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| Dave Rathbun |
 Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2006 5:08 pm Post subject: It never hurts to ask... |
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CFO
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I have about a dozen different web domains for various purposes. Some of them are not even active. But today I went to my registrar to renew over half of them. Seven, to be exact. When I started through the order process the cost to renew per domain per year was listed as $9.95.
Now if you shop around, you know that just about any registrar is cheaper than that, at least for the initial year. What they want you to do is sign up for the cheap price, and then hit you on the renewals. This one is no different. But I checked on the front page, and new registrations were only $5.95 for the first year.
I noticed there was a "chat with sales" link on the home page, so I started a session. Don (the guy that answered) was more than helpful. After a brief discussion during which I pointed out that I could simply move from one registrar to another each time I renewed a domain, he offered to update my account with a new "permanent" price. Meaning it wasn't just a discount for this order, the discount is - in theory - good for any domain that I open on the same account.
I now get 20% off each domain, $7.95 per domain per year instead of $9.95. All for spending a few minutes talking to a sales rep, and having the initiative to actually stop and ask for a discount. Granted you're not likely to get much by trying to negotiate with your local retailer check-out clerk.  But for this 10 minute conversation I saved $34. Multiply that out and you get an hourly rate of over $200. Not a bad wage.  |
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| Benjamin |
| Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2006 5:26 pm Post subject: |
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Administrator
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Wow, is that from godaddy?
Very cool! |
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| Dave Rathbun |
| Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2006 6:40 pm Post subject: |
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CFO
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| Benjamin wrote: | | Wow, is that from godaddy? |
Nope. I use www.stargateinc.com for all of my domains, except for one. That one was registered with Network Solutions as they were just about the only choice at on point.
Star Gate has been pretty good to me over the years. |
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| CJ. Wentworth |
| Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2006 3:54 am Post subject: |
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Investing Sr. Associate
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I suppose it just comes down to whether or not you're willing to ask. You've got to remember that ANY company that supply ANYTHING have will have a cost price and a sales price. It's the prices in between those prices where it gets murky and depends entirely on who you manage to talk to, as to what kind of "deal" you can get.
Coke is marked up 2000% in some places. But seeing as it's such a "cheap" product nobody bothers asking for a discount.
I have a motorola V3 razr... before everyone else did. it was $700-900 retail. I simply asked the dude if that was the best price he could do, and he gave it to me for $500 with a 2 year extended warranty, a leather case and a car recharger.
Don't you wonder why some places are always on "Sale"... meh. |
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| Dave Rathbun |
| Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2006 7:59 am Post subject: |
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CFO
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| CJ. Wentworth wrote: | | I suppose it just comes down to whether or not you're willing to ask. |
That's certainly true. In this case, I truly was going to contemplate moving to another vendor because it just didn't seem fair. Even though I didn't get the full "new customer" discount the fact that I don't have to move anything + got the reduced price assigned to my account kept me at the same location.
| Quote: | | Don't you wonder why some places are always on "Sale"... meh. |
I don't know about Australia but here in the US it seems that furniture stores are always having "going out of business sales" even though they never really close. |
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| CJ. Wentworth |
| Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2006 5:21 pm Post subject: |
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Investing Sr. Associate
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| Dave Rathbun wrote: | | I don't know about Australia but here in the US it seems that furniture stores are always having "going out of business sales" even though they never really close. |
Lol. We call that place Carpet Call. It's been "closing down stores" for a few years now. Though recently the ad's have cut back so maybe they really have closed down.
It's espescially nice to know that ongoing fee's can be abolished or diminished in cost, as fees/charges/subscriptions are a money grabber if ever there were.
On a similar note, I had to replace the right headlight on my car and upon hearing that it was going to be $170 (and resigning myself to the fact), I made the comment "Oh well, what can you do about it!?".
Funnily enough the guy on the phone took that as "Oh. Well what can you do about it?", and he took $50 off the price, and told me that it's quite easy to do, and if you do it yourself you save another 20 work charges. |
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| Dave Rathbun |
| Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2006 3:29 am Post subject: |
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CFO
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| I just replaced a worn out gear in the "pop-up" headlight on my car. Got the kit over the internet, did all the labor myself, saved several hundred bucks and had some fun along the way too. |
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| davef139 |
| Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2006 6:49 am Post subject: |
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Investing Associate
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$7.95 is a pretty fair price to to pay for domains. I own I think around 20ish.. I use godaddy for most of mine.
In my experience pushing domains around to different registers can lead to lots of downtime and hassels. I had some bad expierinces with that. I normally look for random emails with promos and renew then. |
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| Dave Rathbun |
| Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2006 7:36 am Post subject: |
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CFO
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If the registrar is reliable, there should be minimal downtime. I'm not talking about changing hosts, where the underlying IP address might change. At most it should take 24 hours for the change to trickle down through the web, and since the host isn't changing the old "cached" value should still work.
There are cheaper registrars (as well as more expensive). I just thought it was cool that I got a discount, essentially by asking for it.  |
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| MrT |
| Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 8:18 am Post subject: |
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Investing Sr. Associate
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| Cable companies are easy to haggle with too. In general, when they have a promotion for new accounts, they are also willing to give a discount to current custumers. I usually just tell the cable company that I think their price is too high and I want to switch, and they will offer me some kinda discount. I think they expect it anyhow because they'll add, " You won't be eligible for any more promotions for 6 months", lol. The do the same with the internet cable too, but they are usually less generous there. |
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| Dave Rathbun |
| Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 8:50 am Post subject: |
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CFO
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That's excellent advice. I have cable internet at the moment, but Verizon is in the process of putting down fiber in my neighborhood. Their pricing / service levels blow away what I have today with Comcast.  I can get twice the bandwidth for half the price, or will be able to once they light it up.
I should call Comcast now, see if I can get a discount for my current service even if Verizon isn't ready to go yet. I think I will do that, and I'll report my success (or failure). |
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| Dave Rathbun |
| Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 12:30 pm Post subject: |
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CFO
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A timely bump of this old post... the Verizon FiOS packed arrived this week. I get 6MB of bandwidth from Comcast for $55 a month. Or for $60 a month if I add basic cable services as well. Verizon FiOS (Fiber optic) offers 5MB for $35 a month, and 15MB for $45 a month. I can nearly triple my bandwidth and save $10 a month.
So I will be calling Comcast to see if they will match it. |
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| Sunnybeach777 |
| Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 9:20 am Post subject: |
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Investing Manager
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I'm anxious to hear what they say.
We have Comcast, with no other cable service currently available. |
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| Benjamin |
| Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 9:29 am Post subject: |
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Administrator
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I'm calling the phone company about my bill. It's been a while. I had SBC and now they are AT&T.
I have phone and DSL so we'll see what I can do.
I'll post back and let you know how it went. |
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| vetelmo |
| Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 9:36 am Post subject: |
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Moderator
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| Yeah, please do Ben, I am with SBC DSL as well. |
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