Some people associated with churches/religious/charitable organizations are extremely pushy about what they want, and will try to guilt others into giving them a price break, or even free stuff. It doesn’t matter to them whether or not the person they’re talking to even has the authority to give a discount or price break, the clerk is a great big mean old poopiehead if she doesn’t give out merchandise for free, or if she insists on charging sales tax.
When I was working at a clothing store, we used to have a woman who would regularly come in and try to get us to sell her stuff at our cost, because she was “doing a great work” and she was buying the clothes as her uniform. Thing is, we didn’t sell uniforms. The clothes we sold were regular clothes, although if one bought a white shirt/blouse and black pants, that’s what most casinos required their dealers to wear. Clothing meant for uniforms generally won’t be considered regular street wear, though, and all of our clothes could be worn for general purposes. However, this woman tried to get us to consider underwear as uniforms. Sorry, lady, maybe you could try to claim them as a uniform if you’re a stripper.
When I was working at a convenience/liquor/deli, we had one guy trying to convince us to donate sandwiches and other foodstuffs to him, he said he was running an outreach program. No matter how many times we told him that he’d have to talk to the owner, he never quit trying to get us to donate “just a couple” of sub sandwiches to his cause. We finally banned him from the store because he’d apply a five finger discount to anything that caught his eye.
I read about the founder of Boy’s Town, and his resource aquisition. I was particularly repulsed by the story of how he decided that a woman in his area didn’t NEED a second vehicle, and how he pressured her to donate it to his organization. Apparently he just wouldn’t take no for an answer. The biographer spoke about this with great admiration for Flanagan’s determination to get that station wagon from its rightful owner. However, what I gathered is that Flanagan put enormous pressure in the form of guilt on her.
90% of the time it’s not a problem if people ask politiely for a some reasonable discount or for us to throw something in. We also get a lot of local groups and charities asking for donations of merchandise. No problem. Some people are a real pain in the ass about it. I’ve run into customers from other cultures who seem to think they can nag you into a discount. I’ll offer a modest discount and instead of saying thank you they keep asking for something more, or they play games at the register by claiming you said tax included when you didn’t. It’s that 10% that are not reasonable that are a pain to deal with. My method is to smile and say, “well that’s the best I can do, you let me know if we can help you” , and walk away.
It bugs me a little when the implication is that because it’s for “the Lord” we should give a better discount. Even then it depends on thier attitude. If nice church folks ask if I can do any better no problem. If they are pushy and imply it’s the moral thing to do because after all, it’s “our Lord” I get annoyed. They don’t know me or my beliefs. “But Dan, it’s for the Lord” won’t work. Often that’s used after I’ve already offered what I think is a reasonable deal with some discount or something thrown in. I guess it’s a pet peeve of mine. When I’ve offered a discount and a good deal decide if you want it, don’t continue to push and push for a better price.
Yep, largely due to the specifics of my business and the rural location. Last year I had a competitor ask me why “Joe” no longer gave me his business (he had just been in to see competitor). I explained that Joe was a pain in the ass. A few days later, Joe asked if I would do business with him again, as competitor told him to get lost, he didn’t need his headaches.
I’ve also fired a customer only to have him realize that it made his life more complicated to drive an extra 45 minutes.
But, I am sort of pigheaded about this and have never taken anyone back. I treat my good customers very well. I have gotten up in the middle of the night when necessary, something my competition would never do. The downside is that I have very little tolerance for assholes.
It’s also one of the pleasures of having your own business or working for a small independent company. Most large coorperations are so worried about offending a potential customer that they have allowed and encouraged the jerks and assholes to abuse thier employees. I’ve seen a rise in the last few years of customers who think by creating drama and making accusations they can get a discount or something for nothing.
I had a regular who I think actually liked me but for some reason he thought I enjoyed his constant haggling and unreasonable offers, even though I repeatedly asked him to not waste my time. I had a hard time being really pissed at the guy but I eventually told him. “I’m going to name a price , you can decide yes or no, and that’s the end of our conversation, I have other things to do” Still, most of the time I had to turn and walk away because he couldn’t help himself. Haggling is a real thing for some people.
I think customers do need to be taught that they can decide who they want to do business with but brow beating and other horrible behaviour does not need to be tolerated.
You gotta figure that X percent of the public is just not going to get it. I worked in a video store, and it’s shocking how many otherwise normal people have some kind of mental gap that makes them unable to figure out how video rental works. Anything that has any remote possibility of being misinterpreted eventually will be misinterpreted.
If I were you, I would phrase it “Diagnosis $49.00- includes one hour of labor and one DVD back-up.”
Make it clear that they will pay for the diagnosis, but soften the blow by making it look like they are also getting some extra stuff.
We try hard to make the signs clear and leave little room to be misinterpreted but the problem is people DO NOT READ, or they just read the part that looks good.
