Wednesday, June 21, 2006

The Negotiator Strikes Again

One of my little luxuries is that I rent a locker at my gym. I have enough problems disciplining myself to work out as it is, so not having to lug my things back and forth every time seems like a worthwhile investment in my own health! But it's not all that cheap. When I first signed up, I think it was about $10 a month, which I thought was within reason. But the last couple of years, it's been going up and when I went to renew my locker last night, they wanted to charge me almost $300 for a year! I guess it was my post-yoga peaceful state but I just stood there very calmly, with a kind of blank half-smile on my face, saying "oh no, I've never paid that much. Last year they gave me a year for the price of 6 months. No, I can't pay that much. Can you give me 2 years for the one-year price? Hmm, I don't know..."
First I spoke to one person, then another. At one point she offered to extend the locker to the end date on my membership for only the one year price. I looked up at the ceiling and thought about it for a minute and said "but that is only 11 months for the price of 1 year. That's not a deal at all." And she stared at her computer again and said "you're right. That doesn't make sense." I ended up getting the year for $200, which didn't seem too bad, as it was closer to the amount I wanted to pay than the amount they originally wanted to charge me. Next time I have to remember to negotiate the locker at the same time I renew my membership, so they'll feel like they have more to lose if they piss me off.

2 comments:

. said...

You go girl!

Casper said...

I like your style!!! I am just proud to see an idividual negotiate like that. I think you could probably get them down to $100 for the year if you do it at membership renewal time. I would love to see you post that not only did you get a discount for the year's membership but that you got the locker thrown in at no additional cost. That would be even better.

I have read your entire blog and I have a strong feeling you can do it.
I personally think $300 is outrageous for a year of locker rentals but each person makes their own decisions.