Most unethical thing done to get a bargain? Officeworks pricematch exploit

talbot777 on 16/05/2012 - 23:53
Last edited 16/05/2012 - 23:53

This idea came to me after my annoyance at officeworks refusing to pricematch the 3TB segate usb hardrive deal: http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/70161

The deal itself was pretty decent but my main reason for price matching was to get an Aussie power chord. Anyway i was pretty annoyed by the staff at officeworks saying that they did not match overseas stores and that it stated this on the website (which it doesn't and I showed him this). He then said that their policy included online stores and he would be happy to price match any .com.au store that was in stock.

This is where my exploit idea came from. There is nothing stopping anyone from getting a .com.au domain and installing a crappy e-store front end where products you wish to primatch from officeworks are all convienietly displayed. obviously card payments etc wouldn't be added to the site and no functional orders would be placed, but an officeworks rep would never go this far into an order anyway.

Basically you are choosing a price you are wanting to pay for an item and getting to buy it at that price through this exploit pricematch site… Highly unethical but i'm sure there'd be people here that would take advantage of this concept.

Whats the most unethical thing you have done to get a bargain, and can u see this exploit working (not that I intend to follow through)?

General Discussion

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Comments

  • voteoften on 16/05/2012 - 23:56

    It probably would work. Not at every chain, but somewhere it would. My local HN said they don't match websites. I've never tried a OW pricematch. Interesting…..

  • m0nkeycheese on 17/05/2012 - 00:25
    +1

    Ive always thought of copying vouchers to get moore discounts. Also making a student card to get student prices lol. Neither have I done

    Ive price matched OW form an obscure website before;
    http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/64459

  • insular on 17/05/2012 - 00:28
    +2

    the cost of the .com.au domain name, the registration of a business name, web hosting and the time and effort required to create this phoney shop front probably outweighs the amount you will save on the occasional hard drive or flash memory (probably the only things at OW worth pricematching for).

    but sure, go nuts.

    • pauly on 17/05/2012 - 00:42

      Not to mention that there is no guarantee you'll even get a pricematch. Most of the OW staff I've dealt with actually do contact the company I'm trying to pricematch with to confirm stock & delivery.

      Also if you have a .com.au with products on offer at ridiculous or bogus prices, be prepared for the massive amount of complaints that will be lodged with the ACCC by the general public when they can't actually purchase anything at the listed price. You better hope your site don't make it on ozbargain/whirlpool/OCAU.

      • voteoften on 17/05/2012 - 01:19
        +3

        The OzB's are OzBastards, don't get between them and a bargain. Remember how one OzBer wanted all DickSmith staff sacked when the stock wasn't available!

        • cwongtech on 17/05/2012 - 12:40

          Lol, the user is called Gallifrey, the law kid raging over not getting a discounted DSI for his sick kid.
          Oh look, there he is, law kid is down below.

        • [Deactivated] on 17/05/2012 - 13:29
          -2

          @cwongtech

          Thanks for the compliment - calling me a kid.
          But obviously you have a problem reading posts - where does it say "ALL DS staff should be fired"? Does it not say that only those who "broke direct instructions" should have consequences amongst which is the option of termination of employment?
          You will be interested to know that this has happened in some instances and also that the ACCC has collected evidence on this botched sale as they also weigh up whether it constitutes fraudulent advertising.

  • retiredfeline on 17/05/2012 - 07:04

    I reckon it will be a fair cop if your server should get OzBargained by eager visitors just about the time you are trying to convince OW it's cheaper elsewhere. LOL.

    "Sorry I can't seem to reach foneybargains.com.au, so I guess we can'r pricematch."

  • issh on 17/05/2012 - 10:11
    +6

    Got a cached webpage and pricematched that

    • insular on 17/05/2012 - 21:39
      -1

      see the fail here?

