asked "Did you just insult my mother? Because she gave me this hair!"