I am running into this with choosing a gym. For some reason all the ones close to me want to give me a 15-30 minute briefing and tour before they'll discuss prices. That's a huge red flag for me. I want prices up front, no haggling, no pressure, just give me a sheet of paper with options and prices, and if I have questions I'll ask. All this is made even more unpleasant by the fact that the people doing the selling are also pitching personal trainer services and are clearly quite desperate.
The 'being willing to walk away' thing is huge. I was stranded in Fiji for a week once with no money (story's got to be in the archives somewhere) and killed time by poking around souvenir shops, which in Fiji tend to be run by Fijian Indians with a strong haggling culture. You would be amazed how far prices can drop when you don't just say, but sincerely mean, "No, I'm not going to buy anything, I'm just looking."
I'm not sure I understand (1) who these people trying to buy your books are (2) why they want your books or (3) why you are expected for one second to abide their presence in your office.
Who are these people? Are they poor people who can't afford textbooks? Do they work for some sort of textbook company? Do they work for a bookstore that sells used books? Is traveling around the country offering to buy people's books really profitable? By "scan", do you mean "look at", or "scan with a computer scanner"?
Professors get sent copies of textbooks free, and often don't want them. But they're expensive books with real resale value. So used-book buyers cruise through academic departments and try to buy the books cheap to resell to students, assuming that the professors will be happy to get anything at all for them.
But you're right about there being no need to tolerate them.
Why don't you just sell them direct to the students?
Wow, I've never had a textbook reseller be really talkative. They just come in, enter the ISBNs of your books into the little machine, and offer you $10-$20. Since the prices are fixed, I have no idea why they would want to do anything beside get their books and move on.
Also, the textbook publishers, in their ongoing efforts to kill the used textbook market, have tried to paint resellers as evil parasites, and have even convinced some of my cow-orkers that resellers are to blame for high textbook prices. This is, of course, bullshit.
6: I do sometimes give away my desk copy to a student, but then all the other students are resentful. Also, you rarely get sent free copies of a textbook you are already using. They goal, after all, is to get you to switch.
The difference in chattiness is probably a regional thing. There should be some way to be brusque enough to speed things up without being terribly rude: "I'm really short on time today -- if you can give me an offer on the books in five minutes, I'll take it or leave it. But I don't have time to talk about it."
Wait, what are they doing with your ISBNs? Back in my day, the reps would just buy pizza for everybody and hang out in the department lounge with review copies of the latest ethics anthologies.
I guess I had never considered this aspect of the textbook grey market. Are these buyers sent out by, like, large operations? It would seem they'd need to operate on a pretty broad scale to be profitable. Or maybe they sell online?
I remember when I first realized that I could just write to a textbook company and tell them what book I was considering using for a class and have them send me a copy. Such power! (For an academic in the humanities, anyway.)
12: I wonder if there are grad students who do that corruptly, as a moneymaking tactic -- just look for expensive textbooks and get sent free copies to resell.
For some reason all the ones close to me want to give me a 15-30 minute briefing and tour before they'll discuss prices.
The walk through is pretty common (for example, they'll make you do it before they'll give you a free trial week), but it's odd that they don't have a standard, quotable price for membership. Often, their reps will adjust the price down to get you to join, but they usually have something they'll publish on their website and whatnot.
12: I had a similar power epiphany when I wrote for a student newspaper and would review CDs. Really, you'll send me the new CD that I was going to buy anyway, and all I have to do is send you a link to the 400-word blurb we publish? Wait, and you're going to send a promotional poster of the band, too? Oh, happy day!
but they usually have something they'll publish on their website and whatnot
I've never found this. It's all about getting you in to hear their spiel.
Nearly all of our vendors are international, and most from Africa, and I think the job itself is pretty crappy: they're contracted out by big book resale operations, and they have to drive monstrous amounts all over Texas, and the market is totally flooded - I don't get that many sample textbooks, and I get hit up all the time, without having recieved any samples in between.
Anyway, the desire to stop and visit with me is sometimes no problem - they're all very nice - but when I'm harried and have my hands full and it's first thing in the morning and I say "I really don't have any time, thank you," please respect that and either come back later, or leave me alone.
