I wish I had the guts
22 Sunday Aug 2010
22 Sunday Aug 2010
22 Sunday Aug 2010
Posted Business, Psychology
inSo we’re looking to buy some living room furniture since our kids absconded with our sofas when they moved out. We’ve been very interested in the Norwegian Stressless line. Very nice stuff, but brutally expensive. That’s why you wait for the various corporate sales that come along a few times a year. Today was such a day.
The Danish House had an ad in the paper featuring deep discounts (somewhat of an oxymoron at this price level) on their “floor” models. We braved the rain and the insane traffic that results when Canadians can’t use their back yards because of weather and do the next best thing….go shopping.
The sales manager swooshed in (well, sauntered in really) to show us the sale items. We found a couple of chairs we liked and asked if we could take them home right away. “No”, he said,” We’ll have to order them for you”. I told him that I didn’t understand, a sale of floor-models usually means that you take the model on the floor. “Look”, he said, “It’s just a way of getting the customer in the door. We can’t let you have the floor model because then we’d have nothing to sell!”. “But you can have any color you want”, he added excitedly.
We left the store in disgust; I hate primitive marketing techniques like misrepresented sales and bait-and-switch. We headed to their largest competitor, J.C. Perreault, where we’ve been well served by a very professional sales rep on previous visits. She informed us that the sale was available at all Stressless dealers, and it wasn’t on floor models only. The price was the same but for the larger size (these come in Small, Medium and Large, and the Danish House offer was on the Small only). We also saw a sofa we liked and she made us an excellent deal on two of them.
We ordered two chairs and two sofas plus a couple of side-tables for the sofas. I won’t say how much but suffice it to say that she’ll have a much better upcoming Summer vacation on her commissions.
When will stores learn that you can’t keep bamboozling people. We’re all tired and just want some srainght answers without too much bullshit.