Being "That Guy" (Part Two)

This guy is, in my opinion, more annoying than "I know you have it" guy. This is the haggler.

We'll call this next gentleman Frank. Frank comes in looking to buy a printer. "Excellent", I think to myself, a chance to get some extra money with an extended warranty. I walk up to Frank and go through the usual "how are you today, what questions can I answer for you blah blah" stuff. Frank tells me he's looking for a color laser printer for his small business. We take a walk around all the new printers and I tell him about a few of the models that would meet his needs. Frank doesn't look happy though! Trying to keep the sale going I ask him if any models caught his eye. He tells me a couple of them did, but the price was too high.

Right here I should have seen a problem and let the sale go. Generally someone who is looking for electronics for their small business is more concerned with quality over price. Frank hadn't even asked me specifics about the models he was interested in.

Anyway, wanting to save the sale I take him over to the old display models we put on clearance. Frank eyes up the models (still not asking me any specifics) for a few minutes and seems like he settled on one. This is where Frank shows his true motives.

First thing he asks me is if this is a previously owned model. I tell him that all the models are previous displays but are in good condition (we just sent back the ones that didn't work or looked like crap). He pulls the price tag off the shelf, shows it to me, and simply says, "How much can you take off this price then?". Caught a little off guard I tell him (in a confused voice), "Nothing...".

At this point Frank must have thought he had me in some kind of weird trap or something because he proceeds to explain to me the exact thing I had just explained to him, "It's an old display model though and I should get more off of it.". I looked at Frank in a kind of "are you an idiot" way and said, "It's discounted already because it was a display model.". Now that Frank had realized I escaped his "trap" he fell back on the "buddy" defense. "Oh, well you can take a little extra off for me right?".

Truth is if Frank wouldn't have "told" me to take more money off the printer I probably would have tried to work the price down for him, but he decided to try and work me. Bad move.

Seeing this was going to be an epic battle I decided to put on my game face. "Nope, that's the lowest I can go with the price.". Normally people just give in now and either take the price as-is or take their leave. Not Frank though. He was determined to get this price lower. He starts examining the printer pointing out scuffs and marks to me with me simply replying, "Yep, that's why it's marked down.". However, Frank was not to be stopped.

"Do you have the manuals and cords?", he says to me. "I'll go in back and check for you.", I reply. I come back out with the manuals in-hand and saw a slight bit of disappointment on Frank's face as he begins examining the printer more. Then Frank spots his way out! "This doesn't have a power cord.", he says to me. I look around the shelf and it in fact doesn't have a power cord. Frank now gets a sly voice thinking he's bested me! "Well now I'm going to need to buy a power cord. How much will you give me off the price for that?". I tell Frank we'll go over to a computer and look how much a power cord for the machine costs and give him the same amount off the price of the printer.

However, that's not good enough for Frank. "Well I think you should give me some extra off because I'm going to have to go through all the trouble of ordering the cord and waiting for it to arrive.".

Again, if Frank hadn't told me what to do I may have been a little more leniant on the price, but apparently Frank hadn't learned his lesson yet.

"I can't give you anymore off the price but we can make the order here. If you need a printer immediately you can buy a different printer. I'll put your printer on hold and when your power cord arrives you can just return the other printer and we'll put it toward this printer.". Not the nicest move on my part but Frank was trying to work me, and I don't appreciate that.

Frank again looked a little disappointed at my response and decided we'd go see how much the cord was. We searched through the manufacturer's website until we found the correct cord for him. Immediately upon seeing it I knew it was a standard electronic power cord (the kind you plug into your PC power supply or your monitor).

Now it was time for me to get even. "Good news!", I tell Frank, "This is a standard power cord which we happen to have in-store for less than the manufacturer.". Already knowing what Frank was going to say I had him right in the palm of my hand.

A little side-note, at this point I didn't really care about the sale anymore, I was out for vengeance with Frank.

Frank responded just how I knew he would "I want the manufacturer's brand though so we'll just take that off the price of the printer and I'll get a different one in the meantime.". This is where Frank thought he was clever. He assumed I'd go for that, he'd return the other printer a few days later and buy a cheaper cord from somewhere. Already one step ahead I said to Frank, "Well here's the problem. Since we carry the cord in-store all I can do is give you the cord for free with the printer. I can't make any other deals." (this way it would ring up free and he couldn't return it). Frank's face somewhat dropped in defeat. He had been bested.

Then Frank did something that completely surprised me. "Ok, I'll take the printer and your cord.", he said to me. In the end, Frank left with his printer and free power cord and ended up getting the extended warranty on it. The epic battle had come to a conclusion and I believe Frank learned you have to be careful who you choose to try to haggle with.