Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Upsell / Cross-sell

I need to change the oil in the Pathfinder and I happened to be near a Jiffy Lube so I stopped in. They are the kings of the Up-sell / Cross-sell.

First you pull your car up in back and then go inside to wait. Then a few minutes later they call you out to talk to you about what services you want. I just wanted a simple oil change.
Synthetic? (3 different kinds of synthetic to choose from)? Nope. Regular.
Which regular (2 different kinds of regular oil)?
Air filter? Fuel Filter? Transmission fluid? Transfer case fluid? Differential fluid? No, no, no, no, really, I just want my oil changed, nothing else, no, no, no, just an oil change, really.

At this point the guy apologized and said that he had to ask all those questions. Poor dude.

I go back and sit down for a few more minutes and then some guy in "Auto Glass network" coveralls comes to get me. He shows me a few dings in the windshield and asks me if I want to replace my winshield while they change my oil. No, I just want an oil change. Really? Your insurance will cover it 100% (how does he know that?) and we can do it in the time it takes to change your oil. (no they can't. They don't even have my winshield there and it takes more than 20 minutes.)

I felt like I was running a gauntlet in old school movie where the very caucasian hero wanders through some third world market surrounded by salesman. Yikes.

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