Stop Yelling, Comcast!

I feel your pain. Today I was walking through a Macy's and I can never
get out without an employee sticking pieces of paper with purfume in
my face. Or then there's those people with food samples on the trays
who can be really annoying too. This reminds me of a song.. I forget
the name of it, it was pretty stupid and my friend showed me it on
youtube. It was these 2 rappers who screamed at people to get out of
their faces when everyone wanted autograpghs or whatever. I think the
same guy sang "Crank That"...

I get so mortified when I am accosted by these
"salespeople." Have you tried sending a complaint to the
mall?

I can see where your coming from. My wife rooked me into manning the
Tupperware Booth at the local mall. The cell guys, while not as bad
as the Comcast guys you mention, would always try to sell me a phone.
Finally told them you see me daily what makes you think today would be
different? On a side note never have liked the "Welcome to
Moe's", Resturaunt for this reason. Will not mention the
company but we patterned after that till I was totally sick of it.
Thank God I work some place else.

This is a very good letter and it sounds like from the feedback that
you're not alone with this problem.

Fortunately I've never had anyone yell in my face like you've had At
a good number of the malls I go to, these "hawkers" are
right in the middle of the walkway so you have to walk on either side
of them.

At one of these malls during the holiday shopping season, there was a
place doing back massages. I passed by them a few times and every
time they asked me if I wanted a massage....as if they never saw me
before...talk about selective memory.

I'd do what a couple people have mentioned and talk with mall
management....and encourage others to do so as well....this will
perhaps get that particular company a chance to shut up or get out.

It's not selective memory so much as it's overload. When I worked
retail I saw so many people, especially during the hols, that faces,
clothing, purses, shoes - the things I used to keep track of who I was
speaking with - became a random blur.

One time my mom came into the store (something she rarely did) and I
actually asked her if I could help her find something before pinging
'Mom!'

I hate this, too. In fact, I've also thought of writing to some of
the companies that sponsor these mall kiosks.

But, here's the thing.

First, some of these kiosk's are manned by people who aren't employees
of the company. They are contractors or "affiliates."
While this doesn't excuse it, it's more difficult for a company to
manage, apparently.

This is especially true with wireless providers. While some are
"company" stores, often these kiosks are owned by
entrepreneurs who hire people, on commission, to run the kiosk. The
owner gets (for example) $150 per wireless contract. In turn, the
employee gets (for example) $50. As such, the employee is motivated
to get as many customers as possible, by any means. The owner isn't
there and doesn't particularly care, as long as the employee makes
enough sales. Not enough sales? That employee is fired the next day
and is replaced by someone else.

Finally, the wireless company doesn't know or care because all they
know if that they licensed their logos to the owner for use in selling
their phones. It's kind of like writing to Kodak because a Best Buy
employee was rude.

In this case, with Comcast, I have no idea if this is the case or not.
They may be temp employees. But I'll bet you that they are being
paid on commission. And, if they fail to sign up x customers in a
week, they lose their jobs.

Anyway, I have a number of techniques for dealing with these people.
One of my favorites is to respond back, in an equally loud tone, that
the company did something horrible. For example, "I'd sign up
for Comcast, but I'm tired of you accidentally showing porn on the
kids channels." Or, "A Comcast truck hit my 5 year old and
killed him!"

Or, "I'd love to sign up. Right now, I pay $5/month because
(Company Y) offered me that deal. And it's good for the next 5
years."

Or, "I'm under contract with my satellite provider. Are you
going to pay me to break that contract?" They rarely do. If
they say "yes" then "I'm going to need to have a check
written to me in the amount of $500 to cover that before I sign
anything."

If I happen to be mildly interested in what they're offering, I'll ask
how long the "limited time" offer is good for. If it's too
short, I'll ask that they extend it for 5 years. When they refuse, I
say "Thank you. Sounds like you aren't interesting in getting me
as a customer."

If I'm in a really foul mood, I'll scream "Can't you hear, I said
'no.' How rude of you! What is your problem?!?" (I've actually
done this only once, but I was in a particularly bad mood).

Of course, most of the time, I just ignore them. Keep walking. That
works 100% of the time. If everyone ignored these people, then they'd
eventually lose their jobs and maybe, just maybe, they'd learn.

At the mall near where I live, the folks in the wireless phone kiosks
are pretty aggressive. Several times, they'd yell out, "hey, let
me see your phone" with the idea, of course, of telling how I
could get a much better phone through them. Most of the time, I just
kept walking, mainly because my wireless phone was a real basic one
with very few features.

One day, however, after one of them yelled at me, I stopped, turned
around and went back, pulling my phone out of my pocket and handing it
over.

"whoa," the guy said..."what is that?".

It was the brand spanking new barely on the shelves LG Shine which,
besides having a ton of features, was decked out in brushed metal and
a reflective surface that acted like a mirror.

He then handed it around to his compadres who all oohed and aahhhed.
And then he handed it back, nodding in approval.

And he's never bothered me since.

i worked in amall where right next to my store was a kiosk for salt
scrub or something. Everyday they would walk up to me weather I was on
the phone or walking with someone that I was interviewing "can I
ask you a question" I finally said you see me everyday! No u cant
what you can do is leave me alone and know that I will never buy your
probably overpriced anything! That did the trick!

I never liked the "carnival barker" selling technique
either. Sometimes there are more than one company using these tactics
and it's even more annoying.

I wonder if some mall management even cares what their visitors
experience is in the common area, the ones here have "market
research" people shoving clipboards in people's faces, how does
that help their image?

I'm glad you didn't use capital letters and phrased your concern so
politely. Let's hope they listen and do something about it!

I would suggest you contact mall management with your complaint;
surely they have some authority to reign these clowns in. I would be
HIGHLY annoyed -- those kiosk employees with the goofy toys at
Christmas are relentless!

Crazy Eddie lives!.. and it looks like he works for Comcast now. I
couldn't stand that approach back then and despise it even more now. I
think the best way to turn a customer off is to push something in
their face. They're lucky one of them hasn't been decked by now,
especially by the parent of a startled child.

Terrific letter, April. I hope you don't have to yell to get them to
listen.

April T.,

Good feedback.

My bet is these folks are working on commission and might be just a
little too pumped.

Drop back and let us know if ComCast gets back to you and if you see a
change in their approach.

BillR.