There’s going to be a point in your life when you have to buy a new washer, dryer, fridge, oven, flat-screen television, or other major appliance. If you’re not careful about it and do all of the right things, you’ll be in a situation where you are probably paying far too much money. Here are some tips to make sure you get the best deal when you purchase a new major appliance.
Choose the model you want in advance – You don’t want to walk down to the local Sears and buy whatever model they happen to have on hand. You should go down to a few different appliance stores, look at a few models that you’re interested, and then go do some research on each of the model. If you don’t do product research ahead of time, you might accidentally buy an appliance with a missing feature or one that has a history of needing a lot of maintenance.
Comparison shop – This is pretty simple, go to all of the major appliance stores in the area that have the model that you want, and find the one with the lowest advertised price. Don’t worry, you won’t even have to pay as much as the lowest price that you find. You’re here to get a bargain, and you’re going to get one. In order to do this you need to…
Treat it like a negotiation. –Buying a major new appliance is exactly like buying a car. You need to use negotiating tactics. Use word’s like “that’s not good enough” to get a better deal. Remain silent so that they’ll talk themselves into a deal. Figure out what they’re paying for it and try to get as close to that amount as possible. If they won’t negotiate, leave and come back later. Tell the sales person that you’re going to be getting a bargain or you’ll be going elsewhere.
Pay in cash – When you pay in cash, you can usually get a discount. They have to pay a processing fee if you pay with a credit card, so you should at least be able to get a 3% discount for paying in cash. Physical money has an interesting power of invoking emotions, and quite often you can get quite a deal if you wave money in their face. If you pay in cash, the deal is sealed and the salesperson will recognize that emotionally.
Don’t buy an extended service plan – You’re going to be offered some sort of fancy extended warranty, don’t buy it in all cases. The cost of the extended warranty that you’re paying is about 90% commission and advertising, only about 10% of it is actually covering the cost of insuring the appliance. Statistically it never makes sense to buy an extended service plan or an extended warranty.
Good luck in your next appliance purchase, you can save a lot of money, often 30% to 40% if you put the effort into it!
