Share your pushy salesman stories

[Nodak]

Many years ago when I was young and stupid a co-worker signed up for an insurance company retirement program. I made the mistake of telling him I would talk to the salesman who showed up at my home that evening. He gave his spiel and I told him I would look over his info and get back to him. I finally had to threaten to call the cops and have him removed from my home before he would leave. He was bound and determined that I would sign up for his program then and there. After looking it all over I threw all of his paperwork away.

 

[rothlev]

When i am confronted with someone pushy, especially on the phone, I will listen to their whole lengthy speil and then tell them I couldn't understand a word they said and would they please repeat s l o w l y. when they try again, I again say, sorry i still couldn't understand you. Frustrates the heck out of people. With my hearing loss, I use it whenever I am feeling annoyed. Often I will end the conversation by saying you'll have to e mail me your business and I'll take care of it that way. (they won't)

 

[LoneAspen]

While walking with my child and grandchild at a BigBox store one of the ladies demoing various cleaning wipes spotted us and tried to sell us a huge box of the wipes. I explained to her they were returning home on an airplane and did not have room to bring the box. She would not give up and actually followed us for about 30 feet trying to get us to buy the wipes. Finally, my child took a box and put it into the cart just to shut her up. We ended up ditching the box of wipes near the canned peaches.

Now I'm hungry for some peaches and clean.

 

[NW-Bound]

Q: How many telemarketers does it take to change a light-bulb?

A: Only one, but she has to do 
it while you’re eating dinner.

 

[igsoy]

BIL on vacation stayed at a timeshare in Orlando, we visited and while we were there he had to attend the timeshare presentation to get something like $150 in perks. He said, hey come with me we'll get a free breakfast buffet, at least, so we joined in to keep him entertained while he was doing his time. First thing when meeting the salesman I told him my name was "Ginger", so BIL and DH had to remember to call me that the rest of the time. At the end we're in the room with the tables and all the other patrons getting the hard sell right along with us. We declined to purchase a share, and of course he won't take no for an answer, he's trying to show us more numbers, how it's so obviously a great deal why wouldn't you want to "invest". At this point I start ranting rather loudly about how the more things you buy, and PAYMENTS you have to make, the more things you have to WORRY about and I didn't need that kind of STRESS in my life right now. That pretty much did the trick and he wanted to sign us off as declining and get us away from the other patrons as fast as he could

 

[Revlefty]

When the timeshare salesman wrote down the numbers on a piece of paper and shoved it across the desk at my wife and me, I wrote down $21,000 (which was higher than his number) and shoved the paper back at him. He asked, "Wha's this?" I said, "I just got the bill for my son's first year at college." The guy gave us our perks and we left.

 

[tryan]

Here's one:

Was shopping for a used truck a decade ago. Was test driving my second one at a used dealership ... back after the test drive the conversation goes like this:

" How did you like the truck"

me: "drove as well as the last one"

" I'ld like to make a sale today ... does this work" (rights a number on a piece of paper and hands it to me)

me: "no"

" I'ld REALLY like to make a sale today ... what would it take"

me: " you're a few THOUSAND higher than the last truck and with more mileage. Drop the price."

"I can't do that!" (As he RIPS the paper out of my hand)

me: "Then we're done."

I bought the first truck. The second owner/shop clearly overpaid; the business went under a few years later.

 

[EastWest Gal]

Went to big box home store to buy 2 $1 items that I need to finish a project today. Walking down the isle an employee with a clipboard stopped me and asked if she could ask me a few questions. I said no, but she blocked my path and proceeded to ask questions about my kitchen cabinets. After verbally and nonverbally expressing my annoyance she asked if she could have my name. I said absolutely not and walked away. Management forces their employees to do this to people, but the way she handled her job was quite offensive.


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[JoeWras]

Went to big box home store to buy 2 $1 items that I need to finish a project today. Walking down the isle an employee with a clipboard stopped me and asked if she could ask me a few questions. I said no, but she blocked my path and proceeded to ask questions about my kitchen cabinets. After verbally and nonverbally expressing my annoyance she asked if she could have my name. I said absolutely not and walked away. Management forces their employees to do this to people, but the way she handled her job was quite offensive.


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Worse yet that person is usually a contractor that BigBox lets into their store. (They basically sell rent to let the contractor work out of BigBox.)

I don't understand why BigBox does that. My experience was the same as yours. It caused me to go to the other BigBox with a different, more subtle, color theme as my primary BigBox store.

 

[Rustward]

We had a damaging hail storm two weeks ago. As usual, the storm troopers are out in full force. One called last week wanting to look at the roof. I explained that they were welcomed to inspect the roof, but I expect an estimate for roof replacement. He was here just a couple of hours ago. After the inspection (which only took maybe ten minutes -- not long enough) Mr. _____ came to the door. He entered the foyer and gave me his presentation, showed me the pictures he took, then asked me if I had any questions. I told him all I need to know at this point is an estimate of the cost. He told me his estimate would be the same as the insurance company. I said "OK, what is your estimate?". He said "The same as the insurance company. We use the same software." Again I said "What is your estimate?" to which I got the same reply. We stayed in this loop for several minutes with me asking the same question as many different ways as I could think of, like "Figure your cost and add profit and tell me the number." I kept getting the same salesspeak telling me how customer orientated they were, blah blah blah. I began to think of what might happen if I hired him and there was some kind of issue during the project -- how would that end? Then I opened the door. He didn't take the hint. I had to stop him mid-sentence and tell him this sales call was not going so well, then pointed to the door. That is the first time I have ever asked someone to leave my property.

 

[jollystomper]

Years ago we decided to install new windows in our home. One place that advertised in our area refused to even give us a ballpark estimate range ("you can't even tell me if it will be outside of our planned budget? we don't want to waste your time") and said they had to come to our house. We told them fine, but we only had about 30 minutes. The salesman came and went on for almost 90 minutes about the virtues of their window technology, demoing how it kept heat in, etc. we kept saying "fine", but what it is going to cost, we don't want to waste your time. He kept saying "I'll get to that, just one more thing..." Finally he gives use the price - which would have been over $1200 per window (and this was about 20 years ago). DW and I both said "that's way out of our budget, that is why we kept asking to give us a ballpark before you came here". At this point the salesman starts slamming his folders and demo kits closed and starts grumbling "I knew you people weren't serious about keeping your house decent" - at which point I asked him to please clarify what we meant by "you people" and "decent", did our house look like a mess or was our ethnic background (which was different from his) a problem for him. He never said anything, just finished packing and walked out. The next day we called and wrote the company to (a) mention the treatment we received and (b) assure them that we would let every one of our friends, neighbors, or anyone we knew looking for windows why they should not consider the company.

Another, pushy to almost threatening time was when a man showed up on our driveway with the old "I have been resurfacing driveways in this area, your driveway looks like it could use work, I can give you a good deal now" spiel. I was not home, and DW told him thanks, but we are fine. He kept insisting how great a deal it was and wouldn't leave even after DW went inside and closed the door. Fortunately (the only reason DW went out to see what he wanted), our two oldest sons and a couple of their friends from their wrestling and football teams were in our basement lifting weights... so DW opened in again with these 4 lads behind her, the smallest of which was over 6 feet tall, and politely asked "would you please leave or do we need to have a discussion?" The man turned without a word and went to his truck and left. DW also called the police to notify them about this man.