Sales people who make jokes

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I go through phases where I wonder if I really am on the spectrum, but then things happen like today and I realise I just don't think like other people.

I went to buy a mattress today and the sales guy kept making jokes. I was in a serious mood. I'm shelling out a lot of money for something I'm going to be sleeping on every night for the next 8+ years. I need to make the right choice.

Poor guy kept making jokes and I kept taking him literally. He told me the mattress I chose would be on back order and I'd have to wait for it.

"How long? " I asked.

"A year, " he said. I must have looked shocked.

"Ha ha, no," he said. " It's 3-4 weeks".

The whole thing was him making jokes and me not understanding.

He’s a stupid, bored salesman.

Most sales people wouldn’t kid like that.

I've never known a sales person to make stupid jokes like that. It's not professional and not every customer is in the mood for lame jokes like that.

Oh he wasn't that bad. Just a happy chappy. Jokes just not on my wavelength.

Do you thinkhe fancies you?

No I think he wanted me to buy an expensive mattress. He managed to upsell me a pillow as well lol. It's a clever tactic they have. They get you to choose a comfy pillow and you take it round the store with you and use it when you test the mattresses. It was so comfy I wanted to buy one. Lying on it now. It's a good pillow.

Nice!

I’m glad you weren’t put off by that guy.

That's unprofessional behavior, not funny at all. How is this guy keeping his job?

I had the opposite effect: I was buying an expensive mattress at 21 (I had severe back pain) and the salesman couldn't have made it more obvious he didn't find my 'joking' personality funny and wanted nothing to do with me. I guess he figured I wasn't a serious buyer and was wasting his time. I ended up spending the $2000 at another store.

No commission for that guy!

It happens to me sometimes and it feels a bit weird, like being slightly out of step with the other person. I just laugh a little later, when I get the joke and it's no big deal. Do you think it was because you were just focused on the mattress? Or maybe he was just one of those people that makes really unfunny jokes all the time .

It only occurred to me earlier this year that what salespeople say isn't necessarily the truth and they just want a sale.

I can relate to being in a serious mood, or awkward and anxious contrary to what's going on.

When people get jokey like that and I'm in that mood, it seems like they thing I'm either a Negative Nancy, the jokes are going over my head, or both. I get the jokes, but it's just that I'm slow to come up with a response, and I'm not particularly in the mood at that moment.

It sounds like that salesman was being a knucklehead. xD

I've been there, I just stand there silent or just carry on the conversation like they hadn't said anything. It always makes them uneasy and back off.

I dont 'get' most jokes, well not immediately anyway. If I take the time to deconstruct them I can usually figure out where the intended humour is. When people joke about like this sometimes I find it mildly diverting as its like observing something alien but endearing or Im intensely irritated by it. The difference between the two is usually down to the level of demand they are making on my at the time and where my focus is.