[Freakazoid]

Originally Posted by T-MC-G

there is zero profit in those TVs, and with black friday sales they are usually at negative profit. I used to work at Tweeter (5 years ago). and if people came into the store and were only interested in buying the TV (no surround sound, home install or cables) it usually meant they wouldn't buy the extended warr. either. So with those folks I would go out back, chill for a few minutes, then come out to the floor and tell them we were out of stock. We usually only had like 30 TVs at the low low price and had to use them to hook people for larger sales tickets. The other salesmen would get SUPER pissed at you if they caught you just writing up a customer with a TV and nothing else on the ticket. Like a wasted up for them.

and that's why most of the brick and mortar stores no longer exist.

[solefald]

Originally Posted by Aonarch

I know the feeling. I'm a coke dealer and boy if I don't sell enough 8 balls I get shit for it all day.

lol. i am pretty sure your merchandise flies off the shelves

[ES_TRADER]

I used either one of the following:

Buying as a gift for someone else, so if it breaks, it's not my problem..

Or

I don't know I am gonna keep it but if I do, I'll come bak and buy the warranty from u.

Works everytime, no hassle and shitface from the rookie

[scottwww]

When I worked for a national chain of electronics stores in the late '80s and early '90s, there was a requirement to sell 10% or more of your sales volume each week as extended warranties to avoid the required early morning "training" meeting on warranty sales. Also, in those days a lot of electronics sales was commissioned. I was paid 1% to 5% on hardware and 18% commission on warranties. I wanted to sell it all, including warranties. I averaged about 11% of my sales volume in warranties. That company had relatively high prices from both electronics and warranties.

After that, I worked for a much smaller company that had 20 or 30 stores total. At these stores, I don't remember there being any extended warranty sales requirement, but we sold warranties for the commission. It was a pretty good place to be as we were all pretty well experienced in electronics retail. The sales team had to be good there, because as a destination store, everything depended on a high close ratio, rather than high volume traffic. What I liked best about it was the freedom to discount as necessary to get the deal.

Some interesting bits:

* Blacks and Mexicans were most willing to pay top dollar.
* Anglo-Saxons (typical white Americans) were next most likely to pay full price.
* Japanese would frequently pay full price.

There must have been others in between these ethnic groups, but they must have been the forgettable middle-ground.

* Middle Easterners liked to haggle and would not pay full price.
* Cambodians and Vietnamese always haggled and got excellent prices, but were difficult to close.
* Chinese always got a very low price, and could be closed if you used the three-step method. If you didn't do the three step well, you couldn't close them.

1. The three-step method is attempting to close with an insignificant discount when asked for an impossible discount.
2. Take a few minutes in the stock room or restroom doing some calculations or urinating, and then offer a significant discount (but one that you know is not going to close the deal). Refuse their counter-offer. Explain the pricing. Tell them you can't do anything more for them.
3. Either they adjust their counteroffer or they try to walk away in disgust. Either way, you will try again to get them a lower price. So you go into the stock room or restroom, do some calculations or urinate, maybe bring out the product ready to deliver. Make one last offer making sure they understand this is the best they are going to get from you.

Done properly, the three-step method worked much of the time with Chinese. Although the profit margin was very thin the close ratio was high.

* Indians (from India) I could only rarely close then.

The next two, I could almost never close:
* Ukrainians
* Russian

It wasn't unusual for Russians to even try to get you to do something illegal, like sell it to them at $500, but write the invoice for $200 to reduce their sales tax! I don't think I ever closed a deal with a Russian.

It was nice to be able to get twenty margin points (and even more) from some people to be able to discount down to four or five margin points when necessary to close a deal.

Whites were the most likely to pony up for extended warranties. The trick was to talk about service early and often. I never did calculate whether it just scared off those who weren't going to buy warranties, or if the technique was better able to sell it. I think it was partially both.

BTW: I was very conscientious about dealing truthfully, giving real reasons to buy. In that second company I worked for, we had a strict policy that all sales were final. I had very few attempted returns as I dealt rightly with the customer before the sale rather than trying to make up for my failures afterward. For example: Never use the puppy-dog-close.

The first (and larger) retailer I workef for closed all there store a couple years after I left them. The second retailer is still in business, though I don't know how they operate any more.

[number335]

Any of you guys ever had issues getting Best Buy to honor their extended warranties? I just purchased a washer and dryer from them that normally cost $2,270 for the pair that was on sale for $1,370. Their extended warranty was only $260 for both the washer and dryer for 4 years. I figure that's a pretty good deal for appliances that have many moving parts and cost that much. After reading some of these posts though, I'm concerned whether Best Buy would actually repair or do a replacement.

[lucas.kent]

Originally Posted by number335

Any of you guys ever had issues getting Best Buy to honor their extended warranties? I just purchased a washer and dryer from them that normally cost $2,270 for the pair that was on sale for $1,370. Their extended warranty was only $260 for both the washer and dryer for 4 years. I figure that's a pretty good deal for appliances that have many moving parts and cost that much. After reading some of these posts though, I'm concerned whether Best Buy would actually repair or do a replacement.

I don't want to scare you, but yes, I've had to use Best Buy for an extended warranty. I bought a Polaroid TV in 2004, and bought the extended warranty for three years. About 18 months after I bought it, it wouldn't come on. Long story short, after getting jerked around for a month and not having my TV, I bought a new one - from Circuit City. Best Buy claimed that I must've damaged the TV or dropped it, so they wouldn't cover. That was the first - and last - time I've ever bought a warranty from them.

However, maybe it's gotten better since then. And there are certainly a lot of moving parts in a washer and a dryer, so it could be worth it. But they always try and get out of it, so read the fine print.