Buying a phone

Tuesday evening, my phone died. I'm not sure why, but the phone stopped connecting to the charger. On Wednesday morning I went The Communication Connection, an authorized Verizon retailer, to discuss the issue. Let's call the salesman I worked with Jay. I explained the issue, and we learned that it was unfixable. I was expecting this. I needed a new phone. Since my contract with Verizon had been up for a while,  I had a few options to consider. I wanted a smartphone, and I was deciding between a phone with the Google Android OS or an iPhone. I also had the choice to switch to another carrier too. I looked at the prices of iPhones and their plans across Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and, Boost Mobile. Upon research, I ruled out Sprint. Although I like their unlimited data plan, it was out of my range at an $80 minimum monthly fee and a 2 year contract. I liked Boost mobiles monthly plan at only $55 a month with no contract, but had little faith in their coverage. AT&T had a $50/month data plan but that doesn't include talk or text. Because I was already with Verizon, if I could get a decent price on a data plan, I would stay with them.
Jay and I began our negotiation by discussing what I wanted in a phone and what the options were. Since I was already on a family plan, my bill for talk and text would stay the same.Once I learned that I could get four gigs of data a month on the droid for the same price as two gigs for the iPhone, thirty dollars, I was convinced to go with the Android OS. Many phones run Android though, and after browsing for a while, the Samsung Charge looked pretty good. It was a little pricey though, and since I had never used my upgrade from my previous phone, I was sure I could get some sort of discount. Jay was not immediately responsive, however once he talked to my mom on the phone, the account holder, he was able to drop the price of the phone by something like twenty five percent.
I also wanted a case for my new phone because my electronics tend to get tossed around a lot. The strongest case they had, the Otter Box, was fifty dollars though. I knew I could get one online for closer to twenty. That would take a couple days however, and I was willing to pay up to around thirty if I could get it in the store. I mentioned something to him about maybe just looking on the internet for a case and a soon as I did he offered to take off twenty five percent. That brought it down to about thirty three dollars which was acceptable.
I am pretty happy with the way the negotiation turned out. I got a new phone and case pretty quickly and at a good price. I am also with a reliable network. The only thing I do not like is being tied into a two year contract, but that is almost unavoidable. 

Negotiation in 30 Rock

30 Rock revolves around the day-to-day runnings of the show TGS, run by NBC out of 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York. Negotiations happen on the show all the time. On the most recent episode, Today You Are A Man, Jack and Liz have formal a formal negotiation over Liz's contract.

Pete on negotiating with children: "When your kid throws a tantrum and holds his breath, you hold your breath too. When you regain consciousness, believe me, he's ready to leave the toy store."

The past three weeks of Negotiation 450

This is a bit late for a first post, but it will examine the first three weeks of in-class negotiation.

The first day of class we examined a version of the prisoners dilemma with ten rounds. I went with X in the first round, assuming everyone else would, and they did. This is unfortunate because when everybody picks X, everybody loses. After that I went with Y, hoping it would set a trend that others would follow. Round three had two other people join me in Y's, but still one hold out. We talked after round 4 however, and all agreed that for the most utility we would all vote Y. There was a little discussion about whether or not everyone could be trusted, but we agreed that any surprise disenters would receive a swift kick to the groin. Everyone followed the agreement and all four members of our group ended up with positive outcomes.

The next negotiation we did involved the sale of a used car, I being the seller. I managed to get $8,500 for it, which was equal to the down payment for the new car I wanted. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

Our third negotiation involved the sale of a large quantity of pistons to an engine manufacturer. I was the buyer for the engine firm. The seller surprised me by high-balling right off the bat, asking for $800 per piston. I countered with $400, although in hind-sight I realized I should have gone lower, down to three or even two hundred. We ended up settling on $600 per piston which was right in the middle of both of our initial offers, and a 100% guarantee that the pistons won't fail. It was a bit high, but it was within the acceptable range.

The fourth in-class negotiation involved negotiation between two plant manager for the same computer company about quality control. I was the manager for the phillips plant, the one receiving faulty parts. We discussed the 95% standard and agreed that it should apply to all part lines, not oll the lines together. We ended up with an agreement that we though would be most beneficial and efficient for the company as a whole.

Got to run, but I'll to my best to keep this updated more regularly.

-Luke