Office Depot/Office Max had a crazy low price ($1) last week on the gel pens that MrConsumer loves. But since he lives right across the street from Staples, he decided to pick them up there and get Staples to match the price.
Staples only had five-packs and these were four packs. So, I decided to call 1-800-Staples to see if their phone ordering/website customer service department could put through the order. Staples did carry the four-pack online, the same as OD/OM.
Staples’ regular price is $8.49 for this item and I wanted three of them, so I knew I probably would have a fight on my hands because under Staples’ 110% price guarantee, they will not only match the price, but also deduct 10% of the difference from the competitor’s selling price. And on three packages, this is going to cost them an arm and leg — about $25.
I called the 800 number for Staples and asked for a 110% price match. I told the rep that he had to look at the OfficeMax/Depot ad front page, but instead he looked at their website and couldn’t find the $1 item. After leading him by the hand subsequently to the circular, he put me on hold to see if he they would match (beat) the price.
He returned to the phone maybe 10 minutes later to say that they would not because the item has to be “available for delivery” and he said this was not. I challenged him to show me where in their price match policy it says that. And after 10+ minutes on hold again, he returned to the line, and sheepishly admitted he could not find such a rule and would honor the price match. (They do have rules about whether shipping is free or not, however, but he did not mention them.)
In this case, I pointed out that both OD/OM and Staples provide for online ordering for free in-store pickup, so shipping was equivalent too.
The bill with the 110% price match came to 75 cents plus tax for three packages. But this whole transaction took 45 minutes on the phone.
Through the years, MrConsumer has observed that stores promote their price guarantees in a big way, but some seem to encourage their employees to search for loopholes to deny the match to the customer.
As a side note, in reviewing the Office Depot/Office Max fine print, that company uses mouse print 10 pages away to disclaim plain English representations on the front page of their circular. Right beneath the ad for the gel pens it says that you can order online for free store pickup, seemingly referring to everything at least on that page, if not the whole circular.
But on page 10, in a print footnote, the company says the opposite.
*MOUSE PRINT:
“Price and offers available in-store only 7/24/16-7/30/16 (unless otherwise noted)… and are not online or by phone, including orders for in-store pickup. [emphasis added]”
Well, which is it? Can you order online for in-store pick up or not?
I am reminded of ads that say something like, “If we can’t beat a competitor’s price by 10 percent, we’ll give you the item for free.” Of course, they will give you the 10 percent off rather than giving you the item gratis.
Mr. Consumer wants Staples to give up over 20 bucks on a bunch of pens. Sure they are going to fight for every single bucks until you finally win. That is a lot of money to lose here.
There is a car dealer in this area that says he will match any competitor dealership’s price for the exact same car or “I’m just gonna give it to ya!” I’d venture a guess that he has not, and never will “just gonna give it to” anyone. BS price-match promises aren’t just for small items…
I’m surprised that they even considered the price match. Usually it has to be the same item (SKU code). You wanted the five-pack, OD/OM had the four pack. Not the same item. Therefore, you really weren’t entitled to get the special deal.
Many years ago (late 80’s), I worked at Circuit City (remember them?) that had a price match guarantee +10%. If you brought in the ad from another store for the same item, we matched it, no questions.
One more comment about price matches… Many retailers have the manufacturers make special model numbers for ‘their’ product. You may see a printer at Walmart with a model number ending in WM (or W). The same printer at Best Buy may have either BB or B as the last letter(s). They generally won’t match the price because it isn’t the ‘same’ product. The mattress guys do this all the time, or “Your mattress is Freeeeeeee”.
Edgar replies: Bob, I may not have been clear. In-store, Staples only had 5-packs. Online, however, they had the very same 4-packs that OM/OD offered. So it was a direct match.
Price matching has gotten trickier ever since it became a common staple (pun intended) for nearly all companies. When companies stopped pretending that they didn’t have to compete with Amazon.com, they thought of ways to pretend they were competing with other retailers, but really weren’t.
Unique UPCs for the same product at different stores and spending lots of time with customer service are methods of dissuading people from taking advantage of price match.
Yeah Bobl… I hate seeing different model numbers at stores for what seems to be the same item. I have seen that with TV’S and it annoys me.
Well, Mr. Consumer made out a lot better than I did. Here’s another way the stores get around an internet price match promise. With Fry’s Electronics, the competing online retailer must be an “authorized” seller for that particular item (to be fair, it so states that in Fry’s mouse print). The competitive product happened to be offered on Amazon, but since it was actually being sold by a third-party seller (and the Fry’s sales guy just assumed the third-party seller wasn’t an authorized seller), they wouldn’t honor it. To the Fry’s sales guy’s credit, he searched several sites and offered a match at a lower price that he’d found. But it was still way better to just order it from Amazon, which I did. BTW, this was for some backup software which was $89 plus 9% tax at Fry’s, and $34 (including shipping, but no tax) via Amazon.
And Mr. Consumer is sure correct when he stated that, “Through the years, MrConsumer has observed that stores promote their price guarantees in a big way, but some seem to encourage their employees to search for loopholes to deny the match to the customer.” There must have been a big sign every ten feet in Fry’s, hawking their price match guarantee; not to mention on their website. By the time you get through the mouse print, don’t get your hopes up as I did.
Dan Kap,
Whittier, CA