Thrifty Thursday – Make the Call

I’m going to have to give a HT to Phil Gons on today’s thrifty tip. Not only is Phil an amazingly smart guy (currently finishing up his PhD thesertation – yeah, I made that word up) but he’s also a really thrifty guy (just ask him about his new bluetooth headset).

So, Phil pointed out to me the other day that, when ordering a product, it is generally a good idea to call the company and ask if they have and unadvertised specials or if they can do better than their web price. He recounted a story of shopping for a new computer for his dad. After reviewing the Dell website, he gave them a call and asked if they could beat the web price. The sales person said that he couldn’t on the base package, but that he could give him a discount if he upgraded the computer a bit.

I shared with Phil that it would have never crossed my mind to call and ask for a better price… but apparently it worked. Now, I’m going to bet that places like Amazon.com aren’t going to beat their online price, but if you’re shopping at a company that sells their own product (like Dell) it might be worth a shot. You’ll never know until you ask. So, take a moment and just make the call.

Also, it never hurts to ask if they give discounts to students… that’s always worth a shot.