Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today’s subject is about how to negotiate when you’re buying a piano. This doesn’t just apply to pianos. You’ve probably experienced this if you’ve bought a car or anything where the price isn’t set. With large ticket items there’s often negotiation in the pricing. How do you approach such a thing? A lot of people are very uncomfortable with this. That’s why cars are being sold at Costco, so people don’t have to negotiate. There are also things like college sales where the prices are pretty much set so you don’t have to go through the rigmarole of having to negotiate down to the lowest price.
How do you approach negotiating a price?
Well, there are all different personality types in this world. You have to go with what’s comfortable for you. But what I recommend is to just be honest with people. If you tell the salesperson what you’re looking for, what your budget is, and what you have seen, you give them the opportunity to help you. After all, they’re there to make a living. You want to let them know what they’re up against. They might be able to give you special treatment if you let them know the truth!
Be honest and respectful.
Blowing a bunch of smoke and pretending things, that’s really not going to help you. You want to deal with people in a respectful manner and, hopefully, most people are going to be respectful back. There’s no science to this. It’s just a matter of being forthright with people. You should be able to find out what the situation is and work something out if you find the right piano for yourself. Keep in mind that there isn’t always room in the price of pianos or cars. Right now there is scarcity of both due to shipping industry problems.
So some prices are actually being negotiated up from list price!
I hope this is helpful for you! I’m Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.
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4 thoughts on “How to Negotiate When Buying a Piano”
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My suggestion is asking directly the last price, going to other shops, then come back to the seller with the lowest price and ask for a Little discount, in the range of 10%, arguing that you have found a lower price but you prefer to buy your piano there, because you feel more comfortable with him.
Sometimes the lowest price isn’t the best value. You want to deal with someone you can count on from the sale to ownership. For example, new pianos don’t come to dealers ready to sell. They require not only tuning, but voicing, and some regulation and other refinements to take them to a higher level. Some dealers cut costs by doing the minimum work while others will prep pianos to a concert level of performance. You end up paying later on getting the piano dialed in and stable.