I will not do suppliers' market research for them

XXX, I appreciate your help and concern.

I have never bought a new car before, and I am finding this process a little frustrating. It is my intention to trade over my salary packaged car every few years, and so a relationship is important.

However, I tend to find that a lot of dealers of cars and of high cost items, such as TVs etc expect me to do their work for them. If you really believe that you can offer me the best price, then please do so.

Imagine my situation. Let's say the best price I could get in buying an item is $500, but its retail price is $900. However, I do not know the true value of the item, and so the only way I can get a better deal is to do research by checking out other dealers. Every dealer wants the chance of being allowed to have a second go at bidding. Why? Because, then they don't have to give me best price first up.

So, in this example, a dealer might offer me a price of $700. If I then spend time and energy getting a better price (and I don't want to pay extra for a car in the form of wasting days doing research), then I might find another dealer offering me a price of $600. Why then should I come back to the first dealer? Why should I give him the benefit of my research, finding out that the rest of the market is willing to take $600, so he can offer me $590 at a second go rather than $500 at a first go. If he knows that he can have a second go, then there is no way he will give me a good price first up. So I get a bad quote, and end up doign market research for the dealer. If you want me to do your market research, then we can organise a separate consultancy agreement.

When I buy, I buy like this. I go to a supplier, and I give them one chance to bid. I tell them that they will not have a second chance, so they must give me their best price. I then move on to the next supplier. If prices get lower, then I stop when each new dealer cannot offer me much more. After about 3 close quotes, I come back to the supplier offering me the best quote. If the quotes are close, then I choose the guy I think helped me the most.

This is the way I buy electronic equipment, home renovation materials, etc. It is also the way I apply for jobs; basically, for anything over $1000. I never give someone a second chance. I always get the best price.

My basic rules:
1) never give anyone a second go at bidding, because then their first bid will not be their best price, and so I will be wasting my time.
2) never tell anyone whether they are first or second or whatever in line. Every supplier must think they are the first, they must not know whether I am informed or naive. If they think I am naive, they will give me a bad price. And, as part of this process, they will also suffer, because they lose my business (see rule 1).

I'm sorry, but many years ago I got sick of doing pricing work for suppliers. if you want my business, then you give me your best price.

Sorry for sounding so frustrated, but most other suppliers seem quite able to understand my approach. For some reason, auto dealers seem not able to. Moreover, they then try adding "delivery charges". I mean, what are those? Noone else does that (except for QANTAS). A price is a price is a price.

I want a XXX.
So, give me your best price.

Best wishes,
Robert

Hi Robert,

Thank you for your email, It has been great pleasure to deal with you since beginning of the month because of that I would really like to earn your business and build a relationship as your local dealer, however as I was trying to explain on the phone.

If pricing what it takes to earn your business I can tell you that quite confidently I would be able to provide you a better pricing than any other dealer. There are two reason which allows me to that, we are the largest XXX Dealer in NSW, on top of that all the vehicles in our possession paid cash by XXX these two reasons gave us greater advantage than our competitors.

It would be much appreciated If you could let me know your thoughts.

Kind Regards,

Don't film us on a raid, say officers

Mr Hac, 27, told the Herald he was walking home with friends when, about 100 metres from his apartment, he saw eight police officers and a sniffer dog rush past him carrying a camera.

He said he was threatened with arrest when he asked what they were doing. Believing he was within his rights to photograph incidents occurring on a public street, he took out his BlackBerry and started filming.

"One of the officers noticed I'd filmed them and aggressively came towards me … they said, 'Give me your device' and I said I'm terribly sorry - I would have apologised 100 times - and they said 'You're not allowed to film us' because there were other officers from different areas of the police," Mr Hac said.

An officer snatched Mr Hac's mobile from his hand, despite him repeatedly saying he did not consent to them searching it.

He said the officers did not know how to delete video from the device so one of his friends, who was watching from a few metres away, had to assist them.

"They looked into my inbox, which is where my SMS and email were … they looked through my photos," he said.

Mr Murphy said a decade ago police could not even demand identification, but recent laws such as the Australian Anti-Terrorism Act 2005 gave them "extraordinary powers".

Mr Hac said he went to the police station to file a complaint yesterday afternoon and was assured the police involved would be spoken to and all Kings Cross officers would be told that citizens had the right to film them doing their job.

from SMH

Breaking up...

T:

hey, Robert.

Fortunately, we sorted it out today. It was so frustrating last night and we almost break up. I tried my best to explain how I feel and think, but he still refused to forgive me and he needs think about it. So I was so grievously last night. However, this early morning he came down to my house unexpectedly and he apologized for being so angry with me.

Anyway, we still need to rebuild our relationship as he said it has been so fragile. A part of reason was I always say a break up easily and he is so hurting and stressed. Now I understand I shouldn’t say a break up all the time when I feel frustrating. Otherwise, the feelings are soooo bad…

Thanks for your kind advice and it has been very useful for my decision on this crisis.

