Sears' Left Hand Doesn't Know What Right is Wanking. It's You.
Cam needed a wet-dry vac and decided to shop Sears, as he's had agreeable shopping experiences with them in the past. He went online and found they had a 9 gallon vacuum on sale for $49.99, which was $10 down from the regular price. Blithe confidence in the retailer's ability to honor the same price, he waltzed on over (if you've never seen 6 cylinders doing 3/4 time, it's truly a sight to behold) to his local Sear's store. He writes:
- "I was greeted by a friendly, but less-than-helpful employee, to which I explained that I would like this particular vacuum if he could honor the Sears.com price.
"Naw, sorry man."
"Why not? It's on your website for $49.99. Just pull up the site and correct the price for me."
"I can't."
"Why not?"
"You know, it's like, I can get a DVD for cheaper online too, right?"
"No, you don't understand. This is Sears' website. Sears.com. I could have ordered it before I left and picked it up for $10 less."
"Yeah, I know man."
"Ok, so I'm going to go home, buy this vacuum for $10 less, and I'll be back here in half an hour to pick it up since you can't discount it for me."
"Alright."
So I did. I drove home, paid for it online, selected "Pick up in store," printed my receipt, drove back, and within half an hour of when I was originally in the store, I had my vacuum for $49.99 + gas money. I guess the moral of the story is never to assume that employees will be logical. From now on I'll just expect that nobody that works at Sears knows that there even is a Sears.com."
Naw man, sorry, we don't have that... try Roebuck. Or Co, even.
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Comments:
Circuit City did this to me. The salesguy told me that circuitcity.com was a completely different company, when I asked for an LCD monitor for the the online price. He took a walk, and came back later saying the "manager" would give it to me for the lower price..
Ben writes:
"Just to show that not all retailers are clueless, I went to Circuit City recently and was going to buy something (I can't remember what right now, some cheap electronic something or other). The clerk said "Did you know it's on our website on special?" Er, no. "Go over to that terminal and order it online and you'll save some money."
So I did. They had a handy broadband connection to their website at the end of the counter."
Best buy does this, too, but some stores actually have computer terminals set up to buy your DVD in the store online, and then pick it up at the counter. Circuit City used to honor BestBuy.com prices, which was rad, since Best Buy doesn't honor them. I'd print out the page from bestbuy.com and take it to Circuit City where they'd sell it to me for 10% less.
I do know that some retailers have a policy to NOT honor online prices unless you have the printout of your online purchase. Many people will buy the item at the higher price simply because they need the item and don't want to take the time to go home, order it online, and return to the store. I've heard it referred to as the "stupidity tax".
I have *never* had to bring a print out of an online price to Sears. They take my word for it. I've even gone back to Sears after a purchase with printout of the item with a cheaper online price and had the difference credited to my account. I guess Sears is different in Vermont.
.....Sears used to have the most wondrous part-ordering web system ever! You could enter the error code or symptom from your malfunctioning appliance, and it would tell you what part number you needed, and whether it was in stock from your local retail store! And they'd often have helpful links to how-to-do-it instructions! This has all gone by the wayside in the past year or two, now they have specialty parts warehouses, and aren't too terribly end-user-friendly anymore...
It's probably not fair to jump all over the hapless hardware clerk at Sears. As a former employee at Sears, I can tell you that he is given almost zero latitude and empowerment in terms of satisfying customers.
Sears used to match online prices, but they probably don't any longer; I've noticed that Home Depot and Walgreen's don't either. Seems stupid but what do I know....I've gradually shifted over the past few years to buying almost everything online anyhow....less hassle.