  • Typical16-bitEnjoyer on 17/05/2012 - 10:38
    +3

    Sorry OP but I have to disagree with you there. It's one thing to try and pricematch an overseas store, but absolutely no reason to get annoyed and angry at their staff if they won't. Not to mention you admit it's different and has a different power cord, so not identical…

    • tae on 17/05/2012 - 14:18

      Plus warranty term will most likely be "DIFFERENT"

  • wbeer on 17/05/2012 - 10:58

    Screenshot the website or a catalogue and insert a new price.- show it to them on your phone.

    -would only work sometimes though. (I havent done this)

  • [Deactivated] on 17/05/2012 - 11:40
    +2

    Ever heard of something called "fraud"? It will not earn you a pricematch but a free "vacation" behind bars for several years.

    • [Deactivated] on 22/05/2012 - 17:52
      +1

      This is not fraud, by legal definition.

  • huntress_love on 17/05/2012 - 11:52

    good thought but way too much effort. also OW wouldn't price match really low prices, and there's nothing you can do about. example, the vic stores wouldn't price match tne first HN half price computer sale, even though there was a receipt posted for a match for a OW store in Qld. They claim that they can't pricematch interstate.

    As a reasonably low price they are ok with it, cause u are alerting them competitor's price but if anything 'below cost', they have an option to say no and there's nothing you can do about it. but you may be able to find a fool who would!

    • morpheu on 18/05/2012 - 18:11

      won't match really low prices-how low? less than half price? from someone who is always price matching @OW(i get a lot of giftcards and they have expiry dates!) i almost always get a yes from OW, last time i got a memory card reduced from $47 to under $22, so before anyone thinks they wanna try fraud, think again, in my experience OW will always check stock over the phone or online, and i say DON'T try this "exploit", the only thing that will happen is they will stop price matching any items and then no one will get bargains! look what happened to the tarocash voucher, some greedy people got too greedy and they stopped sending them out and now no one is getting the voucher on their real birthday!

      • altomic on 19/05/2012 - 16:24
        +1

        look what happened to the tarocash voucher, some greedy people got too greedy and they stopped sending them out and now no one is getting the voucher on their real birthday!

        or their cats birthday!

  • [Deactivated] on 17/05/2012 - 13:30
    +1

    By the way, good job posting this if you really want to do this. I am sure companies such as Officeworks have not internet access and no knowledge of Ozbargain whatsoever and hence never look at it. :-)

  • overlook on 17/05/2012 - 15:10

    seriously OP…seriously? U might as well tell the government to review their policy of letting Australian Retailers put premium pricing on everything in Aussie Land. but then we do earn more than americans…so if you go on relatively speaking it might not be as bad.

    Moreover, WHY NOT U SUPPORT AUSSIE BUSINESS AND PAY THE PREMIUM before everyone gone broke and get taken over by Foreigners?

    • Trance N Dance on 17/05/2012 - 16:44
      +7

      I can't even be bothered to correct some of the naive ACA bullshit you've been fed. (unless you're being sarcastic right?)

      • overlook on 19/05/2012 - 22:21

        so you reckon OP suggestion of exploiting officework's pricematch policy by creating some ghost online shops is actually a good idea?

    • Davo1111 on 18/05/2012 - 01:22
      +1

      This is epic, please start your own thread, going into detail.

    • [Deactivated] on 22/05/2012 - 19:15

      Everyone is already broke and the country is already run by foreigners…

  • Davo1111 on 18/05/2012 - 01:21

    I think head office would wise up very quickly. Remember HR for those large websites do surf these sites, and they'd probably find your new site very quickly.

  • cloudy on 20/05/2012 - 12:08
    +2

    As clever as this may be, if done enough you end up having companies like OW stopping their price match policy due to fraudstars and everyone loses out. So I think it's good to find a genuine bargain, but going to fraudulent lengths is just poor.

  • [Deactivated] on 22/05/2012 - 17:54

    That's a stupid reason not to try.

    "I might get run over by a car so I won't go outside."

    Poor is the man who bases life on what might happen.

  • spacemansam on 22/05/2012 - 21:01

    I've price matched a canon ixus with the citiwideonline.com site at officeworks. They beat the total price (incl shipping) by 5% which ended up being about $70 cheaper than the cheapest aussie retailer at the time

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