Price Negotiating, How Do You Handle It?

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Mr Lee
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I just got a return email from a friend and in it he said that one thing that bothers him in the Philippines is that his wife has to do all the negotiating, I guess because of the language barrier. My wife also does most of the negotiating because less people try to take advantage of her compared to me and I also try to say out of sight. So I wonder how much this bothers members and is there any way around it?Last year while at a neighbors unit I saw some glass shelving for the bathroom and he told me what he had paid for it and what another friend in the building had paid for theirs. I am a lousy negotiator and I got ripped off because the guy wanted more from us than they had paid but it was still so much less than in the stores, so what to do but suck it up and get shafted and that was what I did after my wife and I both tried to negotiate a better deal, but to no avail. I think the main difference was that the other two guys were single and I was obviously married and the other two guys live in a much smaller unit, so the guy figured we could afford it more.Anyway, that was one time when a single white round eye could negotiate a better deal than my wife but she has been great when I am not in sight for the people to realize she is married to a kano, that is until they ask her last name. :SugarwareZ-037:

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Guardian
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One more thing to worry about. I just find out what a reasonable going price is and then wave that much in front of their face. I do not know if that will work or not with most Filipinos but money is the universal language.

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tropicalwaste
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The way I do it is give the person some eyebrow and say "mahal" shaking my head and walk off. If they are desperate to sell they will approach you as they can see your not coming back. If its something your not in a rush to buy dont tell them you want it.. As often people will approach you and ask what will you pay as they need to sell it asap.But generally I find once people know your a local and not a tourist prices start to be the same as the locals. E.g. the market place because you stand out like a sore thumb gossip soon gets round and due to the way chikka chikka spreads round people know who your partner is (if your living in the same province) and see you more as a local than a complete tourist although your still a foreigner. Although in a lot of areas this can benefit you as buying more expensive goods they know you are "likely" to have the cash instantly available so negotiating makes a difference. Another technique I use is to send someone else in before me (say the day before) get the price then go myself that way you know what the price should be.I dont think I have been ripped off on anything to be honest but then again I do avoid the "non priced" stores on purpose. Also dont forget :-Cebuadvertiser.comCebuclassifieds.com etc.. because you can agree it all before you even go as they dont know who they are talking to.

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daisy
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Just like some Chinese, they will give a good price to anyone who speaks even few Chinese words. For a foreigner who will try to do his own bargaining, these are some basic bargaining discussions;Pila? ..."How much"Ah! mahal..."Oh that's expensive..."Hangyo, pila? ...."any discount, how much?"Mahal gihapon....."still expensive"then name the price you want, if the vendor will not agree with you just politely sayOk...salamat mangita lang ko uban.....Ok Thanks...I will just look around.... With this, the vendor will sense that you are really interested to buy so the tendency is he will agree with you and call you to come back....! usually this is done in stores without tag prices...but there are also stores with tag prices who will still give you "hangyo" price if you will try lang! :SugarwareZ-037:

