This thread reminded me again of why I love selling at the farmers market.
Not only are 99% of my customers flat-out wonderful to deal with but they astoundingly honest too.
We have a new 14 year old volunteer-Lucy- working the booth with us (she’s paid in chicken for the family and I buy her breakfast) and sometimes she doesn’t quite get making change. I don’t sweat it though because the clients are exceptionally patient in working with Lucy to get it right.
I even had a guy come back two weeks later to let me know she’d priced something incorrectly and he hadn’t caught the error until he got home.
When I made a mistake recently and thanked the customer for being so honest, he just grinned and said "Why would I want to screw my famer over?’
I like doing business that way.
Sometimes. Most of the time they just won’t admit a mistake, or take responsibility and do strom off. I’ve also noticed customers who throw a hissy over anything as an apparent part of thier plan. They think if they get mad and act really offended they will get a discount or some bonus thrown in. Once I’ve identified them I just give them a refund, take back out merchandise and send them on thier way. No additional discount and now you have buy what you stopped in for all over again.
We’ve had to call the police on a few occasions because of screaming and insisting that they get thier way.
That said, don’t lose faith in humanity. The assholes are the exception to the rule. Most customers are good, and some are just great. It’s just the assholes stand out in memory and sometimes you need to vent.
I had two people make errors in giving change while I was on on vacation. Both in my favour and both were astounded when I corrected them.
Makes me wonder how much it happens here and I just don’t notice. I was a little more paranoid about checking while I was away, all those silly american bills look exactly the same!
As a slight tangent, in recent years I’ve noticed a cultural difference when dealing with folks who ain’t from around here, and what is common and acceptable, and what might be an insult. The manager at my current location tends not to haggle much. He’ll offer what he things is a good deal , or a good trade and that’s it. Some customers have been offended , even insulted, by his unwillingness to haggle more. I suppose sometimes that’s ego. Coming from a retail background where there was little or no haggling I’ve gradually gotten used to it, but I want it to be quick and congenial. I’ve had some customers who use the nag method of haggling {which shall henceforth be known as naggling} They feel certain they can hound you into a better deal. Not appreciated. Or those who can’t stop haggling even after we’ve reached an agreement.
IOW, they get to the register and now want to argue about the sales tax, or claim I made a deal I never actually made. Also not appreciated. My initial reaction to that was “asshole” but after several encounters I believe it’s just one technique used by certain people who come from a culture where haggling {or naggling} is expected and a point of personal pride. I also think language barriers cause some of the frustration for customers and us.
One of my favorite haggling with an asshole stories.
A salesman friend of mine was dealing with a man and his adolescent son, several times of a period of a few hours. The guy is showing his boy the fine art of negotiating a good deal. Finally he gives the guy a better deal than he normally would just to get rid of him.
{I never said naggling never ever works}
When they get to the register the man hands over the money and my friend says, there’s sales tax.
“Oh , that price was out the door , that’s what you said.”
No sir, I’m sorry, that’s not what I said, I can’t do that price out the door.
“But that’s the agreement we just made.”
“No sir, I’m sorry if there was a misunderstanding, but I can’t do that price out the door. You have to pay sales tax if you want it”
{because we have to pay the sales tax, so an out the door price means we’re taking less}
“Well , I want to speak to your manager because you’re going back on the deal you made.”
The manager shows up and the man goes into his rant. My friend walks to the back because now he’s pissed and is concerned he’ll say something he shouldn’t.
The owner of this independent store is in the back and sees his top salesperson is pissed and asks about it, and is told the story. The owner has a reputation for a low tolerance for bullshit.
The owner comes out as the manger is doing the “out the door” deal, and snatches the recipt from the mangers hand before he hands it to the customer.
“No Deal” he announces, tearing up the receipt.
The customer is dumbfounded.
" We made you a great deal, if you don’t want it then take a hike"
“Aren’t you going to stick by your employees word?”
" Yes I am, my employee says you’re a fucking asshole and I believe him"
Oh, for just a glimpse of that customers face at that moment.
