I am very frustrated with the so-called "price match" policy. Ever since I started collecting DVD, I have used this policy many times.

However, no stores actually do as advertise in their policy without hassle. When I try to do it, they will come up with reasons (other than advertise in the board) why they can't match price. Or there are some procedures they have to do before.

This is one example that most stores do. "We have to call (...) if they really sell this item at this price. If they have them in stock, we will match price for you."

But here is what I heard (in my mind). "Well, if (...) sells it for lower price, why the heck do you come here for? Go and buy it over there. If they don't have it in stock, sorry, but there is no way we will match price for you."

The main reason I try to do the price match is because the item at the store that sells it at lower price is out of stock! Why else I would wait in the long customer service line just to get the same price?

I do understand why they have to call and check if the other store still has it in stock. I do. But please just add it (even in small text) in their policy board. Don't just advertise what they don't wanna do.

Moreover, the followings are what I have expericened in the past few years.

Best Buy:
Yes, they have to check if the other store still has the item in stock. They do the match price, but they never do the 10% price guarantee off. Once I mentioned about it (to try their policy), they talked to each other like I was a jerk trying just to take a few bucks off. Later, I never bother.

Walmart:
This is the store that I go the most often. (I think everyone does.) This story happened to a friend of mine and it is written by him. It happened at Walmart in Manassas.

"I had my friend's receipt from a different Walmart store that showed a lower price. I tried to match price, but they said, "Walmart doesn't have a policy to match their own price." What!!! I think that sounds lame. And then another clerk told me, "Why don't you go and buy it over there?" This was the time I heard, "Go to other stores. Don't be our customer."

Well, I later decided to visit my friend, whose his local Walmart store has the item for lower price, over one weekend. Not because of this by the way. But we did discussed about this. Since his local Walmart did not have this item in stock anymore, as my friend checked. So, I bought the items to try something at that Walmart. You know what? The prices were differnt and they refunded me the difference."

Kmart:
I write this the last because this is the store that I feel the most comfortable with when I did the price match, even though they didn't do exactly as advertise. I had my friend's receipt from different store that showed a lower price. They did check the barcode of the item and on the receipt. And then they gave me the price match!!! With no hassle and with a smile!!! I said they didn't do exactly as advertise because they have it on board that, "...we just need the store name and the price, we will match price on your words." Or something like that.

Well, I'm writing this because I feel very frustrated when I do the price match. Something above just happened recently I just feel that they should have just posted what they actually wanna do on their ad board. That shouldn't have made me feel this way.

One thing I've found out is that stores will do the price match better if you buy the item first and then try to match price.

Care to comment?

BestBuy will only take the extra 10% off of the price if you price match post-sale. You'll have to buy at full price, then take your receipt and ad over to Customer Service (and likely wait in a long line again) and then get your 110% of the difference.

I work for Future shop in Canada, and we offer the lowest price garuntee as well. Our policy is similar, we'll match it plus 10% of the difference and if the other store has the item in stock. The reason why we call the other stores, if they dont have an advertised price, is just to make sure the customers story checks ouy. If the other store dosent have the item in stock, there is not much point to price matching since technically, they wouldnt be able to get it cheaper elsewhere.

I work in the HT dept, and had numerous customers tell me a price and I'll go call a store, and thier price is actually higher than what the customer told me and higher than what we have the item on for. It dosent hurt to make a quick phone call to double check, myself, i never really cared if they had it in stock, if they had a lower price no matter what, i would beat it, but thats just me.

I dont know why people make such a big deal over dvds as the price matching is somewhat worthless.

ex: if we have a dvd for $30 and another store has it for $20, we'll price beat and give it to the person for $19. A dollar savings wow

that was just an example of nice round numbers, i seen people come in and make a big deal of our dvds $24.99 and competitors dvds for $22.98, so we price beat they end up saving about $.20 cents

Well it may seem worthless, but if your store is closer to them in driving distance or quicker to get to, then it saves the person from having to drive a longer distance to the other store. It is still preserving the low price that they could have gotten for taking up more of their time getting to that other location.

There are two main reasons why I wanna do the price match:

1. The item is out of stock at the store that sells it for lower price;

2. I already bought the item (at higher price) and would like them to match price if they could. If not, I would just return it.

