Dare To Ask Talk And News About Our Differences - This topic has 5 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 24 years, 10 months ago by
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We have a business in which we give estimates. Why does it seem that natives of India who are professionals want to bargain about the price we give, sometimes even after the work is completed?
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Name : J.L. Burns, Gender : F, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Christian, Age : 43, City : Tuscaloosa, State : AL, Country : United States, Occupation : administrative assistant, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Middle class,I don’t think that it’s just an Indian thing. I’ve been to a lot of places where bargaining over the price of some things is expected. That’s the way it is here in Israel. It’s just that in the United States it’s not done that way and you have no experience dealing with it. The foreigners you deal with instinctively feel that the price you quote is an outrageously overpriced opening bid and expect it to come down.
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Name : Jesse-N30812, Gender : M, Age : 41, City : Herzliya, State : NA, Country : Israel, Occupation : Engineer, Education level : 4 Years of College,From what I understand from Indian friends, bargaining is part of the culture in India. It’s just part of what happens. In the United States, many people see bargaining as low class or tacky and a sign that you cannot afford the services or products you wish to purchase. But in many other cultures, bargaining is the way things are done. In fact, if someone takes the first price a vendor quotes, that person is seen as a sucker.
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Name : Lucy-H22361, Gender : F, Race : Hispanic/Latino (may be any race), Age : 25, City : San Jose, State : CA, Country : United States, Occupation : Engineer, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class,If you are in a business where you can recycle your estimates as invoices and the customers don’t question the price, I want to be a partner! I really think you need to check your expectations about that. I have never heard of it as a standard business practice. I sense that the discomfort comes mostly from having to bargain. Americans and Europeans for some reason are deathly afraid of bargaining, whereas the rest of the world accepts it as a way of life. This is kind of funny considering that the US is supposed to be the crown jewel of the free market. Last, the reason this may be tied into race is because a lot of Indian immigrants come from a long line of small-business owners and have a lot of business sense. I’ve read that it is a caste thing…the ‘entrepreneur caste’ is the only caste that would have not only the reasons but also the means to come to the US. Many Americans assume that most immigrants are uninformed and deferential and end up quite surprised by these Indians.
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Name : Carlton-B19251, City : Atlanta, State : GA, Country : United States,As a person who spent several years in the military, and traveled to many countries in the Europian area I.E. Turkey, Greece, Italy, Egypt and others, it was commonly told to us to not accept the first offer of price on items from the local Bazaar vendors. Haggling was expected and it was even better if you were good at it, it was very fun to haggle with the vendors, they would go into long stories of how you were ripping them off and so forth, but was all in good fun and a sort of friendly banter between vendor and customer that could go on for several minutes until either you agreed or walked away at which point they usually would agree to your offer. I had a blast just going to the local bazaar doing just this. So I would agree with the above respondent, that bargaining in other countries is expected, because they usually are accustomed to being told an inflated price in order to start the haggling ‘game’.
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Name : C-Whitt, City : Dallas, State : TX, Country : United States,As a former retail manager for a nationwide chain, I can tell you that bargaining would make a lot of sense in getting rid of slow-moving inventory. Our gross margin (price charged minus what it cost us to obtain the merchandise) was what paid the bills, and it always seemed nonsensical to me to let merchandise just sit there for months (and even years!) rather than finding a price that would allow us to move it out, make a little money on it (or at least break even) and make room for newer merchandise. Yet prices were determined by national headquarters, and there was no leeway. Also, at one time I was in a market with a lot of Israeli and Middle Eastern immigrants. They expected not only to bargain, but if I didn’t have something in inventory and could not obtain it, they would just stand there and ‘talk about it’ as though they expected the item they wanted just to materialize out of nowhere. I referred to these customers as my ‘Velveteen Rabbit clients,’ after the little boy who loved his stuffed animal so much that it became real. It almost reminds me of the Christian Eucharist (which, remember, originated in the Middle East), where the Body and Blood of Christ are ‘spoken into being’ through the words of consecration. Long jump from retail to metaphysics, eh?
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Name : Augustine23556, Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Catholic, Age : 40, City : Columbia, State : SC, Country : United States, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class,
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