Mara was shopping online at OfficeMax Depot (not the company’s actual post-merger name) when she found a package of the labels she needed at a great price. She headed to her local Office Depot store, believing that she would find the same labels at the same price at the store. Wouldn’t that make sense? Yes, it would make a lot of sense. Instead, the labels cost $28.80 more in the store, and employees wouldn’t price-match..

The savvy consumer would ask for a price match to the retailer’s own website, since that’s a pretty big discrepancy when she thought that the labels only cost $36.19.

Online:

In the store:

Naturally, Mara did the sensible thing and asked for a price match. That’s when she learned that Office Depot’s price-match policy doesn’t allow stores to match prices on the website. It turns out that the policy is usually to match website prices: Mara’s local store either didn’t know its own policy or the employees just didn’t want to.

If you find a lower price on a new identical item at an Office Depot or OfficeMax store at the time of purchase or within 14 days of your purchase, show us the lower price and OfficeDepot.com will match the price or refund you the difference. If you find a lower price on a new identical item on OfficeDepot.com at the time of purchase or within 14 days of your purchase, show us the lower price and Office Depot or OfficeMax stores will match the price or refund you the difference.

Our stores will not match prices from our catalogs, online-only specials, or prices offered to our contract customers. OfficeDepot.com and our call centers will not match prices offered to our contract customers or on our in-store only specials.

What did Mara do? “They were unwilling to sell for the online price,” she wrote to Consumerist, “so I ordered online to pick up later.”

The real irony comes when you’re able to order it online from inside the store, then wait there until the order’s ready, but not all stores prepare orders that quickly.

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