Another parts-guy rant...

Dr.Jass

Dr.Jass

Pastor of Muppets
What the hell is up with Joe Offdastreet thinking he's deserving of some kind of discount?

At least twice a day, I get some jackass who comes in, asks the price of [insert item here], agrees to buy the damned thing, then asks "Can I get a discount on that?"

While my standard response is, "I already figured the discount into that," my brain is doing backflips at the nerve of these idiots. The closest I've ever come to lashing out was with Mullet Over, the guy with the permed comb-over mullet hair. I asked him why he figured there'd be any kind of discount, and he replied to the effect that he knew shops got better pricing. I told him that when he spent $5,000-$10,000 a month with us, we'd talk about discounts. He bugs me anyhow so if he never came back, that would be OK.

Sometimes, I just say "Nope!" and just look at them.

If a guy comes in that works for one of our customers, I will always run it through their employer's account for the pricing, then add tax and run it as cash. The employers don't mind since the cash slips don't show up on their bill anyhow (no confusion for the accounting dept.) so no problem. Good customers I see several times a week and, well, aren't idiots, I usually run through a good account, cash and tax--and they never even asked in the first place.

But these assholes that think they can get a better price just because they think there's some sort of bargaining process involved drive me nuts. What I'd really like to say to them is, "Do you ask if there's a discount when you buy a head of lettuce at the grocery store? Do you try and chisel down your rent every month? Did you dicker with the Wal-Mart employee on the price of your Navy SEALS DVD? When was the last time you got a break on a tank of gas? No? Then why the hell should things be any different when you need a muffler for your Tracker?!" :mad:

So, a word to the wise: if you're one of these jackasses, regardless of what the guy behind the counter says to you when you ask for a discount, believe me when I tell you what's going through his mind is actually, "Who the f__k do you think you are?" Trust me, he really is thinking exactly that.

Want to make sure you're gonna pay full price? Walk in or call, and tell me "You're the only place in town that has it!" Thanks for letting me know I'm last call on your list... I'll price accordingly. :dance:

Oh, and when it comes to price-matching, I will go toe-to-toe with anyone local, for parts of equal quality and warranty. But don't tell me a competitor will sell it to you for $10 less if they don't have it in stock. If you want that price, then wait. If you need it now, you pay what I charge you for the privelege of getting it right now... plus, dumbass, I now know that you didn't come to me first.

If I'm not your first call, then you have real balls to ask me to price-match or give you a discount.

Sorry... needed to vent. These cheap bastards make me nuts, and it does no good to mention it to co-workers with the same gripe. :doh:
 
I remember that well. I also remember the guys who would come in, give a phone number or name for an account and it wouldn't be in the computer. Either they didn't have an account in the first place or they hadn't bought anything in such a long time that it was removed. After being told they weren't in the computer, they still wanted a discount. I guess for being a regular customer I should've done that for them. :doh:
 
DrJass said:
Then why the hell should things be any different when you need a muffler for your Tracker?!" :mad:
Click to expand...
Well, in the town I worked in every other last name was Patel or Mujareeb.
" What is my price?"
 
We get 'em here too. I get a ton of people who want me to match a huge volume dealer (I can get within $150 of their prices) who's 400 miles away. Some still spend the extra money on fuel, go there, and think they saved money. Proof that some people really are less useful than a spork.
 
I'm in the parts business too. Usually if they ask for a discount, I ask them if they've ever tried to get a discount at Walmart or UPS or the grocery store. If they say yes, I tell them they need to go check and see if they sell auto parts then. Only had a few smartasses say yes. Usually, they say no and I then ask them what makes MY business different from any other business? We're ALL trying to make a PROFIT.

As for the guys wanting to price match summit or jegs or something. I ask them when they need it. If they say now (and they always do), I tell them that's the NOW price. If they want to wait for 5-7 working days and maybe get hit with surcharges, cod fees, or whatever else and take their chances, they are always welcome to.
 
A lot of people adhere to the philosophy of "It doesn't hurt to ask."
What too many of these people forget is that they should not expect to get what they are asking for.

I think most in your position would respond differently to someone who said, "Hey I know I don't buy a lot of stuff here. It's not my usual thing to do this stuff myself. But, is there a discount you could throw at this to help me out in a pinch?"
It might not result in a discount every time, but more often than not, you'd at least avoid riling up the part-guy.
 
