duckDecoy:

 

Lizard1977:

 

But moreover, it bugs me that companies seem happy to raise prices (which is fair - everyone has increasing expenses) but it turns out those price rises aren't that necessary if you threaten to leave.  If they are able to offer me a lower price, why raise the price in the first instance? 

 

 

It's not all or nothing.  Most customers will just pay, they will let a few customers that complain slide and overall their revenue will increase. 

 

Granted, but it was more the mixed message side of things. 

"Hey, we have to raise our prices!"

"Okay, see ya!"

"Wait, we can actually lower them!"

That reminds me of a couple of years ago, when I was looking at changing power company. I found a new company was, I think, 12% cheaper. I contacted my current company and they told me the best they could do was 10% off. Naturally I chose to leave and switch to the new company. The original company then came back and offered a 15% discount.

alasta:

 

Salespeople who want to sell you an extended warranty and insist on arguing with you when you say no.

 

I had one of them at Noel Leeming who then proceeded to tell me all the things that were going to go wrong with my intended purchase that would require an extended warranty.

I had to tell him to stop because he was talking me out out buying it altogether!

BlueShift:

 

alasta:

 

Salespeople who want to sell you an extended warranty and insist on arguing with you when you say no.

 

 

I had one of them at Noel Leeming who then proceeded to tell me all the things that were going to go wrong with my intended purchase that would require an extended warranty.

 

I had to tell him to stop because he was talking me out out buying it altogether!

 

Precisely, I think I would have said something like, it sounds like your company is selling inferior products, perhaps I need to buy elsewhere. 

BlueShift:

alasta:

Salespeople who want to sell you an extended warranty and insist on arguing with you when you say no.

I had one of them at Noel Leeming who then proceeded to tell me all the things that were going to go wrong with my intended purchase that would require an extended warranty.

I had to tell him to stop because he was talking me out out buying it altogether!

I have a pretty standard way of dealing with that.

1) No thank you. I am not at all interested.

2) I have told you I am not interested.

3) I am not telling you again, if you persist, I'll ask for a new sales person.

I've never had to take it past 3 and almost every time it's rare to need 3. Most of the time don't even need 2. The second part of 1) needs to be said in a firmish tone. Not rude, just firm.

MadEngineer:

BlueShift:

 

I had one of them at Noel Leeming who then proceeded to tell me all the things that were going to go wrong with my intended purchase that would require an extended warranty.

 

I had to tell him to stop because he was talking me out out buying it altogether!

 

I haven’t had that for a few years now from them here in Palmy. The last time they asked they preceded the sales push with “Now I have to ask you this but…”. Harvey Normans however … gah they’re just horrible and you end up actually arguing with them.

Got my most recent Garmin watch from HN.  The assistant was putting the details into the system and asked if I wanted insurance cover for it.  I said that it's covered under Home Contents insurance.  Her next question was regarding the excess difference.  I said I couldn't recall the specific amount but that, like phones, it's covered by my policy for accidental loss anywhere in NZ.
She left it at that without pushing any further.

I get they have to ask as I think they get more commission from things like selling insurance or extended warranties than from the products in a lot of cases, but if they start to get pushy, I'm quite prepared to walk out, denying them not only the additional profit but the also sale as well.

networkn:

 

I have a pretty standard way of dealing with that.

 

1) No thank you. I am not at all interested.

 

2) I have told you I am not interested.

 

3) I am not telling you again, if you persist, I'll ask for a new sales person.

 

I've never had to take it past 3 and almost every time it's rare to need 3. Most of the time don't even need 2. The second part of 1) needs to be said in a firmish tone. Not rude, just firm.

 

Yes, I got to stage three with this guy. I had to be very firm with him. 

When I bought my Airpods Max the guy tried to sell me the extended warranty for $180, so I pointed out that Applecare is only $90 and I would be happy for him to sell me that instead as it provides telephone based tech support which I might find useful. He insisted that he could only sell me the in-house warranty so after some arguing he eventually gave in.

The irony is that I tried to buy Applecare directly from Apple when I got home and they don't seem to want to sell it to me!

Behodar:

 

That reminds me of a couple of years ago, when I was looking at changing power company. I found a new company was, I think, 12% cheaper. I contacted my current company and they told me the best they could do was 10% off. Naturally I chose to leave and switch to the new company. The original company then came back and offered a 15% discount.

 

Think I might have posted about this at the time, but we were with one power company who offered 2-3 "power shouts" a year where you would get a block of 4,6, or 8 hours that were free and had to book it for a specific date and time. Had one at some point last year and thought we had booked it for a Sunday afternoon, so blasted everything in that time (heater, washer, dryer, dehumidifier, meal prep etc), then on the Monday it showed up on the app that it had been allocated to during the day on the Friday when we'd both been at work and not home to take advantage of it, so the credit was negligible. Queried it with them and they said we must have chosen Friday and there was nothing they could do to change it after the time. Had actually recently been looking at quotes from other companies so we said that was disappointing and we might look to change and the response was "sorry you feel that way." We switched that day so for the sake of what turned out to only be about a $17 credit they weren't interested in keeping a customer of 9+ years.

Geektastic: The wind today.

It turned my dog shed upside down.
...

I hope the dogs are OK?