Several times when merchandise is close together we identify what specifically is on sale and people always ALWAYS bring up the wrong item and insist it’s on sale. Half of them say “Oh that’s very misleading”
Several bins of kitchen utensils and some on sale 2 for 1. The items on sale clearly listed in large letters on the 2 for 1 sign but one lady still got mad that she could just get any two.
Well that’s misleading to have that sign there and then tell us at the register this one doesn’t count"
Ma’am the ones that are 2 for 1 are written on the sign in large letters. I’m not sure how we could make it any clearer"
She munbled something and walked off in disgust.
we had a coupon good for 1 free hour onsite consultation for small businesses.
It actually said, does not apply to repair labor, only for a free hour of q&a time with a tech. We stopped that coupon because the only people who came in with it were people who expected it to be a free repair, period. A couple people with 3-4 hour onsite jobs did ask for the coupon, we usually would explain why it does not apply then knock off $20 or something for them. If it was a simple 1 hour fix, nope no freebie. One guy tried to claim he would not pay because he was planning on using the coupon. When I told him his options were:
pay
I take computer till he can pay
call Opal
police
How did you explain the difference between labour and consultation. I take onsite to mean you went to them right? Probably to advise on netwworking etc. right?
Correct, it actually said businesses only on it as well…there was no fine print, it was all the same size.
Basically the intent was to grab new small business owners before they went shopping for computers. Get a chance to slip in, say hi, and let them pick my brain about their computer needs for a while. I regularly come across people buying older point of sale hardware only to find out it wont work with 64 bit operating systems, things like that. On a couple of occasions I have been able to intercept a small biz before they went computer shopping and have been able to point them at proper machines or build them to their needs. One place wanted to buy dell because they were cheaper than mine…problem was they were not cheaper if you counted having me reload them as XP professional after the fact. I got to sell 4 machines that day.
It’s crazy. Once they see the “free hour” their brain turns off and then haled of them have the nerve to blame the merchant because they didn’t bother to read it correctly. “Oh that’s misleading”
I remember at Circuit City we had a the difference plus an extra 10% of the difference low price guarantee. So we gave you the lowest price and then a little more. Seems fair right? If there was a $20 difference you got $22 back.
Except fairly often a customer would want 10% off the price not the difference in prices. When I explained it one customer said “Oh that’s a rip off”
“Well, no sir it’s not a rip off just because you didn’t understand how it worked”
One Bozo bought something at HH Greggs and later we had it on sale so he expected us to give him the difference between what he paid them and what we had it on sale for.
He got all pissy when we explained it only applied to items purchased from us.
In the kitchen utensil sign I mentioned above I actually used a slightly bigger font to list the items to try and avoid confusion and the lady still bitched. How come she could read the smaller font that said 2 for 1 but not the larger font that listed which items applied?
We offered an MTSU 10% discount which clearly stated on regularly priced items
Most people got that when we explained it. One lady haggled me into a previous sale price which was 15% off the regular price. After I agreed to give her the better price she whipped out her MTSU id for an additional 10% and I politley explained since she was already getting 15% she was getting a better price and I couldn’t give her an additional 10%.
Well then I don’t want it.
ok Ma’am.
And give me the name of your boss I want to call him.
Ok Ma’am
I knew my boss would just tell her I was right.
Our prices are already discounted on 98% of everything. We were selling Keen shoes that were normally $100 , on sale for $60, special sale, $30 bucks and still one guy left because he couldn’t get his 10%. FFS mister. It’s a $100 pair of shoes for $30 and you’re going to walk over $3. Screw you. I hope your size is gone when you stop being a jerk and come back to get them.
Seriously. I was part of a multi-ethnic team (no boss) and once in a while an uptight WASPy old biddy would be a problem and they’d say,* “Psst, Digs, we could use a White Alpha Male over here…”* Or tell me that they need an angry WASP (which I was glad to be).
But it was sad how the same info from Middle-Aged Caucasian Who’d Been To A Country Club would trump that from a Girl Genius Of Dubious Ethnicity.
I’m convinced that the vast majority of these people are just trying it to get it to work. It’s a tactic.
I’m sure there are just dumb people out there but usually people who make a dumb mistake don’t try to play you.
Normal exchange:
Me: “I’d like to use this coupon.”
Cashier: “Sorry, this coupon expired months ago.”
Me: “Dang it. Well, never mind then.”
Asshat exchange:
Asshat: “I’d like to use this coupon.”
Cashier: “Sorry, this coupon expired months ago.”
Asshat: “Give it to me anyway! Or I’ll talk to your manager and yell and stomp my feet like a child! The customer is always right, raaaaaugh!”
Several coupons I have done say something to the extent of “please advise us of this coupon at the time of booking so that they may be properly noted on your appointment information and properly credited.”