J.C. Corbett said:
We get 'em here too. I get a ton of people who want me to match a huge volume dealer (I can get within $150 of their prices) who's 400 miles away. Some still spend the extra money on fuel, go there, and think they saved money. Proof that some people really are less useful than a spork.
Click to expand...

Like the people who will shop at Wal-mart to save $0.20 on one item versus going somewhere less evil? Or drive across town to save $0.01/gallon or litre on fuel?
 
You guys should try being in my line of work....everybody figures they should be entertained for free, so all of us who work to provide it shouldn't actually charge money for what we do, should we??:doubt:


74DartSport said:
Well, in the town I worked in every other last name was Patel or Mujareeb.
" What is my price?"
Click to expand...

I usually respond with $50.00 more than I quoted them in the first place...
 
I ran into those F'rs when I ran my dad's shop "I wan discoun",:sick: usually some raghead or other middle-F-up that drove a taxi...the nerve asking for a discount on a $13.95 oil change because they came in every month. Pop set it up so there prices on other work (they rarely gave us any) was 15-40% higher so when they asked for "discoun" we'd give'em 5- 10% off sorry POS's I hated dealing with'em...XL can we get a raghead smilie? with and or without a gun :) The other ones were the ignorant folk :jagoff: "I could do it myself, but don't have the time and I brought my own parts"... sorry we don't install customer parts, or it is x dollars, which was usually 2-3 times the actual labor. I had a great bunch of regulars, that never bitched and complained...they were the ONLY ones I would discount
 
I go through the same damn thing everyday @ one of my jobs.....no offence but Canadian women are notorious about it although we get our share of Americans that do it too. Anyways these women will look for ANYthing to get a discount. I have actually seen a few intentionally run a snag or somehow blemish a piece of furniture thinking I didn't see them and then they come up all sweet and interested and then they hit me with the ever expected "Oh this has a defect. Can I get a discount on the price?" Then this is what really pisses em off..."Sorry ma'am, this is the display model. You'll be recieving one from the back. In a box or wrapped." :) Watching their expression of hope slowly drop to a simple. "Oh." is PRICELESS!!:bwuhaha: Then there are the ones who ask me to "adjust" the price on the item invoice so they don't have to pay so much PST and GST going back over. Me: "Uhm, That's fraud. Sorry but no." Then I mention that if they have to bring it back for whatever reason and the invoice is "adjusted" I could lose my job and I won't let that happen. I once had a woman try to bribe me $40 to "fix" her invoice...I looked at her and flat out said "If you can afford a $40 "tip" then you can obviously afford the tax going back over." and I walked away. I agree man! The sheer nerve of some people!!!:mad:
 
Last edited:
Doc don't get to nuts over a'holes like that. I went to the funeral of my good friend and parts guy on monday.:( 45 is way to young to go. stress will kill ya.
 
Don't worry, Greggles... once I ranted about it, I was OK. My job is actually pretty relaxing during the slow times. We have a lot of fun when we're not getting our butts handed to us by ringing phones and 4-deep customers. Besides, the hemorrhoid-type customers are fairly few and far between. I actually usually have fun with the customers, both on the phone and at the counter... one of the delivery girls always asked me how long I've known someone or what their name is, and my response is "Just met him/her now at the counter." She's amazed that I can be so easygoing, friendly, and joke so easily with people I don't know from Adam.

DCF, usually the guys who'd be that congenial about it are too proud to bother asking for a little break. They're the hard-working, salt-of-the-earth types and they recognize that I have to do a job, too. After a while, you learn to spot these guys because they don't bitch or grumble or ask for any special treatment, but they're buying the cheap parts because that's all they can swing. A lot of times I'll cut them a deal on the better parts, not to drive up my sales numbers (which are essentially useless anyhow) but because if that's all they can afford, they probably can't afford to do it twice because they bought the 90-day warranty item rather than the lifetime. These are the guys that you know will be driving that '91 Caravan for several more years.

It's the guys like this one feller named Ron that really piss me off. He's got an '85 Fiero 2.5L with a manual trans... a real shitbucket. This guy wanted to purchase one pair of end-link bushings--not an end link, mind you, but just two of the bushings--because he didn't want to pop $10 for an entire end link (which he had to do, because we didn't have just the bushings). This asshole bought a 69-cent roll of electrical tape because $3.69 was "too much" for an outer tie-rod-end boot (the whole f__ckin' tie rod end was like $15). He wrapped the old TRE boot area with the tape, and proudly told us less than two weeks later how it's holding up just fine. This jackass has been in the store maybe 7 times since I've been there, and never spent an entire $20 bill... and every time we ring him up, he says in disbelief, "Is that with my discount?!"

