The commitment strategy and discussion of the incident

Discussion

According to Reardon& Spekman (1994), commitments made by customers prove to initiate one of the most critical grounds of manipulation that negotiators engage in from time to time. The negotiator attracts the consumers with one item at a specific price and when the customer arrives the bargainer either increases the costs or states that the product is no longer available which is why the consumer must settle for a substitute product. As the consumers indulge in many interests regarding buying the product, the chances that they would return home without fetching either the high priced product or the substitute is doubtful.

In the words of Zhang, Podorozhny& Lesser (2000), negotiators often use the commitment strategy to get the better end of the deal. At the time the negotiator intends to sell one particular item, but he/she knows very well that the consumers will not get attracted if there are advertisements. The negotiator advertises a different product or initiates a discount so that customers can get lured. After the consumers arrive, the negotiator makes use of the manipulative skills to make consumers buy other products that are the ones he/she intended to sell in the first place (Weingart et al. 1990).

The incident

Antiques fascinate my parents extensively, and my father takes much pride in his collections. Whenever we used to go on vacations, my parents never missed the opportunities to visit the museums there or the archeological sites. Antiques are very expensive, but despite that, I intended to buy my father an antique wall clock that I had spotted many times in a local shop. Of course, many savings had to be made so that I could afford it. The owner of the shop was a senior man who was very cordial to customers. There was a fear within me that the owner would sell the clock before I would have the opportunity to buy it and this is the reason why I had to approach him one day to express my interests regarding purchasing the clock a few weeks later. The owner explained that the clock was from 1940 and it was a hot cake for antique lovers. We settled on a deal of 400 dollars, andIpaid half the money right then. A few weeks later when I arrived to pay the remaining amount and buy the clock, the man started explaining to me how an antique collector examined the clock and proved to him that it was from 1910. The speculator had offered him 600 dollars for the clock, but the owner could not sell it. He started negotiating with the idea that he could not sell a clock from 1910 at such a low price. My father’s birthday was near, and I could not let go of this opportunity. I ended up paying 150 dollars more for the antique.

I realized that the owner had played me due to the levels of commitment that I had regarding buying the clock. I had expressed my interests of purchasing the antique and paid in advance, and this showed the levels of involvement within me. The owner intended to get a better deal out of the situation and later my father confirmed that the clock was indeed from the year 1910. The chances that the owner did not know about it beforehand seemed quite odd to me.