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Mr Lee
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Just like some Chinese, they will give a good price to anyone who speaks even few Chinese words. For a foreigner who will try to do his own bargaining, these are some basic bargaining discussions;Pila? ..."How much"Ah! mahal..."Oh that's expensive..."Hangyo, pila? ...."any discount, how much?"Mahal gihapon....."still expensive"then name the price you want, if the vendor will not agree with you just politely sayOk...salamat mangita lang ko uban.....Ok Thanks...I will just look around.... With this, the vendor will sense that you are really interested to buy so the tendency is he will agree with you and call you to come back....! usually this is done in stores without tag prices...but there are also stores with tag prices who will still give you "hangyo" price if you will try lang! :SugarwareZ-037:
Thank you Daisy, that is all great information. :3_8_14[1]:
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daisy
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Just like some Chinese, they will give a good price to anyone who speaks even few Chinese words. For a foreigner who will try to do his own bargaining, these are some basic bargaining discussions;Pila? ..."How much"Ah! mahal..."Oh that's expensive..."Hangyo, pila? ...."any discount, how much?"Mahal gihapon....."still expensive"then name the price you want, if the vendor will not agree with you just politely sayOk...salamat mangita lang ko uban.....Ok Thanks...I will just look around.... With this, the vendor will sense that you are really interested to buy so the tendency is he will agree with you and call you to come back....! usually this is done in stores without tag prices...but there are also stores with tag prices who will still give you "hangyo" price if you will try lang! :SugarwareZ-037:
Thank you Daisy, that is all great information. :3_8_14[1]:
You're welcome Lee....Alan goes "crazy" when I bargain....just can't help it! Buying is not worth without bargaining! 23_11_60%5B2%5D.gif
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Travis
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Just like some Chinese, they will give a good price to anyone who speaks even few Chinese words. For a foreigner who will try to do his own bargaining, these are some basic bargaining discussions;Pila? ..."How much"Ah! mahal..."Oh that's expensive..."Hangyo, pila? ...."any discount, how much?"Mahal gihapon....."still expensive"then name the price you want, if the vendor will not agree with you just politely sayOk...salamat mangita lang ko uban.....Ok Thanks...I will just look around....With this, the vendor will sense that you are really interested to buy so the tendency is he will agree with you and call you to come back....! usually this is done in stores without tag prices...but there are also stores with tag prices who will still give you "hangyo" price if you will try lang! th_goodidea.gif
thank you Daisy that will help a lot
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Guardian
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Just like some Chinese, they will give a good price to anyone who speaks even few Chinese words. For a foreigner who will try to do his own bargaining, these are some basic bargaining discussions;Pila? ..."How much"Ah! mahal..."Oh that's expensive..."Hangyo, pila? ...."any discount, how much?"Mahal gihapon....."still expensive"then name the price you want, if the vendor will not agree with you just politely sayOk...salamat mangita lang ko uban.....Ok Thanks...I will just look around.... With this, the vendor will sense that you are really interested to buy so the tendency is he will agree with you and call you to come back....! usually this is done in stores without tag prices...but there are also stores with tag prices who will still give you "hangyo" price if you will try lang! :thumbsup:
Ditto Daisy, great advice and keep the tips coming. :yes: :thumbsup:
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twostrokes
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I am also one of those that just hates to haggle over a price. That is to say on small items like under a few hundred bucks. Buying a car or house,or condo or something like that is a whole different ballgame...So I have a tendency to 1st decide if i really want the item. If I can do without that is good.....I then decide what i think it is worth to me.....I offer my price, straight to it, no playing the game, (I hate the game). They either sell it to me for my price, or i don't buy it.Now if it is something that I need, unless their price is outrageous, I'll just pay it and be on my way. My wife hates for me to be around, because she will haggle on everything....I just personally can't stand it. Even here in the States (Texas) we do alot of shopping in open air markets, like flea markets but much larger and many new goods, more than used stuff. If she stops to look at something, I just keep walking for another 100 feet or so. I don't even want to be around when she does her thing. It is nice when she saves money, I just don't like being part of it.Since most of the stalls are run by Mexicans, the haggle is also part of their culture as is screwing the white guy.When we lived in the PI, she obviously did most of the shopping. I was lucky the Hardware store where I had to do my shopping for stuff she had no idea about was owned by a chinese man who was a neighbor of ours a few houses away. Once during a really bad flashflood storm when the water was rising, I came home and passed his house which had water starting to swirl down his driveway and would soon be into his house. I had about 100 sand bags at home, so I ran in and grabbed a bunch and my shovel and went to his house and stafrted filling sandbags to block up his drive. We only had to divert the water about 15 feet across the drive and it would keep going down the street. He always thanked me over and over and whenever I went into the store I had to forcel him to let me pay for whatever I wanted . That of course was on the cheap items, but still he gave me a good discount on all his stuff. He even told all his employees, as they always reduced the price from his tags.Good thing I was in a good mood that particualr day, was already wet and just hated to see anyone flooded out when it could be prevented so easy. And, a good thing for him that I always felt he was fair with me anyway when I went into his store when he was there to deal with.

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tropicalwaste
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I am also one of those that just hates to haggle over a price. That is to say on small items like under a few hundred bucks. Buying a car or house,or condo or something like that is a whole different ballgame...So I have a tendency to 1st decide if i really want the item. If I can do without that is good.....I then decide what i think it is worth to me.....I offer my price, straight to it, no playing the game, (I hate the game). They either sell it to me for my price, or i don't buy it.Now if it is something that I need, unless their price is outrageous, I'll just pay it and be on my way. My wife hates for me to be around, because she will haggle on everything....I just personally can't stand it. Even here in the States (Texas) we do alot of shopping in open air markets, like flea markets but much larger and many new goods, more than used stuff. If she stops to look at something, I just keep walking for another 100 feet or so. I don't even want to be around when she does her thing. It is nice when she saves money, I just don't like being part of it.Since most of the stalls are run by Mexicans, the haggle is also part of their culture as is screwing the white guy.When we lived in the PI, she obviously did most of the shopping. I was lucky the Hardware store where I had to do my shopping for stuff she had no idea about was owned by a chinese man who was a neighbor of ours a few houses away. Once during a really bad flashflood storm when the water was rising, I came home and passed his house which had water starting to swirl down his driveway and would soon be into his house. I had about 100 sand bags at home, so I ran in and grabbed a bunch and my shovel and went to his house and stafrted filling sandbags to block up his drive. We only had to divert the water about 15 feet across the drive and it would keep going down the street. He always thanked me over and over and whenever I went into the store I had to forcel him to let me pay for whatever I wanted . That of course was on the cheap items, but still he gave me a good discount on all his stuff. He even told all his employees, as they always reduced the price from his tags.Good thing I was in a good mood that particualr day, was already wet and just hated to see anyone flooded out when it could be prevented so easy. And, a good thing for him that I always felt he was fair with me anyway when I went into his store when he was there to deal with.
Thing is over the years ive done a few good turns and you will always find someone will do one in return. The other thing is like you there was nothing expected in return so receiving a thank you is a bit of a surprise even more so than a permanent discount
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