Don't Publically Post Potentially Sensitive "Price Match Rejection" Details

LOneIdiot on 26/01/2019 - 13:25
Last edited 26/01/2019 - 13:27

I have been looking lately @ OzBargain deals, forums and comments where price match rejection reason @ one store branch has been used by all other store branches

Major retailers have teams looking @ OzBargain deals and forum comments. The potential price match rejection reasons are then circulated to branch managers to deter any price matching attempts.

For eg: Note 9 was being successfully price matched by office works in November 2018, but then someone @ oz bargain Pointed out one small difference of 1 year warranty while OW was offering 2 years warranty.

Within a few days most OW stores had that info, and stopped price matching it.

This potentially makes this platform less of a bargain and more of a bargain killer.

I feel, we should be smart with what we know and pass on the information that should only help fellow OzBargainers.

Only the best intentions @ heart for fellow OzBargainers.

What are your thoughts and experience?

General Discussion

Comments

  • GordonR on 26/01/2019 - 13:42
    +40

    If the aim is to avoid customers price-matching, then why don’t stores just not do it at all?

    The cognitive dissonance comes when a website says “we enthusiastically price match” but the lived experience is “surly staff bend over backwards to find some loophole” when you ask.

    • Crocfreefree on 26/01/2019 - 14:09
      +18

      Exactly. Well put.

      I make it a point to return like for like if I am being given this treatment. I’ll start off polite, with “Do you price match against X store? That’s great. Can you match their price on this?”

      But if I hear anything like:

      “It’s below our cost.”
      “They’re in Melbourne, we’ll have to add [extortionate] freight cost.”
      “That flyer you’re holding says special offer. We only match everyday prices.”
      “We only match printed / newspaper / catalogue prices, not what’s on the web.”

      Then it’s the end of Mr Nice Guy, and usually the end of any interest in buying from them. For anything.

      • ascorbic on 26/01/2019 - 18:29
        +13

        JB Hi-Fi has to be the worst for making up any sort of excuse about how they can't beat or match a competitor's price. And although they have 'Ask for a JB deal' stickers all over the place, they're barely willing to negotiate on price a lot of the time.

        • terrys on 27/01/2019 - 12:16

          It could be store to store - Marion is pretty cool about it, Edwardstown a bit more more snarky, however the latter store is where I see most "bargains" often higher priced than nearby normal prices…

        • Jugganautx on 28/01/2019 - 08:32

          the only thing I've ever gotten a price match at jbhifi for was $30 off a ninja pro blender when the good guys had it cheaper and I had a gift card..

        • solidussnake on 28/01/2019 - 08:37
          +1

          Its because the managers force you to put them up as they think its magically going to get them an extra 100k in sales each week, it also means the sales person commission goes out the window when this happens and its one of the reasons I don't work there anymore.

          I remember 10 years ago when JB was the cheapest in town was the weirdest company with no dress policy and the staff covered in tatts… now they're the most expensive gone too corporate and just utterly useless.

          • DiscoJango on 28/01/2019 - 08:42
            +5

            @solidussnake: notice a connection between lack of competition along with lack of customer service? bye bye dick smith means jb dont give af

          • serpserpserp on 28/01/2019 - 12:42
            +1

            @solidussnake: Still heaps of millennial hipsters with tatts on the sales team at every JB. I find their customer service passable. Depends on the store.

    • HighAndDry on 26/01/2019 - 14:35
      +3

      Corporate policy vs store/staff discretion.

    • YOTR on 26/01/2019 - 15:31
      +20

      Stores offer "price matching" to create the illusion that they are the cheapest. They want you to just shop at Shop 'X' and not even bother shopping around or looking at other prices.

      • Scrooge McDuck on 28/01/2019 - 08:07
        +1

        Exactly. GordonR must be new to expect marketing to be truthful.

    • outlander on 26/01/2019 - 15:59
      +2

      Because they want the benefits, without the cost? Is that not painfully obvious?

      • GordonR on 26/01/2019 - 16:36
        +9

        How does it benefit the store if I go to buy, say, a camera, tell them it is only $750 on Amazon, and they tell me to bugger off and buy it from Amazon?

        I’m not going to just turn around and say, “Oh OK, I’ll just pay the $1000 then”. By definition, I’ve done a price comparison, checked the terms and conditions of the price match policy, and am basically well-informed.

