haggling at John Lewis

danran

I managed to get through the crowds at my local John Lewis. I wanted to buy a dishwasher . I asked the sales lady what deal she could offer as I was paying with cash She looked at me as though she's stepped in something unpleasant and told me John Lewis never do offers like that. I said I'd read about it on this site, but she told me I was wrong. So I went to Currys instead!

ses6jwg

danran wrote: »

I managed to get through the crowds at my local John Lewis. I wanted to buy a dishwasher . I asked the sales lady what deal she could offer as I was paying with cash She looked at me as though she's stepped in something unpleasant and told me John Lewis never do offers like that. I said I'd read about it on this site, but she told me I was wrong. So I went to Currys instead!

What did you expect they are a national chain store and the woman you spoke to was probably a sales assistant on close to minimum wage with absolutely no power over pricing which is set by head management.

No offence but I used to work in Woolworths and when people used to come up to me and "haggle" I really did wonder what the hell they were on and whether they thought they had stumbled into a Moroccan Bazaar.

John Lewis do a price match service, however it is at the managers discretion.

[Deleted User]

ses6jwg wrote: »

John Lewis do a price match service, however it is at the managers discretion.

The pricematch policy is pretty common knowledge - seeing as their slogan is "Never Knowingly Undersold"...

...I think the OP was talking about straight haggling - "Hello, I'd like a discount".

mrbrightside842

I used to work on a till in tesco, and people used to want discount on their shopping if they paid cash! I never understood it at all!

mrbrightside842

danran wrote: »

I managed to get through the crowds at my local John Lewis. I wanted to buy a dishwasher . I asked the sales lady what deal she could offer as I was paying with cash She looked at me as though she's stepped in something unpleasant and told me John Lewis never do offers like that. I said I'd read about it on this site, but she told me I was wrong. So I went to Currys instead!

If it was cheaper in Curry's, and they pricematched, why didn't you just tell her the price in Curry's for her to price match? Or were you expecting her to say 'well Curry's sell it cheaper, so we'll give it to you at that price?'. I think the deals with the pricematching mean that you have to do the homework yourself!

skybluearmyontour

I work in retail and I do wonder what customers hope to achieve when they moan to me about prices and such. We don't set the prices... Absolutely no control. Even get told what to put in the sale even if we know we have hundreds of something we'd never sell, if they don't want it in the sale we have to follow their opinion.

C_Mababejive

One doesnt haggle at John Lewis...

emmell

danran wrote: »

I managed to get through the crowds at my local John Lewis. I wanted to buy a dishwasher . I asked the sales lady what deal she could offer as I was paying with cash She looked at me as though she's stepped in something unpleasant and told me John Lewis never do offers like that. I said I'd read about it on this site, but she told me I was wrong. So I went to Currys instead!

And did you manage to haggle at Currys?
ML.

thatsfabulous

Maybe it doesnt happen in john lewis however she shouldnt have looked at you like that and told you your wrong as they have now insulted a customer and lost a sale.
You would have thought in the current climate that she would have told you that is the price however if you have found it cheaper then they may be able to price match.

dehaani

When I worked in Currys, we could haggle a bit. Sometimes we'd do a deal because business was slow but that was rare.

Eight deals out of ten were to get a warranty. One out of ten because the customer spent A LOT. Another one out of ten would be price matching.

We never, EVER in all my years there did a deal for cash. It makes no difference to Currys if you pay by cash or card. They prefer if you take credit but will rarely do a deal to sign you up.

Cash might make a difference to a small shop but to Currys, it's all the same and to be honest, it's tiring when every second customer wants a cash discount.

If you want to get a good deal at Currys, show interest in the pay monthly warranty. Don't show too much interest, and I'm not saying to take it but you might take it for a month and then cancel just to get a good deal. It is pay as you go.

Begize

My Mum used to work in a decorating (paint / wallpaper etc) shop and they offered a 2.5% discount for paying cash as that's the commision they paid to the credit card companies if people paid by card.

I'm sure there was some challenge to the supermarkets about this a while ago where someone said that they should be able to get the same discount by paying cash, or at least someone paying by card should be charged 2.5% more. I think the supermarkets arguement was that they just absorbed it as part of their core costs and so they didn't need to offer a discount.

I remember our local Morrisons started to print a disclaimer on the bottom of the receipts saying that the total price you paid included a 2.5% surcharge for paying by card, even if you didn't.

As for John Lewis, my Dad wanted a particular Sony TV and DVD recorder. He checked the prices online and the saw the TV in John Lewis for about £30 more - the recorder was the same price. He asked about price match and they said they didn't do it for online, the salesman did offer him a free 5 year extended warranty. When he said he was after a DVD recorder too and told them the model, they didn't have that one, but had the next model up the range instead. They did if for the same price as the one he wanted originally, gave him another 5 year warranty on that, and through in a free HDMI cable (probably worth about £5 but the same type Currys charge £20 for!).