Spill the beans... Shop assistants, what's your haggle policy?

Toptips

actually Apple Stores have an (unadvertised) price match policy. I found an iPod Touch in Asda then bought it at Apple on that basis - saved £38.:rotfl:

atmospheric77

Wanting to buy an expensive MP3 player in Comet (a few years ago admittedly) the salesman told me that if I could find it cheaper elsewhere, come back and he would match the price.

Why should I come back? If I take the time to shop around and find it cheaper, I'll buy it from the Retailer that was offering the best deal at the time.

robinthecooncil

I havent paid full price in Kwik Fit for years.

The first time I went in I checked the price of my tyres against Black Circle before I went - I mentioned this, and the price of each tyre dropped immediately to match it.

Add to that free brake pads as I had them fitted originally, plus coupons for half price MOT, balancing etc - I normally get around 20% off the annual service

Happy days

landsker

Well we've just done a deal with SCS sofas for a new G Plan three piece suite. G Plan are running a national 25% off promotion and for the pieces we chose the promotional price was £1952. Delivery is standard at £59, thus making a total of £2011. (Note: Furniture Village deliver free, so this is a good bargaining tool)
With quite gentle haggling, BUT for a cash/card payment NOT their "free" credit, we finished up at £1700, delivered.
A fair result, I think.

mrcow

x_samantha_x wrote: »

I work for a high end jeweler and we can't give discounts when people ask, buy a large amount of items at a high price or if the item is the last one and has to come from the display. We can only give discount through any promotions that are on, or to employees who work in the shopping mall in which the store is, but there is a lot of paperwork and information to be filled out, along with receipts having to be triple signed.
We can't change prices if an item is priced wrong either as it is not a breach of customer rights. The price on show is an invitation to buy at that price, not a fixed price for us to sell at.
Very strict.

Interesting because I was in Ernest Jones last Saturday and was told that if I spent over £500, they could offer me a discretionary discount.

(Unfortunately it was only £350 that I'm looking to spend, so am going to do it online instead for the 14% Quidco cashback).

Figgerty

I recently purchased a fridge freezer in JLP and tried to get a discount. I was spending £529 and thought I should chance a haggle. The staff member told me she was not authorised to give a discount unless the item was ex display or damaged. I then asked to speak to her supervisor and was told only the manager could authorise a discount and that would only be to someone who spends thousands. I'm afraid I paid for the FF and left.

A week later I checked their website and happened to notice that my FF was on sale for £479. I phoned the store and asked for a £50 refund. under their 'never knowingly undersold' promise and was then given the refund on my card - no fuss.

I think there are pluses and minuses with haggling. Mostly, only the boldest haggle, the meek pay the full price. If you fail, you have to be prepared to walk away and this is difficult if you want that particular item from that store. I wanted that particular FF and from that store so I caved in.

If the item can be bought in loads of similar retailers then haggle away and you may well get a discount. My most sucessful haggles was when I was buying fitted bedroom furniture and recarpeting the whole house. I saved thousands then but I was spending thousands.

Has anybody haggled sucessfully in large stores like JLP?

landsker

To follow up on this posting, I can now report that our suite arrived on time today.
The delivery service was impeccable, with not only a call an hour prior to the delivery, a team of three who carried the suite in, but also a call later in the day from the store to check that all was satisfactory.
All-in-all, this was a very good buying experience and based on this I would recommend SCS: certainly for a "famous name" branded suite or sofa such, as the GPlan we bought, where quality of the product is generally of a good standard.

Chickabiddybex

We don't haggle where I work unless someone wants to buy in bulk. Weirdly enough the ones buying in bulk never ask! The ones who ask are usually only buying two items. Some people get pretty angry when I don't haggle with them though. But I'm not surprised - we have the weirdest customers! Last week someone asked if he could have a huge discount because he can trace his heritage back to England for centuries. Like we charge people more for genetic diversity or something! As I said - some of our customers are so weird! But it keeps the job interesting I wouldn't swap them!

C_Mababejive

landsker wrote: »

Well we've just done a deal with SCS sofas for a new G Plan three piece suite. G Plan are running a national 25% off promotion and for the pieces we chose the promotional price was £1952. Delivery is standard at £59, thus making a total of £2011. (Note: Furniture Village deliver free, so this is a good bargaining tool)
With quite gentle haggling, BUT for a cash/card payment NOT their "free" credit, we finished up at £1700, delivered.
A fair result, I think.

Is it only me that finds it a little bizarre that companies charge delivery charges for large items?