Call for our best price

[Jstpssng]

I am headed off to buy a freezer. I know what I want and went online to find the best price and availability; only to find these dreaded words. I don't speak salesmanese and am prone to turn around and walk out the door; so with those 5 words, I learned that I am driving another 40 miles to HD or Lowes. At least I saved myself a stop at that store, and the aggravation of dealing with a salesman. I wonder how many sales they lose what that one phrase.


I miss Sears.

 

[Jstpssng]

Checking out their website, GE says that all of their freezers are garage ready, and should keep your food frozen for 2 days in a power outage if you don't open the door. I usually run the sensor from an indoor/outdoor thermometer under the gasket, so I can tell at a glance if I have a problem.
A Magic Chef the same size is half the price but will keep things frozen for 2-3 hours... I'll be spending more money on the GE.

I have an old Gibson down in my shed which I bought about 8 years ago from a butcher shop which had closed. It still runs like a champ but I want to move it to the house and I doubt it would survive the move... it's getting rather rusty.

 

[newbury]

I've a freezer (Amana???) my Parents bought in the mid 1960's as part as a deal with buying meat. It had been running almost continuously (except during moves) since they bought it up until about 2012 when I moved it down to my workshop in Mississippi.
Haven't set it back up yet.
The seals seemed to need replacing by about 2000 but they were going to cost about $200 for the materials alone. But it kept on ticking and freezing.

 

[scootr]

I am headed off to buy a freezer. I know what I want and went online to find the best price and availability; only to find these dreaded words. I don't speak salesmanese and am prone to turn around and walk out the door; so with those 5 words, I learned that I am driving another 40 miles to HD or Lowes. At least I saved myself a stop at that store, and the aggravation of dealing with a salesman. I wonder how many sales they lose what that one phrase.


I miss Sears.

I shop online a lot. I turn away at call for price. My impression is we will size you up and price as high as we think we can for you or for today or IDK? Anyway, they lost me, I don't 'call for price'. You post it or I pass.

 

[IndyJay]

I am headed off to buy a freezer. I know what I want and went online to find the best price and availability; only to find these dreaded words. I don't speak salesmanese and am prone to turn around and walk out the door; so with those 5 words, I learned that I am driving another 40 miles to HD or Lowes. At least I saved myself a stop at that store, and the aggravation of dealing with a salesman. I wonder how many sales they lose what that one phrase.


I miss Sears.

I have found that if they don't want to advertise their price, or even worse not give one over the phone, it is because they know they are higher than their competitors. The exception for advertised price, is that many small businesses cannot afford to keep a website up to date with changing prices. Usually they have a hosted site that they have to pay for changes so they keep it simple. These folks are generally willing to give a price over the phone and I will pay a little more to keep them in business if local.

I had an experience several years ago with a friend who worked as his family's business selling appliances. We were doing a kitchen renovation and I stopped in to ask what he could work up for refrigerator, double oven, stove, dishwasher, and washer and dryer. He told me he couldn't compete with the local Sears. I assured him that I understood that and didn't expect them to beat Sears, just give me a price. He kept repeating that he couldn't compete with Sears. He never did give me a price. We bought from Sears. Disappointing that he didn't even try. I would have paid a few hundred more to support their business. They folded a few years later, it is now a liquor store.

 

[3Ts]

Other phrases that I find irritating is: "You can't afford it." Oh, have you been hacking into my bank account? I need to be the one making the decision as to whether I can afford it, after all, it's my money! There are some things that I'm willing to pay considerably more than the going rate because it affects other things that I'm doing that have completion dates. For example, I'd be willing to pay double for a survey to be completed on time because of the house mortgage requirements affecting a 6 figure mortgage. It would cost me far more than an extra 1k if that mortgage didn't happen because someone at the surveyor office decided I couldn't afford it.

 

[ponytug]

I am headed off to buy a freezer. I know what I want and went online to find the best price and availability; only to find these dreaded words. I don't speak salesmanese and am prone to turn around and walk out the door; so with those 5 words, I learned that I am driving another 40 miles to HD or Lowes. At least I saved myself a stop at that store, and the aggravation of dealing with a salesman. I wonder how many sales they lose what that one phrase.


I miss Sears.

I miss Sears, too.

Unless I know that the item I question has rapidly changing prices, or is from a draconian manufacturer that enforces MSRP, those words definitely shove me onto a different store/ vendor. I don't have time for probing from sales people, nor for anything less than transparency.

Last time I went to buy a freezer, I was annoyed that I couldn't find one with a separate cooling coil to keep the warm Freon away from the freezer, nor one with more than two inches of insulation, without spending more than I would save in energy.

All the best,

Peter

 

[ponytug]

FWIW: I added 2” of high R-Value foam to the lid of the freezer. It got rid of the condensation on the lid and reduced the energy draw by a little (20%?).

All the best,

Peter

 

[Jstpssng]

^^^^
I probably will do something like that. The old Gibson which I am retiring (maybe) had so much rust that I had to reattach the hinges. At that time I believe that I replaced the insulation in the top, and also sanded down the rust spots inside, then painted thim.


I hate shopping.

I drove 90 miles to the closest Lowes; they didn't have the size I wanted but after looking at the literature for a smaller Hotpoint I realized that although it wasn't "Garage ready" it would work. Home Depot didn't have a thing for chest freezers, so I went across town to another Lowe's where they had just what I wanted. As I was looking it over somebody came up and asked if I needed help, so I said "Yes, I want to buy this freezer." They couldn't help me but went to find the person who could... "He's busy with a customer but will be right over."
I wasn't sure that it was available as they only had one that size; the book was missing and it was the only freezer with no price tag.
I twiddled my thumbs for a few minutes, found a desk with a clock on it and checked the time, wandered over to where the salesman was still dealing with another customer, looked around at other appliances for a bit, went back and checked the time; returned to the sales desk, which was empty. I wandered back over to the freezer. He wasn't there so I returned to the sales desk to find he had returned but was still with the original customer; walked back to the desk with a clock and realized I had been waiting 15 minutes... returned to the sales desk yet again to see him walk off with the original customer.

That's when I left.

I returned to the first Lowe's, resigned to buying the smaller freezer. I went to the sales desk and asked if somebody could help me buy a freezer. After showing her what I was looking at I said I would prefer the larger size but it didn't appear they had any.
She went out back and discovered they had one left which hadn't made it out front for some reason. After bringing it out and ringing me up we loaded it into my truck. I pulled out of the way and tied it down. As I jumped back in to leave I happened to notice the time; 10:51... just 14 minutes after I had pulled into my parking spot and an hour after I had walked out of the previous store. It took less time to walk in, close the deal, load and leave than I had wasted at the first Lowes.

 

[5030]

Just curious as to what 'Garage Ready' means?? I have 2 chest freezers in the unheated side of the garage / shop and they run and freeze just fine. One is an Amana, the other is a Whirlpool neither was garage ready until I put them in the garage....lol Almost everyone I know has at least one freezer in their garage.

Only thing I miss Sears and Grabbuck for was their tools. The old Craftsman tools were great. The new Craftsman made in China tools suck. Even HF is better. Sears, like KMart didn't advance with the times so they went down the crapper.