A lot of stores will do this if the item is below their cost.

compusa used to do the same thing, especially when it came to matching best buy's low dvd pricese on opening day.

They would hide the dvd's, so customers could not buy them. Or they would say that they are not allowed to match the DVD prices.

The only way that manager would not match the price is if corporate created a policy that hurts his bonus or his store in some way.

Why would a company create a Price Match policy and then screw over their own employees when someone tries to use it to an extent the employees refuse to enforce their own policy?

Sounds like Best Buy wasn't going to be carrying them anymore, so they clearance priced them without stating it was a clearance price.

Still, Circuit City should honor their policy. I've never had a good experience at Circuit City, but for the $22 (around here, including tax) savings? I'd probably give it a shot.

I had Best Buy try the same trick on me when I purchased a new digital camera. The competing price wasn't from Circuit City so they said the company I was buying it from (it's in NYC, you get two guesses) was not considered a "local competitor." Oye vei (that's a hint btw).

Kos

so you bought 2 monitors from best buy, then noticed that circuit city had them for horrendously more money, and instead of just saying "Oh cool I just saved $180" and getting on with life, you had to go and stick it to circuit city to save $198 instead.

Assuming that this would have worked:
How much is the time it took driving from one store to the other, arguing with the manager, getting the price guarantee, then taking the 2 monitors from best buy back and dealing with their return line worth? I bet it would take more than an hour to do that, and my time is worth way more than $18 an hour. Add the (admittedly negligible amount of) gas it would take to move the car from one parking lot to the other. Still worth it? How about the very real potential that your credit card company or bank will cut off your card for buying 4 identical high ticket items within an hour and then returning 2 of them?

All for the sake of $18 and what, the principle of sticking it to "the man"? Getting them to honor their policies? It's true that they should, and it sucks that they didn't. I just don't think it was worth the hassle to deal with it.

Could it have anything to do with the fact that Circuit City is kind of a crap store that has been losing money?

They've had to resort to laying off a bunch of people from many of their stores. Something tells me they don't have the money to splurge on their price match guarantee.

Best Buy FTW.

Happens all the time. Sometimes there is some real fine print in the company policy (that no one can seem to find) or some local rules they don't bother to tell you about. Or sometimes, they just make up the rules as they go.

the policy states:

If you haven't yet purchased the product, we'll beat the competitor's price by 10% of the difference between our price and theirs.

He had already purchased the monitors. Guess that's Circuit City's leg to stand on.

@DeeJayQueue:
I have seen people waste hours to save a couple dollars. I always make sure the work in saving money is justified. It just depends on what kind of person you are I guess. Heck people here in NYC will haggle with the hot dog cart people.

I just don't see the point in wasting hours to save a few bucks. My time is better spent elsewhere.

"offering a lower advertised price"
Unfortunately a receipt from best buy is not and advertisement. Read the policy! File all the complaints you want, you did not fulfill your 1/2 of the guarantee!

Also states "Buy a product from us and if...". Guess what? You did not buy from there first. You have no arguement here.

"if, within 30 days of your purchase, you find a local competitor..."

I work at a Ritz Camera shop and we have a similar guarantee, but we don't honor prices from Best Buy because they're not considered local. If the circut city manager had made that case, that would have made a lot more sense.

first of all, who goes around playing these games? when you are 85 and nearing death, you'll think back to all the time and effort you spent chasing that 10% difference. good times.

on the flip side, corporations love these gimmicks because most people don't use them. but people that do use them should be able to use them. just because it's below their cost shouldn't make a difference. if corporations use these policies then they must honor them even if it is "below cost".

Like another person said. It was not an "Advertised" price.

@rocnrule: well no it ALSO states that if you FOUND the product elsewhere they would lower it too, so that it was either 110% refund (if you bought it) or 10% lower than the best buy price (if you had not)

I mean its RIGHT there in the story summery, is reading comprehension THAT hard from some of you commenters.

@sonichghog: An advertised price is any price in the store that has a pricing sticker or sign "advertising" the price. I used to work for both stores, and that was how both defined their near identical low price guarantees.

@donnie5: Falconfire, you are a hero! I get tired of people slamming consumers on here because they get ripped by a company.

Unbeatable = as long as its not too low...

@Falconfire:
Umm, it says if you buy from us first, OR if you haven't yet purchased, also advertised price. He does not meet either criteria. I thinks somebody else cannot read.

