Melinda Meahan - take out TRASH to reply wrote:

Charlie wrote:
Except that we were discussing the machine before he told me what the price
was and before I found the deal on the net.

Well, if you were planning on buying it and then found out the price and
croaked, that's a little bit different story. But if you knew you
weren't going to buy it and went in and took up his time anyway knowing
he wouldn't make a sale but not letting him know, that is not terribly
considerate in my book.

--
I know God will not give me anything I can't handle.
I just wish that He didn't trust me so much. - Mother Teresa


My dealer looks at it a different way:

He will spend as much time as the potential customer needs to be sure
they get the machine they want. If, in the end, he loses the sale to
another dealer, well, that's tough, but that's the way it goes. He's
given it his best shot. He will also be perfectly happy to sell you a
cheap and cheerful machine rather than an all singing all dancing
computerized wizzy thing if that is what you want. He will be as happy
to sell you a 50 YO hand crank Singer as a Husqvarna Designer I, if
that's what you are in the market for. A happy customer is repeat
business. When they upgrade, they will come to him first!

I could NOT have bought my two machines at a better price anywhere else
at the time I was looking, and while I didn't get all those freebees our
USA cousins seem to have fall into their laps, I DID get free finance,
which made the difference between dream machine purchase and dream on!
If I was in the market for a new machine now, he knows that he'd be the
first place I'd look, and that if his price was close to the pile it
high warehouse price, I'd buy from him for peace of mind. For a £200
difference, he'd expect to lose the initial sale, but would pick up for
the add-ons later, and the servicing, and probably any warranty work.

Swings and roundabouts...
--
Kate XXXXXX
Lady Catherine, Wardrobe Mistress of the Chocolate Buttons
http://www.diceyhome.free-online.co.uk
Click on Kate's Pages and explore!