I’m not sure what to think of this. Small story. When I was at the mall, I wanted to check out the new teas at a store I don’t frequent. Checking for that Lemon Pound Cake since I was told that they had like 200g left according to their system, the SA said they didn’t, but proceeded to try to sell me a gift that had some in it, then when I politely declined, she started pulling down all these other permanent teas to try to sell to me. I politely declined and said I tried them, then said I was interested in just smelling the new ones. When I mentioned this one, she said I could try it since it was the TOTD.
Prepared their way, probably with agave, it was incredibly sweet, but I thought it could be better prepared at home. She didn’t bother bringing the new teas to me, but I did see the Caramel Corn at the side of my eye and asked to see it. She popped open the canister, I smelled it, and thought I’d get some. Since it is a heavier tea, and since on numerous occasions in the past, I’ve gotten attitude about wanting 10-14g of a heavier tea, I asked for 20g, thinking that would keep the ‘tude at bay. Sure enough, she gave me the “If you get 100g, you get a free tin” spiel. Yeah, thanks, but a) I have so many already and b) I just want to try this and if I like it, I’ll come back and get more? She continued to push it and say that it’s cheaper that way because you get coupons (?) if you buy that much at a time. Kept politely declining and she got annoyed. “So, do you still want only 20g?” “Yes please!” Then I got a muchly deserved eyeroll and she gingerly reached over to grab the tin. That’s when I decided no, I’m leaving. I smiled and said in the nicest way, something like, “Actually, I’m ok, I’ll come back another time.” She was semi-shocked and I left.
Now finally a week-and-a-half later, I’m trying this at home without any added sweetener. I picked it up from the store I usually frequent and all was well. Sigh. Seriously getting tired of the attitude at many of their locations. Why allow 10g purchases if you have to breathlessly justify why you only want to try a bit first?
This is better but only marginally so. My mom thought this had stevia in it and I can see why since it has this artificial, sweet undertone floating amongst the chocolate banana notes. The maté is undetectable, which is a plus for me. Chocolate Covered Banana had great potential if they dialled it back on the sweetness and artificial flavour. Banana Split still has my vote for best chocolate banana tea.
People who liked this
Comments
Wow. That’s definitely on the overwhelming side of upselling; I would’ve given up too.
I’ve gone to a few stores where I noticed a decline in their customer service but I have never had to justify just wanting a small amount. I wonder if they changed their business plan now that all the newer associates seem to be getting a bit pushier/moodier.
Shopping there has become rather exhausting. They apparently have to follow some selling flowchart, but regardless, they should know when to use better judgement and listen to the customer. It’s one thing to mindlessly follow some upselling tactic, but to be blatantly annoyed/rude when a customer nicely explains that they only want a cup or two for the time being before committing to a larger amount? And overpouring is another story.
Yeah. I think there is a real lack of “reading your audience” in sales these days. I get there are things one is supposed to do but sometimes it is clear that people know what they want and trying to upsell them is a waste of time.
Sorry to hear about your bad experience. Although I am getting frustrated at DAVIDS for other reasons, their customer service where I live is always been good.
I don’t know if it has changed since Starbucks bought it, but that sounds a lot like my, and others, experiences with Teavana. Even walking past one of their stores was unpleasant due to the pushiness. Its sad that others seem to think this is a good tactic as well
I think just being in a mall causes this sort of behavior. I guess I’m lucky in that after being in a few stores that do this sort of nonsense I get too frazzled to buy anything and tend to walk out as soon as an associate starts making a beeline towards me. Good for you for walking away.
Emilie, I’ve been making that same comparison in my head as of late. They’re becoming more and more alike, unfortunately. I just don’t understand how any business savvy individual would think they’d be getting more ahead by using such tactics.
I’ve also wondered if the mall is a factor here. But I’m sure it’s management more so since there are some relaxed DAVIDs mall locations, and pushy stand-alone ones too.
I just hope that everyone else won’t experience this as often in their area, and if you’ve had great customer service up until now, it would stay like that.
Hmm, I’ve never had bad customer service from the DAVIDsTEA store I usually go to. Mind you, I never order small amounts there. It’s always 100g+ because it’s the nearest store to me and is 6ish hours away. But, they never try to push things on me, I find.
Now I’m a bit nervous to venture to other stores, as I have social anxiety issues and also get frazzled by that kind of behaviour. But instead of being sensible and leaving, I just cave usually and buy things I don’t want and can’t afford.Yeah, it became like that before I left Teavana. Our goal was to start selling higher priced teas, verses listening to the customer’s needs. An example being that I tried selling a customer something on the lines of “Earl Grey” because they LOVED Earl Grey and hadn’t had ours, yet. My GM had a talk about how I should’ve suggested Earl Grey White or something else quite horrible. However, I was at the point where I made good sales based on their needs, rather than the company’s. Fortunately, I found a teaching job…So, win-win.
And yes, @Emilie, Teavana had a lot of changes to the sell aspect. It was SELL higher teas, teapots, etc., or else you don’t work. That was on an employee’s side of life. Therefore, they feel determined/required to push sales on “higher end” products. I worked there for nearly three years when things started changing. We went through dozens of employees/management due to the high maintenance of selling tea. I loved that job for a while before it took a crap; however, Starbucks’ take-over really ruined the place, I think. It became a hardcore retail nightmare, really.
I truly hope you’ll continue to receive great customer service for your own sanity, Colleen. You should be safe if you’re always buying those amounts. I used to feel cornered by pushy sales tactics in the past but luckily I’ve developed the confidence to say no.
It’s totally becoming more and more like Teavana, with the main difference being that DAVIDs still allows <50g purchases. I’m glad you got out of that mess, R.F. Hill. Yikes, who needs that!
