I, too, am the same.
I was brought up to believe that talking about money was vulgar. That haggling etc is crass.

Thanks, parents, I'm fucking skint.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Tue 2 Aug 2011, 10:54, 4 replies, latest was 15 years ago)

Shy bairns get nowt
99% of people dont ask for something, so be the 1% who does and chances are the price will drop, extras will be given, etc.

Also, when complaining on the phone, ask for £5 rebate to cover call charges. Mrs Cow does this all the time and it works!
( sporters I’m sincerely gratitude to you, Tue 2 Aug 2011, 10:58, Reply)

Whilst I know this to be true
and am in no position to be a snob about it, I just cannot bring myself to do this, it just seems a bit pikey to me. I am well aware that this is ridiculous.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Tue 2 Aug 2011, 11:01, Reply)

I got a really good deal on my current car
The ticket price was £1000 above book price. I got them down to book price, got a good trade in for my old heap, got a set of mats, full tank of petrol, got almost a whole year's worth of road tax back for my trade in, and got the alloys on my new car replaced under warranty due to a very minor imperfection.

The next time I went in I discovered that the salesman I had dealt with had 'left' not long after I'd bought the car. I suspect he maybe wasn't cut out for that sort of thing.
(Reverend Fister "a disciplined fuckwit", Tue 2 Aug 2011, 11:04, Reply)

Ditto
When we were in Marrakech a couple of years back I spent the first couple of days paying hand over fist for stuff that, whilst still cheap by British standards, probably cost the seller a fraction of what I was paying. When I finally got the hang of it and started paying more reasonable prices I felt awful about it.
(Darth Foxtrot A one-man army dedicated to making fetch happen, Tue 2 Aug 2011, 10:58, Reply)

Oh god, this
I was exactly the same in Turkey. The guilt. THE GUILT. Even though I knew they were asking outrageous amounts and totally screwing me over, I could still easily afford the price they were asking so it felt deeply wrong to be arguing them down.
(berk, Tue 2 Aug 2011, 10:59, Reply)

I started to feel like that in Turkey
but then I decided I didn't want any of the fucking shit they were trying to sell me.
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Tue 2 Aug 2011, 11:01, Reply)

Nah, I got a couple of nice bits of pottery and jewellery
I do agree that a great percentage of the stuff was utter tat, though.
(berk, Tue 2 Aug 2011, 11:02, Reply)

we went (for some reason that now escapes me) into the market full of genuine designer fakes
it was hellish. I got out of there sharpish and went for a nice stroll around the harbour instead.
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Tue 2 Aug 2011, 11:03, Reply)

That sounds truly horrendous
I preferred the spice market, personally. At least you know they can't fake herbs (well, I suppose they can, but what'd be the point?)
Was it Istanbul you went to?
(berk, Tue 2 Aug 2011, 11:06, Reply)

No, Constantinople

( sporters I’m sincerely gratitude to you, Tue 2 Aug 2011, 11:07, Reply)

I like this very much
but no, I was staying in Bitez, the market was in Bodrum
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Tue 2 Aug 2011, 11:12, Reply)

Ahhh, my colleague went there
I have heard about the fake designer market. Bodrum is meant to be very pretty, though.
(berk, Tue 2 Aug 2011, 11:14, Reply)

it is nice
the harbour bit is particularly good, and there's the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, which was one of the Seven Wonders. That was pretty good.
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Tue 2 Aug 2011, 11:17, Reply)

Ms Foxtrot kept reminding me that they categorically would not sell anything for a loss
So I was haggling them down from "outrageous profit" to "profit". I was overthinking it too, working out currency conversion mid-haggle and trying to decide if I'd pay that much in pounds back home for the same thing.
(Darth Foxtrot A one-man army dedicated to making fetch happen, Tue 2 Aug 2011, 11:04, Reply)

Ah but the rich dont stay rich
By paying full price for things.
(Bonzodog29 is an unemployed sponge of the worst kind, Tue 2 Aug 2011, 10:59, Reply)

Me too. I get around this when buying cars, for example
by saying "I'll pay full asking price if you get this, this and that fixed." etc.

Since they can usually get stuff fixed at trade prices and since you probably won't be able to haggle enough off in order to get stuff repaired at retail rates.
( Kroney, Tue 2 Aug 2011, 11:00, Reply)

Those 3 year servicing plans are a fucking rip off though
as they always manage to find something that isn't covered
( sporters I’m sincerely gratitude to you, Tue 2 Aug 2011, 11:01, Reply)

Yeah, servicing means just that, consumable items you'd replace in a service.
stuff that breaks generally isn't one of those.
( Kroney, Tue 2 Aug 2011, 11:04, Reply)

Amazing how they manage to "find" the problems though eh?

( sporters I’m sincerely gratitude to you, Tue 2 Aug 2011, 11:07, Reply)

And that's precisely why I started learning how to spot and fix problems myself.
Garages don't get away with it anymore.
( Kroney, Tue 2 Aug 2011, 11:12, Reply)