No interest in saving a few cents over the extra few percent off.

Yes, I actually do understand the reasons why they have to call and check if the item is in stock at the other store. However, they advertise (on the board at the customer service section) as if they will do the price match without question (eventhough they wouldn't) just to attract customers.

What is worse is that I feel like they want me to feel bad for asking for the price match. That's why I complain.

I found this policy to be completely retarded. Actually, you could just buy it from the Customer Service desk, and immediately ask for a PM after they give you a receipt. That way, you only have to wait in one line.

Everyone had good opinions on this subject as there is a milllion ways to look at it.

do u know what the best thing to do is on big ticket items, anything over a vcr or dvd player.

Buy the item for the actual price, then come back anytime and bring it back and get all your money back, then, regardless whether its open or not, they'll tag it open box and knock off 10 percent off it.

I seen so many people bring things back that werent even took outta the box, and we put a sticker on it.

if u buy a $300 dollar dvd player, bring it back for OB. save 30 bones off it

not a bad deal

Seems a little shady to me. Don't konw the legality of it, but it doesn't seem right if you bought something with the explicit purpose of returning it.

*sigh* If only I didn't have this silly thing called a conscience

Usually I will try to go to the advertised store, since they were the ones offering me a better deal. But . . . Why do I pricematch: 1.)The advertised store is out (not very often). 2.) I'm not going to the advertised store anytime soon. 3.) The advertised store goofed the ad. 4.)The advertised store is one I refuse to shop at.

The best pricematch used to be Office Depot. They used to do 155% pricematch (difference plus 55%). Needless to say, they stopped carrying DVDs real fast. I did get a lot of free software from them, and only once did a new employee give me a hassle. Heck, sometimes the manager would have it waiting for me on Sunday morning! They have since ceased that policy.

Is 110% worth it? Not in my opinion. Especially with all the hoops you have to jump through. Like the poster before said, on a DVD you are extremely lucky for that to even add up to a dollar, usually a few cents. Best Buy's 110% pricematch is harder to achieve than learning to play Fizzbin.

Yeah. I agree with you here. I won't PM unless there's a substantial advantage. The last thing I PMed was the Rocky and Die Hard boxed sets at BB for $70 PMed to $40. I went with my sis, so we ended up saving over $10. I made a lot more selling the Rocky sets though.

Where did you see the Rocky Box Set for $40 at? Tell me, I'm going right away.

Sorry bout that...should've mentioned that the deal is no longer valid. I did it over the summer. Frys was having both Die Hard and Rocky on sale for $40 so I went to BB to have them PM both sets. I haven't seen either set below $40 since then.

Why do people have a hard time understanding that the item has to be in stock at the other store? That's a big point to it. One of the purposes of price matching is to get your money instead of a competitor. If the competitor advertises an item for $10, but is out of it you can't go there and buy it, so your money is not going to the competitor, even if they do not sell you the item.

What confuses a lot of people is that they think price matching is about Store A getting your money instead of Store B, when really it's about getting you not to go to Store B. There's a difference.

That might be the store's goal of PM, but my goal is to get the lowest price possible. For that reason, I will only PM stores that have a 110% (or greater)price guarantee like Best Buy or Home Depot.

I understand that completely. Instead, I don't think you understand my point. (May be you didn't finish reading the originial post.) My point was stores should post it to their policy board! If they are willing to do the price match and before doing that they have to check if the other store has items in stock, fine, write it down clearly.

Yes. I really don't like this. Plus, their policy changes from store to store, day to day, and even hour to hour. I don't mind that it's different from store to store, but the policy should be the same within the same store.

And...you should add "employer to employer".

I think you meant "employee to employee"

I'd definately agree with you here. Some employees don't care. I went into CompUSA and asked for a PM. I just told her that I saw it at Frys for less. She gave me the difference, no questions asked, and didn't have to call to verify the price or availability. (Of course, I'd be screwed if they called because it wasn't in stock at Frys, which is why I went to CompUSA.)

No, I understood your post just fine. My post was a general statement about price matching and customers, not aimed specifically as a reply to your issue.