Bargainers, How Do I Hate Thee, Let Me Count the Ways....(long)

[theredbaron47]

I'll never get people who think that prices posted are "suggested" prices, and continue to haggle as much as they can until they're almost asked to leave.

We have posted prices for a reason here, damn it! Go shop at a flea market if you don't like that!

[WorkAtBBuy]

At BBuy we don't have a commission, but there is still NO HAGGLING. If you wanna haggle, go to a flea market. Otherwise, pay the price we have.

[Jester]

Maniacal Price Shoppers? Idiots? You say tomato, I say tomahto.

In any case, I have had people try to talk me down on the prices of drinks.

Riiiiiight. Good luck with that, Chintzy Cheapalot.

I have posted my Jester's Patented Anti-Haggling Technique on these boards enough, so I won't repeat myself here, but trust me when I say it works. Eventually, they will give up and pay the original price. Because frankly, you aren't giving them any choice but a bad one.

There are only two types of people that get discounts on drinks from me ever. Really nice people and people I somehow screwed something up with. Cheap freeloading entitlement whores? Never.

[LadyAndreca]

The only haggling we can do at my store is give a damage discount on an item. It's a flat 10%, no more.

The only time I've ever seen someone successfully haggle with a manager, the guy drove over an hour to our store because he was told we had a Wii in stock and it was his son's birthday. The manager on duty gave him apology coupons and took his number, promising to call him personally as soon as we got Wiis in stock, because the guy was understandably upset but trying not to scream at us. Not an hour after he left, someone returned one. Electronics triple-checked it to make sure it had everything, it was locked in the manager's office, and she called him up. When he was able to make it in the day after, he successfully bargained for 5% off because he knew it wasn't a brand new one. More importantly, he was polite about asking.

I really get annoyed about people who think they 'deserve' a discount on something--especially people who feel that they're doing us a favor by taking scratched or dinged merchandise off our hands.

SC: But it's the flooooooor model! I should get a discount because it's uuuuuuused! And I'm taking it off your hands for youuuu!
Me: Yes, that would be why it's on clearance for 50% off the original price already. The price isn't going lower.
SC: You're a horrible store! You're going to go out of business like this!
Me: *mental sigh* Do you want it or not? It's the last one we have, and I doubt it will be here if you change your mind and decide you want it later. If you still want it, I'll call someone to bring it up for you.
SC: ...

[HawaiianShirts]

I think I haven't been sufficiently clear on what I mean by "bargainer." I am not refering to a bargain-hunter, someone shopping around for the best deal. What I meant was more along the lines of "hagglers" (or scammers, if you wish)

• People who ask for arbitrary discount "because they're spending a lot" regardless of how much they're actually making us (see the original post)

•People who blatantly disregard quantity limits, then throw a huge shit fit when we enfore said limits.

• People who want us to sweeten the pot with a free item (like this woman)

•Those looking to use invalid coupons (which definitely crosses into "scamming" territory, again, like these people in this story)

The honest bargain-hunter I DO NOT have an issue with.

We call them Maniacal Price Shoppers. Seriously. That's a term given to us by our district manager once upon a time. They hunt for good prices, then try to get the best deal combination out of one store by stretching the limits of price-matching concepts and demanding discounts or freebies just so one store gets their business.

I had one Maniacal Price Shopper once argue with me about monopolies. He thought that, if all the electronics sellers got together into one big company, they'd all combine their best deals into one fan-flaming-tastic sale. It was almost fun trying to explain to him that all those companies together would suddenly become a monopoly, which, aside from being illegal, could charge whatever outrageous price they wanted for their products and services because customers couldn't get them elsewhere. I gave up all hope for humanity when he said something about having a bachelors degree in business.

[CancelMyService]

Haggling is best left of swap meets and flea markets. You can't go in to a store (especially an electronics store that has razor thin margins) and decide to play "Let's Make a Deal". Sometimes there's open box stuff that is negotiable, but don't expect the store to make any concessions on that brand new unit.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Bargan hunters annoy the crap out of me too. I remember as a youngling we would have yard sales and my mom would sell a glass for say 30 cents and people would come up and offer a dime.

Yard sale shoppers were my first SCs

That's a yard sale though. You're trying to get rid of crap you have lying around the house and you don't have to worry about margins, commissions, profits or anything like that.

What's the difference if you sell your glass for 30 cents or 10 cents? Wouldn't you want to be rid of it so you didn't have to hang on to it?

