Shopping on a tight budget requires compromise, especially when an appliance must look new and travel 80 miles.

How inexpensive can a dryer become when the customer rejects used models and expects long-distance delivery?

When every affordable option came with a tradeoff, this shopper decided the prices themselves were the problem.

The bargain hunt is about to tumble dry.

Cheapskate lady is offended by the price of our least expesive clothes dryer.

I work at a hardware store that also sells new home appliances.

The appliance department is quite successful in sales due to us being the only place in town to buy them, plus we service what we sell.

Yesterday I had to man the department as my coworker was at lunch and we were shorthanded as usual.

This lady comes back to my desk and asks for help picking out a new dryer.

Ok, nothing out of the ordinary, I take her over to the dryers and she says that she wants our most basic, least expensive unit.

Even the cheapest unit was more than she wanted to pay.

We get over there, and the conversation goes as such:

CL: Cheap lady ME: Me

CL: Do you have any other new dryers that are a lot cheaper than THAT?

ME: Again, this new unit here is the most basic, least expensive model we have.

He did have a repaired unit that cost less.

CL: Do you have any sales or discounts going on?

ME: We don’t have any sales going on, and we only discount appliances if you buy three or more at once, or if the unit has cosmetic damage from shipping. We have a used dryer for $249 if you would like.

CL: Is it in good shape? How old is it?

ME: It has been repaired to working order by our service department and it is about 10 years old.

(I show her the used one, the paint is scratched quite a bit, and the white plastic parts are yellowed, but the unit is perfectly functional)

The sight of the dryer scared her.

CL: Oh, I don’t want this, look at all these scratches and the yellowed plastic!

ME: Those imperfections are only cosmetic and in no way affect its functionality.

CL: Ok, how much would you charge to deliver to [next town over]?

(We deliver up to 120 miles from the store, and we charge labor and fuel)

The deliver fee was too much for her.

ME: Since [next town over] is 80 miles away, the delivery charge would be $129 extra and we will bring the new one inside and take your old one and scrap it for parts or refurbish it for resale.

CL: Forget it. I didn’t think getting a dryer and having it delivered would be THIS expensive.

(She leaves the store without buying anything)

To her credit, she may be on a tight budget. It’s not every day you buy a new dryer, so she may have been shocked to see the prices since the last time she bought one.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This would definitely be the least expensive option.

Does anyone think this?

This person sympathizes with the lady.

Another person was also shocked at the prices of new appliances.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who found a way around his company’s denial of company time to study for his Commercial Driver’s License.

An employee at Lowe’s weighs in.

The employee showed her the cheapest new dryer, offered a functional used model, and explained the charge for delivering it 80 miles.

The customer rejected the cosmetic damage, disliked the lack of discounts, and left after learning that delivery was not free.

She wanted showroom perfection, bargain-bin pricing, and an 80-mile delivery miracle.