One might think that if one iteration of a store has a sale on a certain product, another store under the corporate umbrella could feasibly offer the same product at the sale price as well. Not so with Sears and its various stores, according to one Consumerist reader.

Tara says she found a deal for a three-ton jack for her father-in-law advertised in a Sears ad for $59.99. Great! But not so great, really., because as Tara would find out, Sears doesn’t match its own prices.

Saturday morning, I woke up and tried to buy it online. It was online for $69.99. Obviously that wasn’t right, so I went to my closest Sears. It was $69.99 there as well. I couldn’t find the ad that I read in the newspaper and no one knew what I was talking about. I did talk to one cashier who said that their Sears ads are glossy and if it was a paper type of ad, it must be a Sears Essentials or Appliance store. Apparently the different types of Sears stores don’t follow the same pricing, even though they offer the same products. He told me where the closest Hometown store, 30 miles away.

When I called there, they said they had the item for $69.99 as well. Because I didn’t have the ad with me, I couldn’t seem to prove that I wasn’t crazy. So I got home and got the ad and figured out that it was actually for the Appliance and Hardware store, the closest one being about 45 minutes away. But, in the Sears ad was the price matching policy, so we figured that we could go back to our local Sears and get them to match the price since the items are identical. Brilliant, right? Wrong. Sears doesn’t price match on Thanksgiving weekend. The manager wouldn’t do anything for us.

Tara says she didn’t even know there were different kinds of Sears stores until her unfortunate adventure seeking a sale. Sure, it’s only $10, but it’ll cost Sears a lot more, as Tara writes that they’ve now lost her as a customer.

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