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price-matching
price-matching
(Cayusa)
Want Verizon FiOS To Price-Match Itself? You Need Imaginary Re-Installation
By Laura Northrup on May 8, 2012 10:34 AM
42 Comments
A week after Kyle got Verizon FiOS installed in his new apartment, he saw an ad for a new subscriber deal that was $15 cheaper per month than the two-year contract he had just signed. No problem, then: just call them up and see whether they could price match their own deal. Sure, they could: but only if he canceled his new service, returned all of the equipment, and had the installers come out again to turn the service back on. Well, that's efficient. More »
Hotels.com Customer Files Class-Action Suit Over Price Match Guarantee
By Chris Morran on February 22, 2012 11:30 AM
21 Comments
On its website and in its ads, Hotels.com touts its Price Match Guarantee which says the company will match any lower published room rate — so long as the dates, hotel and room category match, and as long as the price match request is made before that hotel's cancellation date. But one customer says Hotels.com's policy isn't so cut-and-dry and has filed a class-action lawsuit. More »
Target Will Not Price-Match Other Targets
By Laura Northrup on February 10, 2012 10:33 AM
100 Comments
Two Target locations, only a short drive apart. One line of dinnerware on clearance. Jordan and his fiancé registered for dishes that were on clearance at the time. As stock began to disappear from local stores, they decided to just go ahead and buy all of the pieces they could before they disappeared from stores altogether. Oddly, the place settings were cheaper at one store than the other. The ways of retail pricing are mysterious, but what Jordan learned is that buying the same item at the same chain a few miles away doesn't mean that price-matching is going to happen. More »
Fry's Matches Online Retailer Prices! With A Great Big Catch.
By Laura Northrup on February 9, 2012 9:00 AM
52 Comments
The good news: Fry's Electronics will match just about any valid price that you bring in, even if it's from an online source. Cool! The bad news is that when calculating that price match, they include shipping. Even for Amazon Prime customers like reader Sean, who tried to get Fry's to price-match a Blu-Ray. So, y'know, just go ahead and order that gadget online like you were going to in the first place. More »
Best Buy Pricematching COD:MW3 At $51.99
By Ben Popken on November 11, 2011 11:00 AM
30 Comments
Anyone who rushed out and bought the new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 for $59.99 at Best Buy... should rush back in and ask for $8 back. That's because BestBuy.com dropped the price to $51.99 and Best Buy brick and mortars are supposed to pricematch the online site. More »
Walmart To (Sort Of) Price Match Holiday Season Purchases
By Chris Morran on October 24, 2011 1:15 PM
45 Comments
With more and more people doing their holiday shopping online (because it's generally cheaper and faster and doesn't require driving anywhere), the nation's largest retailer is doing what it can to encourage consumers to head to Walmart. Earlier today, Big W announced it will offer price-matching on purchases made between Nov. 1 and Dec. 25, even after you make your purchase. More »
Higher Education Charging High Prices For Food On Campus
By Ben Popken on October 5, 2011 5:00 PM
77 Comments
It's not just drug stores that have boosted prices for grocery items, but also campus dining options at universities. Reader Bryan Carroll wrote an article about them for his school newspaper at Stonybrook University, The Statesman. On average, he found the food items from the campus commissary were a whopping 42 percent higher than local grocery stores. More »
It's Cheaper To Order Online While Standing In Sears Than To Shop At Sears
By Laura Northrup on July 21, 2011 9:30 AM
78 Comments
In a perfect consumer world, perhaps brick-and-mortar stores would price-match their own websites. Perhaps front-line employees would be permitted to use their own judgment once in a while. In this perfect world, it definitely would not be cheaper and easier to purchase an item for in-store pickup on your smartphone while standing in the store. More »
How To Lose A 5-Year Customer Over $3
By Ben Popken on June 22, 2011 10:00 AM
262 Comments
Lynn has been using Terminix four times a year for five years, but after Lynn's recent experience on the phone with them, no longer. At the center of the dispute is a $3 increase in the service. That doesn't sound like much, but it's not really about the money. It's how they treated Lynn when our reader asked about it. And that, my friends, is how you lose a customer who has been with you for half a decade. More »
Best Buy Orders Stores To Stop Saying They Don't Price-Match To BestBuy.com
By Chris Morran on May 31, 2011 12:15 PM
101 Comments
Last week, we showed you the sign at one Best Buy store that openly stated it would not match prices found on BestBuy.com, flying in the face of the company's stated policy. We subsequently received numerous e-mails from Best Buy staffers saying they had been ordered to not price match, but to tell customers to order on the website and arrange for in-store pickup. After that story was posted, BB HQ sent out a directive to staffers, laying down the law on this topic. More »
