Thread: Dumb Salesperson

it seems this guy offended you?
$5 for 5 rods seems over the top, but once he breaks a packet (or already has a broken packet) it could take him some time to sell them off 1 by one, and they will eventually become stale if not stored airtight.
anyway, if you were not happy with the service or the manner of the salesman, the manager no less, then why not go elsewhere.
Doesnt seem to me you were asking too much, you cant be expected to buy something without information about it, and to joke about charging for information implies perhaps he was annoyed about having to provide it, which in sales is a basic thing, provide information about product and how it will be able to do what you want it to do, allow consumer to make choice whether to purchase or not. The changing hands of money is the last, not the least by any means, but also not the most important, part of a sale.
As you have demonstrated, if you dont get the first 90% of the sale right, the 10% that puts money in the sellers bank doesnt occur.
Just my two cents.

Obviously you did not jell with him and charging you $5 for 5 rods may be a bit heavy. If you were hinting on buying a new machine and he sensed this a good thing to do was say "we normally charge $1 per rod but i will give you 5 rods for $1. You would have been happy and possibly came back to him to buy your welder. This would have been a small outlay by him for a long term gain.
Who knows maybe he owns the other shop and got your money anyway.

Geez I just give them away. Why stuff around over that when you can just give the guys a few rods then if he comes back add $5 bucks to the price of the machine? If he buys it?

Keep the customer happy = Number 1 rule.....

Nothing worse than a arrogant salesman who treats their customers like dumb asses. Why would you want to come back.

It's a bit like how companies bend over backwards to supply the big orders yet shrug off the smaller orders. It's about building a relationship.

I would much prefer that he honestly charged me for the rods than pretending to give them away only to jack up the price of something else I purchased

A better option would be the salesman saying "Okay, that's $5 for the rods. I'll credit it towards the welder if you come back and buy it."

It's win-win in a business sense, as that way he's not being had by everyone scabbing free stuff from him, but at the same time, if you DO buy a welder, the rods were freebies.

His attitude is what we see from a number of people who are highly skilled and knowledgeable but think that is all they need to run a successful business. However, as those people who are more successful know, they must be prepared to win customers in the true sense, not just try to slug everybody who comes near them.

He passed up a wonderful opportunity to simply give you a couple of rods to try out. The goodwill that would have generated would have been worth far more than the measly 5 bucks for 5 rods.

Thanks for the replies.

I was not after free rods, but a fair deal. I personally would have given any of my customers a couple of free rods or told them the price BEFORE getting to the sales counter and then asking for $5.

After the event I was unsure if I was reacting to harsh and that maybe I was having a bad hair day and taking it out on someone else.

Bottom line very pleased with the new inverter type welder and got a great deal.

Cheers to everyone.

KenM