I’m gonna pull the trigger on buying a pimpin’ Plasma TV at Best Buy. They just had a hefty price drop on the model I’ve been wanted for quite some time. The Pioneer PDP - 4341HD if you’re curious. Price tag of $3298 after mail-in rebate.
I’m going to package it with a nifty home theater system too, price tag of $580.
My parents are going to probably buy the same thing, so I was thinking that I’d be able to leverage a discount due to the combined total if I got both.
I went and felt one of the sales guys out and I see that Best buy is flexible on price, I’m guessing the average customer assumes that a store like Best Buy doesn’t do the car salesman thing on stuff like this. I’d assumed they didn’t until recently too.
Best Buy seems to have a cute little thing with Pioneer in that they are the only one who carries the PDP 4341, all other stores have a PDP 4345…identical in all respects as far as I can tell. I’ve read unsubstansiated rumors that this is just a Best Buy ploy to be able to refuse price-matches by having slightly different model numbers.
So, here’s the question. What tactic would you suggest I take when negotiating with them? Anyone successfully negotiated with Best Buy on big ticket items before? Advice welcomed and requested.
FWIW, I feel I’m a pretty savvy negotiator and am pretty knowledgable on the items in question due to alot of research. However, this isn’t that similar to the car salesman tactic. It’s not like there’s a ton of other brick and mortar stores out there who have the same item at this price, and the online ones are of dubious credibility in many cases. (Unauthorized resellers and whatnot)
Anytime I’m going to purchase a big-ticket item, I always check a site like Pricegrabber, print out the best deals, and bring the sheet along. Some places won’t budge on their price, some will at least price-match local competitors, and then there are those wonderful places that will to their damnedest to beat anything you bring in.
Using this method knocked the price on my 65" HD TV from $3500 to $2100. It can never hurt to give it a try.
I concur. It seems that I’ve never gone into a Best Buy without walking out angry. No one in there ever seems to know a damn thing about the products. That place sucks.
I agree that Best buy is a crappy place to shop. In many cases however it’s not a crappy place to buy. The point being, do your research and shopping elsewhere…the staff there is completely braindead and unhelpful. However, with many products…their prices cannot be beat. I’m hard pressed to find cheaper CDs, games and software. They usually have pretty good promotions, mail-in rebates while annoying often beat the best online prices. Plus for certain items, buying from a brick and mortar store and avoiding the shipping charges is necessary.
Its a flawed world where the WalMarts and Best Buys can save you some cash as long as you know what you’re getting when you do it. A deal with the Devil if you will. Plus, Best Buy beats the crap out of Circuit City as sad as that may be…
Since we all agree they suck…all the more reason to help me give them as little money as possible. I figure I can capitalize on the idiocy of the staff for a change here!