Great Best Places To Haggle Hunt

alexjohnson

Places with low price guarantees really annoy me. In practice they just charge the "recommended" price, and push off the leg-work to the customer. Dixons Group are particularly bad at this as their service is so terrible, but so are John Lewis - though at least with them I think they're a decent shop. However, I was looking for a DAB radio and saw the one I wanted - out of stock - on Currys' website. Bizarrely, they were the cheapest (probabaly why they were out of stock). I went into John Lewis to haggle - it was a £100 versus £90 so worth a mini-blush - and actually they were really sniffy - said they don't match internet prices. That's fair enough - if you're running a full service department store on Oxford Street I do appreciate you have costs, and don't want everyone going to some fly by night warehouse as a comparison. But they wouldn't even match Currys online, which to me is a bit cheeky to the point of being misleading when you plaster "Never Knowingly Undersold" all over your plastic bags. So, I bought it on eBay.

Man-Alive

Recently bought a new double bed from Harvey's in the January sales.
The golden oldie 'what's your best price for cash?' worked a treat and got me down from £590 to £500 with free delivery.

You don't get - if you don't ask!

salesguy

Jewellers - I have very successfully haggled in Ernest Jones, Leslie Davies and Goldsmiths. Discounts range from 10% to 22%, just for asking politely or using the old "but it's a little over my budget" line.

No problems paying wiht CC either.

SalesGuy

bagpuss

Used to work for a large opticians and so used to see the invoices so know how much lens and even these so called designer frames cost (by the way they are usually just manufactured under licence for the name by the other frame manufacturers).

Anyway the point of this is DO haggle at the opticians as they have such a large markup on their specs that is always worth asking for a discount and really you should get 20% if not more. My staff discount was 60% and I got free eye tests too, so if you are buying specs then ask for the discount and the free sight test (assuming you haven't followed martin's advice and got a free one from D&A).

Also you should be aware that you can take your prescription to any optician and you do not have to buy from the one you had your test done!

Hope that this helps someone.

fluffyhelen

Let's see..

I have an NUS student card so I get 10% off in TopShop, Whittards etc. already.

I've managed to negotiate free delivery on a knocked-down TV from Dixons. 28" Sony Trinitron reduced from something mad to about £150 and then I got them to give me free delivery on it because it had no box.
Even though they had originally said they couldn't deliver it for me! Ha.a.a..

Erm..

I'm currently in a fight with New Look over a £55 coat on which all the buttons came off because they'd been attached so badly. They sent a £5 voucher, £5!!

Co-Op won't give discounts at all. I had a bread bin (!) fall onto my head from where it had been put on a freezer cabinet badly. I was OK but when I asked for a discount/vouchers for my shopping they refused to give it! Psh.

LB1985

alexjohnson wrote:

That's fair enough - if you're running a full service department store on Oxford Street I do appreciate you have costs, and don't want everyone going to some fly by night warehouse as a comparison. But they wouldn't even match Currys online, which to me is a bit cheeky to the point of being misleading when you plaster "Never Knowingly Undersold" all over your plastic bags. So, I bought it on eBay.

John Lewis do make it clear that internet prices are not matched in the leaflets in store and on their website. It's been the policy for a number of years now.

golddustmedia

salesguy wrote:

Jewellers - I have very successfully haggled in Ernest Jones, Leslie Davies and Goldsmiths. Discounts range from 10% to 22%, just for asking politely or using the old "but it's a little over my budget" line.

No problems paying wiht CC either.

SalesGuy

Norwich Union staff get 30% off at Goldsmiths as Goldsmiths are an insurance replacement supplier to Norwich Union. If they can give them 30% off I'm sure it can be blagged...

Edna_Bucket_2

bagpuss wrote:

...then ask for the discount and the free sight test (assuming you haven't followed martin's advice and got a free one from D&A).

Oi - don't give him the credit for that advice! Mr L just picked up on it and pastered it all over the email circular...

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=135129

Lorraine_Turner

I've just bought a new kitchen at a knock-down price. After researching prices with different suppliers, including trade suppliers such as Howdens, I went into MFI and haggled them down even further by telling them I'm a property developer (true actually) and asking for their "best price". I got the kitchen planned for free on the computer, and a breakdown of the final price.

Then I took the quote to my local B&Q in Brighton, who at the moment are saying they'll match any price on kitchens and bathrooms and will then knock off an extra 10% (other branches may well be doing this). Initially they came out as £4 more expensive than MFI. A protracted discussion followed, the assistant compared the B&Q and MFI prices for every item, then called the manager. The manager knocked 10% off plus a few pounds extra: total discount £150. I placed the order. The next day it turned out that the stainless steel sink I'd ordered was out of stock apart from the sink on display, which was perfect, but I managed to negotiate a further discount with the sales assistant. She then went back to the manager and complained about having to enter a reduction on each price manually, and in the end convinced him to let me have 15% off across the board to save admin hassles. Total discount: £200. I'm going to do the same with the bathroom for the new house I'm doing up.

I usually play several suppliers against each other for the best price, whatever I'm buying. I've done it with bathrooms, plumbers, electricians, decorators, furnishings, electrical goods, estate agents, printers etc. I even did it with a pair of cufflinks last weekend. I use any one or a combination of: "What's your best price?", "This has got a mark on it/it's faulty", "If I buy two can I have a discount?". Then, depending on what I'm offered, I'll accept it, or haggle some more if I think the discount isn't generous enough. If I'm sure I can still do better elsewhere, I'll then ask them to print off the quote or write it on a compliment slip, then I take it somewhere else and ask them to beat it. And so on.

Incidentally, I'd still like to give the MFI man some business at some point. He was really quick and helpful when he planned the kitchen for me, but £200 off at B&Q was too irresistible to turn down.

jenny_jordan

I saved about £80 at Jessops by using their little known online price matching policy. A friendly assistant told me to go home and search online for cheaper prices for the camera model I wanted, and take in a print outs of a few examples of cheaper prices I could find online, as they will match prices from certain sites (ask in store for more details!).

As electricals are often a lot cheaper online, but of course there's a risk factor involved in buying from a site rather than a physical shop that you can take things back to if there's a problem, this was a win-win approach.