        They don’t make the sale, (even at reduced profit margin), and create a pissed off customer determined to not to return.

        I had always thought a price match policy was so that they can sticker it at $1000, charge the full amount to the 80% of customers who don’t know or care, but still at least get the business from the 20% that do.

        And if they do enthusiastically price match, then I feel good about saving the money, and might buy an SD card and a case (at high margins) as well.

        • whooah1979 on 26/01/2019 - 18:40
          +8

          Customers that wants to price match are not their type of customers. They prefer the walk-in, walk-out and no questions asked customers.

          • GordonR on 26/01/2019 - 19:53
            +8

            @whooah1979: My whole point is that if they don’t want to price match, then they can just stop advertising “we price match” and change their terms and conditions.

            Bingo, no price match customers, but also no unhappy punters expecting a price match. Everyone knows where they stand.

            • outlander on 27/01/2019 - 18:48
              +6

              @GordonR: You're looking at it from a practical point of view, but it works on a psychological level. The point is to convince people that the prices are so low, that theres no point even checking competitors, because no one can beat it. If it wasn't for the law saying that businesses needed to stand by their claims, they would make much bigger claims, then tell you to piss off when you tried to take them up on it. There is no honor or truth in business.

        • Scrooge McDuck on 28/01/2019 - 08:11
          +3

          I’m not going to just turn around and say, “Oh OK, I’ll just pay the $1000 then”.

          But some will. In real life, we live amongst idiots, didn't you know?

          • DiscoJango on 28/01/2019 - 08:44
            +1

            @Scrooge McDuck: yes. a majority of the sheep population will just be like, oh well, ill just pay the extra money and be done with it

        • serpserpserp on 28/01/2019 - 12:47
          +2

          Remember a couple of things here:

          1. The store might actually be making a loss on the item for selling it at Amazon price.
          2. If you want to return your item, the hassle will be a lot less by walking into a store and getting a replacement item/them dealing with it for you. That is worth something.
          3. Staff might be rude these days but can usually answer most questions on things, that has some value.
          4. Going into a store and being able to browse, touch/feel stuff, that has value.
          5. I think more than 20% of customers try to price match big ticket items these days.
          6. You might feel good about saving money, or you might just go for broke and tie up the salesperson while browsing on your phone to get the SD card and case price matched as well.

          Don't get me wrong, I'm all for an awesome deal. But I think collectively people need to be OK if retailers don't want to price match despite their policy (which I have argued before, is fairly loosely written that they could really block you for minimal reasons).

          • 91rs on 28/01/2019 - 21:49
            +1

            @serpserpserp: Its people who've never worked in retail (i.e. GordonR by the sound of him) who are not only the worst to deal with in person but expect the most on something that can in many cases make turning up to work and earning anything over the average wage paid pointless, while I'm out of retail these days there were many where there was a lot of price matching which would set you back enough on a slow day that it'd take the rest of the day to just break even so you hadn't lost GP for the day.
            While it may be a company policy, its the person you deal with who cops the hit on their KPIs for the day \ week. This also means justifying yourself and why you've performed poorly at times as you just seem to cop it from people walking in with price matching which there is often no money in or losses. Especially when you're working in places where other retailers are within minutes drive or walk that people will check with.
            I love the line GordonR used "Then it’s the end of Mr Nice Guy" like you think the random guy you speak with gives a F about you getting the deal or not, being nice will get you further but then you want to basically be a d!ck to the poor guy at the shop over you not getting a cheaper price? Karma, I really hope that is real for all of the four letter C words I've had to deal with in retail over many years, this side of things is why I had to get out. I am surprised we don't see more retail workers snap on the public given what they have to put up with the general public.
            I'd love to see GordonR in retail and cop the refunds and price matches that screw up your day while being abused by people just for showing up and trying to do their job best they can.

            • serpserpserp on 28/01/2019 - 22:58

              @91rs: I think it is ridiculous that a company has a policy for price matching but hits the sales guy on the head for abiding by it. The policy should state that if it is a loss making proposition for the business then they have the right to refuse, should make it a bit more palatable to those people that continually bang on that "the policy says price match so do it".

              I don't get why they don't, maybe it is a way for other retailers to get a read on what is the true price they have to hit to undercut JBH or reverse engineer the GP they target.

              Anyway, people should give the retailers a break. I mean go for gold and bargain your heart out, but don't get cranky if they decline because they'll lose money on it.

