Has a customer ever tried to haggle with you in a haggleless environment?

[Samaliel]

All the time.

Which sucks since what I do is a free service...

You get some people haggling over something that's free ? o_O

[JLRodgers]

You get some people haggling over something that's free ? o_O

I have before too

"Uh, can we only pay X amount of dollars for a post? We don't have that much money as we're non profit....etc, etc for a few long and well thought out paragraphs to make me feel horrible for not giving it to them".

My reply to it? "All our posts are free. Although you're more than welcome to pay us! We always take money people want to give for no reason. --- the post link is on the site."

[Librarybabe]

Lost library book

Doesn't your library tack on a "processing fee"? The average for my area is $20 + cost of book.

[KitterCat]

When I work at the MD Renaissance Festival for a booth, we get people trying to haggle all the time on the puppets we sell. They seem to think that it’s a flea market. I’ve always pointed out to people that the product we sell is not something you can get at a wal-mart. Its hand made in the US, very durable and child safe and comes with a lifetime guarantee. Our most expensive puppet pre-made is $195. At the booth I had seniority right after my manager, so if coworkers had questions I’d get asked if the manager was busy. After asking one of my co-workers the prices he asked me if he could haggle on the price. I said sure, I start at $500 and we’d see if he could work his way down. Suddenly he had no problem with our prices.

I just love doing that to people. They don’t seem to think that if they want to haggle, business can raise the price sky high to give some lee way as to how far the price can drop.

[protege]

I just love doing that to people. They don’t seem to think that if they want to haggle, business can raise the price sky high to give some lee way as to how far the price can drop.

That's why some hobby stuff is so expensive--Walthers locomotives come to mind. Companies raise their prices so they have some wiggle room. For example, when Walthers took over Life-Like not long ago, the prices on the "new" locomotives practically doubled, almost immediately after the takeover They shot themselves in the foot over that. Sure, they sold a few, but quite a few shop owners said "fuck you" and didn't buy as many. Even at a reduced price, it's not like the company was going to lose out

[RedNailPolish]

What's worse is I work in a kind of store where you normally can haggle...furniture. But we don't. Sorry. I tell you it's because I don't want to make the nice little old lady who won't haggle pay more, and you don't care. You tell me furniture is marked up so much anyway. Not really. If something costs us $500, we sell it for $1000. Out of that $500 profit, we pay the salesperson, the delivery/warehouse crew, the manager, and keep the showfloor running. Yeah.

And don't even get me started on the delivery fee complainers. It's never 'free'

[Dips]

"Do you have any cheaper 42 cent stamps?"

We also get people who bitch about shipping for their stamps. They'll spend 500 dollars on stamps, and then bitch about the one dollar shipping charge.

Trying to haggle a lower price on stamps? That has to be the most pathetic haggle attempt I've heard about.

And disputing a $1 shipping charge? Their time mustn't be very valuable if they think the convenience of NOT standing in line at the post office to buy their stamps isn't worth a measley $1.

If I am in an especially evil mood when they ask how they can get the employee discount, I hand them an application and tell them to get a job here.

Hee. Back in the early 80's, when I worked at McDonald's, I'd hand applications to anyone who complained that "[we] people need[ed] to hire some more help" because they didn't like waiting in line during the lunch rush.

You get some people haggling over something that's free ? o_O

Like Mysty, that happens to me too. We have people using our unsupported freeware trying to get us to give them the paid product (for free), trying to get tech support, demanding we add features, etc.

The worst was a college professor who published one of our free fonts on his own web site (which is specifically prohibited by our copyright). We very politely called him on it and told him it was OK to substitute a link to our download page for people visiting his site. Instead he substituted a statement that he USED to offer a free font, but the greedy copyright holder wouldn't let him any more. So now the font wasn't available and it was all OUR FAULT.

His reasoning? That we can't give away something for free and make rules about it at the same time. Yeah, I know.

[Note: His diatribe mentioned us by name, so I assume anyone who wanted the font could google us and still get it.]

And now for the the list of our hagglers:

People who want a discount because they are a [pick one]:


business owner
educator
charity
taxpayer funded agency
person with a disability


Fun fact:

All of our customers fall into those categories. The answer is always a politely-stated "no."

If they demand a reason we tell them that ALL of our customers deserve discounts. Therefore the only fair thing to do is keep our prices as low as possible for everyone. We certainly wouldn't dream of offering a discount to educators and expect charities to subsidize it. [or vice versa depending on who is asking].

But perhaps the worst category of haggler has to be some of our resellers. Some of these fools let their customers haggle them down in price or violate our return policy.

Then they turn around an expect US to subsidize their bad decision making.

We are dealing with a reseller in Thailand right now who is trying to get a 20-user license for the price of 10-user license.

[StarsAreFixed]

I think I got one person before. If I was working in a little family-run boutique, it would be understandable. I work in a family run shop, which is also the largest chain-department store company in Ireland. No chance.

[depechemodefan]

Doesn't your library tack on a "processing fee"? The average for my area is $20 + cost of book.

Yeah, I think it's $10. Or else it's $10 plus another $10 for something else. But I think it's just $10 (luckily I don't have to deal with money).

Hee. Back in the early 80's, when I worked at McDonald's, I'd hand applications to anyone who complained that "[we] people needed to hire some more help" because they didn't like waiting in line during the lunch rush.

That's awesome.

[Gurndigarn]

Trying to haggle a lower price on stamps? That has to be the most pathetic haggle attempt I've heard about.

Not if you're doing it at one of the custom-stamp places. Though most of them aren't going to budge, since printing stuff is the way they make money. Which is sad, because I have some really cool stuff I'ld like to put on an envelope.

[Dips]

Not if you're doing it at one of the custom-stamp places. Though most of them aren't going to budge, since printing stuff is the way they make money. Which is sad, because I have some really cool stuff I'ld like to put on an envelope.

Cool. I've never heard of custom stamp shops. Are these good for postage or mainly collectibles?

The post I was replying to was about haggling at the post office...

"Hey, I'll take those there 42 cent stamps off your hands for 35 cents apiece!"

...and expecting it work.

[Gurndigarn]

Cool. I've never heard of custom stamp shops. Are these good for postage or mainly collectibles?

US postage. Though they're like vanity plates: you pay extra for it. Try these , or consider making your own.

[RedNailPolish]

Hee. Back in the early 80's, when I worked at McDonald's, I'd hand applications to anyone who complained that "[we] people need[ed] to hire some more help" because they didn't like waiting in line during the lunch rush.

Done this before. It was almost always greeted with your standard dumb look. Always fun tho.