Is Price-Matching a Bargain?

tonester on 19/10/2010 - 07:54
Last edited 19/10/2010 - 07:54

Do people use OzBargain to price-match?

In this post of mine http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/32751, I uploaded a PDF of the bargain rather than provide its URL as preferred.

This was to extend the life of the bargain and maximise the number of people who could benefit from it (my previous one http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/32686 had gone within 5hrs of posting): even if a product sold out or its webpage removed, causing a direct link to die, then there would still be a record of it to price-match elsewhere.

A side-effect of this is that OzBargain would not be the referrer source, so that any clicks would seem to be ‘random’ instead of ‘coordinated’ as such.

Alternatively, a direct URL could have been given as usual and a PDF link listed in the post, although this would not have come with the above side-effect.

How do people feel about all this – what are your opinions?

General Discussion

Comments

  • neil on 19/10/2010 - 10:02

    I think if you posted this explanation when you posted the deal, then I think that would have been good and perhaps people would have understood although there is always a chance someone would have posted a direct link.

    You could have given them a Google link which would have masked it from here, http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CBkQF…

  • ozhunter on 19/10/2010 - 10:08
    +1

    Yes people use ozbargain to price-match when they can, but it is not a bargain.

    My main problem with the deal was that it was written horribly. I couldn't make it worse if I tried. Instead you had linked to two different stores to make it even more confusing. You couldn't even put "use these prices to price-match at other stores".

    A condition of price-matching is that the store must have stock, which if removing the item from the website, they most likely not selling it anymore, and yes not every worker at officeworks will always call up their competitor to make sure there is stock but that's not the point.

    The asterisk thing was just plain dumb imo, just post separate links as I said in my comment on that deal.

    Next time you should just post the direct link to the product if it is a bargain, then people can buy if from the store if they want, if not they can go price-match.

  • tonester on 19/10/2010 - 14:16

    neil:

    thanks - i'll use a google link next time

    ozhunter:

    whilst i didn't put “use these prices to price-match at other stores”, price-matching was mentioned in both

    in probably 80% of cases that i price-match at stores such as Harvey Norman and Chemist Warehouse, they never call to check

  • Davo1111 on 19/10/2010 - 22:31

    As per what ozhunter said, pricematching is useful, but is not a bargain.

    Alot of people posted officeworks deals because they got 10% off the price of the other store. Hence the rules are worded in a way that the original bargain is the deal.

    Personally i have never printed off a scanned reciept and taken it in, but i have pricematched other catalogues with limited success.

  • [Deactivated] on 20/10/2010 - 18:04

    for starters:
    No. Price Matching is not a bargain, it is essentially this: "we will give you a bad deal unless you catch us out, then if we get caught trying to rip you off, we will give you the same price as someone else and still make a profit." I will always shop with the person who gives it to me cheapest first time around, even if not as convinient.

    Secondly, I don't know how legal it is to advertise goods that you actually cant sell for the sake of price matching (which is effectively what you did). I believe you could get yourself into some legal trouble for this.

    • illusionarybreeze on 20/10/2010 - 19:40

      I don't think he's a rep. He just doesn't want stock to run out so more people can price-match.

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