High Street Haggling Discussion

Minky_2

I've just got myself a bit of a bargain me thinks. I was looking to buy a 40" full HD plus an upscaling DVD player

Bought a 40" Samsung HD LCD for £479 from Comet. Asked for a deal but they said no as it was already on offer and head office had starting to complain about too many stores giving discounts on items that were already on deal.

I was also looking to buy an upscaling DVD player for about £60 but saw an upscaling surround sound cinema system for around £150 so asked if they'd do a deal if I bought it with the telly. Still not really interested.

Then I followed Martin's advice about offering to buy one of their warranties. The guy went away and came back saying that he'd normally do me 10% off the cinema system if I bought the warranty but as the system I wanted was the last one he do me 50% off if I too the warranty!!! Result!

So I've got the TV for full price but full surrond sound system (with DVD player) for £75, free delivery and a 5-year for the price of 3-year warranty (if I want to keep it) or I can cancel within 45 days so no cost.

Happy days!

qbazdz

Hi guys,

I've been planning to do this for ages now and since it's Christmas coming, I thought I will get myself a nice present I am after a Nikon d700 body, but as it is sooo expensive (although I can afford it) I want to buy only one lens with it. I decided that the best choice would be the 50mm prime from Nikon.

At the moment the dslr body is for about 1750 and the lens for about 250 (depending on the version).

I recently flew from Stanstead and have seen that they had it for 1680 which was a nice bargain already but I am still not satisfied

What do you suggest me to do?
There is a few places on the net where you can buy it cheaper than 1750 and obviously likes of Dixons, Currys have it much more expensive but with price match thing.
I live not too far away from a big and reliable camera store (Park Cameras) so I thought about going there and trying to get a deal when buying the bundle...
Honestly, Anything below the 1900 for this set is make me ridiculously happy

Any suggestions are more than welcome!!

Volvic

^Just ask. For me, I've had better results buying bundles from sites like eBay...you still get the Warranty.

What do you guys think of my chances trying to haggle on a PS3 or XBox between December 20th and 30th?

Little_John

I have had some sucess haggleing usually get a decent price in mind from the net and then go to a local store usually an independant and make them an offer to buy said item at what ever price I feel is right. Now I know online stores have less overheads etc so I dont go asing for huge discounts as the shop has stuff to pay for but it has been said before if the item is sat in their store or store room it is costing them money its better to have £700 with about £50 proffit for a TV than to have it sat there and eventualy have to sell it in the sale for £650 makeing no money.

I ask for a discount almost no matter what I buy, subway, mcdonalds, cinema tickets or snacks, never mind just on large purchases, they can always say no but the companies that already have a discount system in place say for students will usually give that discount.

I did the same for my new camera, found a decent price and then went to a shop and asked for it at that price and I was sucessfull. Camera bodys dont seem to drop in price much untill theay are superceded by a newer model in fact lenses are similar very little discount is given. The guys selling on ebay are usually importing from Hong Kong or the US and there is a risk of VAT and import duty at customs. £1750 for the D700 is a good price and the 50mm f/1.4 (not the G version) lens can be got for about £115 from Jacobs who do have physical stores. I'm a canon user so don't quite understand the nikon lettering which is crop sensors and which are full frame but I think the D700 can use the crop lenses anyway. I just spent over £2K with a company called flash camera on ebay, a user called Kerso and I can't fault his service sent special delivery and received within 4 working days even with the postal problems. I couldn't beat their prices but he is mainly a canon seller contact him and see if he has any nikon kit and I got a UK invoice so no customs fees or anything.

changingminds

I both want to support local shops and get a good price. So I find the best price in the big shops or online and then go to local shops and ask if they can match it. If they can't I ask what they can do. If they're not way out, I'll buy from them.

I don't mind paying a bit more locally, but I'm not going to pay lots more.

Dave (changingminds.org)

stokegal

wookie wrote: »

my lucky mum has just recieved a huge tax rebate into several £0000s and thought as the saving rates are crap she might as well treat herself to a new car. She went down to her local vauxhall dealer, chose a car with £7500 on the window. It was 1 year old very low miles. I went in to see the rep as moral support for my mum and was gob smacked. Mum said what will you do the car for cash. The rep said £6500. Mum just got up from her seat and started to walk out of the show room. Wait wait he said. What do you want to pay he said. £4500. His and my jaws hit the floor. Cut a long story short, after some phone calls she got the deal for £4500 cash, with plenty of extras, servicing and mats ect, The rep did say they have not sold a car for at least 5 days and ours, although a loss it was a sale. The main reason being the finance companys are not giving out the loans. Bless my mum for a 70yr old she did hold her ground. So its worth a haggle regardless of how huge or how small it is.