Update: Best Buy Changes Credit Quota Firing Threat
By Laura Northrup on May 27, 2011 9:00 AM
117 Comments
Well, that was fast. The reader and Best Buy employee who wrote in earlier this week about the threat of termination being used to make employees generate more credit card applications from customers. (Or, as the headline put it, "cram credit cards down customers' throats.") The tipster wrote back in to let us know that management in this particular region has backed down. While offering credit applications is still an important part of the job, working twelve shifts without persuading any customers to apply is no longer grounds for automatic termination. More »
Best Buy Store Won't Price-Match Website, Still Does In-Store Pickup
By Laura Northrup on May 26, 2011 10:35 AM
128 Comments
Reader B. is a Best Buy employee, and has a moral problem with a new policy. This policy may just be at B.'s store or in that district, but it's still annoying. Employees have been told that they can no longer price-match BestBuy.com. They can, however, help the customer place an order online for in-store pickup from inside the store, then wait around for up to half an hour. This seems inefficient at best to B, but sounds familiar to us. More »
Sometimes, Rarely, Walmart Will Price-Match Itself
By Laura Northrup on January 10, 2011 2:45 PM
62 Comments
Retailers that have an online presence generally don't price-match their own websites. As illogical as this seems (especially for big-box stores that have in-store pickup options) the policy is the policy. Except sometimes there is a way around it. That's how John saved $8 at Walmart—by making the store price-match its own website. More »
How I Saved $145 At Sears By Checking In-Store Computer Kiosk
By Phil Villarreal on November 30, 2010 2:40 PM
43 Comments
Leigh made the most of her idle time while waiting in line to buy a dishwasher at Sears. On a lark, she pulled up the product she was going to buy at a nearby kiosk and found it was listed $145 cheaper online than she was about to pay. She confronted the salesman, who was stunned by the price difference but gave her the lower price. More »
Walmart To Offer Price-Matching On Black Friday
By Chris Morran on November 22, 2010 12:15 PM
35 Comments
There are only a few more days until we get Thanksgiving out of the way and can start worrying about what really matters — Black Friday. And Walmart has come out swinging in the retail battle for your holiday shopping dollars by announcing that it will offer price-matching. More »
Don't Try To Price Match Online Deals At Walmart
By Phil Villarreal on September 3, 2010 1:30 PM
102 Comments
Tony tried to get Walmart to drop its price for a car stereo by getting the store to price-match the item, which he found for much cheaper online. His Idaho Walmart, which Tony says has signs outside declaring it will "match any price," turned him down flat, saying the ad needs to be printed in a newspaper. More »
Man Convinces JCPenney To Honor Online Price
By Chris Walters on August 16, 2010 9:00 AM
30 Comments
Gerry and his wife tried to buy a pair of sneakers that the JCPenney website had listed on sale. While other products were marked "online only," this particular pair of sneakers was marked "also in stores," so the couple assumed that the price would be the same. Naturally, the store's employees refused to see the logic of this argument. More »
Save On Drugs By Making Your Pharmacy Price-Match
By Ben Popken on June 2, 2010 3:44 PM
29 Comments
What made Jules sicker than her strep throat was the price Kroger wanted to charge her for a 6-pack of generic Azithromycin. $38.72! "That's highway robbery!" she told the them. Then Jules stumbled onto something most people don't know that could save them serious money on prescription medication: you can price-match your pills. More »
(drjeff)
Best Buy Will Price Match Washer Only If You Buy It Elsewhere
By Meg Marco on June 1, 2010 1:26 PM
117 Comments
Reader John says he went to Best Buy to get a washer/dryer set. When he asked a salesman to price match another retailer (there was a large sign on top of the machine saying they would price match), he says he was told a) he'd have to actually go buy the washer/dryer set at the other retailer and bring back a receipt b) even if he went and did that, Best Buy might not match the price because Best Buy doesn't need John's business. Really? More »
No, You Can't Have These Cheerios For 14 Cents
By Laura Northrup on February 15, 2010 11:00 AM
229 Comments
Phill tells Consumerist that he saw a pricing error on cereal at his local Safeway, and brought it to the attention of store employees. In the process, he tried to invoke Safeway's price guarantee. After all, if the cereal was marked 28 cents per pound (instead of 28 cents per ounce, as it should have been) why shouldn't Phill be able to buy it at that price? Yet the store employees would hear none of it. More »
