I’ve been meaning to post something on this for a while now.  I’ve reached my limit of patience with up-selling.   I will no longer tolerate it in any fashion, not even “Would you like fries with that?” at the Drive-Thru.   Here’s what pushed me over the edge.  A few weeks ago I went to a local electronics store to get a new backup battery for my Axim.  You know this chain.  It’s where everyone goes to buy batteries.  They also sell Sprint and Verizon cell phones.

Anyway, here’s my actual conversation with the salesperson:

Salesperson: “How can I help you today?”

Me: “I need one of these batteries.” (holding battery up to him and thinking this is pretty self-explanatory)

Salesperson: (taking the battery from me and heading over to the battery tree) “How many would you like?”

Me: “One.”  (didn’t I say that already?)

Salesperson: (finding the proper battery) “Would you like a spare to have as a backup?”

Me: “No.”  (Ok, how many ways do I have to say I just want one?)

Salesperson: (taking battery and heading over to register to ring me up, noticing my cell phone clipped to my belt) “Have you heard about Verizon’s new family plans?”

Me: “I’m a SprintPCS customer and very happy with my service.” (when’s he going to ring me up?)

Salesperson: “Oh, have you considered getting an additional phone for your wife and doing an ‘Add-A-Phone’?”

Me: “Already set up with that.” (please, God, let this be the last question)

And he finally rang me up.  I left the store furious.  All I wanted was one stupid battery.  Does it have to be that hard?  I should’ve walked out.  I was mostly furious with myself for not walking out.  Well, that made up my mind.  Never again.  Any time someone tries to up-sell to me, I’m telling them they just lost a sale and a customer and I’m leaving.  So far, I’ve left two different fast food franchises and it’s felt very good each time.