R:

I am glad. Actually, I thought about this quite a bit. What you have been doing to X is similar to what Belle did to me. It is one of the reasons I am now convinced she never loved me.

Chinese Media at Crossroads

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/censors-grip-tight-behind-the-headlines/2008/11/28/1227491827772.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap2

Humility and Pride

Some people, such as the German philosopher Nietzsche, see humility as a weakness. But the ancient Greeks knew it to be an essential quality of heroes, a product of courage and self-knowledge. Humility is the antidote to pride, which the author C. S. Lewis once damned as the "greatest sin", the vice that leads to every other vice.

"There is no fault which makes a man more unpopular, and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves," he wrote last century.

Lewis also wrote that, unlike other vices, pride was intrinsically competitive, getting "no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man". He described it as a "spiritual cancer: it eats up the very possibility of love or contentment or even common sense [emphasis added - RC]".

from Miranda Devine, SMH

Where to get a good (and bad) coffee

Every country has its own particular foibles, it's little eccentricities that make it unique. However, there are certain things that cross the board that you can judge a country on.

Transport is one of them. Food is definitely one of them. Toilets are one of them. And, if you're anything like me, coffee is one of them.

I like coffee. I need coffee. When I wake up in the morning, there's a good shot of the black stuff between eyes opening and brain functioning.

But there's more to my love of coffee than a simple caffeine hit. I love the ritual of coffee. I love heading over to my local cafe and chatting to the barista, Andreas, while he works the espresso machine like a farmer milking a cow. I love an afternoon espresso standing at a bar, talking about football.

To me, coffee's all that's great about the world. So when a country takes it seriously, and does it well, it's got a friend in me.

Coffee when you're travelling is different to coffee when you're at home. It's no longer just an excuse to get out of the office for 10 minutes or so - it's a way of feeling another country's culture.

In somewhere like India, it's a chance to pull away from the manic streets and relax in a little secluded corner of the world. In Europe it's a chance to mix with locals in the town squares as they observe centuries-old rituals.

A coffee break is a chance to chat to locals, a chance to make friends ... and a chance to drink more coffee.

So, where's the good stuff?

Now, I realise I'm not exactly reinventing the travel writing wheel here, but the best coffee in the world has got to be in Italy. Smooth, rich and served at the perfect temperature, it's heaven in a cup.

And in my humble opinion, the best cappuccino in Italy is not in some little back-alley cafe in Rome, or, shudder, lining St Mark's Square in Venice - it's at the humble Autogrill service stops that dot the Autostradas. That, friends, is coffee at its finest. You might need a degree in astrophysics to figure out the system for ordering the stuff, but it's made by absolute professionals who probably dish out thousands of espressos a day. It's worth the hassle - they know what they're doing.

Away from Europe, I was surprised at how good the coffee was in Vietnam, particularly the cold coffee - an espresso poured into a glass of ice and condensed milk. Team that with a Hanoi pastry and that's your breakfast sorted. Malaysia is almost as good.

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, Argentina is also home to some of the best java going. I could (and did) spend all day hanging around the piazzas of Buenos Aires drinking cafe chicos, eating medialunas, and wondering why I still couldn't speak Spanish.

There's also a lot to be said for those who like their coffee thick and strong, like in East Africa or Turkey, where it takes a fair amount of sugar to help work that sludgy espresso down. Still, it's well worth it if you don't want to sleep for the next few days.

Much as I love coffee, however, there are a few countries where it's probably best to ditch it in favour of the local brew - mainly because the other stuff is so good. Indian coffee isn't bad, for example, but you'd be crazy if you weren't drinking the street chai.

In Bolivia and Peru it's best to go for a mate, or coca leaf tea, to ease the pain of altitude sickness; and the green tea anywhere Asia is always worth a go.

But then there are countries where it's best to avoid the coffee for another reason: it's crap. I know the cafe culture is catching on in Britain, for example, but if someone is spruiking the only decent coffee in London as being made by antipodeans, they've clearly got a ways to go. (NB: Caffe Nero is not coffee.)

French coffee isn't great either, despite the country's proximity to some of the cafe kings. Although going by the stories I've heard, that could just be down to me not knowing how to order it properly.

And, much as I hate to kick the Yanks around all the time, for a country seemingly obsessed with coffee, it's mostly pretty bad over there. As you'll note when a barista hands you a bucket of steaming cappuccino, quantity does not equal quality.

Oh yeah, there's one country I've neglected to mention in all this: Australia. Maybe its our rich pool of coffee-loving immigrants, but it's pretty easy to get a damn good coffee around here, which goes some way to explaining why Starbuck's failed so spectacularly.

It fact, I'd say ours is some of the best in the world.

And as for which city has the best coffee? Well, that's easy. It's, um ...

Which country do you think makes the best coffee in the world? How about the worst?

from here

Trade liberates and enriches everybody

In the 19th century, the French economist Frederic Bastiat expressed a principle applicable in the 21st century: "Where goods do not cross frontiers, armies will."

from here.