Part 10 (1/2)
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As a rule of thumb, wait one day for every 100 the purchase costs to avoid impulse buys Of course, that rule works less ith very expensive items, such as a house or automobile But for most purchases, it works well
I find that just the process of researching a product so iatives about the product, whether in professionally written reviews or user reviews, helps provide perspective that can also extinguish the buying desire
Waiting allows that intense lust for acquiring soain perspective about whether you really want it Marketers know that tih-pressure advertisements always tell you to ”Buy now!” Infoet bonus merchandise of some sort It's why the car saleset you in this new car today?”
There are very few purchasing opportunities that will disappear if you wait a day and reevaluate
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If and when you go through with the purchase, you ht be asked if you want to buy an extended warranty Think about whether you want a warranty ahead of time, so you're prepared to answer the question Almost all the time, the answer should be a flat-out, ”No” See Chapter 3, ”Get FIT (Food, Insurance, Telecommunications),” about insurance to learn why
Price Protection
After you leave a store or check out of an online retailer, you're not quite done with your sence on shopping for prices, a product o on sale shortly after you purchased it That infuriates shoppers
That's why uarantee Often it states that if the retailer lowers the price within 30 days after purchase-protection periods vary-it will refund you the difference For exaht a 1,500 television and its price in early January drops to 1,200, you could request a refund of 300
In part, a store's price-protection guarantee is a sales tactic It can give a buyer peace of mind and entice the shopper to buy i a purchase It's regret insurance
But really, price protection is a by-product of a retailer's return policy If an iteht the iteht return the old product and buy the sale-priced one, pocketing the difference For the retailer, accepting the return and processing another sale involves hassle and expense To avoid that, the retailer offers price protection, where it just refunds the money and skips the hassle of a return and resale
However, few consuh to review advertised prices after a purchase and then claim a price-protection refund So, the retailer rarely has to uarantee
Therein lies the problem: It's up to you to watch prices after you buy
But now, so you when prices drop That allows you to quickly and easily claim your refund If you paid with a credit card, often the refund will be credited to your credit card account Of course, price-protection policies vary fro-ticket item at a well-known retailer, you could monitor its weekly advertisements, often in the Sunday newspaper or online, for the duration of the price-protection period
Easier, however, is to log purchases into a Web site, called PriceProtectrcom PriceProtectr watches prices on literally dozens of retailers, such as Amazoncom, Best Buy, Circuit City, Gap, Costco, Sears, Staples, Macy's, Toys 'R Us, Ho idea is to log purchases into PriceProtectr, which will send an e- you if the price decreases within the price-protection period It's up to you to actually request the refund Durations of price-protection guarantees vary widely by retailer-from 7 days to 90 days
Obviously, this is a bit of a hassle But at least try it foryour purchases duringor back-to-school shopping
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Yaptacohts you already booked
How to Buy Services
Many purchases we s, but services We hire and subscribe all the time: hoyhts, and hotel rooms
How to Buy Services, 1-2-3
1 Seek reviews and references Subscribe to Checkbookorg or Angieslistco three price quotes
3 Reevaluate and review contracts carefully
The three-step process for buying services is very si products But you have a few different resources and tools available to you, along with some concerns that are specific to services
If you look carefully, the steps are basically the same three Rs: Review, research prices, and reevaluate
1 Seek Reviews and References
For products available nationwide, finding reviews is relatively easy But where do you go for reviews of local service coraphers? If you are new to an area, you will need a slew of service providers, fro kennel and dry cleaner