… less than 50g purchases. Glad you got out of that mess, R.F. Hill. Yikes, I’d go crazy!
I find that due to my tastes changing away from fruity and “fun teas” that I drank when I first started drinking tea and now more towards high quality unflavoured green teas and more “natural herbals”, DAVIDs has significantly less appeal to me. They have a few good green teas, but the majority of their herbals/rooibos blends are fruity/candy like and not very “natural”. They’ve done away with a lot of my favourites, and now so many of their blends are limited time that I don’t even want to try them most of the time, lest I fall in love with a blend then have to part with it. Luckily, my all time favourite herbal blend from them, Honeybush Lemon Ginger, can be replicated at a local tea shop which carries all of the ingiedients to make it. At least not all is lost on my part.
I was stressed out just reading this post, and I wasn’t even there. I’m a quiet, ruminative person. Pushy salespeople make me want to run away. There’s something to be said for being able to read the person across from you, especially if they’re the client. Your “no thank you” (I imagine you were being polite) should have sufficed.
Also, if you ever want to do a trade, I could give you a few cups’ worth of the Candy Corn to try. We appear to have similar taste.
Wow. That’s definitely on the overwhelming side of upselling; I would’ve given up too.
I’ve gone to a few stores where I noticed a decline in their customer service but I have never had to justify just wanting a small amount. I wonder if they changed their business plan now that all the newer associates seem to be getting a bit pushier/moodier.
Shopping there has become rather exhausting. They apparently have to follow some selling flowchart, but regardless, they should know when to use better judgement and listen to the customer. It’s one thing to mindlessly follow some upselling tactic, but to be blatantly annoyed/rude when a customer nicely explains that they only want a cup or two for the time being before committing to a larger amount? And overpouring is another story.
Yeah. I think there is a real lack of “reading your audience” in sales these days. I get there are things one is supposed to do but sometimes it is clear that people know what they want and trying to upsell them is a waste of time.
Sorry to hear about your bad experience. Although I am getting frustrated at DAVIDS for other reasons, their customer service where I live is always been good.
I don’t know if it has changed since Starbucks bought it, but that sounds a lot like my, and others, experiences with Teavana. Even walking past one of their stores was unpleasant due to the pushiness. Its sad that others seem to think this is a good tactic as well
I think just being in a mall causes this sort of behavior. I guess I’m lucky in that after being in a few stores that do this sort of nonsense I get too frazzled to buy anything and tend to walk out as soon as an associate starts making a beeline towards me. Good for you for walking away.
Emilie, I’ve been making that same comparison in my head as of late. They’re becoming more and more alike, unfortunately. I just don’t understand how any business savvy individual would think they’d be getting more ahead by using such tactics.
I’ve also wondered if the mall is a factor here. But I’m sure it’s management more so since there are some relaxed DAVIDs mall locations, and pushy stand-alone ones too.
I just hope that everyone else won’t experience this as often in their area, and if you’ve had great customer service up until now, it would stay like that.
Hmm, I’ve never had bad customer service from the DAVIDsTEA store I usually go to. Mind you, I never order small amounts there. It’s always 100g+ because it’s the nearest store to me and is 6ish hours away. But, they never try to push things on me, I find.
Now I’m a bit nervous to venture to other stores, as I have social anxiety issues and also get frazzled by that kind of behaviour. But instead of being sensible and leaving, I just cave usually and buy things I don’t want and can’t afford.Yeah, it became like that before I left Teavana. Our goal was to start selling higher priced teas, verses listening to the customer’s needs. An example being that I tried selling a customer something on the lines of “Earl Grey” because they LOVED Earl Grey and hadn’t had ours, yet. My GM had a talk about how I should’ve suggested Earl Grey White or something else quite horrible. However, I was at the point where I made good sales based on their needs, rather than the company’s. Fortunately, I found a teaching job…So, win-win.
And yes, @Emilie, Teavana had a lot of changes to the sell aspect. It was SELL higher teas, teapots, etc., or else you don’t work. That was on an employee’s side of life. Therefore, they feel determined/required to push sales on “higher end” products. I worked there for nearly three years when things started changing. We went through dozens of employees/management due to the high maintenance of selling tea. I loved that job for a while before it took a crap; however, Starbucks’ take-over really ruined the place, I think. It became a hardcore retail nightmare, really.
I truly hope you’ll continue to receive great customer service for your own sanity, Colleen. You should be safe if you’re always buying those amounts. I used to feel cornered by pushy sales tactics in the past but luckily I’ve developed the confidence to say no.
It’s totally becoming more and more like Teavana, with the main difference being that DAVIDs still allows <50g purchases. I’m glad you got out of that mess, R.F. Hill. Yikes, who needs that!
… less than 50g purchases. Glad you got out of that mess, R.F. Hill. Yikes, I’d go crazy!
I find that due to my tastes changing away from fruity and “fun teas” that I drank when I first started drinking tea and now more towards high quality unflavoured green teas and more “natural herbals”, DAVIDs has significantly less appeal to me. They have a few good green teas, but the majority of their herbals/rooibos blends are fruity/candy like and not very “natural”. They’ve done away with a lot of my favourites, and now so many of their blends are limited time that I don’t even want to try them most of the time, lest I fall in love with a blend then have to part with it. Luckily, my all time favourite herbal blend from them, Honeybush Lemon Ginger, can be replicated at a local tea shop which carries all of the ingiedients to make it. At least not all is lost on my part.
I was stressed out just reading this post, and I wasn’t even there. I’m a quiet, ruminative person. Pushy salespeople make me want to run away. There’s something to be said for being able to read the person across from you, especially if they’re the client. Your “no thank you” (I imagine you were being polite) should have sufficed.
Also, if you ever want to do a trade, I could give you a few cups’ worth of the Candy Corn to try. We appear to have similar taste.