Biggest/largest saving you've 'negotiated'

[Free Falling Foxes]

I was reminded earlier of a quote we once received for a conservatory, 15 or 20 years ago.

 

One guy quoted £16000, which at the time was way beyond what we wanted to pay. He was desperate to do us a deal so by 'recalculating his costings', he shaved around £800 off the price. We still said no. He then offered us a lower spec conservatory - no dwarf wall & ordinary double glazing instead of triple glass for around £12000. Still no. He then said his actual rock bottom deal he could do, after speaking to his office, was offer us the original higher spec conservatory for the last figure quoted - £12000. We said it was still way more than what we wanted to pay.

 

He left.

 

A week later his company called us to say they had a special promotion that coming weekend and were offering massive savings on previous quotes. They could offer the original higher spec conservatory for £8000 - half the original quote.

 

I was that pi$$ed-off with their attempt to get us to pay way over the odds, I still said no,

 

Anyone else been offered such a huge 'discount'?

Edited 12 October 2021 by Free Falling Foxes

[TiffToff88]

I was once offered a season ticket at Forest for £50. Managed to talk him up to £200. He was so desperate to get rid of it.

[Bellend Sebastian]

My mate Dave got a used Saab that was in the showroom for seventeen grand for ten grand. Saab were on their arse at the time and presumably desperate for cash, but I was still impressed

[RoboFox]

Slightly off-thread, but about 2 years ago I found a brand new Le Creuset cast iron casserole in a charity shop in Edgware for a tenner. 

 

They retail for up to £400. 

I felt like David fvcking Dickinson.

 

Edited 12 October 2021 by RoboFox

[Free Falling Foxes]

27 minutes ago, RoboFox said:

Slightly off-thread, but about 2 years ago I found a brand new Le Creuset cast iron casserole in a charity shop in Edgware for a tenner. 

 

They retail for up to £400. 

I felt like David fvcking Dickinson.

 

Why? Did you smear the casserole all over your face?

[Tim'llFixIt]

£5 a month for every British and American channel in FHD, Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV, Prime + 10000 movies and 3000 TV series, + PPV events, + VPN ....... Brazzers pro haha

[VLC86]

Once saved £20 on the bills and thought to myself, that’s so money supermarket.

[Jattdogg]

If i wash the dishes, the missus has to clean the "shit up the back diaper incident" our son  had when he was a little baby.

 

Dishes were done in 20 minutes. She was still dealing with the incident. Got a solid 5 minutes to myself to rub one out in peace. Steal!

 

[Unabomber]

Ordered a sofa from Argos recently and managed to get 10% off and £6.95 back from delivery cost.

[Paninistickers]

34 minutes ago, Jattdogg said:

If i wash the dishes, the missus has to clean the "shit up the back diaper incident" our son  had when he was a little baby.

 

Dishes were done in 20 minutes. She was still dealing with the incident. Got a solid 5 minutes to myself to rub one out in peace. Steal!

 

On a similar crude theme, I visited an dancing establishment in Poland once upon a time...10 quid a dance. About half our going rate (i'm told). Got 3 songs worth of gyration. Yes, THREE. Compared with the meagre UK standard one song (I'm told) And no hands off policy! 

 

 

[Milo]

If anyone is thinking of getting a new kitchen any time soon then have a word with Howdens or Magnet about their price match policy.

 

We've just saved £7k on ours by getting an initial quote from Howdens and then getting a quote from DIY Kitchens when Howdens just happened to mention that they price matched.

 

I'm not sure if I was more annoyed at being massively overquoted in the first instance, or happy that I'd saved so much.

 

 

[UpTheLeagueFox]

3 minutes ago, Milo said:

I'm not sure if I was more annoyed at being massively overquoted in the first instance, or happy that I'd saved so much.

I know what you mean about these things.

It's a tricky thought process but generally I go with: "I've got the deal I wanted, regardless of the journey getting to it."

[Raj]

If anyone come down SO much from an original quote I NEVER use them anyway as the lying batards were trying it on in the first place!

[UpTheLeagueFox]

12 minutes ago, Raj said:

If anyone come down SO much from an original quote I NEVER use them anyway as the lying batards were trying it on in the first place!

What about if it's car insurance, for example, and they ramp the renewal but drop it back when you call them and it's the cheapest quote you've got?

[Bellend Sebastian]

11 minutes ago, UpTheLeagueFox said:

What about if it's car insurance, for example, and they ramp the renewal but drop it back when you call them and it's the cheapest quote you've got?

They've not budged on mine for the last two renewals. I've got my house insurance and wife's car insurance with them as well with a supposed discount and I just cannot face moving it elsewhere

 

[Milo]

32 minutes ago, Raj said:

If anyone come down SO much from an original quote I NEVER use them anyway as the lying batards were trying it on in the first place!

Agree...but I got a really nice kitchen for a very decent price.

 

Which kind of over rode any annoyance I had with them...ish. 