Wookie - can you go car shopping or me please?? Me and the OH travelled 30 miles to go and view a car in Birmingham and were really interested, the window price was £5991 - asked about price marching as we'd seen the same car but a year old but with lower milage and loads more extras for £5599 - was told that because it wasn't the same age then they wouldn't price match and under no terms would they even discount it by £1... Needless to say we walked out (my un-mse OH stropped out as he loved the car and would have paid the window price) and are still looking.. with no joy...

redzhell

Wow, I've been inspired with all this haggling! Has anyone tried haggling on Amazon? I have done on Ebay as I know they can send you a modified invoice with the discounted amount but I don't know if this would work on Amazon?

philipsw

I am pleased to say I chalked up a small consumer victory in Homebase recently - and was inspired to do so because of this haggling article.

We are in the process of redoing our bathroom and saw some tiles a week ago at £7.99/pack. We knew there was a '10%' weekend the next week and had other stuff to buy then, so we decided to wait to buy the tiles with the discount. Imagine our surprise when at the 10% weekend, the tiles had gone up to £12.99/pack! So instead of saving 80p/pack, it was going to cost us an extra almost £4/pack!

Your article emboldened me to question it at the customer services, and after a certain amount of discussion we managed to get the tiles for the original price. So it is always worth asking!

bluenoseam

i make very short work of hagglers, the price on the ticket is subject to a number of factors, wide ranging & fairly important for a number of reasons.

1 - it's based primarily on the dealer price & the subsequent factors involved (i.e. VAT, administration & overheads) - these are not something which as a company we can do anything about. We cannot turn round to our suppliers and say "gonna knock something off the delivery" etc, certainly can't turn round to the government and ask them to knock something off the VAT.

2 - the reason goods are priced is to allow a fair system across the estate, we're a large chain business with over 300 locations in the UK, we cannot have a system in place where you have a postcode lottery on pricing.

3 - the business has certain overheads which it must cover, i.e. rent, rates, staffing costs. Not to bleat on about things, but good customer service (which i provide) costs a good, honest wage for those who deliver it - and believe me, we're in no way paid excessive amounts. We as staff do not get paid comission for large scale items (consoles/ipods) and i know probably better than anyone the margins involved in these goods given the length of time i have worked with them.

4 - we reflect the value of the goods on sale in the price, if you're unhappy with the price on the ticket then simply put you do not have to purchase it, i personally believe for a good 75% of the products in our shop we're priced fairly. The other 25% which i don't believe are priced fairly is dictated by the companies who issue them - Apple being one, a well known multi-national company with a well recognised figurehead being the other. (for the record, i'm not talking about Ronald McDonald here - think the other "evil empire")

When being asked "is that your best price" simple answer, yes it is. there is no discussion or debate on this, i am not what i'd consider to be a "nippy sweetie" type, i simply say it is. If a customer decides to get petulent with me then that's their right to do so - doesn't mean i'm paid to accept that simply that i pity their small minded decision to refuse to shop where they wont get a discount on a fairly priced product. In my retail career i have given precisely £0 in discounts for the simple reason every time i discount something i am screwing myself - not shareholders, not the company but myself. For every time i hurt the margin on goods i lessen the chance of me getting a fair and decent wage for the services, knowledge & willingness i bring to the customer. If i'm not being paid what i consider to be a fair wage then i'm less inclined to be pleasant (every customer is greeted & spoken to as i would like to be myself - before i'm a retailer, i am a customer) and certainly less inclined to help.

The whole thing with haggling is that you forget that real people often times will suffer as a direct result of it, how would any of you enjoy it if i told you your pay is being frozen for the next 12 months because someone got 10% off their purchase in store today? i'm guessing you'd be pretty annoyed, i'm guessing you'd also find it difficult knowing that while prices for goods have risen your income hasn't.

and for the record, that doesn't make it "poor service" - that makes it looking after the interests of a business and helping keep the thousands we employ off the dole queue, which in turn means the government doesn't have to spend more money on benefits in turn raising your taxes further.

colintve

I found a Freeview PVR on Richers Sounds at £199. Comet had it for £229. Comet is slightly closer where I live, so I reserved on line and phoned the store number, obviously being a call centre. The operator confirmed I had one reserved and that it was in stock.

I mentioned the cheaper price at Richer and asked about price match. The operator told me they would sort it out in store.

I drove to Comet, collected my unit and asked about the price match. The assistant called the female manager, who very firmly told me they dont price match with Richer Sounds, only Currys and PC World and a few other big names were mentioned.

I bought the unit anyway, as it was quite a trek to Richer from there, and thought I would either return it to Comet for a refund and get it from Richer later perhaps, or write to Comet head office. I actually dont know my legal rights with regard the price promise though.

Also, surely the price promise would be a complete waste of time if the really big names like Currys and Comet got together and agreed prices. Looking at the big two's web sites, their prices seem amazingly close all the time, if not exactly. Makes me think they maybe are in cohoots with each other and that someone should investigate.

Can I take Comet to a tribunal or court over the price match, or can they just dismiss it like that. In which case, should you and Watchdog and all the others be telling everyone not to relax on shopping around just because of a price match.