[CyberInferno]

I logged onto the Ear Plug store after reading about their deals in this thread the night before last and was struck by some amazing deals. They lowered all of their prices and after I applied the coupon codes, they got incredible. I was planning to buy some Shure e2's for $70 inc s&h, but when I added them to my cart and applied the code, they were $40! When I saw that incredible price drop, I removed them from my cart and added the Shure e3 to my cart and saw an amazing price of $80 including shipping and handling. So I made the purchase and went to bed peacefully.

Unfortunately, the old saying about some things being too good to be true reared its ugly head. I spoke with a friend after making the purchase and told him there was a fairly good chance they would cancel my order, and, sure enough, I got the e-mail the morning after telling me that the coupon codes have been removed from the site and that the price of the e3 was $129. Ah well. I've contacted the site and now I'm just hoping to get the e2's for the $63 that I was expecting to pay while their site was in maintenance (the current price is $69 w/o s&h).

Has anyone else run into this type of thing? I thought I'd post a story for my first post as a member (I've been a lurker for about nine months and finally decided to join, originally to share the great deal and now just to join the discussions).

EDIT: For those of you who have experience negotiating prices with local salesmen, do you have any tips? I've read about people getting the e2's for $55-70 from their local Guitar Centers. I have some within 10-15 miles of me, but I have no experience in negotiating prices. What are some good tactics, and do I even stand a chance of striking a deal with them if I'm not a returning customer? Thanks.

 

[bln]

Whenever you purchase from an Internet vendor you're unfamiliar with, it's a good idea to visit http://www.resellerratings.com and see what past customers have said about them. There are a lot of scammers out there and I wouldn't buy from anyone without a perfect or nearly-perfect track record.

 

[CyberInferno]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bln Whenever you purchase from an Internet vendor you're unfamiliar with, it's a good idea to visit http://www.resellerratings.com and see what past customers have said about them. There are a lot of scammers out there and I wouldn't buy from anyone without a perfect or nearly-perfect track record.

I use resellerratings for all my computer purchases. I actually did check to see if they had this store on there, but the store wasn't listed. I really do think it was an honest mistake on their part. As was told in my e-mail, the coupon codes have been removed from the checkout portion of their site and they just lowered the prices to account for it. I just happened to catch the site while the coupons were still applicable and they had already lowered their prices, hence the mix-up. As I said, I was almost expecting the order to be cancelled, and I respect that the did so in a quick manner. If I had gotten the e-mail four or five days later, I would have been very pissed, but their e-mail came the day after I made the order (and the order was made late at night).

I'll search the forum and see if I can find more information about the vendor. I'm still looking around for the best price on the e2's, and if they can give me $63 + $7.50s&h, I think that's the best price I've seen. Do you know of any reliable stores that can beat their $69 price or get close to it? I checked headroom but they're selling the e2's for as much as the Ety er-6 ($99).

 

[ama]

As the old saying goes, "If it seems too good to be true, it is."

Adam

 

[EdipisReks]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ama As the old saying goes, "If it seems too good to be true, it is." Adam

USUALLY is, USUALLY is. every once in a long, long while, the thing that seems to good to be true, isn't.

 

[Xanadu777]

Quote:

Originally Posted by CyberInferno For those of you who have experience negotiating prices with local salesmen, do you have any tips?

Go in on a weekday rather than weekend. Weekends normally have newer or part time employees working who are less apt to deal. Look at something high priced like your interested, chat a bit then casually ask about what you're really interested in... "What can you do on ____?" If it's too high or as a general rule, say "Can you do it for ___?" With ___ being low but within reason.

Then when buying, at the last minute you can ask them to throw in a battery, magazine or some other small item. Be friendly and confident and they'll be happy to make a deal for you may come back and spend more dough with them another day...

 

[tyrion]

It was probably just a mistake on their part. I've bought a couple of phones from them without incident. There prices are typically pretty good.

In terms of negotiating, just ask if they are willing to any better on a price. Sometimes you can take a price from one seller and use it to get a better price from another. Microphone solutions is one site that will beat prices from other sites.

 

[CyberInferno]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tyrion It was probably just a mistake on their part. I've bought a couple of phones from them without incident. There prices are typically pretty good.

