What else is negotiable in this market?

I've never heard of getting a cell phone bill lowered. How did you pull that off? I have T-Mobile myself...

My doctor's visit...I went to a doctor that wasn't covered by insurance and she wanted $2100 for the procedure..we agreed to $1400.00. I'm finding EVERYTHING is negotiable..it becomes fun finding what what you can negotiate.

I saved about $5 per month on the cell phone bill, not big bucks but why not. It was a few months back and I commiserated with the phone rep on the price of gas having dropped ... me as a non-driver.

garages

i don think garages...i've had no luck so far on the upper west...

Several friends and I have had very good luck with garages. I am paying $250 / month including taxes in midtown, and there were several options at that price. Don't remember seeing/hearing anything below $300 anywhere when I was last looking in 2006.

wow, that's really good.
I'm getting killed on the upperwest
Parking at 66th, lincoln center, $450
i've checked everywhere upper west (i think) and $450 indoors the lowest i found.
anyone got a better place?

The uws is upside down for parking garages, too many have closed recently, so if you are getting $450 a month, stay!! If you are ok with traveling a little bit for parking, you can go over to 10th or 11th btwn 45 and 60th and get some deals there, but those are mostly attended parking lots, not garages.

upperwestrenter, call Icon parking, ask for Julio. He is a broker for all Icon parking facilities in the city. They had a promo at the beginning of the year for $250/mo for 12 months. I got $250/mo on the UWS (pretty close to where you are) for at least 12 months.

NYSC - i needed to change my "home gym" from one location to another and the guy said "no problem, it will just be a $25 charge and you will be all set." $25 to check off a different box in their computer! he said "i'm sorry but that's just how they bill it in the system and i can't change it." i literally told him "i have been a member here for years and i am not paying that fee. it is not even up for discussion." somehow he was able to nix the fee and without me asking he lowered my monthly fees by about $7.

I pay 360 with Icon in midtown east. JULIO!

"I am paying $250 / month including taxes in midtown, and there were several options at that price."

Really where??!?! I need to know... currently paying $400 with taxes in midtown.

Call Icon. My guy was Mario (probably Julio's brother, but I think they all have the same database regardless). I can't remember all of the locations precisely, but maybe something a 57th and 8th, a 54th and 8th, a 51st and 7th and a 43rd and 6th. I think 3 of those were $250 and one was $275.

I think cheapest he had in midtown east was $300 including taxes.

sniper, what do you pay for NYSC? I have been a member forever, and I think it's like $92 or $93. Not sure if worth renegotiating.

Furniture: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/29/garden/29haggling.html?pagewanted=4&_r=1
NYT: How Low Will They Go: Haggling for Furniture at New York's High End Showrooms 1/28/09

sniper - very good example, thanks for posting
anyone else with a gym story?

glee - thanks. about 3 weeks ago i had a talk with a friend of mine (he makes quite a bit of money) who was saying that his wife wanted to buy at $10,000 dining room set. he told her "call up and offer them $5000. When they come back to you and say "ok" tell them things have changed and you will now give them $3500." she didn't have it in her to do that but i just sent him that article to let him know that he was ahead of the curve. it is happening out there.

Erotic services on Craigslist and "generous" searches on Casual Encounters

I just renegotiated my rent down from 3800 to 3200 for the next year......also just negotiated my resort in Aruba down 20 percent!!

Gyms seem to be doing the free summer type thing or waive the upfront cost but the monthly costs remain high.

There is little that is truly negotiable in the marketplace for most things in NYC.

Ha! So funny... Julio got me in to the 66th parking lot (under Juliard) for $275 (inclusive of taxes) 2 years ago, recently went up to $290. Staying put. And yes, it's an SUV. I also did the Manhattan tax exemption which saved about $25 per month

I was able to reduce my rent for the coming year by 14%.

Also was able to cut my Time Warner cable charges. (You've just got to tell them you need to cut expenses and may have to change vendors. Suddenly, they have a special limited-time, one-year special. If it doesn't work immediately, try them a month or two later.)

I just had $100/month knocked off my cable bill (Time Warner).

Three years ago, i managed to negotiate a white wool area rug at ABC Carpet -- originally priced at $10,999 -- down from $7999 to $1799.

big shot media guy like you pays his own cable bill?

How can a cable bill be so big that you can get $100 per month off? What was it, $400?

matt has a problem with facts...never met one that he couldn't make up.

cable bill reduced substantially. i called twice over the course of about 40 days and each time got time warner to reduce my bill. went from 215 or so to 120. part of it was me dropping a few premium channels but i think that was probably 30 or so of the discount.

had similar success with garage/ icon/ not 250 but 350 (325 once your get the NYC resident tax relief).

rent also went down about 6% - kicking myself bc i should have gotten a steeper discount but am now month to month, so my options are open.

"How can a cable bill be so big that you can get $100 per month off? What was it, $400?"

My cable bill (with internet) was $178/month. Now it's $78/month.

keep the bs coming.

Forget the bullcrap.

Our lawfirm cut our technology and storage costs but our physical documentation are non-negotiable because of increases in labor and energy and resident costs in NYC

I told my landlord I wanted a cut, he's thinking about it. I figure for August I'm just cutting it anyway, what's he going to do, hire lawyers, go to court, evict me, have an unrented apartment, take the risk of someone else, no way!

Also cutting more coupons and bringing lunch to work.

Dry Cleaning, 30% off. Maybe just because there's competition! Oddly, you don't get the same discount just on pressing.

Equinox is still expensive. For the newbies they have lowered the initiation but the monthlies are the same and going up