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

Comments

  • 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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