Why does a reliable machine need an extended guarantee? Or the one about being manipulative!

My wife and I recently bought a dishwasher and encountered one of the pushiest sales people I have ever met. We arrived at the shop knowing what we wanted, we just needed to pick it up and go. The sales person spent some time explaining why we would pay an extra £50 for a different machine with more features. He explained himself well and made a good case but on the basis that we wouldn’t use most of those extra features we decided to stick with our original choice.

He went to check stock levels of both our choice and his preferred machine and came back and said both were available. He then began to explain again why we needed to buy the more expensive one that we had already said we didn’t want. After trying to reason with him for a while I just said that we were going to stick with the machine we had asked for.

He had earlier said that he was pleased that we were choosing a reliable make  (both machines were from the same manufacturer) but he then began to try to sell us the extended warranty. It’s ironic the way a sales person pushes you towards paying more to buy a reliable machine and then the first thing they try to do after you agree the sale is to persuade you it’s going to break and so you need an extended guarantee.

I can’t see any point taking out an extended guarantees. Unless I have a reason to believe the machine will break I think it’s pointless. It’s almost certainly better to put the money into a savings account and to use the accumulated funds to replace things instead. If things don’t break within the 5 year period the you will have saved a significant amount of money.

We turned down the extended guarantee and as the sales person spoke to the person on the till he told her which machine we were buying and then said in a louder ‘these people are idiots’ type of voice ‘they don’t want the extended guarantee’.

This sales person knew that often if you pressure people enough that they will give in and so he kept trying. He was very manipulative but it didn’t work on us?

I wonder how manipulative we can be? When we don’t get our way, do we scheme and push peoples buttons until we get what we want? Is that really a good way to live our lives? We may get lots of things but to walk all over people to get what we want I think is a pretty awful way to live. Jesus said that we should ‘treat people the way we want to be treated’ and I think this is a helpful command to live by.

Extended warranties are often sold on the basis of fear. Are we driven by fear? Do we worry about everything? Do we always assume that things will go wrong and so decide that we need to be defensive all the time? The Bible says repeatedly, ‘Do not be afraid’. Fear destroys and damages our lives, but God longs to give us peace and freedom from fear. Jesus offers us life in all it’s fullness when we obey him.

We knew what we wanted and needed but we were told that we needed extras. When asked what the greatest commandment was Jesus replied that we needed to love God with all our heart soul, mind and strength and to love our neighbour (everyone we know and meet) as ourselves. I think that this is what is really necessary in life, to find and receive God’s love and to give and receive love. Many other things can be good, but they are not essential.