I'm sick and tired of walking into stores that have a price matching policy advertised on their website yet I find places where, regardless of meeting all requirements for a price match - the store manager / staff still refuse to price match and give the most irrelevant and condescending reasoning behind their refusal.
I'm relatively thick skinned - however a lot of the times the negotiation can get extremely unpleasant leaving customers who have come in to purchase something very upset, disillusioned and unhappy (even when they walk out after purchasing something).
You begin to wonder why these policies are put in place - you would imagine that they are designed to give the customer extra benefit / positive experience for shopping at a store enticing them to haggle / request a price match, when really all they do is generate conflict and negativity between shoppers and staff leaving them demotivated to help one another out (in the end we just want both to be happy)
I understand that contacting the head office or fair trading will most likely result in the customer's favour - but why should consumers have to go through such a lengthy and convoluted process? If you are a business and are advertising that you have a price beat guarantee or a price matching policy - you should make the customer feel comfortable and happy about doing what you are enticing them to come to your store with.
It appears to me that store managers / owners need to train staff in detail on their own price matching policies, but also throw in some training about consumer law and give some examples where matching should be accepted / declined. I don't believe for a second that any staff members are ever fully trained specifically in these areas.
I've just had a crazy experience at a Harvey Norman at Domayne.
The first thing I was told was that the items I wanted weren't in stock after I just contacted the store 15 minutes ago and was told that they were. The member didn't go and look nor did they ask anyone they just tried to give me the flick. Granted, they apologised after I insisted they find who I spoke with and check and sure enough the items were brought out.
Then came the price match negotiation.
I was happy with the price they had on the first item - and asked if they would price match the second item.
The staff member, on their own computer, went online and searched shopbot and staticice for better pricing for me (unexpected and very friendly service). We together found that Digital Camera Warehouse were doing a decent price (approx $30 cheaper than the Harvey Norman price) and I requested a price match. The staff member told me the following:
- The store must be a bricks and mortar store and not an online store
- The item must be in stock and available for purchase
- The store must be in Sydney
I rang the store and confirmed the following:
- Digital Camera Warehouse has 3 bricks and mortar stores, 1 in Melb, 1 in Syd and 1 in Brisbane.
- The item was in stock
- The Sydney store was open and I spoke with staff there who confirmed the above.
The staff member went to the store manager and came back telling me that they won't price match.
I asked for the reason why and he said "We don't match this store, sorry"
I asked why they don't match the store and he did not answer and brought out his manager.
The store manager sat down and at first discussed one of our previous dealings where I was previously refused a price match when I attempted to purchase a completely different item at a completely different time. He said "I know who you are I recognise you from before"
I asked him why our previous dealings have anything to do with the purchase "I wanted to make today" which he didn't have an answer for. He moved on to go through the price matching policy on the website. At first - he tried to explain to me that the store I want to price match with is not a regular shopfront store. I asked him to explain and in his example he mentioned "Costco".
I told him that Costco is very different - they require a membership and an ABN to sign up before you can purchase anything from them and that the store I want to match with was as regular as any Harvey Norman / Officeworks / JB where you can simply walk in and purchase something. Furthermore, there were clearly marked shopfront stores with pictures and addresses and phone numbers on the DCW website.
Fumbling around and looking for another excuse, the store manager simply said "We don't match this store" and brought up the clauses in his price match policy online. He came to this section here:
6 (f) the identical product is advertised in classifieds, commercial resellers or distributors who sell direct to the public, parallel importers, grey importers, direct importers, fire or liquidation sales, rack, clearance and warehouse outlets;
Then he highlighted the last 2 words "warehouse outlets" and said to me that Digital Camera Warehouse is a warehouse outlet.
Fair enough - he sort of had a leg to stand on there but I then questioned the meaning of "warehouse" and went back to his example of Costco. I also questioned whether having the word "Warehouse" in the name means that they are a warehouse outlet. I told him "Surely Harvey Norman have a warehouse somewhere too?" and he said "Not that sells to the public".
At that point I decided I would call DCW and ask them if they are a warehouse outlet and whether they have a warehouse or not. The gentleman said that they have a warehouse that they get stock for their 3 shops but as such it's not a warehouse open to the public nor does it sell to the public.
I did this right in front of him (the HN store manager) - effectively providing enough information to clearly show that they are not a warehouse outlet such as "Costco" and that just like he explained about HN warehouse, it is not open to the public.
He said he still would not price match given this information and said "That person on the phone could be anyone and they could be saying anything. I'm not saying they are lying but they could be lying"
To which I replied - "Will you take 2 minutes to call their store yourself and maybe ask for a manager and confirm?"
He said that he doesn't have to do anything I ask him to do and still refuses to price match. He continually told me to ring head office and I would continually reply that it was a massive inconvenience to have to come back and jump through all of those hoops considering it was pretty clear that DCW were not a warehouse outlet.
We went around in circles for around 20 minutes, with the manager stalling and fumbling with his reasoning. I was very calm, collected and polite. I did not raise my voice or behave in a menacing manner I simply asked questions.
Finally the manager cracked and took not only the item I wanted to match but also the item I agreed to purchase (which had nothing to do with the match I wanted) and he said "I'm not going to sell this to you either" picked it up and walked off.
I was gobsmacked - and asked other staff around if they'll help me out or what was going on. No-one said a thing. I sat there in the hope he would come back - he came back and said he spoke with the Franchisee and would not sell me a anything in the store.
My partner then came to the table we were sitting at after browsing other items - and after telling her what was going on she asked "Will you sell anything to me? Can I buy it?"
The store manager then tried to tell her that she was also part of the conversation and would not sell anything to her - and after pleading to sell me the item because it was a Christmas present he allowed my partner to purchase it.
Overall a very messy, unpleasant and upsetting turn of events.
I never forget their doggy sell service, order Nex 5N, send Nex 5 instead, they are look exactly the same, i only discover it after a month later!