The customer service rep seemed genuinely sorry about it. She apologized in the initial e-mail as well as in her response to my cancellation of the order. I see that their response time is good. I'm still waiting to hear back from them about getting the e2's for the $63 they had right before I placed my order. If they are able to give me that price, I will order from them. Otherwise, there's still a good chance I will order from them as I'm not sure I can get them cheaper elsewhere.

 

[CyberInferno]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xanadu777 Go in on a weekday rather than weekend. Weekends normally have newer or part time employees working who are less apt to deal. Look at something high priced like your interested, chat a bit then casually ask about what you're really interested in... "What can you do on ____?" If it's too high or as a general rule, say "Can you do it for ___?" With ___ being low but within reason. Then when buying, at the last minute you can ask them to throw in a battery, magazine or some other small item. Be friendly and confident and they'll be happy to make a deal for you may come back and spend more dough with them another day...

That makes sense about going on a weekday instead of a weekend. What would you recommend for the e2's as an asking price? I just called a local Guitar Center and their price is $99, so what do you think is a good price to start "bidding" shall we say? Would $70 be a reasonable price to ask for?

 

[tyrion]

Quote:

Originally Posted by CyberInferno The customer service rep seemed genuinely sorry about it. She apologized in the initial e-mail as well as in her response to my cancellation of the order. I see that their response time is good. I'm still waiting to hear back from them about getting the e2's for the $63 they had right before I placed my order. If they are able to give me that price, I will order from them. Otherwise, there's still a good chance I will order from them as I'm not sure I can get them cheaper elsewhere.

Take the lowest price you get to microphone solutions and they will beat that price.

 

[Xanadu777]

Quote:

Originally Posted by CyberInferno Would $70 be a reasonable price to ask for?

Figure what is the cheapest you can get them shipped to your door online. Then take that and subtract any tax you will pay locally. If you can get them for the same price, have them the same day and return them if need be, you've done pretty well. If you have to pay slightly more, the second two come into play. What that's worth is up to you. I like to get a deal price first before I offer lower (and I always do) but you might tell them, hey, I can get this online for X, what can you do? Depending on who it is, they may tell you to get them online or have no problem matching the price.

 

[flecom]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xanadu777 Go in on a weekday rather than weekend. Weekends normally have newer or part time employees working who are less apt to deal. Look at something high priced like your interested, chat a bit then casually ask about what you're really interested in... "What can you do on ____?" If it's too high or as a general rule, say "Can you do it for ___?" With ___ being low but within reason. Then when buying, at the last minute you can ask them to throw in a battery, magazine or some other small item. Be friendly and confident and they'll be happy to make a deal for you may come back and spend more dough with them another day...

i know a lot of people that work @ GC... and the people who work weekdays are usually the same people on the weekends... the reason weekdays are better days for getting deals is becuase there probably doing poorly that day... the people @ gc work on commission, and the way it works is really ******... there is "GLP" aka profit... sale price - cost = GLP.... it goes through some dumb math and then their paycheck is subtracted from their commission!

basically unless you are an awesome seller your pretty screwed @ GC...

with that said, the accessories and pro-audio departments can sell headphones... try a salesman from each department, see what they each say

 

[Norbert]

My biggest peeve is ebayers who advertise "no minimum" and I bid the the highest bid and find out that the sale has been cancelled. Damn them.

 

[CyberInferno]

The Earplugstore came through for me. I sent them a request to sell me the E2's for $63 (the price I planned to pay when I went to their site), and they said that they would manually apply the discount to my order.

I hope that their shipping is as fast as their customer service is good. So far, I've had an excellent experience with them. Even though I ran into a technical difficulty with their site, they kindly obliged and gave me the sale price that I intended to pay.

Thanks for the advice about negotiating with customer service. I might pick up a set of cans for home use (I was considering the Grado SR-60 OR SR-80), and I'll definitely try out some of the techniques mentioned to negotiate a good deal. As it is, I don't think I'd be able to get Guitar Center to match this price for a first-time customer, and it would be a slap in the face to the Earplugstore for me to even try.

EDIT: Quick shipping, too. The order shipped the next day. I wish they sold more headphones.

 

[Swampwalker]

If you are looking for SR-60s, there is a pair on Audiogon for $25!!!