Why Do Retail Assistants Get Really Defensive/Protective in Price Matching/Beating?

radicalvin on 18/02/2022 - 16:27

Hey all, I would just like to get an opinion, especially those who are working in the retail industry as to why do you get protective of your price matching/beat guarantee when they are your point of difference?

I could understand if you own or work in small businesses, but what about those in corporate like Officeworks? Pretty sure you don’t get commission on the items.

To put in context I recently got an item price beaten at Officeworks. However, they tried to trick me by saying they could only beat prices by WA stores, in which I calmly showed them the T&C.

Having worked in retail in my younger days (Myer), I was more than happy to give my customers discounts with my manager’s approval as long as they are above cost price.

Thoughts?

General Discussion

Comments

        • tonsta on 21/02/2022 - 13:39

          That’s nuts, good for you getting the price you wanted but being a gift card, no one really cares if you buy or not, they have your $$ regardless. In fact if you don’t buy their profits look better being a unreserved gift card.

          That’s poor training on the shop floor.

  • OzHunterNSW on 19/02/2022 - 13:14
    +2

    They are not mature enough for the position. They feel it a personal attack upon them, or company.

  • Hithere on 19/02/2022 - 13:29
    +1

    @ OzHunterNSW Agreed.

    If the retailer's policy is to price match or beat any other store's advertised price for the same article by 5% or 10% what's the big deal when the buyer asks for the discount?

    I always ask politely and usually have a hardcopy or a link on my phone to show that it's a genuine price.

    Some salespeople act like they are having to pay the discount out of their own pocket. My local Officeworks, I'm looking at you.

    • radicalvin on 19/02/2022 - 14:42
      +1

      Yeah I do agree, especially if we are talking about electronics, they are higher priced items. People don’t continuously buy just for fun or buy them in bulk, and most of the time they’ll get them because they need them. Hence, they’ll research the heck out of them whilst ensuring to get a good deal

  • AgentXKnight on 19/02/2022 - 15:56
    +22

    I am a former Officeworks employee and the reasons why we can sometimes get annoyed by price matching is because of few reasons:

    • It is time consuming price matching when you have to sometimes get manager approval and individually verify the competitors price and products meets all of our conditions and especially annoying when the customer has done zero work (ie picked random first result in google) in checking that it meets our conditions ie checking it is same product, its in stock, using weird and doggy websites and whether delivery fees apply.
    • Customers also want to price match obviously scam websites which you can occasionally see posted on ozbargain and we get annoyed when we refuse to price match these scam websites and customers abuse us for refusing to match websites that they would never purchase from. Especially considering we have to put the work of using due diligence to verity that website is fraudulent through double checking whether they have ABN their address and other features that indicate fraud and that these websites often commit triangular fraud to steal from businesses using stolen credit cards.
    • When we have done our due diligence in verifying the price match and point out it fails to meet our conditions customers are generally mad at us for pointing out common issues which are: competitor product is not in stock, not the same product (ie people do not understand that overseas smart phones are different products with different parts and not every laptop has the same parts), cannot be verified ie says they saw in in store for x price but online its y price, or failed to add delivery fees for online products to the price and when we add them we are actually cheaper than the online store.
    • Also note is very annoying when people ask for discounts at Officeworks because we get asked it all the time and we just respond with our stock standard answer from head office which is "we don't do discounts we have an everyday low price policy but if you find someone cheaper than us for the same product that's in stock including delivery and is not excluded we will match their price and beat them by 5%".

    There are many problems with Employees price matching and this is due to inadequate training which is difficult to teach this skill without having good existing knowledge on products and other businesses, that employees generally rely on certain managers and tech team members to do all the verifying price matches and some inconsistent with head office policies on price matching compared to store managers policies and procedure on price matching which is generally not a priority for addressing this issue that every store should be consistent on price matching.

    Though in my opinion Officeworks does do price matching better than most retailers other than employee inconsistency due to the fact that as long as it meets our conditions we can match products even if they are below our cost price (we just do more verifying if we think competitors products are too cheap below costs). Where if the customers puts effort in explaining the different online/retail store is a lower price and explains how they meet our conditions I was happy to price match it and convince the managers that I have verified it and it is eligible price match the product. I was fairly generous when I considered if store was local or online where when it came to local store where I considered any store within Melbourne was local and sometimes applied this to local regional towns that were not too far away from Melbourne.

    • crysomemore on 20/02/2022 - 15:58

      First point is it.