[MPH]

So my wife and I were looking at this house.. 8 years ago… it’s a 4 bedroom detached house on 2 acres of land.. full basement.. lots of trees.. very pretty… well to cut a long story short there’s 4 homes on this road and they all grew up together.. everyone knew each other really well.. the dad of one family unfortunately died and left the house to his grown up daughters.. they turned down several offers for this house because the people were not a ‘ good fit’ for  the other people on the street ( grown up daughters were not short of money so they could afford to be fussy)  we made an appointment to go look at this house with our real estate agent… but go back two weeks.. we had an appointment  to go to see a different house and last minute we got a call from our real estate agent saying she had just come down with a stomach bug and so she was going to send her friend to show us this house .. well, we got on great with her friend. Go forward again to our current house and unbeknown to us the friend we met was the selling agent for the older daughters and this house.  We really liked the house but by now it had been empty for two years since the dads death so every room needed painting.. next day we contacted our real estate agent and told her we like the house but ( and I exaggerated a bit of course) there was ‘ so much’ work that needed to be done.. I put in a real low ball offer and told her I hate this whole back and forth counter  offer stuff so this is my offer take it or leave it. My real estate agent told me that it was too low, almost an insult and I just told her well, it’s my offer and I understand if it’s too low for them. So she tells her friend ( the one we met) who tells her clients and she MUST have  put in a good word for us as they accepted the offer! It was less than half what they put it on the market for! Now I have to stress that we had no idea the lady we met 2 weeks before the selling agent- we got on so well aswell and laughed and joked and she must have told them- young family.. just starting out, etc.  it was originally put on the market for $200,000 but we paid $85,000 for it.

 

so, yeah, that’s the short version of events!

[Raj]

29 minutes ago, UpTheLeagueFox said:

What about if it's car insurance, for example, and they ramp the renewal but drop it back when you call them and it's the cheapest quote you've got?

Yeah but that's what they are all about isnt it?

They know the majority of people wont bother to haggle, but these broadband/telephone/tv services/home and car insurance companies all expect some(Like me) to haggle that's why they have the RETENTIONS department.

ALWAYS ask to be put through to them for renewals as they are the last ones to give you the biggest discount.

 

Its tradesman who all of a sudden give you a 50% discount who I don't trust,  espe6 the ones who can " fit you in today due to a cancellation"!!!!

[Wolfox]

19 minutes ago, MPH said:

So my wife and I were looking at this house.. 8 years ago… it’s a 4 bedroom detached house on 2 acres of land.. full basement.. lots of trees.. very pretty… well to cut a long story short there’s 4 homes on this road and they all grew up together.. everyone knew each other really well.. the dad of one family unfortunately died and left the house to his grown up daughters.. they turned down several offers for this house because the people were not a ‘ good fit’ for  the other people on the street ( grown up daughters were not short of money so they could afford to be fussy)  we made an appointment to go look at this house with our real estate agent… but go back two weeks.. we had an appointment  to go to see a different house and last minute we got a call from our real estate agent saying she had just come down with a stomach bug and so she was going to send her friend to show us this house .. well, we got on great with her friend. Go forward again to our current house and unbeknown to us the friend we met was the selling agent for the older daughters and this house.  We really liked the house but by now it had been empty for two years since the dads death so every room needed painting.. next day we contacted our real estate agent and told her we like the house but ( and I exaggerated a bit of course) there was ‘ so much’ work that needed to be done.. I put in a real low ball offer and told her I hate this whole back and forth counter  offer stuff so this is my offer take it or leave it. My real estate agent told me that it was too low, almost an insult and I just told her well, it’s my offer and I understand if it’s too low for them. So she tells her friend ( the one we met) who tells her clients and she MUST have  put in a good word for us as they accepted the offer! It was less than half what they put it on the market for! Now I have to stress that we had no idea the lady we met 2 weeks before the selling agent- we got on so well aswell and laughed and joked and she must have told them- young family.. just starting out, etc.  it was originally put on the market for $200,000 but we paid $85,000 for it.

 

so, yeah, that’s the short version of events!

Bloomin’ heck….  You couldn’t get a garage in Leicester for $85k!   That’s some negotiation!!!  Are you in yet?

[RonnieTodger]

Saved a year of paying £138 a month (£1656) by telling Evans Halshaw that my bank would give me a better APR than they would. Ended up paying the car off over 4 years instead of 5. 
 

I was young and naive and had instant regret when signing up for the car. Thank goodness for the cooling off period

[MPH]

47 minutes ago, Wolfox said:

Bloomin’ heck….  You couldn’t get a garage in Leicester for $85k!   That’s some negotiation!!!  Are you in yet?

Took us less than a month to paint everything 

[tom27111]

24 minutes ago, RonnieTodger said:

Saved a year of paying £138 a month (£1656) by telling Evans Halshaw that my bank would give me a better APR than they would. Ended up paying the car off over 4 years instead of 5. 
 

I was young and naive and had instant regret when signing up for the car. Thank goodness for the cooling off period

 

You'd get more discount off a car for buying it in finance, then getting a loan from the bank with a better APR and paying off the finance instantly. They don't charge any early pay off fees.

 

Alternatively, had that car had major problems, you'd have been better off having the car finance. The finance company owns the vehicle and they'd have backed you up as its their asset.

 

Swings and roundabouts. 

[RonnieTodger]

1 hour ago, tom27111 said:

 

You'd get more discount off a car for buying it in finance, then getting a loan from the bank with a better APR and paying off the finance instantly. They don't charge any early pay off fees.

 

Alternatively, had that car had major problems, you'd have been better off having the car finance. The finance company owns the vehicle and they'd have backed you up as its their asset.

 

Swings and roundabouts. 

Yeah I got it on finance, as EH offered me a much better rate which equated to paying for one year less. 
 

I’d just moved address, so I never would’ve gotten the loan from my bank but the sales team didn’t know that. 
 

Luckily they didn’t call my bluff. 

[Saxondale]

16 hours ago, RoboFox said:

Slightly off-thread, but about 2 years ago I found a brand new Le Creuset cast iron casserole in a charity shop in Edgware for a tenner. 

 

They retail for up to £400. 

I felt like David fvcking Dickinson.

 

So jealous. 
 

Charity shops might do a bit better if they employed people able to use Google, so they can establish a rough value of things.

[Saxondale]

This has reminded me of the ridiculous ‘purchasing’ task on The Apprentice, in which four children in suits will go into a corner shop and fail to negotiate ten pence off the price of a candle.