I'm wondering if there's a more pro-active approach here. Maybe you could create a strict Heebie Textbook Reselling Policy that you resell at 50% off list price (or 20% or 80% or whatever's normal), and just be firm about it. "That's my final price. I don't negotiate these things."
Or is the problem that there is no list price on the book? Or no "normal" resale price range?
Haggling is amazingly complex; but in this case I'm reminded how in some situations the best move for one side is to run down the clock; exhausting the other guy. It is sort of like the "signal your willing to walk away" move, but in this case it's "signal your willing to drag this out forever to get the best bargain". That one side's time is worth less than the other side makes it a good move for them. It plays well with the tedium of setting a hook on reciprocity.
But note a lot of the door to door sales things are abusive commercial cults. Ask the kid where he's from. Offer to let him call his mom. If your feeling really generous offer to buy him a bus ticket home. Consider having the school ban them from campus, or at least limit their access.
When I have time, I usually look the book up on Amazon and inform the vendor that they're selling used copies at $30 there, and that $3 seems too low. Sometimes we reach an agreement, other times not. It helps that I really don't care whether or not we make the sale.
But note a lot of the door to door sales things are abusive commercial cults. Ask the kid where he's from. Offer to let him call his mom. If your feeling really generous offer to buy him a bus ticket home. Consider having the school ban them from campus, or at least limit their access.
They're not students. They're adults, doing this fulltime. I don't think they're a problem that needs banning from campus; I just wish they were tuned in to my (explicit) cues about when I have time and when I don't.
There's a guy who stands in front of the steps to my subway stop every morning and hands out free newspapers, "A.M. New York" or something like that. He greets everyone pleasantly, but he's standing right in the way to get to the stairs, and when I say "no, thank you" in my best attempt at pre-coffee pleasantness, he looks annoyed that I'm not taking one of his papers. Or maybe I'm projecting.
I just wish they were tuned in to my (explicit) cues about when I have time and when I don't.
This sounds like the same thing as telemarketers -- trained to never never never hang up, until you've hung up on them. The idea is that conventional good manners make it really hard to walk away from someone who's still 'politely' talking to you, so if they ignore their mannerly obligation to end the conversation when you give them the appropriate cues, you have a choice between talking forever, being ruder than most people are prepared to be, or agreeing to whatever they want you to agree to.
If that's what's going on, and you don't have time for long interactions, the only thing to do is to accept that you're going to be rude when you end conversations. Or sell your books for whatever price the guy first offers, one or the other.
One of my students told me to always say "No" to telemarketers three times, and then hang up on them, so that they can mark it down as a successful call and make more commission, instead of an incomplete call. It turns out to be pretty easy to interrupt and say "No thanks" three times, then "I'm going to hang up now" and then I hang up.
Although I suppose I don't really get telemarketing calls anymore. Also, I have no idea how true the 3 Noes rule is.
Maybe there is some charity you could give all your unwanted books to.
I didn't have a rule like that when I telemarketed, but that's ages ago now. Getting hung up on quickly and non-abusively was the best outcome short of a sale.
(Actually, that's not entirely true -- all the rejection gets tiring, even if it's efficient. I used to save up calls to the South because they'd be pleasant and chatty, and make those when I was feeling down.)
re: 21
There's one of our local Big Issue guys regularly abuses people who don't buy his mag. My charitable/empathic feelings towards those worse off than me only stretch so far ...
23
... so that they can mark it down as a successful call and make more commission, ...
Why would you want to encourage them? And in any case I doubt you get a commission without making a sale.
Perhaps. I use them sometimes, to find sample test problems or examples, or I lend them to students. Also my office is huge, because it's an old dorm room in an old moldy building that they want to tear down, so I've got plenty of unused shelf space. I'm happy to sell them, on occasion, but it's fine to keep them, too.
27: To have sympathy for the poor sadsack making the calls, and save animosity for the employer.
And in any case I doubt you get a commission without making a sale.
Apparently you can. There were different incentive levels at this particular place.
re: 27
People in call centres regularly have specific targets that are independent of sales made. Those might not actually translate into commission but they may need to pass certain performance thresholds to get their sales commission. I've worked in a bank call centre and while we had certain targets in terms of outcomes there were a number of other targets too -- call duration, downtime between calls, etc. And among other things a percentage of our calls got audited and hanging up first would have gotten you in real crap. The idea that you don't end a call until you've had three refusals sounds like a very plausible target that someone might be set.