      • Actually take the time to find a genuine, identical product at a lower price and it will be done. Proceeding to google prices while at the counter will usually give them the shits.
      • AgentXKnight on 20/02/2022 - 16:11
        +4

        What also gives us the shits is when customers ask us to google for them to find someone who has a lower price than us or waste our time by telling us to price match some random store on a marketplace and ask us to look it up on ebay/amazon with very little information.

      • Nebargains on 21/02/2022 - 10:07

        Might also depend on the team member, the item and the margin, it isn't often that I use price matches (I usually just go where has it cheapest) but when I do I've never had a problem.

        But once at JB I wanted to price match a tech item (couple of grand) and another boutique retailer had it a few hundred cheaper, just asked the sales person to match and he said sure no problem, didn't even want to verify it. But then another time I price matched a phone (I assume margin on this is a lot slimmer) at JB with the price at Officeworks and honestly probably took the guy about 10 minutes, first he had to verify that it was definitely the same item, then had to seek manager approval etc because the price was below some limit or something, but they did it.

    • Tapek on 21/02/2022 - 14:22

      isn't this the exact reason huge retailers get companies to give them a different SKU for the exact same product so they can refuse price matches?

      • AgentXKnight on 21/02/2022 - 14:32

        Yes this does happen examples from Officeworks include some Brother printers, some HP ink packs, most of their Comsole cables/assessories and some possible random items here and there which may not be different SKU just exclusive at Officeworks or limited stock that only few places stock.

    • Warehouse on 23/02/2022 - 09:37

      OW also tend to intentionally have different model number products on some items. So they become exclusive to them and they don't have to match. E.g. Brother MFC-L3750CDW (exclusive) vs MFC-L3745CDW every where else. Even though the products look identical.

      I expect this makes it a little more involved for staff to confirm, and consequently break the "bad news" to the customer who might have a little fit..

  • htc on 19/02/2022 - 20:20

    I wonder what the other op from Harvey Norman say, neither op commented or ask question in the other thread.

  • bmerigan on 19/02/2022 - 21:37
    +5

    Had a staff member at Mitre 10 kick up a stink when I asked for a price match against Bunnings.
    I showed her the Bunnings website and she went off on a tirade about the webpage having the words 'click and collect' on it and therefore being a different price to their in-store shelves. I was blown away by her attitude and had no idea what she was talking about.

    • ntt on 21/02/2022 - 17:04

      P.M.S

  • Mumbles on 19/02/2022 - 21:52
    +1

    I think it too much of a generalisation to say all retail staff are reluctant to price match. I get a 75% success rate. Its probably more that the shopper picked the least helpful shop assistant.

    I tend to hover still near a computer terminal or laptops and wait for the most helpful assistant to ask if I need help. Its because the individual is an employee that wants to serve you that you'll get better customer service and a better result. Hanging around the laptops speeds up the price match cause the employee just starts tapping away and doing the online stuff.

    Walking into the store and heading straight for the nearest door greeter or lonely sales person and telling them about some other business isn't always the best approach. The lonely sales person could be the inexperienced/unconfident/awkward guy with low sales. You want the customer service oriented ones that are proactively hunting around.

  • zombrex on 19/02/2022 - 22:04
    +2

    Price matching is just an anti-competitive scam for huge multinationals to put small competitors out of business by simultaneously having the highest and cheapest prices on items.

    • pizzapock3t on 20/02/2022 - 10:35
      +1

      Not sure why your getting down voted, interesting way too look at it. Makes sense though

      • zombrex on 20/02/2022 - 11:31

        Probably because they think it's good for them because they don't have to drive a few minutes extra to the other store.
        They fail to consider the bigger picture.

  • striker5950 on 19/02/2022 - 22:32

    I've heard that there is a projectile in their bottom that would expand if they price beat below the $source value

  • jaimex2 on 19/02/2022 - 23:35
    -1

    Power, it's the only time in their existence they get any so they jump at the chance.

  • Dack Smith on 20/02/2022 - 01:11
    +8

    Some retail assistants are sick in the head and refuse to price match despite clear policy to do so.

    I’ve stopped pricematching because the amount of conflict and grief required is just not worth it.

    They’re like the loyal rabid defenders of the company bottom line or something, or lust for minute power.

    Sad and utterly pathetic

  • BTP1993 on 20/02/2022 - 01:21
    -4

    It depends on the store and company.