I had this problem with a mattress topper I bought from Costco. I may even have pitted it before. Bought a queen size topper, but got a twin sized one in the box. Fortunately, I realized something was amiss before I unfurled it (good because I would never have gotten it back in the box then). Of course, I went to exchange it. I was being honest, but the clerk was very dubious about my story. I don’t blame her, though. I would have been suspicious too. But Costco and I were both the victims of some asshole third party.
This happened when we were buying a used car. To be fair, we had assumed the sales tax was already computed into the price agreed upon. So we got the guy to take another $500 off the sales price, which he did.
Then the damn thing didn’t pass inspection. Cost to fix? $500. Guess it all evened out, karma-wise.
My dad is a complete ass to retail clerks and salespeople, and did stuff like this all the time with me in tow, usually while I was cringing in embarrassment. I would have loved it so much if someone had done this to him. Just once would have been enough.
I can see a couple of people behaving like assholes in that story, but the customer isn’t one of them.
If the salesman agreed to an out-the-door price, then he can’t come back and renege as if he didn’t know about sales tax.
“Out the door” means I give you the money and I am out the door with my new car. It does not mean “oh by the way, here’s another $500 you have to kick in.”
In cosmosdan’s story it wasn’t clear if the salesman had let the customer believe they were negotiating out the door price, or if it was never mentioned. If it was never mentioned, I’d have to assume that it would have sales tax added to the negotiated price.
I had that happen when I bought my car. I negotiated out the door price with the salesman, because that’s all I cared about. When I got to the finance guys office it was magically not the out the door price. I pointed at the quote sheet which said in big letters “OTD” next to my price. He said they never negotiate out the door price, so I picked up my checkbook, started to leave, and told him that was too bad he was going back on the deal, because I was ready to buy the car. He went out and talked with the salesman and sales manager for a while and came back and decided to make a special exception and give me my OTD price, because that’s what they’d agreed to on the signed quote sheet.
Yeah, my interpretation was that the customer claimed the salesman had said it was an out-the-door price, but the salesman had actually never said any such thing.
There is the class of customer who goes in asking for a custom color to be blended, then complains that it doesn’t look right and they don’t want it. The hardware stores usually sigh and put it in the discount bin -wherupon the customer comes back in a day or two and buy the discounted paint.
Now I like to pick up the bad mix paint can (they aren’t all from dishonest customers - sometimes the mixes don’t get it right for real) for one reason or another and I couple of times the clerk has stated that the sleazy customer is gonna be sad because I bought his cheap paint before he did.
Does paint last a long time in the can? I was under the impression that it does.
If i ran a hardware store, i would make a point of not putting any customer-refused blends on the shelf for at least six months after the customer returned it, just to head off this sort of bullshit.
I think what ends up happening in cases like this, at least some of the time, is that each party to the negotiation makes certain assumptions, and then negotiates based on those assumptions.
So, it’s possible that the question of sales tax never actuallycomes up during the discussion. The salesperson assumes that the sales tax will be added onto to the negotiated price, while the customer assumes that the negotiated price includes the sales tax. No-one realizes the discrepancy in their assumptions until it comes time to pay.
I should add, by the way, that as a customer in a retail store, i would assume that any price given to me by a sales associate would need to have sales tax added. After all, the prices listed on the merchandise don’t include sales tax, so why would a discounted price include sales tax unless it explicitly says so.
If i see a TV for sale at $1,000 in a retail outlet, i know that my price at checkout will be $1,077.50, which includes a 7.25% state tax and a 0.5% local tax. If the salesman walked up to me while i was standing in front of the TV and said, “I can discount that to $900 if you want to buy it,” i would assume that i would still need to add 7.75% to the new price. I would not assume that the $900 included sales tax unless the salesperson explicitly said so.
All you have to do is add a little more colorant to each gallon or whatever, making each one different. It pisses them off right smartly when all “their” paint doesn’t match!
I’m not sure why your would assume the sales tax was already figured in. That needs to be made clear in the negotiation. No sales fliers or signs, no TV adds include sales tax unless that specifically stated. Customers should assume sales tax is not included and ask a direct question.
Is that including tax?
I’ve had many customers ask for a discount , and when I say no they say, how about you knock of the sales tax. Well, that’s asking for a discount and phrasing it differently. As a retailer we are required to pay sales tax on purchases made so if we do a “including tax” deal then we are selling for less and paying the tax ourselves.