This is kind of long, so bear with me:
I brought some fish to an not so local fish store, about 55 miles, one way and brought a friend with me. Long ride but they are the only place that will give ANYTHING for fish. I made a deal with him via phone and e-mail before I went down there and had a firm commitment as far as trade value. I got what I wanted and planned on using the credit right away for fish. He had 6 Geos in the tank, 4 of one type and 2 of another. Fish were $30.00 each, 3 for $80.00, so I offered to buy the fourth for another $20, figuring that was fair. The owner wouldn't do it, he offered to go to $25 but absolutely wouldn't budge on the last $5.00!!!
I looked at my buddy, he looked at me and both of us just shrugged, meaning basically screw this. Funny part is, I had planned on dropping another $100 or so because he had some other fish I wanted and my buddy had about $200 in his pocket he was going to drop on some fish he had found in the store.
So for a measly $5.00, off the RETAIL price of fish he probably paid about $10.00 for, the owner lost out on a $300.00 sale and lost two customers, just for not being willing to be flexible at all.
Then after all was done and the 3 Geos were bagged up, he tried to charge me $10.00 tax on the fish I had essentially traded for. I flat out refused to give him the $10.00 for tax on a trade, so that was just the icing on the cake.
So to sum it up, it's the principal of the thing, the $5.00 would have meant nothing to him, it meant nothing to me monetarily but his ridiculous inflexibility not only cost him $300, it lost him 1 good customer, another possible great customer and a loss of several other potential customers as I'm telling all my local friends about this.
BTW: I will NOT post his stores name on here, that's a line I won't cross.
I brought some fish to an not so local fish store, about 55 miles, one way and brought a friend with me. Long ride but they are the only place that will give ANYTHING for fish. I made a deal with him via phone and e-mail before I went down there and had a firm commitment as far as trade value. I got what I wanted and planned on using the credit right away for fish. He had 6 Geos in the tank, 4 of one type and 2 of another. Fish were $30.00 each, 3 for $80.00, so I offered to buy the fourth for another $20, figuring that was fair. The owner wouldn't do it, he offered to go to $25 but absolutely wouldn't budge on the last $5.00!!!
I looked at my buddy, he looked at me and both of us just shrugged, meaning basically screw this. Funny part is, I had planned on dropping another $100 or so because he had some other fish I wanted and my buddy had about $200 in his pocket he was going to drop on some fish he had found in the store.
So for a measly $5.00, off the RETAIL price of fish he probably paid about $10.00 for, the owner lost out on a $300.00 sale and lost two customers, just for not being willing to be flexible at all.
Then after all was done and the 3 Geos were bagged up, he tried to charge me $10.00 tax on the fish I had essentially traded for. I flat out refused to give him the $10.00 for tax on a trade, so that was just the icing on the cake.
So to sum it up, it's the principal of the thing, the $5.00 would have meant nothing to him, it meant nothing to me monetarily but his ridiculous inflexibility not only cost him $300, it lost him 1 good customer, another possible great customer and a loss of several other potential customers as I'm telling all my local friends about this.
BTW: I will NOT post his stores name on here, that's a line I won't cross.
