Negotiate Everything

Those of you that know me, know that I have spent 10+ years in sales. During that time I did a lot of negotiating. Recently I have negotiated things that I hadn't in the past.

Yesterday I spoke with Comcast. Before Netflix we watched Cable TV with Comcast daily. I have hung onto Comcast mainly for their internet, but DSL has improved in my area significantly in the last year or so. Many of my family and friends have it and it not only works well, but is faster than the cable internet I currently have. The only reason that I haven't switched is because I didn't want to be inconvenienced.

Yesterday afternoon my wife was complaining that we don't have a DVR, and if we did she would watch American Idol and The Biggest Loser. I called Comcast to see what a DVR would run. The lady told me an extra $16, which I thought was way too steep. I said just forget it and cancel everything. Of course she asked why and I said that in the last 9 months we have turned the cable box on less than a dozen times to watch college football. My wife wants to watch American Idol but always misses it, besides its on a free station anyways.

She told me that I had to talk to someone else to cancel and transferred me to another dept. We went through the entire conversation again. I said I have been paying you guys $59 every month for over 5 years and I am ready to cancel. I can DSL for $20 a month for the first 6 months, and it is three times faster than what I am getting. Just before she processed the cancellation I said look, I want the DVR box and I don't want to pay a cent more than I am currently paying. She said she would do that without charging the extra $16, and this was right after she had told me there were no other discounts that I could take advantage of 3 times in a row.

Now $16 a month isn't a ton of money, but it is more than I pay for hosting.

Last month I purchased new cell phones. I shopped for about a month and a half and decided on an Android phone and so did my wife. Over a couple of days I called my cell phone company a couple of times. Finally, in frustration I told them to shut them off and I would go somewhere else. They sent me to some retention specialist who started off by saying thanks for staying with us for 7 years, and what can I do to keep you with us.

I told her that I wanted to upgrade our phones but didn't want to pay an arm and a leg. The phone that I wanted was $300 at the time and my wife's was $250. I told her those were the phones that we were going to purchase and I didn't want to pay more than $100 for both of them. Then I told her the plan that I wanted, but I told her that I wanted to pay about $30 less than the price they advertise. Anyways, I never thought that they would just agree, I just figured that was a starting point. She put me on hold and about 2 minutes later she came back and said lets do it. I was shocked.

Last week I was at the bank. I am going to do a secured loan to purchase a truck. They gave me a good rate, but I wanted a better one. Instead of going out and wasting time trying to find a better deal, I told them that the rate they quoted me was way too high, especially considering that I am lending the money to myself. Surprisingly, I was able to negotiate a better deal than what they offered originally.

So what have you negotiated recently?