We’ve probably all been there at some point or another. You have a high priced item you’re waiting on a price drop for, but either your patience runs out or you think the price drop has already happened and you buy it… only to realize a week later you could’ve saved an extra chunk of change. Sound familiar? Most stores have a 30-day price matching policy but even then, there are ways around that (to their benefit).
Have you ever used one of the big-box chains “pick up in store” options? Circuit City offers the option to buy online and pick the item up in the store, Best Buy does too I believe. But that opens up a whole new can of worms. I realize they treat other competitor’s ads pretty clearly, but do they treat their own internet presence and their brick and mortar stores equally? Can you site a price online and get it in the store? Or vice versa? Worse yet, can you get Circuit City to meet/beat a BestBuy.com price? As a policy, the answer is no, but on an individual basis… the answer isn’t so clear.
I recently had a run-in with a rather unenthused store clerk at an unnamed “metropolis of electricity pathways” where I had to come right out and say something to the effect of “Do I need to return these items, take the 15% restocking fee, and then repurchase them again at this new lower price? I’d still come out better in the end…” for them to realize that I wasn’t asking for them to do mounds of paperwork to save twenty three cents, it was a significant savings that I was going to get at least a part of, so she caved and just gave me the price difference back onto my card without making me go through the process of returning/repurchasing.
I also see now that some retailers are offering 60-day price protection on HDTVs and other big ticket items. When sales can result in hundreds of dollars being removed from the tickets, I can totally see why some people would be gun-shy about buying. And right now the 60-day price protection covers the Christmas sale period as well as the SuperBowl sale period, two of the biggest HDTV sales periods of the year. That was a smart move to whoever came up with that one.
Have you been burned just outside of a price protection window? Have you had to “manipulate” the system to save a few bucks? Ever do it more for spite than the money? I know I have. When I worked in retail, I used to hate processing returns… especially used product at the very end of the return window. I know people abuse returns, but sometimes the rules the stores put forth to protect themselves can be effective tools to forcing their hand at better customer service. I know some of you have some horror stories, let’s hear them!
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Oh I did this with the sims expansions packs. And I GOT THROUGH ALL 11…was it 11? Anyway, I kept on trading each expansion pack back and getting a NEW one, because I found out a few days after buying one that it wouldn’t work because I had traded in a newer expansion. The reason this worked was because the newer the expansion, the CD that it would run on.
As a PC gamer, I was quite surprised that later on that year they closed there trading on PC.
I know one way retailers get around matching competitor’s prices, while still saying they do price match their competitors.
They have manufacturers add a designation to the part number. For instance, there Hitachi made an projection HDTV that they added an “S” to the part number for the models that Sears sold. The tv in question was identicle to the version sold at Circuit City, the only difference was the lack of the “S” on the part number. It was enough that both stores could claim that it was a different model tv and not honor the price match.