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[MSE Jenny]

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You can save £100s haggling in high street stores or for broadband contracts, insurance and more. The first point of call is read the full Haggling guide. Then, this discussion is specifically to

Discuss/suggest more top haggling tips

If you want to discuss airport parking in general please go to the Haggling guide Discussion.

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[Brian_Stanbury]

If the store will not reduce any further, I have found that by saying something like 'well it appears we can't do business' and then turning to leave, on more occasions than not the assistant/floor manager or whatever, usually says something like 'hold on, I'll just have a word with the Manager' and low and behold you get something else knocked off. It is the turning away that does the trick because the store then has to make a decision - reduce the price or loose the sale. Try it, you'll be surprised.

[mommasue]

I bought a full set of curtains and poles yesterday at Sainsbury's Homebase. I'm using them to cut down on heat loss to save fuel, one is going to cover the front door on cold winter nights, as insulation is a problem in our old cottage. I asked for discount and got a 'No way', but I persisted, then someone suggested I take out a store card, entitling me to 20% discount on first puchase. I saved nearly £25, paid for goods straight away! No hassle! I won't ever use the card for credit purchase, but it entitles me to points on future buys and further discounts!

[BeeUK]

The most important thing is to always be prepared to walk away from the deal, I learnt to haggle from my Dad, a serial haggler!

He is renowned in a luggage shop in Spain after going back in every day to get the luggage set he wanted at "his" price, he got them in the end with a huge discount, maybe they just wanted to get rid of him.

This is especially useful when buying cars, you have to be prepared to leave it until the next day, or next weekend, etc... The dealer will know that you are interested and that potentially it could be a sale for them, and if they are good, they'll start to chase you for the deal, and when they do start to phone you up offering different things you can really make a killing on discounts/freebies/etc...

In fact this can be applied to anything where the sale person is commission based!


Clothes in outlet stores are also good places for good discounts, even though they are already reduced they are there because the company wants rid, you hold the cards and can ask for more money off, especially if they are slight seconds! On 2 ocassions this year I've secured more discount on clothing with a slight mark or stain on them, both times the stain has washed out and the extra money is still in my bank account!


Also, get examples of what your item costs elsewhere, this is so easy these days with the internet at your disposal. Take a print out of the price into another shop, tell them you can get it for less than they are charging and you want them to beat it! They'll know you are obviously serious and usually won't want a competitor to get your money!

[Sunny2]

I also love haggling. Some you win and some you lose. I needed to buy a King size bed and 3 weeks ago, as a girl on a mission, I went to Dreams Beds determined to get a good deal. I saw a decent pocket sprung at about £600 in the sale, and explained to the salesman that I wanted to buy a bed that day and I had cash in hand to do the deal.

He offered me free delivery (£30 saving) and a years' guarantee (which I didn't want - although having read Martin's tips, I'll keep that one up my sleeve for the future). I agreed on the free delivery, plus asked for a £50 discount on the sale price, which he wouldn't go for. Instead he offered 10% off their very expensive bedding .

The whole thing was cheeky / friendly - but he would not budge! I was really surprised that he was holding out for the sake of £50 and free delivery and as a result he lost the sale.

I went to another store where we got the same pocket sprung bed from the same manufacturer, a packet of two pillows (not great quality buy ok) AND free delivery all at £450. Plus, as we are very wary at the moment of paying for expensive things in advance and the seeing the company go into receivership before delivery, the shop even agreed that we could put a cash deposit only of £200 and the rest paid COD. They could not have been more helpful.
As someone said earlier... be prepared to walk away... there's always a better deal around the corner.

[neilpost]

Wouldn't bother with Comet - they are a bunch of t055er5.

Their Coventry (Gallagher) branch refused to price match me against Dixon's for a microwave that was £19 cheaper than their crappy VAT free offer, as they said Dixons was an on-line retailer without shops and was nothing to do with DRG PLC who own Curry's, Currys.Digital (ex Dixon's stores), and Pixmania UK amongst other British brands.