Sounds like a slickdeal to me!

Wow, RocNRule and I are agreeing on something? ;)
I just don't see him having a leg to stand on, and it's bad customers like this who cause bad businesses to think they have to be bad businesses to get by.

It was advertised. Go to www.bestbuy.com and select the weekly ad link. Put in Valley Stream NY and you will find it. It is an ACER X191WSD.

Poor planning on Circuit City's part. they should know the Sunday ads are always out at least a day ahead of time. If they had scanned the ad, they would have known to remove the monitor from the shelves for the week or until they were sold out at BB (which they are now...).

@DeeJayQueue: Your apathy and laziness is exactly what these stores are counting on. They want the benefit of consumers thinking they have the lowest prices around (via a prominently advertised policy of price-beating), without the hardships of actually having the lowest prices around. Not honoring their advertised policy is false advertising.

Nobody got ripped, except poorboy who spent his money and then tried to get it back. Options are clear:
1. BUY FROM US(CC), and if you find it lower within 30 days, you can get the difference. That didn't happen, so dude is out of luck.
2. BEFORE YOU BUY, come to us and we'll lower our price plus 10%. Dude goes in with an already-bought receipt. That didn't happen either, dude still out of luck.

Carey, it's misleading not to list the entire policy, including the exclusions.

From CircuitCity.com:

If within 30 days from the date of our offer, you show us a lower, currently advertised price from another local store with the same item in stock, we will gladly refund 110% of the difference between our price and theirs.

Circuit City's Unbeatable Price Guarantee does not apply to services, nor does it apply to special offers or promotions, including rebates, mail-in offers, free-with-purchase offers, limited quantity offers, bundled promotions and special financing. Circuit City's Unbeatable Price Guarantee does not apply to products and services offered by third parties operating in Circuit City's stores.

I think if I was les I would have come up with a better excuse (it's not advertised, it's clearance, it's a special offer, etc.).

@rocnrule: "If you haven't yet purchased the product" means "If you haven't yet purchased the product from us (Circuit City)." Whether or not he already purchased the product from some other company has no bearing on Circuit City's policy. So their policy is in effect and you're mistaken.

Actually OLDERBUDWIZER
2. BEFORE YOU BUY, come to us and we'll lower our price plus 10%. Dude goes in with an already-bought receipt. That didn't happen either, dude still out of luck.

As far as Circuit City is concerned he falls into category #2. The receipt from Best Buy may not count as an advertised price, but clearly the policy isn't meant to say you couldn't but the same product elsewhere and expect them to match the price if you should choose to buy from Circuit City as well.

The point of the 2 categories listed is to show that the policy effects you both before and after you purchase a product from CC.

I agree with Deejayque. This guy sounds like a total douche who just enjoys making a point, no matter how pointless the cause.

Technically, Circuit City should have provided the discount. But going through all that effort to save an extra $18 indicates that Jeff really gets off on f**king with people so he can feel superior.

@nytmare:
If you all want to believe guarantees mean what you assume they mean, and not what is actually written in english, then you too will have to deal with situations like this. Unfortunately, no judge in the land will infer "If you haven't yet purchased the product" to mean "If you haven't yet purchased the product from us".

This was in the Best Buy flyer that came with my Sunday newspaper. I'd say that means it was advertised.

@nytmare: I am glad someone else had the common sense to realize that is what the policy means. That "If you haven't yet purchased the product" bit only applies to products purchased from CC, not from anywhere else.

The policy is in affect and he should have received the money. Also, according to his email, CC was just across the street from BestBuy ... I don't know about you, but I would walk across the street for 20 bucks.

Well, they were purchased today, so he still has less than 30 days to return the monitors from Best Buy (...wait for it...) then buy them from Circuit City, then show the CC folks the BB price and get the 110% difference.

...this is, of course, if he can convince Best Buy to accept a return, and we've all seen enough stories on how tough THAT is.

So how would people feel if this guy bought one at BestBuy and then they were out of stock, so he runs across the street to CC to get another one. According some people here, he shouldn't get the lower price becuase he already bought one at the lower price???

What sense does that make? The fact that he is going to return them at BestBusy when he is done has NO bearing on whether or not CC should honor their guarantee. (which they should)

"Buy from us" and "Before you buy" are horrible reasons to prevent the policy from being used. Because, let's say I want a sweet rig for my design work. I buy two monitors at Best Buy for $129. Great! I go over to Circuit City and see they have the same monitor and a great Price Matching plan.