      • rjstev on 28/01/2019 - 01:02
        +2

        OVer years I’ve asked Harvey Norman to price match but they said “ no we can’t match that price”. Don’t know if they still do this as I don’t go there anymore.

    • jorf on 28/01/2019 - 09:53
      +7

      Price matching policies are BS anyway. All they do is contribute to propping up the overpriced majors at the expense of anyone who can actually provide some competition.

      And it also provides an illusion that X shop is cheaper "because they match prices", even though X shop (Bunnings, i'm looking at you) is on average more expensive across the board.

      Personally i'd rather give my business to the company that offered the better price in the first place.

      • serpserpserp on 28/01/2019 - 22:59

        The funny thing about Bunnings is they have a lot of exclusive items you can't get anywhere else! If there was anyone i'd love to give Bunnings a run for their money it is amazon. At least they could compete at the power tool level.

  • myusername on 26/01/2019 - 14:08
    +4

    keep making posts about price match rejections.

    why should we be dictated to by a few store managers.

    grabs tinfoil hat

    how do we know you're not one of these managers in question?

  • JIMB0 on 26/01/2019 - 14:33
    +25

    This site has killed a lot of bargains and loopholes with members trying to be helpful. On the other hand without this site I wouldn't have known about them in the first place, I guess ozbargain is a victim of its own popularity.

    • outlander on 26/01/2019 - 16:00
      +22

      We need a new, secret ozbargain, inside the outer public ozbargain.

      • [Deactivated] on 26/01/2019 - 16:24
        +5

        http://darkweb/ozbargain.ru

      • Diji1 on 26/01/2019 - 19:05
        +14

        That's what OzBargain Premium and OzBargain Platinum Elite memberships are for.

        • Scrooge McDuck on 28/01/2019 - 08:13
          +2

          Rules 1 & 2!

        • [Deactivated] on 28/01/2019 - 09:22
          +2

          Memberships are 75% off with code BRODENED

  • whooah1979 on 26/01/2019 - 14:38
    +3

    difference of 1 year warranty while OW was offering 2 years warranty.

    Price beat or matching is done so in good faith by both parties. It's reasonable for the retailer to not provide this service if the customer is trying to matching two different goods.

    • Sage on 26/01/2019 - 16:47

      But it's needless to help retailers to reject the offers.

      • whooah1979 on 26/01/2019 - 18:02
        +2

        The retailers are refusing to price match because the customers are cheating.

        • terrys on 27/01/2019 - 12:19
          +1

          In the case of one or two year warranty, it's more a case of refusing as one doesn't come with adapters to allow it to be unicorn powered…

          • [Deactivated] on 28/01/2019 - 13:24

            @terrys:

            one doesn't come with adapters to allow it to be unicorn powered

            You can buy the adapters on ebay anyway..

            And 2 year warranty (even if not officially offered/given) is usually minimum that ACL covers for most high end type items.

  • aussieprepper on 26/01/2019 - 14:50

    I think it would be good to have an option where some deals/comments can only be seen by other members?

    • [Deactivated] on 27/01/2019 - 01:12
      +6

      Because no one working for a retailer can just create an account, right…

      • aussieprepper on 27/01/2019 - 01:27

        Yea but they would need to be logged in and actively looking for the deal (would not register on google) so it would make it harder? Also means ozbargain loses traffic so its a double edge sword.

        • [Deactivated] on 27/01/2019 - 02:47
          +2

          Hard to imagine a low paid retail worker ever using a bargain site for their own use, right…

        • Gandalf the Thrifty on 27/01/2019 - 09:00
          +1

          logged in and actively looking for the deal

          If they have an account then can setup alerts for the most common price matched items or categories. Maybe even text like "OW price match"

  • djkelly69 on 26/01/2019 - 15:26
    +22

    How much time do you estimate you save per year by using '@' instead of 'at?

    • Drj55 on 27/01/2019 - 10:06
      +2

      They both require pushing 2 keys, so no saving at all!

      • terrys on 27/01/2019 - 12:21

        Meta!

        A and T are not pressed simultaneously. Match refused.

        • pegaxs on 28/01/2019 - 09:41
          +3

          No one ever presses the shift and the @ key at the same time. Always shift key, then find the @ key, then press it. Match accepted.

  • [Deactivated] on 26/01/2019 - 15:28
    +11

    Posting valid reasons for rejection and the subsequent consequences aren't in any way damaging the legitimate deals.

