Sales Talk

My god sister's friend wanted to buy a digital camera. We had just enjoyed a karaoke session with another friend. Among the four of us (all ladies), I can be said to be more knowledgeable in cameras. So I decided to go along to help in her search for a digital camera.

We (the four ladies) planned to visit a few shops to see which brand is recommended. From there we can narrow our search to a particular model, then compare prices of the model among the few shops. However we got stuck in the first shop we stepped in. We had met an expert (in my view) salesman.

He was direct, fast and skillful at reading body language. From budget, features, quality, technical support to user friendliness he led us quickly through and answered our questions. In 5 minutes he came to the question: Are you paying by cash or NETS?

"Wait a minute," we all thought aloud. We all had the feeling of being "pushed" into buying. Felt like he was doing hard selling. He sensed this immediately and addressed our concerns and went through the features again to show that we were getting a "value for money deal". We still did not feel comfortable and started to walk out of the shop.

"I will give you this battery charger with rechargeable batteries free!" he exclaimed. We stopped walking, turned and started to walk back to him. He revealed that the charger cost $55. The "battle" had began! He kept insisting that we were getting the "best" price but we still felt uncomfortable and kept making him guarantee that he is not "cheating" us.

Finally my friend bought a RICOH Caplio R2 at SGD$700 including 1GB external SD card (retail price about $100), charger (retail price $55) + rechargeable batteries (4 pcs) and one book on how to take good photographs (retail price about $45). Here is a review of the camera.

After reading the review, I felt that my friend got a good buy. The listed price is $699. Although my friend paid $1 more but she got 3 free items (1 GB SD card + charger + book) which will easy cost her another $200 if bought separately!! Good deal right? What do you think?