I want to buy TWO more so I can have a glorious 4 monitor setup. But wait...I've already bought them so I don't qualify for the price match?!

The thought that this customer had when he intended to return the other two monitors to Best Buy is immaterial. Circuit City did not live up to the price match. If I bought two monitors, and want to buy two more using Circuit City's price match, they should sell those two to me.

Otherwise, this becomes a semantic debate over the wording over the policy (which it already has). Once you start burying through the "terministic screens" you may find that the Circuit City price match policy means nothing. Therefore, the policy should not even be offered, or should be offered in such a way that it satisfies the general intention of the policy to satisfy the customer: "If I could buy it for $129 at Best Buy, I could get it for the same price or cheaper here!"

@rocnrule:
Isn't this just a store policy anyway (or a company policy). Its not like you can take them to court and sue them on not living up to a policy they can ammend or read however they wish. They haven't (yet) entered into an agreement with you. They can (and will) choose whatever price they want....and you can choose to pay it or not. Now we can publicly try to shame them into following their policy, but this isn't a legal issue IMO.

But the point stands that the "haven't purchased the product" clause is clearly not intending to disqualify you from the policy if you'd purchased the product elsewhere beforehand. The clause is merely intended to define how the policy would effect you before or after you purchase the product from CC.

@donnie5: When I last worked at Circuit (read: March) they defined "advertised" as "in the circular this week." That didn't mean that we didn't price match in store (especially in TVs to get sales,) and that Circuit is right in this instance (because from the facts we have the store is dead wrong,) but that's the definition we always had.

for all the people that keep saying homeboy was wasting time haggling 10%, the real issue here is that Circuit City just recieved national negative publicty for wasting time not bothering to give said homeboy the 10% break he was looking for.

@rocnrule: He wasn't denied the policy for having purchased it at a competitor. It is not legal or even practical to enforce such a policy based on any competitor purchases.

What the receipt from the competitor does is show the item name, date, and price. The actual purchase of said item at some other company by any given person is completely irrelevant and immaterial.

Unfortunately, the price on the receipt might not qualify as an "advertised" price, as receipts don't show whether an item is on clearance which would disqualify the guarantee.

@ThomFabian:
It does in fact become a legal issue the moment it is advertised(false advertising). Merely printing that sign in the store is entering an agreement, just as if the sign says no refunds. I won't argue they are morally right for what they've done, just legally right. We can all take from this what we want. I imagine none of us are lawyers so all we have is opinion.

@rocnrule:

Buy a product from us and if, within 30 days of your purchase, you find a local competitor offering a lower advertised price for the same in-stock item, we'll refund 110% of the difference.

In plain english, you buy it from us and then bring in the circular showing it cheaper we refund you the money + 10% more.

If you haven't yet purchased the product, we'll beat the competitor's price by 10% of the difference between our price and theirs.

In plain english, if you have not bought the product from us yet, we'll discount it by 10% more of the difference between the prices. Thus you get it for 10% UNDER the Best Buy price.

THIS WAS A ADVERTISED PRICE BY BESTBUY. Thus they are going against their already stated policy. He was going to see if he could get it for the "claimed" guarantee, and return the Best Buy ones if he could, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that though unless its a huge discount your likely spending more money on gas going back and forth than you would have saved. But thats regardless as they went against their own claims despite it being in the weekend BestBuy ad and thus being advertised.

You should NOT be making claims about not reading plain english when you yourself have yet to do it the ENTIRE thread.

Great points everybody, and yea, Jeff may have wasted his time by trying to get a price match...but I am one of those people that do things out of "principle". Businesses should always honor their own policies.

I grew up up watching those comercials with the kid that brings the walkman to C.C. and the nice man politely gives the differance back. It is the foundation of their customer service policy.

Anyways...there have been 2 times that I have recently tried to get a price match at C.C. and they both worked out.

I bought a PS3 the week before the $100 price drop, went back to the store after and surprisingly got $120 back!

I also bought a 50" Sony tv, and I asked if they would match their online offer, which stated 24 months no interest. They said yes initially, but then declined because they said it was not on their website. I went home, and printed out the page from my browser history, and brought it in for them to see (wasting gas and time in the process). They then agreed to honor the offer, and now I have an extra year to pay off this tv!

