Haggling help

[bironacad]

I got 20% off my wedding bands and almost had wife to be leave, lol, 1978. My wife would not ask for a dime off then. One time she was ashamed of me haggling over a car price, I took her into the managers office and asked him if he would explain how it goes with sales and sticker prices and he said, "Anyone who pays the full sticker price is a fool." My wife has come a long way, now she would not think of paying full price on a big ticket item, she still lets me do the deal though. That being said there is a point were you want to keep the company you are dealing with in business so that she will be there when you need service.

OK advice:

Be polite don't give offense
Be well informed on the product's Pros and Cons and that of the competition's, the cons can be a bartering tool
My tractor has a CVT transmission most compacts have proven HST transmissions, people say.........people on this forum......
Patience
Shop around, have prices of comparable units.
Value, it has been said some know the cost of everything but the value of nothing.
More than one stop with the potential sales person take your time.
Be OK with walking away
I went on line to check prices on a particular wash machine found the lowest price then went with the ad to my local store that had a price match guarantee of 10% with the free delivery I brought my truck and got a little more off.

Not all things have large margins!

Enjoy the process.

The list can be added to forever.

and he told my wife only a fool would pay full sticker.....

 

[MoKelly]

I got 20% off my wedding bands and almost had wife to be leave, lol, 1978. My wife would not ask for a dime off then. One time she was ashamed of me haggling over a car price, I took her into the managers office and asked him if he would explain how it goes with sales and sticker prices and he said, "Anyone who pays the full sticker price is a fool."

And yet, that is how almost every big ticket item is marketed. Everything has a sticker price and almost nothing is ever sold at the sticker price. So, why would businesses frustrate their customers so much by doing business that way? Greed?

MoKelly

 

[jcliburn]

I bought the mower today. $4200 and free delivery (15 miles). List was $4499. I felt like the dealer moved far enough off list to make it worthwhile, but hey, what do I know? He held all the cards...

I feel good spending my money to help a local business, though, instead of a distant one.

The mower is awesome, by the way. It shaved a LOT of time off my previous mowing time. I guess I'm gonna have to sell my finish mower now.

Thanks for all your insight.

Jay

 

[kenmac]

I quit haggling in April of 1992 when I walked out on a deal on a new pickup truck and told them what to do with my down payment and it was not pretty. The sales manager caught up to me as I was leaving and offered me a really good deal. I took it, but never bought another vehicle there. I don't play games.

Now I only deal with two people, one for cars/trucks and one for tractors. I told them when I met them I don't haggle or play games, give me your best possible price and I will either take it or leave and DO NOT come up with a counter offer as I won't take it, so don't bother calling me.

I get a reasonable discount and great service dealing locally and if I pay a few extra bucks it is worth it for the extras I get on service, support and so on. My dealer will send a mechanic down for something simple and has dropped parts off for me when they were going to have someone in the area.

Some people love haggling, I hate it.

I'm with you. I won't haggle over price. I make an offer they take it or not. If not I leave & go elsewhere. Last vehicle I bought, the salesman & my wife had been dicussing price over the phone. My wife & I went to check out the vehicle. I asked the salesman the price. He said, I already told your wife the price over the phone. I told him he was no longer dealing with my wife he was dealing with me now. I told him what I would give for the vehicle & that we weren't going to go back & forth for an hr. He took my offer to the sales mgr & came back to me and said SOLD. I wrote a check & drove away

 

[bironacad]

I'm with you. I won't haggle over price. I make an offer they take it or not. If not I leave & go elsewhere. Last vehicle I bought, the salesman & my wife had been discussing price over the phone. My wife & I went to check out the vehicle. I asked the salesman the price. He said, I already told your wife the price over the phone. I told him he was no longer dealing with my wife he was dealing with me now. I told him what I would give for the vehicle & that we weren't going to go back & forth for an hr. He took my offer to the sales mgr & came back to me and said SOLD. I wrote a check & drove away

That is haggling in my books, perhaps not back and forth but a change from the base price to a new best price. Perhaps Haggling has the reputation to some of horse trading done as in the movie True Grit? It has varying degrees for me. I believe if you don't ask you don't get.

