I must disagree with several things here.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Night Owl
Hmm, let me get this straight... A salesman can find the highest price a customer is willing to pay, but if a customer does the same to a salesman he's a penny pinching scrooge and deserves what he gets! How do you spell hypocrisy! Oh man, some guys just can't help hanging themselves!  |
Depends on how you decide on something's 'value'. Is a Picasso painting really worth millions of dollars? After all, it's only some splashes of paint on a canvass. Is your wife's diamond ring really worth ten grand? Value is not absolute. If a salesman can sell the same thing to two people for different prices, good luck to him. As the consumer, you have the option not to buy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Night Owl
And its even better, apparently if you ask for advice about something they want to sell you are then under some non existant fantasy obligation to then pay what they want for it! Holy smoke, next retailers will be charging admission fees, and pay by the minute advice, but only after you give them your credit card details. How dare a customer expect 'free' information about a product or its suitablity! |
There are many, many areas of business where you don't get free advice. You want advice on where to invest your money? You bet it'll cost you for that advice, even if you don't follow it. That person's advice is their intellectual property, which has a monetary value.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Night Owl
Oh, I forgot that retail customers are the cash cows of the retailers, and must be milked for all they are worth. And heaven forbid if a cash cow ever breaks free of being milked, and goes to another dairy. It might start a stampeed.
|
There already is a stampede. People expect to walk into a shop in the high street (or wherever) and spend an hour asking all the questions they can think of, then they shaft the shop owner and buy elsewhere.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Night Owl
And I thought talking about mowing the lawn was a pretty poor alternative to actually mowing it. But some people expect to be paid for talking about mowing the lawn! Man that's rich!
|
Same as talking about buying something is a poor alternative to actually buying it!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Night Owl
I should start a company on the strength of this arguement and call it something like "Jim's Verbal Mowing"! I could charge even more because it would be environmentally friendly, as it wouldn't actually use any two stroke fuel. Hmmmmm, value adding. |
Fair enough. But if you rock up outside my house and ask if my grass needs to be cut, I'll charge
you for my intellectual knowledge of whether it needs to be cut, or if I even
have any grass! (tall wall or hedge required for this to work, obviously.)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Night Owl
I'm not a very good cash cow, and I'm proud of it. And I've got the saving to prove it.
|
No-one wants to be a cash cow. And guess what? No-one has to. But, suppose the most expensive shop had the best knowledge, the best range of products and the best service. If everyone flocks there to ask questions and take advantage of them but then buys from a cheaper online store, there's no incentive for the other place to maintain its service.
And this is the point that gets lost in these arguments. Everyone wants the product at the cheapest price but they don't want to pay for the service. So they effectively 'steal' the service from someone else first and go elsewhere for the "product only" deal. At least on IIS the 'service' is actually being offered up for free and we can all contribute to it. We're lucky Iceman doesn't charge us for using the forum. Thanks, Mike!
Morton