Warning if Shopping this 4th of July
Last night I was online getting ready to buy some Polk Audio Speakers for my living room from Crutchfield.com. I had done some quick research last week on the speakers and was ready to pull the trigger when to my suprise the price had jumped almost $100 dollars. Last week the price was $179 for the pair of RC801 in ceiling speakers, last night they were $249, and now this morning they are $149 ($100 discount).
However, I had compared prices with Circuit city and their price was $229 last week and $329 this week. I thought maybe it was just those speakers, so I checked the price on a set of Boston Acoustics I was looking at last week. Circuit City had them for $179 last week and they are now listed for $269.
Just a word of caution, prices may have been raised this weekend for non-sale items to make up for the big sales on other products.
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I don’t want to email support, give me an 800# number!
Ever purchase or use a service and have a question and the only support you can find is email? I know I have run across this problem for a lot of online companies. The obvious reason is cost. Running 800 support can cost $.02 per minute or more plus agent time. Email support can cost 60-85% less. It is not rocket science to figure out what method companies will push. Email is ok at most of the time, but there are those instances when you just want to talk to someone. Well, keep this site handy: hardtofind800numbers.com. They may have the number you are looking for when you need to talk to someone (that is if you can navigate through the menus of computer voices).
Do you have any good 800#’s to share?
Double Dip, its OK I promise!
One of my first posts I mentioned a site call Mypoints.com. I was suggesting a friend to sign up for this site and he asked, “can I use my rewards American Express”, off course. Actually, this is a great idea.
If you are not family with Mypoints, they offer points from purchases at 100’s of retailers like Target, Home Depot, Macy’s, Travel companies, home and car loan companies, etc. The service if free (word of warning you get a lot of emails so use a non-primary address or flag them to be put in a folder). For example, one of the current deals is from Target, for every dollar you spend you get 10 points. Considering that it only takes 1,200-1,400 points to get a $10 gift card at most retailers you get your rewards very quick. Spend $120 at target online and you get 1,200 points which can get you a $10 gift card at Pier 1.
Here is where you get to Double Dip! When checking out at Target online use your American Express or Visa that has a rewards program. Not only do you get airline or reward points through your credit card company, you also get reward points through Mypoints.
Offers vary , but through Mypoints at Target you basically get back $.07-$.10 for every dollar you spend. If you have credit cards that offer points that value between $.05-.10 for every dollar then you could be getting up to $.20 for every dollar you spend just by buying things you would normally purchase.
If you have to double dip, this is the time!
Apple cuts iphone price: a lesson to early adopters
Apple announced that it has cut the price of the iphone by $200, bringing down the price to $399 from the hefty $599 (a 33% price drop in under two months). This is by far one of the hardest lessons learned to early adopters of the Iphone. That is quite a price to pay to be first in line.
While the exact reasons were not discussed, it is probably save to assume that Apple wants to meet the one million target it gave the Street by the end of this month. Missing this target would appear far worse than upsetting the loyal customers that waited in line to buy the Iphone in the first few weeks of its release.
Investors, however, did not take the news lightly. They brought down the stock by 5% in trading today closing at $136.76. This will be of little concern if Apple succeeds at beating the target 1M mark before the end of the month. At $399, the phone now competes directly with most other carrier’s smart phones.
Let this be a great example to the rule of buying new technology before it has had a chance to mature. In almost any product line, if you can wait to the next version you will usually get a better performing and lower priced product.
Are you a bad Customer when buying cars? Why you must change!
Why do your care? It should be the salesman’s job to serve me! Well, truth is, if you lie, cheat, and treat the person you are working with like dirt then you can expect your experience to be long, unproductive, and reciprocated. In a previous post I discussed tips to spot a lying car salesman. Before you jump to conclusions did you do any of the following:
Stretch the truth about your credit score? Discuss the perfect condition of your door dinged trade-in?
Bring in an add and ask them to match it only to turn them down when they do?
Expect the salesman to sell the newest year model in high demand under invoice?
These are just a few things you can do to distill trust in the person you are working with. If the salesman does not have trust or respect for you, what is his incentive to give you the best deal? Sure he wants to sell you the car, but he is not going to give you his best deal.
Negotiation is a two way dialog that involves trust, respect, and strategy. I have always found it is better to be honest up front and strategically reveal the disadvantages of your position that you know are going to come up.
If you have a trade in that is upside down by $2K, no need to keep that information hidden and then act surprised when they tell the same thing. By carefully revealing the known disadvantages they can’t be used against you later in the negotiation and it lays down trust to your opponent. They will have less incentive to try to tweak the numbers in their benefit and it will save you time in your negotiations.
One of the biggest complaints you here about from car salesman is about customers that come in and demand the 0% APR, tell them they have good credit only to find out after the deal is negotiated that the customer has horrible credit and can’t qualify. In this case the customer has weakened their position and in all honesty would you want to give this person the best deal after they just wasted your time?
If you end up with a bad car salesman, remember you can always leave and find a good one, but make sure to ask yourself:
Was the car salesman bad because I was a bad customer?
This is very important, because there are great salesman that can appeal to bad customers. These salesman are very good at identifying these types of customers and have tactics that allow them to negotiate a far better deal for the dealership. The car salesman is not being dishonest of unethical, they are just playing a better game of negotiation and playing a bad customer’s emotions. Whenever emotions are used, you will lose. Whether it is in investing, purchasing a house, or buying a car. You must set your emotions aside, have your facts ready, and come to play the game.
Happy car shopping! Working to find you Value!
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