music retailers: should I haggle?

[SteveMPA]

I haven't bought a large piece of gear from a music store in many years. But I need to buy a sampler and a synth, each at about $1200, and I need to finance this (thus the retail route). I guess people haggle over pianos and such, but should I haggle for my stuff, inform them of lower competitors prices, etc? Indeed, another retailer has the gear alittle cheaper, but no financing. Any thoughts? Thanks alot.

[Tedster]

Boy, in the old days, haggling ruled, 'cause everyone was used to paying list. Nowadays, it seems like the discounts offered are just about unbeatable. It can't hurt to haggle, though.

[murph]

Speaking as a former retailer, I can add that when a competitor has a lower price, I was more than glad to beat it, given that the retailer was an actual dealer of the piece, had them in stock, was in this country, etc. Realize also that some financing terms require the certain price. For example, if it's a Roland piece you're getting, Roland may be footing the bill for the extra terms, so they want the price firm. In that case, my hands would be tied, and the financing terms would be voided. But, If I could do the price and the financing, I'd be right there. And the previous post is true: sometimes the prices are already too low, and any extra break in price is a gift. When a customer just grinds on the price (I think some people think it's an olympic sport!), my tendency is to not take care of them out of spite! I wasn't required to give anybody an extra discount!

[Steve44]

I disagree that the prices are already low. Functionally, most of the units on the market today are excellent values for the amount of things they do, and the manufacturers have been great recently at offering lower priced units with power features (Emu's E5000 for instance).

 

But there is still and always will be lots of markup from the cost. This is especially relevant with the pain-in-the-ass Minimum Advertised Price "MAP" rules. Because of those strict guidelines it's often hard to find lower prices on any unit anywhere, especially on the net. But the prices are much more flexible then the MAP rules make it seem: one time somebody showed me a receipt from a GC where he'd gotten an MS2000 and a Triton Rack both for just over 10% above cost.

 

Haggling works best on really high priced units. For instance, the Korg Triton ProX is MAP'd at $3350, but can easily be gotten at 3 grand or even less. But mostly the determining factor is how well the particular salesman is doing that week. If he's already sold lots of gear, he's not going to have a problem giving you a smashing deal because it's all profit for him. If he/she's not had a great week, he's might not be willing to pull the price down because he needs to make his quotas.

 

That's the cold facts on the story, as for how to's, I can't say cuz I'm not good at it myself!!

 

 

Oh, and as far as financing goes, as far as I know it's usually completely separate from the deal. If you're doing layaway, there's usually some store policy. For credit, you either have to apply for their Credit Card or apply for their affiliated Bank's authentication. The rules for financing usually aren't negotiable. If you already have a Credit Card with a decent rate (anything below 20% Apr) you're better off using that, anyways.. Try applying online for a nextcard or something.. if you get a 9.9% rate and a cool intro rate, nothing in a music store will beat that.