    I worked at TGG years ago and more often than you think, the price we had on particular product for would be cost price and/or what the retail customer would pay for as well. All in all, we make no money to start with.

    So if you come in with a HN, JB, OW price that's under that figure, we're bleeding money.

    Particularly OW or even Chemist Warehouse, they tend to bulk buy a lot of the same product and end up being able to get away with selling it a lower price to start with.

    But yes at TGG, we were told another competitors stock must physically be in stock at a store within our radius. And if you're going to challenge a online price, then delivery costs would have to be included too.

    In all honesty, it really comes down to what item the customer wanted us to price match with. If it's a HN customer and product, they generally come crawling back anyway. Their "extended warranty" prices are ridiculously priced compared to TGG "Gold services extra" as a starting point.

    • mdavant on 20/02/2022 - 06:09
      +1

      Sure there are no rebates etc that you can't see /s

      I am sure that tgg wouldn't be bleeding money price matching jbhifi prices

    • greatlamp on 20/02/2022 - 06:51
      +3

      They are not selling their goods for 'cost price' they are selling their goods for list price.

      They probably get a flat % discount on all products from a particular distributor, so they set the margin on that brand lower.

      In one of your examples the store gets a flat 40% off list price on invoice. If staff looked in the system they would think 'we are selling goods for cost price' when actually a very healthy profit would be had.

    • Zaphod42 on 20/02/2022 - 17:23

      If they bleed money by offering to price match they shouldn't have a policy to price match

    • happydude on 21/02/2022 - 00:59

      TTG is owned by JB-HIFI.

      They are hardly not making money. They have obviously worked out that selling below cost can help them in the long run.

  • kev98 on 20/02/2022 - 08:10

    Always found Bunnings to be the same.

    • Laziofogna on 21/02/2022 - 01:04
      +1

      Bunnings and CW are the worst.

  • berger on 20/02/2022 - 09:31
    +4

    Generally (not all) people who want prices beat are rude and go about it wrong.

    Be kind, it’s very important.

    Be straight forward your here to price match.

    Commit on the spot! You asked for the price, you get it and still want more!

    If a staff member can’t match the price, Treating them like shit or leaving a nasty review doesn’t help the situation.

    • parsimonious one on 21/02/2022 - 08:03
      +2

      I agree with being pleasant and polite but it isnt unreasonable to leave a bad review if a store has a pricematch policy that they dont honour.

      plus it is somewhat understandable for the customer to be annoyed if they have a legitimate price match request which is declined by some CBF or "computer says no" store rep

  • akoli on 20/02/2022 - 11:14

    If they offer the service I am happy to use, I usually have three different offers lined up so if they reject one I have the other as backup and the difference is usually a few dollars between the prices. Other than the managers being a bit pedantic with T&C's no real issue with normal floor staff.

    Its definitely worth it, I had to get a new gaming keyboard. priced $250 in JBHifi store ($200 on their own webite)- but found it $169 in Centre.com. Same for a set of wireless headphones $200 in Officeworks , $119 from an online retailer. I like Officeworks for their easy returns, JB can be difficult but they usually come round if you push back.

  • serpserpserp on 20/02/2022 - 13:12
    +1

    Probably because it is work to price match stuff. They'd rather you just buy it for the marked price. No work there.

    Also they get in big trouble if they don't stop price matches that loses them money.

    • AgentXKnight on 20/02/2022 - 13:37
      +1

      I used to work at Officeworks we do not really get in trouble for price matching things that lose us money because it is expected that we will lose money price matching the focus is generally on doing it correctly.

      Where we might get talked to from our line manager about is if we are doing too many various markdowns wrong or not putting in the correct notes/using the correct markdown because it is now required for over certain dollar value for manager/key holder to approve price matches so if something does go wrong we will either be told to make sure to include delivery fees or manager should not have approved it.

  • nicrankin on 20/02/2022 - 17:10

    I've always wondered when asking for an online price match from my local officeworks store and they insist that delivery should be included, that I should ask them to include their delivery fee from their own website as well? For me being a "Zone 3" regional store it's $25.95, even for just a single pen.

    • radicalvin on 20/02/2022 - 17:52

      Yup, it is in the T&C that the price beat should include delivery fee

    • AgentXKnight on 20/02/2022 - 17:52

      You do realise delivery fee is a service fee for the order and you are not charged 25.95 per item and that Officeworks has more generous delivery fees on click and collect being generally free on most items other than the terrible regional delivery fees to postal addresses. Also some online stores actually have misleading prices because they hide their price though exorbitant delivery fees ie selling iphone at $1,000 but a delivery fee is $400 which is per product or cannot obtain items without paying high shipping fees on orders so its only fair to include the shipping fee when price matching.