So I just bought it from Dixon's anyway, but thanks to Comet's stonewalling I couldn't do until the next day, when €overnight I get a further 10% off mailling from Dixon's



Cheers Comet !!

[The Miser]

If your supplier writes quoting a higher price for renewal/ change in price and won't budge on the phone visit the store. My wife has an O2 contract (bought from her employer) and they wanted to triple the monthly subscription from [almost nothing] to bring it in line with their products. A phone call didn't help but the shop extended the contract at the old price with no problem.

Worth repeating an earlier point; be friendly and smiling when haggling. We were just offered a large trolley load of near date Tesco vegetables (that is about 6 shelves plus the top, packed full), for £30 just to get it off their hands or individual items at "name your price". Bulk? it needed a chest freezer!

[Glorious]

Was buying a new car a year ago so once we'd been for a test drive I told the salesman I would think about it. Then called up my staff car buying scheme and asked them for lowest quote. Took this back to salesman and he beat it and added tank of diesel.

Took this back to staff scheme, they beat it again and threw in free mats as well. Salesman couldn't get close to this price so I went with staff scheme - saving £2500.

The point here is that the car showroom came way down from the forecourt price so it's worth haggling.

Also bought a PS3 from a local games shop last Xmas. The price on this was set in stone, but I haggled for a free game (£40) and the blu ray remote (£17).

And this year a friend and I haggled £100 each off a new Panasonic HD tv. Unforunately mine had a fault so I took it back and got a higher spec Pioneer tv. The faulty set gave me some room to haggle and I saved over £300 on the price and got a 5 year warranty.

I wouldn't consider not haggling over these kind of items now, especially as it's now a buyer's market - just make sure you know all the best prices available and know what extras can be thrown in.

[iKennett]

Originally Posted by Glorious

I wouldn't consider not haggling over these kind of items now, especially as it's now a buyer's market - just make sure you know all the best prices available and know what extras can be thrown in.

Has anyone tried it in restaurants, asking for something a little extra.. even it well knows chains?

I had a £1 off in Asda today because they ran out of Coke Zero!

[katies mum]

Is it possible to haggle in John Lewis? I want computer stuff costing about £720. I did ring saying if I travel to you shop now what is best price you will do, and they say cos they offer low prices they are the prices they sell at but they will match another shop if the prices are lower as long as you let them know first so they can check!! trouble is the spec I want is only available through them! Any ideas, or should I wait until January sales?

[buxtonrabbitgreen]

I phoned the AA to cancel my membership as there was a quidco deal on the RAC and the AA price matched it. I really wasn't expecting this. I have never haggled for anything. So I can testify to the threat of leaving working. Not long after my talktalk contract was up for renewal. They phoned me and offered a wireless router to get me to stay. I said I already had one so what else could they offer (getting into haggling by now) so they gave me 3 months free.
I will be doing the same as everything comes up for renewal. It really is a buyers market now.
Many years ago I had a patner who never paid the full price for anything. At the time I was just embarresed. ie going into a furninture chain and getting hundreds off for cash. But now I think I would do it myself.

[hammodt]

I was after a robotic vacuum cleaner, but didn't really fancy paying the £200 price tag.

I told the B+Q staff member that I'd cycled several miles to get to the store, which was true!

I haggled with him for a while, and pointed out that the item was an end of line, and already on managers special, so they should be keen to clear it.

I then pointed out I was a poor student (hence I'd cycled!) and could do with a discount.

The man seemed amused by my haggling antics, and the various reasons I'd given for why he should reduce the price!

I then told him it was my birthday. After all the other tactics I'd used, I don't think he actually believed it was my birthday - quite understandably! I whipped out my ID card and proved it was my birthday. 30 seconds later, the embarassed and shocked assistant had given me the £200 vacuum cleaner for £20!!!

[UltraCheap]

I would like to haggle the price of an item at John Lewis. The same item is being sold online at Boots for 25% off. I have printed out a copy of the website advertising 25% off of the item and I plan on taking this in to John Lewis to see if I can use it to encourage them to also reduce their stock by 25%. I realise that they don't price match online stock, but perhaps they are hungry enough for business considering that their sales have dropped by 13%?

