Haggling

[rainysparadigm]

There was a topic on 20/20 about haggling. So I was wondering, has anyone here haggled with commercial sales and succeeded? What did you do/say to persuade them? What sort of discount did you get?

I say commercial because things like yard sales and craigslist are a given.

DH haggled a second (new) nightstand from the furniture company when we were buying our bedroom set. On top of the discounts that were already in place, they added on the $89 stand for $19. All he did really was ask. And smile. lol But he kinda has that effect on people.

[amandajane]

I got a good discount on some photography equipment yesterday. I'm a student so asked if they had student discount, they don't per se, but gave me some anyway. It's got to be worth asking :0)

[lucille]

I have had good luck haggling on furniture. We have a big used & vintage furniture store in town, they are open to haggling more so when something has been on the floor for a while.

With new furniture stores sometimes the thing they are willing to throw in for free are things like services. Free delivery is pretty easy to get. I would start with a larger request like money off and talk them down to the free delivery.

Furniture outlet stores that are owned by the larger furniture store are good candidates for bargaining. Furniture stores also put discount or will on mismatched items. They have the mentality that a fully matched set is desirable. I would never have a fully matched set of everything so those odd alone pieces are prime for haggling.

Asking for a discount for a flaw when you really want a repair works too. I bought a new chair that was already a huge steal but one leg was loose (the screw needed tightening) and it had a scratch on the arm. They tightened the leg and used a furniture repair pen on the arm and you can't tell. I bought a $300 pair of designer pants for $19 because the zipper was broken. I asked them for more off because the zipper was broken and they offered to replace the zipper for free. This was at Nordstroms rack. They had the zipper replaced in about 15 minutes.

[Milehimama]

I very often get 10% extra off books with marked covers or bent corners. (If only there was a used bookstore around here...)

[Green Girl]

It never hurts to ask, I've received discounts from home improvement companies (especially if getting more than one thing done, or done in off-season), discounts on appliances if you take the floor model, or if you are buying more than one appliance at once. The suggestions about furniture or damaged goods are good ones too. The worst that can happen if you ask is they say no, and the best can be that you save money or get better services.

[rstlne]

I asked for a loyalty discount from Sprint and got 15% off my monthly bill.

[Xin Lu]

I wrote this a while ago:

http://baglady.dreamhosters.com/2007...always-haggle/

I think you can do it anywhere. As long as you're polite about it and you're truly interested in making a deal, you can get discounts just by asking.

[spedteacher]

I got my sewing machine several years ago with a good haggle at a major department store. They were the store where we had bought our major appliances for years, though in a different state. When I decided to buy the sewing machine, I took the ad in with me, they were out of the advertised machine. I found the next model up in price, offered to take the floor model for the advertised price on the lesser machine they didn't have, asked to speak to the dept manager when told "no" and politely asked him for the same deal, sure enough, they gave me the machine for the sale price of the cheaper model, saving me almost half the price!

I also got our materess at a well know discount store (___Mart) for about half price, I went to my local store to buy it, found them out of stock, called the next nearest store and was told they had it, and when I checked the price, they quoted an even lower price than I expected. When I got to the store, the matress was there, but 100.00 more than I expected. I asked what happened to the price I was quoted, apparently they had misquoted but since I had called and driven over to get it, they gave it to me for the lesser price. I think I actually got our queen bed for the twin size price!

I had read that you should always haggle, but rarely have the nerve, but my own experience shows that it can work very well, even where you would least expect it.

Good Luck!