‘Upsell’ gimmicks that cost a pretty penny
UP-SELL. That’s corporate-speak for strategies to make you part with more money than you otherwise would have, had they not dangled a little extra in front of you.
“Would you like to super-size that?” is the most famous up-sell line, but the spend-more invitation takes many other forms.
It’s the: “Would you like avocado with that?” from the waiter when you order a salad in a restaurant.
They should tell you what that tasty little extra is going to cost you, but mostly they don’t and you find out when the bill comes.
It’s the salesman’s: “It’s best to take out an extended warranty on that,” when you buy a fridge or a washing machine and the: “We can have your smash-and-grab film fitted for you,” when you’re buying a car from a dealership.
In more than a few cases, the consumer has no recollection of any of the extras being mentioned, much less explained to them at the time they committed to the deal – they just signed the agreement without reading it properly.
And the number of extra charges which get added to consumer’s accounts “in error” is cause for alarm.
Jacques van Staden of Forest Hills, Durban, contacted In Your Corner about his wife Tamryn’s Edgars account for July, which had been padded with almost R400 worth of insurances – personal accident, personal funeral, parent funeral, and a “family provider” plan.
There were two amounts for each insurance, one the full premium, and one a “part month” premium, indicating that the policies were taken out during the course of last month.
But Tamryn didn’t authorise any of them. So her husband contested the add-ons with Edcon’s call centre.
“I was told that a third party loaded it and all they can do is remove the charges,” he said.
“I requested an updated statement showing the removal, and I was told they can’t provide that, nor can they given me anything in writing confirming that the insurances were loaded onto the account in error and would be reversed.
“If this account was paid via debit order, the company would have debited the inflated amount owing without any prior notification.”
Responding, an Edcon spokesperson began with the company’s up-sell explanation.
“Edcon holds partnerships with various service providers, thereby allowing us to offer all Edcon account holders insurance benefits at competitive rates.”
In this case, Edcon said, the company’s third party “service provider” used the contact cellphone number listed against Mrs van Staden’s account and made a call to offer financial services products. “The agent continued with the sale of the products and failed to confirm the accountholder’s details, thereby incorrectly enrolling the products onto Mrs van Staden’s account.”
The charges will be reversed on her account.
“The processes followed by the third party were not in line with Edcon’s policy and procedures and any deviation from these processes are dealt with in a serious light.”
It’s true that the cellphone number which Edcon’s third party agent used was once Tamryn’s and is no longer.
But every telesales call I’ve ever received or heard a recording of has begun with “Is that Mr/Ms . . . ?” so the identity problem should have been apparent with seconds.
And it’s mystifying, to say the least, that the sales call continued, and the premiums ended up on van Staden’s account despite the person answering the questions not being Tamryn van Staden.
That insurance policies can be sold so sloppily is cause for huge concern.