Just thought I would share my experiences.

@ThomFabian: If their price-beating policy was just an internal policy, then yes you couldn't sue them. But it's not, it's advertised, on a sign, with the intent of generating increased business. It is not legal to advertise falsely.

The associates were clearly in the wrong here. I used to work at CC for four years and there would often times be people that would either knowingly or unknowingly try to take advantage of our numerous policies, including the price match policy.

I admit, a price drop of that much would raise some eyebrows from me if I had encountered it, but I would gone through my due diligence (checking the website, calling to see if they have any in stock), and if I ran out of excuses to not do the price match, I would do it. Of course, I would never put that much thought into it if it was only a $10 difference, but nearly half price is quite a big deal, especially with a monitor, where there isn't that much of a mark up.

When I was working there, I would often go to my store director and ask him if I should do the price match if it was a big price difference, but I had an excuse not to do the price match (like the competitor didn't have it in stock). Often times my store director would tell me to go ahead and do the price match because he would rather have the business and a happy customer, than a pissed of customer and no revenue.

The submitter of the story should have bought the monitors at Circuit City and called in the price match over the phone, to another store, if necessary.

@nytmare: I hardly think it's apathetic or lazy to want to spend time arguing policy with someone to save an extra $18 over the $180 I just saved across the street, only to have to go back there to stand in a return line. That's not standing up for a principle, or some grandiose "screw the man, david and goliath" scenario, it's just fucking greedy. If you think that's a productive way to spend an afternoon, have at it. I'd rather be doing something more valuable with my time.

One could say that the OP bought the monitors and then said "Oh let me go across the street to CC and see if they have them cheaper." He gets there and sees that CC's price is $90 more expensive per monitor. It's at this point that most people say "Oh wow, I just saved a butt load of money, kudos to me" and go enjoy a slice of toast. This guy however, sees CC's Price Match Guarantee and says "Let me see if I can stitch them up for even MORE savings!" and then gets all indignant when the manager says no.

What about "the policy says, the policy says!" Well, the policy is designed to get people in the door. It's meant to convey the message that "hey we all pretty much have the same price on things, and in case we don't, we'll honor theirs plus a little bit to keep you loyal to us." In most cases this is fine because the prices don't normally vary by %50 between stores, especially on bigger ticket items. A customer that would come in and spend time arguing so vehemently for such a policy after already saving the money is clearly not interested in loyalty to the store, but to spending the least amount possible, and they aren't the type of customers that the policy was designed to attract. They are exploiting a loophole, trying to game the system, and the manager wasn't having it.

Incidentally, $219 seems to be the going price for these monitors in Brick-n-mortar stores, except Best Buy. Most online retailers have it for the $130.

Good price or no, you should hang your head in shame for shopping at CircitChitty. I will NEVER darken their door after what they did to all their loyal employees.

The fact that the "manager" would not give at least his first name is a dead giveaway that he is full of crap. I worked in retail. Someone asked for my name, they got it. Why? Because I was RIGHT and I knew that the people above me would back me up.

Why would "Les" not put his name on his work unless he was trying to hide something?

Another way they get around this is by adding a letter to the Manufacturer's product number and then saying it's a different product. I bought exactly the same product and then found out it was $10 cheaper at another store. I went back to the first and said "You have price match. Can I have $10?" - they said: "No, ours is model 1801b, theirs is model 1801. It's not the same thing."

This would be a great idea for a hidden camera TV show. Driving around the country and attempting to make good on posted policies... then when they shake, take affirmative action, escalating to the next step right in the store. That would be fun to watch these managers squirm bit and to see what level someone needs to go to before they cave.

I remember one time that a CC store (NW Expressway and Portland in Oklahoma City, OK) pulled this BS on me. I wanted to PM Office Depot's price for a JBL iPod speaker dock, CC had it for $150 or so and OD had it for about $70 out the door. (don't recall the exact prices)

I went there and I wanted to buy two of them so I gave them the ad. I stayed there for about 20-25 minutes while they tried to come up with excuses to reject the pricematch because there was such a big difference. Eventually they told me that it "must be a clearance" so they could not allow the PM. Additionally they told me that I could go to the OD store and buy it myself if I wanted since they had 15 or so in stock.

I find it very insulting to be treated this way, especially from a company like CC that advertises itself as a convenient place to shop.