I answered the door to a salesperson...

[bethben]

I saw her clipboard and hat advertising a solar panel company.  

Me: "I don't buy anything or sign any petitions from door to door people."

Her(really chipper):  I'm not selling anything! 

Me: I'm assuming your selling solar power panels and we choose not to go into debt to buy anything and don't have the money to pay upfront.

Her:  I'm not selling anything!

Eventually, I kept the conversation going to just get her to admit she was selling solar panels.  Apparently, me saving $100 a month on electricity to pay for the solar panels is me not actually buying anything.  It's the same as if I bought an electric car and my gas savings was paying for the electric car.  She kept insisting that I was not buying the solar panels while out of the other side of her mouth telling me I could get free installation for the solar panels that would cost me nothing and how the remainder of the balance (of the solar panels that would cost me nothing apparently) could be transferred to the next owners.  I tried and tried to get her to tell me that I would essentially be buying solar panels.  She couldn't do it.  Then she told me I would be saving 21 trees every day.  WHICH MAKES NO SENSE!  The carbon footprint is reduced thereby making it seem like I'm planting trees every day, but I'm not saving trees already planted. What?!?  Are we burning trees for fuel now?!?!

This is why children must learn basic logic.  This is all.

[scholastica]

You’ve done your good deed for the day wasting some of her time. This sounds like my grocery store when the checker says “you saved $23.71 today.” No. No, I didn’t. I just spent $112 on stuff I wouldn’t buy if it wasn’t on sale! 

[Farrar]

There are some companies that install the panels on your home for free and are basically renting the space from you. You get a smallish discount or buyback amount based on the money they're making off them. If that was the case, you would sign a contract but then not be buying the panels. It would be as if a friend parked their car in your driveway and paid you a small amount to do it. The car being there wouldn't make it your car. Of course, she may have been selling them and just trying to give the "no money upfront" spiel. I hate when salespeople and reps get stuck in their thing and can't get beyond it.

[gardenmom5]

huh.  that's like my mother.  it's not a bill because it's required.  only fun things are bills... (dh was pulling his hair out trying to get her finances under control.  it' took six MONTHS to figure out where all her money was going because it was so messed up. he'd normally do this type of thing in his sleep. blind folded, with both hands tied behind his back.)

[Baseball mom]

That reminds me of when I went to see about the price of a new phone.  The girl kept telling me I could get the phone for $x a month.   She wouldn't tell me how many payments it was or the outright price.  Finally when I asked "I want to purchase the phone outright today, no payments HOW much is the phone?'  She looked at me as if I had gone crazy and said "why would you want to do that? It is $x a month"   😵     I left.  

[Scarlett]

42 minutes ago, Baseball mom said:

That reminds me of when I went to see about the price of a new phone.  The girl kept telling me I could get the phone for $x a month.   She wouldn't tell me how many payments it was or the outright price.  Finally when I asked "I want to purchase the phone outright today, no payments HOW much is the phone?'  She looked at me as if I had gone crazy and said "why would you want to do that? It is $x a month"   😵     I left.  

Ha, I have had this experience many times looking at new cars.   How much is the car?  Well, come inside and let us check your credit.  What the what!  At this one particular dealership I was not the only person who could not get a price out of them.  It was insanity.  

[Lady Florida.]

On 4/18/2019 at 1:41 PM, Farrar said:

 I hate when salespeople and reps get stuck in their thing and can't get beyond it.

When I've felt like talking to the salesperson more than usual I've said something like, "I know you have a spiel and you're supposed to say X but can we just discuss Y for a bit?". Someone who actually has sales experience can switch gears and talk to me about what they're selling, with more than just the sales pitch. Those who are inexperienced or took the sales job temporarily always get flummoxed. Unfortunately many of them are young people who were tricked into thinking they could make good money when in fact they're working on commission (another reason to learn basic logic). 

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

Every once in a while when I'm in an antagonistic mood, I like to do similar things to sales people who are blatantly lying form the start.  I am polite but firm with upfront sellers, but the ones who start right off with deceptive tactics are fair game, IMO.

[Guest]

On 4/18/2019 at 1:40 PM, scholastica said:

You’ve done your good deed for the day wasting some of her time. This sounds like my grocery store when the checker says “you saved $23.71 today.” No. No, I didn’t. I just spent $112 on stuff I wouldn’t buy if it wasn’t on sale! 

I’m always tempted to say that. I think I have actually done it a couple of times; “Yeah, but I spent $127.49.” Said with a chuckle, to keep it light. But really. If I had stayed home I would have saved even more. 

[Amy in NH]

On 4/18/2019 at 1:36 PM, bethben said:

  Are we burning trees for fuel now?!?!

 

Yes.  That's what the biomass plants near us burn to produce electricty.

