Price Match - Is It a Policy or Store Managers Discretion?

In my early days I this country, I found Pricematch to be an advantage to the citizens of Australia, I saved a lot of money and a lot of time by price matching items that were either unavailable within a short distance or was too desperate to get it quickly.

However, with recent events and experiences, it’s making me believe that price match is no longer a policy but mere a managers sole discretion to sell it under the RRP.

I had a great experience with Bunnings and Officeworks lately regarding the price match, however, any other retailer is just not really following their own price match policies, thoughts??

Poll Options expired

  • 8
    It’s a policy
  • 27
    It’s a managers discretion
  • 6
    It’s a bit of both
  • 1
    Don’t know :(

Comments

  • +11

    I've tried using Harvey Norman's "Price Guarantee" several times.

    Each time without fail, the only thing that was guaranteed was that they wouldn't match the price.

    The excuse was that multiple other retailers were selling the item below "market value".

    Errr, when multiple retailers are selling it cheaper than you, it means Hardly Normal's prices are above market value!

    • Old mate Gerry prob figures it costs less to deny everyone and placate the ones who take it all the way up the complaint chain with a price match

    • +2

      I love when they don't even price match their own store down the road!!

      That is when you know Harvey is utter b/s.

    • +1

      HAHA, I would honestly prefer to shop elsewhere Than greedy HN (even with Price matching)

  • +1

    I think it should be policy and it's rules about getting it honoured. Managers trained to check those rules to get uniformed practice.

    Personally I will just buy from store that does the cheeper price in the first place.

  • +3

    'We price match 40% of the time, all the time!'

  • HN used to be my go to store for several years, but now it’s been years that I haven’t stepped in their showroom at all.

    Primarily the items are available cheaper elsewhere or is much convenient to buy it online. Saves the hassle of price match negotiations:),
    I should say Amazon has certainly given these retailers a good competition, what I don’t like is Amazon trying to match the prices with the retailers, instead, they should beat the price.

  • It is a policy but it’s also up to managers discretion if they wanna honour it. I’m the manager of a relatively small regional store and I usually honour it as it’s a very small community. We know the margins and I know to how much % I can discount comfortably.

    Also being nice and how you ask goes a long way. I hate when they demand and that’s when things turn sour.

    • Well said!!
      Being a little nice goes a long way.
      I used to have a contact working as a franchise owner in the tech space of HN, I stopped going to the store since he moved on.

  • Roughly 12 months ago, HN store in QLD marked down Nvidia shield tv pro for just under $300.
    The buyer uploaded the receipt here and I tried to price match it with the Coburg HN store.
    The rep said there have been 2 people who got the price matched and we can longer do it.
    Kinda found it unreasonable as they did honour for the 2 customers and didn’t want to do it anymore.

  • My time at JB I always would price match except eBay deals or one that have unique codes all the time as it still works towards your targets, I can understand the refusal as the store still has GP targets and doesn't like selling things under cost.

  • I found Pricematch to be an advantage to the citizens of Australia

    Economics 101 tells us that price matches are an anti-compeditive policy. Instead of selling an item for the lowest possible price, retailers will increase their prices.

  • It's a bit of a cop tbh, they were brought out so that the majority would think 'wow they really must be the cheapest'. As traction on sites like this have taken off a lot of companies are rewording and/or removing price match policies as it's now costing them money. I usually on try to price match if the policy is fairly straightforward, but in a lot of cases I guess you are caught at the discretion of the manager of staff you're dealing with.

Login or Join to leave a comment