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

[JLRodgers]

Slightly OT but one day we had a customer wanting her script, came to about $6.00, she had the nerve to ask if she could take it today and pay tomorrow cause she only had a $100 dollar note and didn't want to break it!!! Seriously what did she think we were going to say??

At my town's local pharmacy they'd say "no problem, we'll send you a bill". They let people get meds without paying - but bill them. They let people have up to like $750 worth of meds before cutting them off (i.e. require payment before more will be given out).

[wordboy]

I used to get this all the time when I worked in the appliance department of one of the big box retailers.

"What's the price of this refrigerator?" (I quote the price on the sign.)
"Yeah, but what's the real price?" (I repeat the price on the sign.)
"How much are you selling it for?" (The price on the sign, for the third time.)
"Don't you people haggle?" (No, sir. That's the price.)

Once, a customer was trying to haggle on the price of a dishwasher, so I told her we weren't a used car lot.

Thank God I don't work there anymore.

[Mordecai]

We once had a customer who had misplaced her passes and offered her watch as compensation. No dice, but she did find her passes.

[Madhatter_67_85]

I always had people asking for the employee discount (20% of new merchandise, 50% of used). Well I would always turn them down. They would get huffy and say that no one would know that I let them use my discount. Maybe, maybe not but it is MY discount for my own personal use not to just hand out to whoever felt like they were entitled.
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.

[Jester]

Honestly though I don't think there's such thing as a haggleless environment.

Sure there is. I've worked in them for years. They're called "restaurants."

Some examples of attempts to get around this lack of haggling.....

CUSTOMER: "I'd like a Corona please."
JESTER: "Sure. That'll be four bucks, please."
CUSTOMER: "How about I give you three and we call it even?"
JESTER: "Sure! Five dollars it is!"
CUSTOMER: "No, I said three!"
JESTER: "Six dollars, no problem!"
CUSTOMER: "Okay, okay, four!"
JESTER: "Pleasure doing business with you....enjoy your beer!"

CUSTOMER: "How much is a Corona?"
JESTER: "Four dollars."
CUSTOMER: "What? That's pretty expensive!"
JESTER: "That's the price."
CUSTOMER: "Back in Rhode Island, they only charge me two dollars."
JESTER: "Ma'am, this is Key West, not Rhode Island. You are also in a bar in a luxury hotel. Frankly, four dollars is a pretty good deal."
CUSTOMER: "Well they don't charge me four dollars back home!"
JESTER: "And you're more than welcome to buy your beers back home, ma'am. But if you want to drink one here, it's going to cost you four dollars."

CUSTOMER: "How much is that shirt?"
JESTER: "Twenty five dollars plus tax."
CUSTOMER: "Can you offer me a deal on it?"
JESTER: "Sure! Twenty five dollars plus tax."
CUSTOMER: "So I can't jew you for it?"
JESTER: "Excuse me?"
CUSTOMER: "I can't jew you down on the price?"
JESTER: (barely maintaining professional courtesy at this point) "No."

I cannot count the times I have had to explain to otherwise seemingly intelligent adults that I, the bartender or waiter, am NOT the person who sets the prices. Of course, some people get that, and know that Owner Man sets the prices. And since Owner Man is a very friendly guy, and everyone and their uncle in [Major Northeastern U.S. City] "knows" Owner Guy and he is the type that, once you meet him, he makes you feel like you are his best friend, everyone from [Major Northeastern U.S. City] feels that as friends with Owner Guy, they should get a better price. Keep in mind, when Owner Guy first opened The Bar, he made it really clear to management and staff that anyone who claimed to be his friend in order to get a better price was not, in fact, his friend, and that his true friends would never do such a thing. But we still get crap like this.....

CUSTOMER: "Crown and Coke please."
JESTER: "Sure. That'll be $6.25."
CUSTOMER: "Wow, that's kind of steep. I need to talk to Owner Guy about that." (waits expectantly for me to lower the price at them dropping Owner Guy's name)
JESTER: ....
CUSTOMER: "You know I'm good friends with Owner Guy. If he were here, he'd have you give me a deal."
JESTER: "I'm sorry, but he's not here, and I can only offer you these prices. (This is where I turn it around on them in such a way that they can't argue.) And Owner Guy has given us STRICT instructions that these are the prices."
CUSTOMER: "Oh....." (And THIS is where they fork over the money!)

I also don't even bother trying to haggle with people trying to get me to serve them, their friends, or their children when said people don't have proper identification or are clearly underage.

There is no haggling in restaurants. Period. Not over id's, not over prices, not over the size of the drinks, and not over me giving you the phone number of my attractive coworker. She has a boyfriend, Troll Boy, and he's not nearly as pathetic as you.

[Argabarga]

All the time with things that LEGALY aren't haggleable, like the cost of impounding a vehice and paying it's parking tickets before it's released...


Your car got impounded for DUI, it'll be $110 to get it back, and seeing as how you endangered the lives of everyone out there last night, including me, what convoluted reason do you think I could possibly have to even WANT to reduce your fine?

[Samaliel]

CUSTOMER: "Wow, that's kind of steep. I need to talk to Owner Guy about that."

"Sure. You do that. But if you want your drink, it's still $6.25."

[Racket_Man]

try working at a pizza place. we get these "things" all the time

- ahhhhh come on can't you give me a better price than that??? do you have a coupon??? no. then no discount

-ahhhhh come on can't you give me a deal this one time???? no we can not

-ahhhhh come on can;t you give me you employee discount just this once. sorry I do not know you and you are not part of my immediate family

-ahhhhh come on $30 for 2 pizzas is there any coupons I can use (knowing they do nto have any coupons at their disposial) on the box

-ahhhhh come one I am a (insert profession here like fireman/cop/Dr./lawyer/factory worker/truckdriver) don't I GET a discount?????

-ahhhh come on I know you have the 555/444/333/222/111 deal. no I am sorry we have not had that deal in a while AND you have called the wrong company.

I hate to say this but most SC who try and get discounts without the deal or a coupon do not tip on delivery.

[ReverendBSB]

I get them all the time at the store I work at. I sell BBQ grills. All of our prices are the minimum as set by the dealers. On many of the grills we barely make $100 dollars profit. So we do not haggle or make deals. Period.

Guy came in yesterday looking for the cheapest Weber Kettle Grill. He came to us from Home Depot because we offer free assembly. The Weber Kettles are easy to put together, I can do one in 3 minutes. But the idiot is driving a little car with two other people in it, meaning no room for a grill. I tell him what he has to do to put it together so he can take it in a box. He tells me that Home Depot has them five dollars cheaper and can I match it. I tell him no of course, he threaten to leave. I just say have a nice day and walked away.

[MystyGlyttyr]

All the time.

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

[smileyeagle1021]

Anyone who has seen the prices for game consoles knows the store gets jack-**** when selling them (A markup of maybe 4 cents) and the biggest profit comes from the accessories.



And that other place? Located in West Edmonton Mall, and they have a bad habit of doubling or tripling the cost of items, so while they maybe have made a deal, it still would have been more expensive than buying from me.

first, I can believe you, it's probably like iPods... stores make barely 10% on those... if they are lucky (i was working at a place when the original shuffle came out where the employee discount was store cost plus 10% and the iPod shuffle ended up costing me one cent less than the normal cost).

Second, yes I bet they will get a "Deal" there and still end up paying more... I've noticed a lot of the places that allow haggling intentionally mark up their prices because they know people will be willing to pay more and feel better about it if they haggled it (car dealers are great at this... have you ever heard the stories of people who pay ABOVE msrp and are still happy about it because of how much they haggled off... seriously )

[Gothicsmurf]

When I worked selling insurance I used to have men who were not born in the US try and haggle prices.

"But I've been a good customer!" Yes, you have that's why you only pay $400 a month for liability coverage.
"I pay my bills on time!" Yes, yes you do. That's why you've gotten 6 late fees in the last year.
"I bring people in here all the time for refferals." Yes you do. Thanks for that. We love offering insurance to someone with no US drivers license and who's got 8 speeding tickets on their record.

And so on and so forth.

[edible_hat]

I always had people asking for the employee discount (20% of new merchandise, 50% of used). Well I would always turn them down.

I say "Sure, I'll give you my employee discount. Let's see, zero percent off is..."

It's odd, I don't get a discount where I work but I do at the not-KFC next door which is owned by my bosses.

[depechemodefan]

This woman lost a $80 book (more about her in a min.). She asks the Circulation desk if she buys a copy of the book on ebay can she give us that and we not charge her for the lost book. She was told "no" and of course she wants to talk to a manager. At some point she gets my manager, who is a wimp (all the managers are wimps at the library). I wasn't there, but I'm pretty much sure haggler was told "no".

Of course she would be the person to question "why no?" AS in, "It's the same book. I'm not paying for a new book to replace the one I lost since it was already used." etc. It would be hard to just slap a new barcode on the copy she would have gotten on ebay or Amazon. Not really a principal thing (like, "this will teach you not to lose a book, since none of the managers, and 1/2 of my co-workers believe it in. I do, but I get written up by upset patrons who think I'm rude..anyway) but the deal we have with the publishers.

Anyway, before all that I was warned about her. That she was difficult. One point she asked me (with an attitude that already pointed to me that she won't like my answer) what was the system we used for the catalog. Now I hardly think about it, so I have to ponder on it and she said, as sarcastic as the could be, "YOu don't know?!?!" Then at one point she wanted microfilm and I was showing her how to put it in the machine, and she sarcastically said, "Oh, so the EMI has to be face up?" These were initials on the spool. I said no. Then I showed her how on another roll it was face down. Of course she ignored me.

I forgot if someone told me she was going to library school. Yeah, sad.

She was one of the people who made me think that there are SCs that are SCs because they are clueless, and SCs who know what they are doing, that they know they are bitchy and it's the only power they have. She was the latter type.

[MadMike]

I say "Sure, I'll give you my employee discount. Let's see, zero percent off is..."

What a coincidence. I got the same discount at the supermarket. Too bad, an actual discount on food would have been nice when I was a poor college student.

The home improvements store gave a 15% discount, which was pretty useless since I couldn't afford a house on what they were paying me.