      The reason you compare online price by including delivery for online or competitor stores is if the only way you are getting that item at that price is paying this service fee then it included same as including credit card fees that are unavoidable. So if you can show that there is another store nearby in your regional town the you do not have pay delivery fee to get the product than they will generally not include it but if you have to have it delivered then the delivery fee included is the price to delivery to the address of that Officeworks store or your postal address.

  • extremetempz on 20/02/2022 - 17:53
    +2

    I used to work at Officeworks, Usually there are a couple of people that the store relies on usually these are department managers or shift managers. Because of this most stores would vary and even the day at the same store depending who is checking them. Can confirm we didn't have any KPI's or any comissions that would go towards it, however there were a couple of instances that head office would send out a memo saying "don't pricematch x or y" ironically usually after a post on ozbargain but that didn't happen often :D

    Even took advantage of lots of PM myself, personal favourite would be this https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/445773

  • Zawoooo on 20/02/2022 - 18:20

    Literally no idea why. I work at anaconda and if I strike up enough of a conversation I'll even look for a price match for them or if someone has a legit one I'm more than happy to do it. We advertise that well beat any price by 10% so not sure why more people don't do it

    • [Deactivated] on 21/02/2022 - 01:09

      I've had that happen multiple times at EB games. It's why I go back for hardware..

  • rump parliament on 20/02/2022 - 18:31
    +1

    I work in a pharmacy that pricematches on scripts.

    Customers that ask for pricematching are generally ruder and more impatient than those that don't.
    Customers frequently wait until the script is already dispensed to ask for a pricematch so it has to be relabelled and checked.
    I've had multiple customers who refuse to believe that CW have raised their prices even when looking directly at the price on the website.

    Kinda smarts when a customer living in one of the most expensive suburbs in the city throws a tantrum about a $1-2 price difference.

  • Mistredo on 20/02/2022 - 18:37

    Do retail assistants see in their computers if a product was price matched previously and for how much? Does it play a role in approving new requests?

    • fratzhaus on 20/02/2022 - 18:50
      +1

      no, most POS machines are still running Windows XP - don't give them too much credit

    • AgentXKnight on 20/02/2022 - 19:06

      At Officeworks there are sometimes at the register warning about price matching certain stores that are confirmed either fake price or do not have stock/not identical generally this is for gift cards and some apple products rarely happens. Where generally there is sometimes a notice on our store iphones or notification on our intranet website about not price matching certain products which have generated a popular amount of price matches ie I think it was Good Guys price error on Google Home Max which early times we did match before finding out it was an error.

      Otherwise if we have price matched previously and it was legitimate assuming stock has not run out at the competitor or we have changed our prices we more likely to approve the new requests because the person(s) at register would already be aware many people are price matching the same product with same store.

  • fratzhaus on 20/02/2022 - 18:46
    +4

    I used to work at a Big W in the Home entertainment desk - anytime a new videogame would release, I'd find the cheapest price at a competitor - and anytime someone bought it from me I'd pretend they asked to price match. "You said you wanted to price match with Target didn't you?" - always got the best reactions.

    • [Deactivated] on 20/02/2022 - 19:20

      Big W has a price match policy ??

      • Plasma on 20/02/2022 - 20:38
        +1

        Not any more

        • hasher22 on 20/02/2022 - 23:20

          They still do?

          I price matched a stand mixer from JB approx 7 months ago. unless they ceased price matching in the last 7 months.

  • OldBugger on 20/02/2022 - 19:33

    I think the smaller, more independent the shop is, they may get more peed at the question. But not always.

    Anyway, an example of your query, I asked the small local Repco if they would possibly price match Supercheap. A stern look with the response, "Why don't you just go to Supercheap then?"

    Poor example though as that shop is renowned for its crap CS.

    • Socksey90 on 20/02/2022 - 20:12

      Speaking from some experience, most customers come in on the weekend ask for manager by a wrong name/description "I know the guy"(proceed to show no actual proof). Then "Supercheap can do for $x can you beat that". S/P "Nope our price is $20 more and in stock only the manager can override certain products that much, I value my job more then giving a rude random person $20 off"… Customer then states Super cheap doesn't actually have the product or he got price on wrong item(different parts different price)

      Second type of customer "Hey hows your day going, I need x to fix my car this weekend do you stock this"
      S/P " Yeah mate, you'll probably need this aswell"
      Customer asks for advice, we give specs if available and tips for trouble shooting, then ask Customer if they have a discount card/code/trade card, when then proceed to make sure it's a cheap as we can.