[Dave1982]

but honestly, I think big ticket items should be able to be bargained on a little.

That's a misconception. For one thing, as has been pointed out already, when commission is involved, then you're basically askjing the clerk to give an out of pocket discount.

For another (at least when it comes to computers and the like) the margins are razor thin. I do not believe any computer at my store has a gross margin over 9%, and many are less than 5%. And that's GROSS margin. Net margin on all them is negative, so even if you buy a laptop at full price, if you don't buy anything with it we end up losing money, and we don't even work on commission.

Therefore there is NO room for haggling, period. At least for computers. I have no idea what the situation is like for, say, refrigerators.

[Banrion]

Look at it this way. High ticket items are usually sold on commission. The only "play" in the price is the commission that the salesman gets paid. ANYTIME you haggle successfully, the money that you saved came out of the salesman's pocket. Be it houses, cars, computers or appliances, the only difference is the amount of commission. On houses, realtors typically make a 3-5% commission. When a house is selling for half a million dollars, knocking 10k or so off isn't going to impoverish them. On cars, the commission is usually around 10%, still knocking a grand off a 45k vehicle won't kill the salesman, as long as he can still make the sale. When I worked at Circuit City, commissions weren't a percentage though, it was set on each item and built into the retail price. Computers the commission was usually about $25 - $45 dollars, which is not alot anyway, but to knock $50.00 off that computer would mean that I wouldn't get a commission on that machine, and I would only do it if it meant selling the service plan which was $50.00 in my pocket as well as other add-ons like a printer and software. I'm sure appliances work much the same way.

[Rubystars]

If it's a car or a house, then yes.

On a Computer? You have a long list of manufacturers to choose from. Don't like their pricing? Go to another competitor.

Yes, that's true. What about major appliances though?

[Hon'ya-chan]

Would it always be sucky to haggle? On something as expensive as a computer, I would think it would be acceptable to do that in certain circumstances.

If it's a car or a house, then yes.

On a Computer? You have a long list of manufacturers to choose from. Don't like their pricing? Go to another competitor.

[Mark Healey]

Bargan hunters annoy the crap out of me too. I remember as a youngling we would have yard sales and my mom would sell a glass for say 30 cents and people would come up and offer a dime.

Yard sale shoppers were my first SCs

I'm a yard sale shopper. They can be good but unreliable sources for books. I LOVE it when the other book buyers haggle. The key to sucessful yard sale shopping it to be there first. I'll let the other guy haggle for a better price while I'm cleaning out two or more sales.

[WorkAtBBuy]

Would it always be sucky to haggle? On something as expensive as a computer, I would think it would be acceptable to do that in certain circumstances.

I mean, it pisses me off to no end when people try to haggle over something cheap like groceries, or shoes, but honestly, I think big ticket items should be able to be bargained on a little.

I do hate it when people turn 'haggling' into lying and scheming and being underhanded though. That's most of what I see when people haggle, so I can see why it gets a bad name.

Sorry, but there's no haggling on ANY items. NONE. The prices are set by the companies and corporate. Sell them any lower than authorized, and we could be in HUGE trouble.

[Rubystars]

Would it always be sucky to haggle? On something as expensive as a computer, I would think it would be acceptable to do that in certain circumstances.

I mean, it pisses me off to no end when people try to haggle over something cheap like groceries, or shoes, but honestly, I think big ticket items should be able to be bargained on a little.

I do hate it when people turn 'haggling' into lying and scheming and being underhanded though. That's most of what I see when people haggle, so I can see why it gets a bad name.

[Dave1982]

You want to do what to me? I am a bargain hunter, and if I know I can get a better deal somewhere else. Then I am going to go to them.

They were trying to scam you. There is a huge difference between scamming and bargain hunting.

I understand that, but as I said, I don't think these people were true scammers, else they wouldn't have bought anything.

I think I haven't been sufficiently clear on what I mean by "bargainer." I am not refering to a bargain-hunter, someone shopping around for the best deal. What I meant was more along the lines of "hagglers" (or scammers, if you wish)

• People who ask for arbitrary discount "because they're spending a lot" regardless of how much they're actually making us (see the original post)

•People who blatantly disregard quantity limits, then throw a huge shit fit when we enfore said limits.

• People who want us to sweeten the pot with a free item (like this woman)

•Those looking to use invalid coupons (which definitely crosses into "scamming" territory, again, like these people in this story)

The honest bargain-hunter I DO NOT have an issue with.