My father wanted a pick up truck, a very non confrontational man, he asked for a price and if the salesman had treated him like he was serious he would have paid the $17,000 on the spot that the salesman flippantly gave out for a stripped down base model truck. I asked my dad to let me see what I could do. Instead of a before tax, stripped down 1/2 ton pick up, I was able to get him a loaded 3/4 ton, metal flaked paint truck, with two full tanks of gas, plates and stickers out the door for the same $17,000. This was in 93 but you get the point, patience, comparison shopping, knowledge and the ability to ask for an informed price works. If that is haggling then I am in.

Here is another way of finding out car prices and I am sure there is an American equivalent:

Car Cost Canada - Home Page

People are making a living off negotiation techniques.
An economic axiom is to charge what the market will bare. During the height of the sub-prime challenges they were giving away automobiles, people were not buying and the prices went down. I can buy a tricked out truck now cheaper then I did in 2003. There definitely is price movement available.:thumbsup:

 

[Perplexed]

So it's really a buyer's market now as far as tractors go? The sales people at the three tractor dealers I visited last week - LS, Kubota, and NH - sure didn't act like it. It was more along the lines of "Are you buying now? No? OK, go ahead and look around - talk with you later!" Not so much at the LS dealer as at the other two dealers, though.

 

[TripleR]

That is haggling in my books, perhaps not back and forth but a change from the base price to a new best price. Perhaps Haggling has the reputation to some of horse trading done as in the movie True Grit? It has varying degrees for me. I believe if you don't ask you don't get.

We apparently have a different definition of haggling. My dad loved to haggle, he would do all the usual stuff, offers, counter offers, walking off the lot, spending time on the phone, going back and talking to the salesman. I get as good of deal as he did without all the hassle.

I tell them in advance, I simply don't play that. I do enough research to have a good idea of the fair value and accept the salesman and dealer have to make money. I don't look at this as a contest and my goal is not to milk the last possible savings, but to get a fair price that both of us can live with.

I had someone check the price on our last purchase. I then called and spoke to the salesman with whom I had done business before and got a price $6000 less than the price given to a relative. I am sure they would have eventually dropped the price for the relative, but I saved time and aggravation.

This works for me, but it took a long time for me to get here and I have done it all so to speak.

 

[TripleR]

So it's really a buyer's market now as far as tractors go? The sales people at the three tractor dealers I visited last week - LS, Kubota, and NH - sure didn't act like it. It was more along the lines of "Are you buying now? No? OK, go ahead and look around - talk with you later!" Not so much at the LS dealer as at the other two dealers, though.

Not in my area. In spite of the financial situation, as a whole tractors sell real well here. You can get some killer deals on cars/trucks, but not tractors.

 

[richamor]

I bought the mower today. $4200 and free delivery (15 miles). List was $4499. I felt like the dealer moved far enough off list to make it worthwhile, but hey, what do I know? He held all the cards...

I feel good spending my money to help a local business, though, instead of a distant one.

The mower is awesome, by the way. It shaved a LOT of time off my previous mowing time. I guess I'm gonna have to sell my finish mower now.

Thanks for all your insight.

Jay

You won't regret the purchase. And nope, you'll have no further need of that finish mower:laughing:
Congratulations on a dang fine piece of lawn equiptment. Enjoy!

Now.......WHERE'S THEM PICS!!!

 

[TripleR]

I bought the mower today. $4200 and free delivery (15 miles). List was $4499. I felt like the dealer moved far enough off list to make it worthwhile, but hey, what do I know? He held all the cards...

I feel good spending my money to help a local business, though, instead of a distant one.

The mower is awesome, by the way. It shaved a LOT of time off my previous mowing time. I guess I'm gonna have to sell my finish mower now.

Thanks for all your insight.

Jay

Congratulations on your new machine.:thumbsup: