Scamming Walmart Price Matching - Dodgy antics of our U.S. Friends

LCheepCheap on 21/11/2014 - 20:09

Just spotted this link over at /. on scamming Walmarts Price Matching Promo:

People are reportedly creating fake Amazon pages to show fake prices on electronics and other items. In the most heavily publicized cases, Walmart was reportedly duped into selling $400 PlayStation 4 consoles for under $100. From the article: "The company announced on Nov. 13 that it would price-match select online retailers, including Amazon.com. However, any Amazon member with a registered selling account can create authentic looking pages and list items 'for sale' online. Consumers need only take a screen capture of the page and show it to a cashier at checkout in order to request the price match."

Thought it was an interesting read, like one pundit commented "This is why we can't have nice things."

General Discussion

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  • plmko on 21/11/2014 - 20:37
    +2

    Seems more like a case of retail control failure. You wouldn't be able to do that here because price-matches require manager approval. Why Walmart has an employee on the spot approval system, I don't know, perhaps as a gesture of goodwill. But is is as you say "This is why we can't have nice things.".

  • Cheeper on 21/11/2014 - 21:23
    +4

    Scamming price matching will only lead to it being stopped. We all miss out then.

  • adamren on 21/11/2014 - 22:01

    Know people did this with the Hungry Jacks app, screencapped the 50% off thingy. Then they updated and made it flash and with location and dates on it I think and they check it by tapping the screen and scrolling.

  • spychiatrist on 21/11/2014 - 22:23

    Amazon should be partly responsible for this TBH. Why let some idiot post an unrealistic price. Or maybe Amazon turned a blind eye as an FU to Walmart

    • scrimshaw on 22/11/2014 - 00:30

      Why let some idiot post an unrealistic price. Or maybe Amazon turned a blind eye as an FU to Walmart

      There's like a billion different items and thousands of sellers on Amazon at any given moment. It is not humanly possible for Amazon to police every item posted on their website.

  • GnarlyKnuckles on 22/11/2014 - 01:20

    "First choice" grog shops price match, but only after viewing an official (paper/tangible) catalogue, or ringing up the store you are asking them them to match, to check the cheaper price you are claiming is available, with the seller directly. Notably they do not accept a "Boozle.com.au" page on a screen as proof; which is wise of them, because often the information on that site is in fact wrong, and "fake" versions of "Boozle.com.au" web-pages could easily be dodgied-up in any case; a bit like this Amazon scenario.
    This seems to be a sensible way of doing it, though it does take them quite a bit of time sometimes, if the phone call is required. I reckon the future of "price-matching" will be along the lines of the model that "First Choice" currently uses here in Oz. Online/ screen-based stuff will not be considered "proof"; for obvious reasons (that obviously were not obvious enough for Wall-mart to preempt!).

    • twocsies on 22/11/2014 - 11:22
      -1

      Why not create a fake website with the phone number of your colleague?

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