The other day, Ron was buying a five-pack of fuses--$2.29 plus tax--and doing so begrudgingly because we don't sell them individually (yes, he wanted 1 fuse). The new guy (or FNG--who isn't the sharpest pancake on the tree) answered his standard discount question with "Oh, you have an account? What's the name on it?"

The response, which caused orange juice to come out of my nose two aisles back and my boss to uncontrollably erupt a loud, short laugh, was "I don't have an account, but I spend a lot of money in here!"

So FNG says, "If you don't have an account, then yes, that's your discount."

We later explained better ways to handle a situation like that, and though FNG may have a defective tact gene, but we all got a solid laugh out of it.

As if to add an exclamation point to all this, Ron came back in a little while later to return his "defective" fuses... seems like every one of them blew as soon as he installed 'em and turned on the ignition. Obviously, he tells us, our Buss fuses are cheap, off-brand junk because, you see, there's nothing wrong with the wiring on his Fiero.
 
Oh then there's those days where I work on register and if something doesn't scan the customer (8 out of 10 times) says, "It won't scan, it's free!" You have ANY idea how tired I am of hearing that???? :mad: Worst part is they think they are soooooo original for saying it too!!! :doubt:

(I know it's a petty rant but it's still aggravating:silenced:)
 
I usually respond to that stupidity with, "No, the scanner will only pick up items under [insert exorbitant price here dependent on item]." Sure wipes the stupid grin off in a hurry. :dance:
 
Heard my boss use the line "Well I can give you free merchandice if you are willing to give us free money." Gets a chuckle. :rolleyes:
 
I especially like the dickheads who walk into my bodyshop looking for "the best price you can give me". I usually don't spend more than five minutes with these sorry Fuckers, 'cause they're the ones that are going to nit-pick every little flaw, IF my price isn't too high.
These people are the ones that drive the abused and severly neglected POS, the ones that don't spend a nickel on anything remotely considered "maintenance", and just about have a major coronary when you present them with the five minute estimate special. Usually they're responses are along the lines of "that much, huh? I'll get back to you".
These folks are the offspring of the guys with the ratty old car, who "just want it cleaned up a bit, I'm not looking for a Show Car". Off course, that usually means the job better be fucking near perfect, because if it ain't, they'll be belly aching to all their friends (both of them) and anybody else who'll listen, about how much the job cost them and how disappointed they are after all the money they spent. Whenever I hear that "I'm not looking for a Show Car, my asshole puckers up and I tell them "Gee, that's too bad, that's all we do. Wish I could help you. Have a nice day." You can't win with these people, you can't even break even, so I just let them go.

I have recommended other shops to help these people out. :)
 
I wondered where Ron moved when he closed up shop here last year.

Seriously, same name, same behavior, the only difference is that while he lived here, Ron didn't own a Fiero. He ran the Marathon station in town. Every time he'd call for parts, his response to my price quotes would be "Is that MY price?" I'd always tell him no, that I was giving him a break from the usual double retail we've been charging him. His other favorite line was "So-and-so has it for XX dollars, why are you so high?" I'd always tell him to get it from them instead of bitching to me about it. I nailed him once on a battery. He called to see if we had it, and I said yes and gave him the price. He damn near screams at me that Randy down at NAPA has it for considerably less. I asked if he wanted me to call Randy or if he was going to call him, because it appeared to me that's where he was getting the battery. He hung up on me. An hour later he calls back wanting the battery. He got it and the full price invoice. Have a nice day Ron.
 
Dr.Jass said:
As if to add an exclamation point to all this, Ron came back in a little while later to return his "defective" fuses... seems like every one of them blew as soon as he installed 'em and turned on the ignition. Obviously, he tells us, our Buss fuses are cheap, off-brand junk because, you see, there's nothing wrong with the wiring on his Fiero.
Click to expand...

A nice heavy gauge wire across the terminals in his fuse box would've found the problem. :D Did you end up telling him TFB on the fuse return?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

SiteLock

SiteLock
Back
Top