Any recommendations on how I can pull this off?

Many thanks!

[sweetstudent]

I may be wrong here, but i believe that John Lewis does not price match internet prices

[UltraCheap]

Originally Posted by sweetstudent

I may be wrong here, but i believe that John Lewis does not price match internet prices

It's true, they don't which is a shame. I am not asking them to price match using their "never knowingly undersold" scheme, but rather offering to take my business to them instead of the competition. I would rather purchase the item at John Lewis because I like the company and I like the fact that they stand behind the products they sell (excellent returns policy if something goes wrong).

[Miles16v]

Originally Posted by neilpost

Wouldn't bother with Comet - they are a bunch of t055er5.

Their Coventry (Gallagher) branch refused to price match me against Dixon's for a microwave that was £19 cheaper than their crappy VAT free offer, as they said Dixons was an on-line retailer without shops and was nothing to do with DRG PLC who own Curry's, Currys.Digital (ex Dixon's stores), and Pixmania UK amongst other British brands.

So I just bought it from Dixon's anyway, but thanks to Comet's stonewalling I couldn't do until the next day, when €overnight I get a further 10% off mailling from Dixon's



Cheers Comet !!

I bought a new LCD at Richer Sounds on boxing day (where they will do a deal if they can - offered to throw in a stand or do a half price wall bracket on certain models), then went away to ponder where in my front room it would go.

We decided what type of stand we wanted so went to get it and this happened:

Richer Sounds - £100, but will do it for £80, but out of stock.
Dixons - £150, but will do it half price if I buy a TV, but nothing else.
Panasonic / Sony Centre's - £150 upwards.
Comet - £85, but got them to do it for £70, just gave them a 'its £60 in Richer Sounds but they're out of stock'.

The stand in all 4 of these shops was, as far as I could tell, identical.

[we are always skint]

does anyone have any advice for me, im not very good at haggling

i want to buy a pink laptop for my dd in the next week or so and pc world only have the refurbished ones left which is totally fine by me as you still get the warranty etc, but what isn't fine is that the price is £250 and my friend bought the exact same one brand new last january for £200 on promotion, i phoned them and he said there is no way they will budge on the price so i just said ok i will look elsewhere and that was that. i would ideally like to get her the pcworld one but i know its not worth being ripped off for

any advice or shall i just leave it?

[wattapain]

Hi, I love the thought of haggling and am amazed at the super results you guys have achieved.
But I've never had the 'cheek' to try.
But I really would like to. I am just about to book a holiday villa for a hol in Sept with ownersdirect.com.
I spoke to the owner yesterday, confirming availability etc, but as we are going to book it for 2 weeks, do you thinl it's likely she might give us a discount for the 2nd week?

[Miles16v]

Maybe, maybe not. Just try.

It will probably depend on whether they know they'll be able to get someone else in if they dont take your offer.

If you say 'will you do me a discount for the second week?', its easy for them to just say 'no', because they know your already interested.

But dont leave it there! You need to be prepared to come straight back with a 'would you do it for £x (pick a price you think reasonable, dont take the mick, but if your paying, say £500 a week, I think its very reasonable to offer £850/£900 for 2 weeks etc).

Be nice about it and you've got nothing to lose.

[Cameron]

But!

From the video –Suzi Becker says “£69 quids worth of stuff for £47 pound – I call that a bargain”. I disagree, its only a bargain if :-
it’s the one you wanted!
you use it!
and you needed it!

Now sadly my negotiation skills are not my strong point, however thanks to Suzi and Martin, I WILL BE PRACTISING!

Right here we go, a plasma screen......

it’s the one you wanted! – YES SONY WOOPER DOOPER 84”
will you use it! – YES TO WATCH MATIN LEWIS
and you needed it! – yyyyyyy......NO! – I've got a TV.

Darn!!!!!! But a real bargain!