    If a company is offering better warranty, the product is essentially not identical, hence why we make a distinction between local stock and grey imports.

    If a company is purposely fudging their policy like adding a day to their warranty to claim "different product", then we should call them out.

    In your example above of 1 year vs 2 year warranty, I think it is fair to consider it a separate product but I can see it either way.

    • [Deactivated] on 27/01/2019 - 01:14

      That depends. OW offer that extra warranty themselves for phones.

      The item only comes with 1 year from the manufacturer.

      Just because I as a retailer choose to give you 366 days of warranty rather than 365 days the manufacturer gives you, doesn't make it a different product

      • [Deactivated] on 27/01/2019 - 08:30
        +1

        366 days of warranty rather than 365 days the manufacturer gives you, doesn't make it a different product

        That's precisely what I'm saying. If the intent of the extended warranty is to be a better retailer, they shouldn't use it as a way to beat the price match. For some products, they're doubling the warranty so it I can reasonably assume this isn't to wriggle out of a commitment but coincidentally it does liberate them.

        At the end of the day, the purpose of the price match is good will. Turning people away because of blatant maneuvers achieves the opposite.

  • Switchblade88 on 26/01/2019 - 16:03

    Should also point out that staff have their own internal emails, notices boards, manangement announcements etc. If they (staff member) find a loophole during the course of a day in retail, then they also have the option of notifying their manager, other staff, escalating up the chain etc.

    If their character means they'll be going to be fine-combing looking for loopholes to not price match, then that also presumes they're the type of person to tell other staff members about it.

    As much as OzBargain is a public forum, staff members aren't likely to be trawling looking for mentions of their company in posts or the forums (though I might be wrong!).

    "Uhh, yeah boss, I was just checking to see if our company was inadvertently listing items below cost that we didn't realise! And also price-matching against the other sellers. Yes, I KNOW we don't stock those Bose QC35II's… or those Eneloops… or those SSDs…"

    • JIMB0 on 26/01/2019 - 16:24

      As much as OzBargain is a public forum, staff members aren't likely to be trawling looking for mentions of their company in posts or the forums (though I might be wrong!).

      Companies do have staff looking at these forums. I know of a loophole that worked for many months but was suddenly patched after being posted on here. Coincidence I think not.

      • burningrage on 28/01/2019 - 10:19
        +1

        In the process, we become an inadvertent beta testers of their security system but unpaid.

        It's a bargain for them… for not hiring "professionals" and pay for it.

        Should complaint to your local MP to change the law they must honour price errors for the likes of Hardly Normal.

    • Wystri Warrick on 26/01/2019 - 16:56
      +3

      When going to a Hardly Normal deal linked in Ozbargain there's a 'hello Ozbargainer' notification on Hardly's site… We're being watched!

    • Speckled Jim on 27/01/2019 - 14:20

      @JIMB0, can't they set a Google alert for this purpose? Unless OzB blocks the G-bots?

    • 91rs on 28/01/2019 - 22:03

      Yes people look, a couple times a day. Its little different to looking at online catalogues or picking up the latest catalogue taking it to work and then running through the same items you sell Vs the competitors and then seeing what prices you can or cant do.
      From there adjusting signage to follow before a customer walks in the store, this way you're at the same price or within a dollar or two to be competitive to avoid the attitude about price matching someone else, you still do have those who'd push for that extra dollar or two off but you can't avoid them.
      As a sales person you need to know whats on offer and where on popular items, if not then you might as well work a drive thru where no one requires anything too difficult of you.
      Also to think that H/O's are always on top of updating local prices and costs (when and item goes on sale or a cost price is reduced) is foolish, having done my years in retail often a catalogue would come out with cheap prices and yet our local system did not reflect those changes and you were taking a loss on products until it was adjusted, this could be hours to days away.

  • psdillon on 27/01/2019 - 13:48
    +2

    Why not send the retailers a message with a poll for worst retailer at price matching? I've created one here: https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/434773

  • DiscoJango on 28/01/2019 - 08:41
    +3

    op: you make a valid logical statement. however recently the quality of ozbargain members has declined. there is no logic. dont expect too much from them nowdays. they probably dont even understand your post, and would neg you if they could.

    • OneIdiot on 26/02/2019 - 17:53

      I agree. Op's nowadays are toooo sensitive and shallow thinkers.

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