Want to outsmart an illegal sales tactic and save boo coos of money on your next big screen television?
How about trimming hundreds of dollars off the price of a computer monitor, or a speaker system?
The consumer can make age-old sales tactics at Best Buy, Circuit City and Fry’s work in their favor. We can exploit an illegal practice still prevalent in schemes run by corrupt management practices.
It’s easy actually, and you can save hundreds of dollars on major purposes. I will now outline a proven method that works at most electronics stores.
First, allow me to explain the exploit. Salespeople at Best Buy and Circuit City do not make commission. Nothing. However, upper management oftentimes will receive perks on their bonus. One of the ways corporations reward management is the sale of extended warranties. It’s common to see in-store warranties yield as much as a 70% profit margin. Over-zealous supervisors apply the same pressure applied to them to their store’s line-level employees.
They feel pressure to meet quotas, not only for bonuses, but also for promotion in the company. Some managers harass workers not capturing enough ‘cheese’, a term used for the service plans that return such ludicrous profits to the store.
It makes management look good.
It’s a fatter bonus.
A major topic in board meetings.
It’s the make or break factor that seals that promotion.
It’s the equivalent of super-sized ‘value’ meals at fast food franchises. The worker at the window doesn’t make commission, and yet they always ask, “Super-size that?”. It's corporate pressure that creates a "work force". But we already know that, right?
And that's when a remarkable, though little known, opportunity is presented to the consumer. I’ve personally skimmed $150 off the price of my last television, and most recently saved on my digital camcorder. This method works at many other places offering in-store insurance policies.
It’s not full proof, but a patient consumer can save bundles of cash.
When asked if you want the insurance, the five-year plan or the two-year plan, ask about the five-year. I know that can seem like the opposite of what we want to accomplish here, which is to save money. But when the electronics rep delivers his pitch on how fantastically thorough the five-year plan is, detailing the useless protections against this and that, tell him that sounds like the plan you need. Actually, go ahead and ask if there is an even longer, more expensive plan.
At this point, you’ll need to ask the price of such a fantastic plan, which turns out, is fantastically expensive. Here’s where we launch a counterattack of craftiness against this salesperson’s pitch. What he can’t do is lower the price of the store’s insurance policy. What he can do is lower the price of the television set. Yep. You read right. Salespeople can and will lower the price on inventory at places like Circuit City and Best Buy as long as it pleases management. This is called illegal bundling and it happens all the time. And yet the pressure of gaining ‘cheese’ from in-store warranties is great enough to trickle all the way down the standard operating platform. A supervisor is wide open to lowering the price of a product on one condition only. You get the extended warranty.
Well that’s nice, you say. But I don’t want the insurance, what about saving money?
Hopefully by this time you have talked either the rep or his supervisor into lowering the price substantially on the product itself. The bigger the service plan you want, the more 'cheese' for them, and the bigger the discount for you. When the rep wheels out your brand new big screen, they’ll carry out a carbon copy form. This is the insurance plan for you to fill out at the front desk. That’s right, not right then and there in front of the sales rep, but at the front desk, where a line of other customers stand.
We’re going to have a quick change of heart when we get to that cashier at that register. Simply tell the cashier handling your purchase, “You know, I think I’m going to hold off on the ten-year plan for now. Could I purchase it later if I decide to?” To which they’ll reply, “Of course. You have thirty days to change your mind.”
And there you have it: A major discount, should you suddenly change your mind about the warranty.
