Great ‘salespeople, tell us the best time to haggle’ Hunt

RMCL · 2 July 2008 at 5:51PM

This really works and I have friends in the trade that have offered their biggest discounts on new plate days...

If you know what you want, call the garage in the mid morning of the 1st of March or 1st of September and ask for a test drive in the mid afternoon that day. Everybody is picking up their new plate cars and nobody is buying.

We were offered a hudge trade in for our car and a wopping discount off the list price.... nobody is looking to buy on these days so the sales teams are normally desperate to get a deal...

kinglarry · 2 July 2008 at 6:04PM

I know that if you do an online car insurance quote with Swinton and/or Bullseye, their sales are counted up at the end of the month. I called one of the advisors and he said he'd be happy to drop the price as much as he could because he needed a couple more sales to hit his target! Saved me a further £40!

Enterprise_1701C · 2 July 2008 at 6:37PM

kinglarry wrote: »

I know that if you do an online car insurance quote with Swinton and/or Bullseye, their sales are counted up at the end of the month. I called one of the advisors and he said he'd be happy to drop the price as much as he could because he needed a couple more sales to hit his target! Saved me a further £40!

So that's why my son's working till about 7 o'clock on the last day of the month! Seriously though, don't always expect this - it's about 50/50 really.

scottp_2 · 2 July 2008 at 7:11PM

Car Insurance - I did this a week ago and got a cracking deal on my car insurance.

Go on a comparison website (I used quotezone.com) and put all your details in. Make sure that you DO NOT tick the box saying you don't want sales calls, as this allows brokers to call you and beg for your business. Each of them do not know how much you were quoted by other companies on the site. All the ones that rung me were from the middle of the table (I am assuming the top ones do not employ any/as many sales people).
I did this around 5.30 in the evening, giving the companies plenty of time to call that night. When they call asking what the best quote you got is, tell them a bit less than the cheapest (not what their company quoted) and also tell them it has been verified, as the quotes on those websites are worth nothing until you have confirmed all your details with the company.
Go through the process of confirming your details and get the quote. Tell them you will have to think about it and ask what time they close, and also get the persons name.
If they say they close at 8, call back at 7.50 and ask to speak to the person you did earlier (or even better, ask them to call you then). Make sure you sound interested but keep asking questions (such as level of cover, exclusions etc) to drag the call out well past 8. Then ask what the best price they have if you sign up tonight. Bearing in mind the seller has spent loads of time on you and is well past home time now. If they don't budge, ask the seller to speak to their manager to see if he will do a discount so they can all go home.
This worked for me, I managed to beat the cheapest quote on quotezone and then get a £150 discount on top because the manager wanted to get off. I also got better cover than the others (legal protection, courtesy car, small excess) just from saying things like "does that include legal protection" and the seller saying "yeah we can do it for that price".

Also, as a new driver, I got them to include my named driver experience as 1 yr NCB, so after this year I will have 2 years. Won't be bad at 19!

Hope that helps!

Linda's_Man · 2 July 2008 at 10:14PM

Two years ago, on a Monday, I bought a new computer (ex display as it was the only one left) from PC World. When I got it home they hadn't removed the demonstration software properly and I couldn't use it. I took it back on Tuesday for a refund because I felt I wouldn't be able to trust it. On entering the store I was handed a magazine with a 10% discount voucher inside for computers in my price range. I was given a full refund and the sales assistant came round the store with me again to try and find another machine that suited my requirements. We couldn't find one, so when I said it was a shame about the original computer I had bought, the sales assistant said if I really wanted that one she would guarantee that the demo would be removed properly and I could try it before buying this time. I agreed and tried the machine and all was fine. When I came to pay she said that Tuesday was price change day so she would check the price for me. Sure enough it had been reduced because they were no longer stocking that model. She also spotted my magazine and took out the 10% discount voucher. I ended up saving about £200 by buying back the exact machine I had taken in for a refund.
Good fortune, yeh!!!:T

I found PC World's customer service to be very good. Also, the sales staff were not on commission so they wanted to sell you the correct item for you and not the dearest, so that you would go back.

bubblybabe · 2 July 2008 at 11:04PM

mr flib -what a fantastic post so helpful !!!!!

which is the Mazda site -youn got an absolutely brill price -where was yours from ?

thankyou for all your help tje best post I have ever read on this site!!

x

zipman23 · 2 July 2008 at 11:07PM

Sarah88 wrote: »

In response to Cheap Sky, their current offer is only £16/month for sky plus! And you can take advantage of their free broadband and home phone once you're a sky customer so you save loads of money in comarison to getting them all seperately!

My girlfriend rang Sky up to cancel the movies and the sport package (we've got the full whack plus Setanta and she still complains theres nowt to watch!) stating that we were cutting down due to inflation rises blah blah. The girl said fine thats done! No haggling no nothing!

We were told we were paying up until 19th June so after that they would be removed. The sport was only meant to be for the summer while there is no footy on though. Come the 22nd, they were both still on so I rang them but after being told the queue was 25mins long I hung up. I rang them back the other day to ask why it still hadn't been taken off and they said WE were supposed to ring THEM back on the 19th and be on the phone as they took them off our package. Is that right or are they pulling my pants down?

gillyv · 2 July 2008 at 11:38PM

To the poster about Sky: we recently removed movies from our Sky account and they did it instantly, no problems. Yes I think they were pulling your pants down!!!!

mrflib · 3 July 2008 at 12:43AM

Hi Bubbly, glad you liked the post.

The community site I use most can be found at http://www.mx-5.com/

The forums are great.

I bought my car from the Southport branch - but remember, wait until month/quarter end before getting your quote.

snaveuk · 3 July 2008 at 7:53AM

I've had mixed results getting decent retention deals with o2 over the years... followed all the advice posted elsewhere on this site

I'm left wandering thou, does o2 and the other mobile companies give its call centre workers similar targets, like those listed above for car dealerships? So it'd be better to renew on certain days? original

Great ‘salespeople, tell us the best time to haggle’ Hunt

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free