Maybe there is some charity you could give all your unwanted books to.
http://www.bookstoprisoners.net/
(Though maybe not too relevant in this specific case).
Did you use that charity that when you served time for bulgarity?
You mean bulglury, right? Breaking and entering?
Ham bulgur is a comforting winter soup.
Canadian Living recommends Warm Ham and Bulgur Salad.
"One of my students told me to always say "No" to telemarketers three times, and then hang up on them, so that they can mark it down as a successful call and make more commission, instead of an incomplete call."
I don't want them to make any more commission. I mean, unless the person is actually a dick, I don't really have any animosity toward the person on the other end of the phone, but at the same time I want to discourage people from working in fields which have a business model that involves harrassing people. I also want to force them to pay higher fixed salaries in order to employ anyone. It may be a bit Living Marxism of me, but telemarketing is evil. So I just hang up as soon as I realise it's a telemarketing call. That said, these days the only telemarketing calls I get are robo-calls (seriously, who the hell actually listens to those?), so there's no need for any guilt.
Some people think my tastes are deviant, even criminally so, but I say De Couscous Non Disputatum Est.
You should at least say "not interested" before you hang up on the telemarketer. Make it explicit that there wasn't a disconnect or something---at least if your goal is to have them stop calling you!
39: I usually say "please put me on your do-not-call list". (Not "take me off your list", because they refresh their caller lists every so often.)
Not that I really have any idea how effective it is.
For special friends of Rick the is a special discount:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCaKk0a_9Vs&feature=related
robo-calls (seriously, who the hell actually listens to those?)
But the nice recordings used to say such pleasant things about mortgage rates.
I decided to take a "short" phone survey once for some political opinion poll. It took close to half an hour. The next time I got a call like that I was busy and they asked if I'd be free later and I gave them a time a few days away and they never called back.
A little after that, I got a call for another survey and they said it would only take a short time. I told them it would take even less time if they didn't give me the survey at all. They said "true" and I hung up.
oh, i thought this was going to be about that % of transactions where there is a 'price' set, but if you are large/institutional/rich the price is actually much l ower,
or, the segment where the 'price' is set high, but you can get a lower price if you do just the right song/dance/coupon
IITC, the custom of fixed prices for smaller transactions is a relatively recent phenomenon, (last 200 yrs or so) and an American peculiarity at first. The seller potentially leaves money on the table, as the transaction is determined by the buyer, yes or no. Profit per item can be tracked and studied for reordering purposes and not relying on the retailers ability to maximize the profit per transaction, as in the haggling method.
I try to be pleasant and brief by taking control of the conversation (something they're trained not to allow) and telling them I'm not interested. Sometimes I'll crack a bit wise about how so, so satisfied I am with my current level of service from my credit card. Only once have I given in to the temptation to shriek "He's deeeeeaaaaaad!" sobbing.
And I only give one "Hello". I don't wait for the autodialer to engage in the space of a second one.
Y'all need to perfect the tone of voice/body language that indicates both politeness and the self-control you're exercising over the urge to go postal. Get that right and "Not now, I'm really busy" is all it takes.
I just hang up as soon as I realize it's a telemarketing call, often before the autodialer even connects on the other side. I figure it saves aggravation for everybody, and if not, at least it saves aggravation for me.
No land line here, so no telemarketers, although political groups asking for my money or involvement got annoying for a while there.
Unless these haggling book-buyers are really, really persistent, I think I could just say "Sorry, not interested" to them, or "come back between 1 and 3 this afternoon" if I wouldn't mind talking to them but now isn't the time. Maybe it would be harder if they were right there in front of me rather than safely in a blog post, and of course even if I'm correct maybe it's bad that I could so easily be rude.
When I have a land line, I usually just say "do me a favor and put me on you do-not-call." A second call gets an ass-chewing and the do-not-call request, the third call gets a request to speak to their manager, which gets a hang up on their end or the chance to tee off on them. Unless it's a conservative organization, in which I try to keep them on the line while telling them about all the reasons I hate them. I telemarketer for about a month a while back--I still feel guilty about the one time I managed to sell a woman the Sears version of AAA when she didn't own a car.