Professor Dave on Price Matching

[RichS]

I have never understood the reasons for a price match. Seems to me that if you can get an item at another store for a cheaper price then why not go there & eliminate all the price matching nonsense?

Well, it depends on where 'there' is.

I've done price matching at Best Buy when CompUSA still had a lot of stores open.

I've done it because the nearest Best Buy is ~ 25 miles round trip where I live. The nearest CompUSA was more like ~ 80 miles.

Of course, I followed the rules of price matching. I brought the CompUSA flyer with me, they called the CompUSA store, confirmed that they had the item in stock and for that price, and I got my price match.

The problem is the SC's that can't follow the rules.

[Shards]

The problem is the SC's that can't follow the rules.

DING DING DING!

You, my friend, have explained 85% of the shit we bitch about on here.

[mscrybaby]

I know where I work we offer the same price plus ten percent of the difference. This brings out all of the kooks who want to price match the "store brand" to Walmart or wherever.
We don't match Fry's.com because their internet prices are "online only specials" but no one can understand that when we call the local Fry's and the price in store is the same as ours we refuse the price match.

Can I print out the original post to email to my customers?

[Jadedcarguy]

Want the other side of the spectrum for being ridiculous?

Our store offers a "lowest price guarantee" on our furniture that we will never be undersold.

The problem is that it's in the furniture we sell.

Which is exclusive to our company.

Deliciously evil.

[Jadedcarguy]

I used to do phone sales for a mail-order company that dealt with go-fast car parts. They would price match any price on identical parts in the current month magazine ads or current competitors catalogs. The upside to that is I was supplied with my very own copy of about 20 car mags every month.

The downside was I became intimately familiar with every damn ad in each one of them every month.

The 5.0 Mustang guys were the worst for price matches. Their saving grace was that they almost always bought. I was on commission, after all.

[otakuneko]

I never knew about that fifth criterion and, frankly, I think that one sucks.

Then again I always thought price matching was a crock anyway, especially with computer-related stuff and electronics, where everyone has the same item with just a different plu number. I just go straight to Fry's and buy there, since I know without even looking that Fry's is cheaper than Worst Buy. Once in a blue moon, before Best Buy bought and gutted them, CompUSA would beat Fry's, and then I'd go there.

[RedNailPolish]

Want the other side of the spectrum for being ridiculous?

Our store offers a "lowest price guarantee" on our furniture that we will never be undersold.

The problem is that it's in the furniture we sell.

Which is exclusive to our company.

We do this, too! We offer 100% pricematching for anything in our 'local' area (roughly 25 miles) The problem? We're in the middle of effing nowhere. None of the other stores carry our lines (they don't like to share).

Kicks ass for us, tho, since that would come out of our comissions.