[Guest]

3 hours ago, Scarlett said:

Ha, I have had this experience many times looking at new cars.   How much is the car?  Well, come inside and let us check your credit.  What the what!  At this one particular dealership I was not the only person who could not get a price out of them.  It was insanity.  

I remember that irritating me so much when I bought my first new car. I was around 22 or 23 yo. They kept saying, “well, where do you want your monthly payment to be?” I wanted to scream how I’m not talkin payments; I’m talking total price of the car! Because having a nice, low payment of $157/month is meaningless if I have to finance it for six years to do it! 😑

I did get talked into doing something I didn’t want to do when we bought a car last year. I wanted it to be four years of financing, the dealer was pushing for five years. He said, “Well, you can certainly always pay the additional amount every month and be on track to pay it off in four years. But if your loan is set up for five years, you won’t have to worry in months where it is harder to make up that difference.” That sounded reasonably logical to us and so that’s what we did: we took the five year loan. Every month I pay the larger payment just as if that were the actual payment because I want to pay it off in FOUR years, not FIVE. 

BUT! I still wish I had not done this because when my bills come, they are never the right amount and *I* have to remember to pay it every month or they just apply my overpayment and don’t send me a bill. So, for instance, they didn’t send me an April bill because I have “overpaid” in their view so if I were not paying attention, I would be paying nothing towards my loan this month at all. 

I’m annoyed. I can get around it just fine, but it was stupid of me to let them talk me into a five year when that is not what I wanted at all. Now I have to be vigilant about it because the bank is not set up to help me pay it off sooner; obviously they don’t want me to do that at all. They want the greater share of interest from the longer loan. Doh! I hate that I let that one by. 

[scholastica]

1 hour ago, Quill said:

I’m always tempted to say that. I think I have actually done it a couple of times; “Yeah, but I spent $127.49.” Said with a chuckle, to keep it light. But really. If I had stayed home I would have saved even more. 

I have done that! They laugh along with me. 

[Suzanne in ABQ]

Ugh.  Reminds me of my worst car-buying experience.  I knew the car I wanted, and I knew I wanted leather seats.  I had found a local company that could re-upholster the seats in leather for $1000.  All I wanted to know is the price difference between the lower end package with fabric seats (which I would pay to reupholster), or the higher end package that already had leather seats.  Simple math (which would cost less?).  His question, which he would not be swayed from, was, "Well, what color car do you want?"  WTH?  I don't care about the color.  Yes, I understand that the Limited model offers a different color palette than the regular model, and already has the leather seats, but I don't care about the color.  I simply want to know the least expensive way to get leather seats.  He simply refused to answer my question.  He just kept going back and forth between us and the manager, offering us different prices on a little scrap of paper, and trying to get us to put our initials on his little scrap of paper, and I kept asking him the price difference between the models, and he kept asking me what color I wanted. ARGH!!! It was a total circus.

I finally got tired of the game.  I just announced that I needed to feed the baby, and I'd be out in the car, and I walked out.  Dh came out a few minutes later and said that the salesman had freaked out when I left. He gave us an unbelievable deal on the Limited model (which had the leather seats, which was all I cared about).  Turns out I loved the lovely royal blue color.  

[Baseball mom]

When we were looking for a van, we went to 1 dealer that kept giving us the run around on price.  He kept asking what did I want my payment to be. So with a very serious expression I told him $20 maybe $25.  He laughed.  I sat there with a straight face and said "you were only worried about what I "wanted" my payment to be so I told you."    They also kept pushing a van we didn't really care for.  We ended up not buying from them.  

Next dealer had a van I liked and had done research on.  After test drive we sat down to discuss it with the dealer.  I had some questions (safety & motor related).  The dealer kept kinda blowing me off and turning to dh to talk.  Dh looked at the guy and said "if you are the least bit interested in selling that van you better talk to her. It will be her van and she know exactly what she wants and has done a lot of research."  That got a surprised look and an "I am so sorry"   Dealer started paying attention to me after that.

[Lady Florida.]

14 hours ago, Suzanne in ABQ said:

Ugh.  Reminds me of my worst car-buying experience.  

 

55 minutes ago, Baseball mom said:

When we were looking for a van, we went to 1 dealer that kept giving us the run around on price.  He kept asking what did I want my payment to be.

That's so common and so frustrating. It's happened more than once with dh and me as a couple, but the worst was my own first new car buying experience It was the late 80s and car salesmen were pretty much just that - all salesmen. When I finally decided on which car I wanted I had more than one guy trying to convince me he knew better than I did. I had to insist that no, I will NOT get tired of a manual transmission. I want my car to have a stick shift tyvm. Once we got past that, they kept at with the payment question. They couldn't wrap their heads around the idea that a young professional woman (or any woman for that matter) understands how interest works. 

ETA: I had several people tell me I should take my (5 years younger) brother or some other man with me when I went car buying and shopping but I was a maverick (for that era) and determined to do it on my own.

Edited April 23, 2019 by Lady Florida.