      An ounce of politeness goes a long way getting a better price and actual help. Alot of retail workers cop excessive crap from customers

    • 91rs on 21/02/2022 - 11:29

      Repco?
      Rip every poor c#$% off.
      Just staying true to their name!
      As a company they have a terrible reputation for dealing with.

  • ExpressCoffee on 20/02/2022 - 20:39

    After working in retail and seeing the absolute worst sense of entitlement in some people I can see why people would get annoyed.

    I worked in a store that didn't price match but when challenged I would just say "Oh that's a great deal, you should buy it from there!".

    Works every time.

  • Limitless on 20/02/2022 - 23:12

    I have been told by 2 different chemist warehouse stores that they do not match prices. In the first store the lady was standing in front of a sign saying they price match….

  • DoctorCalculon on 21/02/2022 - 00:26

    why do you get protective of your price matching/beat guarantee when they are your point of difference?

    I would really like the Officejerks at the retail stores to answer this question. You wear a jacket on the back of which you proudly display your price beat guarantee.
    Yet when a customer comes by with a genuine price beat deal, you try to find every excuse under the sun to knock them back. Jerks!

  • Jalif on 21/02/2022 - 00:58
    +1

    Probably because most of the price matchers have the personality of a shoe.

  • Laziofogna on 21/02/2022 - 01:09

    Practically every answer confirms what op said. So sensitive.

  • drfuzzy on 21/02/2022 - 04:02
    +1

    I only tried it once on a SanDisk flash drive. OW refused to price beat any flash storage as they claimed competitors sell fake drives.

    • parsimonious one on 21/02/2022 - 08:09
      +1

      its exactly that kind of BS that is infuriating

      tbh though, people should just go to the competitors.

      when push comes to shove all they care about is the money and if people keep coming back or buy there anyway what incentive is there for them to improve?

  • 91rs on 21/02/2022 - 11:21

    If it were a straight up hey this is the item I want, I've done my research & I am ready to buy right now, this is the price i've seen elsewhere that I would like you to beat (if and where policies exist, where I worked we didn't have an advertised policy on it) you're polite and seem normal enough then sure do what I can do match or do better.

    Aside from a couple situations where another retailer in the same complex would regularly throw out stupid prices on cards for some items and tell them to go get us to match it, we'd refuse as it was always a losing deal. Think it was mostly for his mates and never intended on doing those prices.

    If you come in and waste 20 minutes of my time wanting to go over every single detail about a product you want to buy and have researched yourself but want to hear it all again as part of the sale, then you bust out a bunch of competitor prices (as you've gone and done the same thing to them) then I won't be quite as pleased about trying to price match.
    Especially on higher price items where the GP on it ends up being very low especially with the prices to match or beat, like <5%GP.
    I also know that it can be worth bailing on the sale or dumping it with someone else as I know if you're back with a warranty issue or any slight problem it's going to be hell dealing with you and that in the end is not worth making the sale.
    These type of customers never return to buy from you again unless it's at the cheapest possible price and make it the most difficult

    Some stuff when I worked with software\games we'd just have a list up on the shelves every day \ week as to what our other competitors were doing and that we'd do the same pricing as them. No need to even try say that X was doing Y price, we knew and we just did it to avoid those conversations.

  • stealthpaw on 21/02/2022 - 14:15

    Former Dick Smith employee here:
    I loathed doing price-matches because the software on our POS was crap and made me cringe any time i had to use it.

  • Deadalready on 21/02/2022 - 16:32
    +1

    You get the same pay regardless of work, so why would you want to do extra work?

    Price matching is a pain in the ass, first you need to explain the TCS, confirm it's real, in date, in stock, occasionally phone up,then get manager approval, who will ask you all the previous questions AGAIN.

    After a few you just think "(profanity) you" that's 15 to 30mins work to sell a keyboard.

    • leiiv on 22/02/2022 - 13:59

      Because that is part of the work, to support or follow the company policy so that the customer is happy for not being misled by the false advertising of the "price match" or "price beat". I think those companies advertising the price beat policy want to eat their cake and have it too. They want people know about the policy but somehow make the process really hard to discourage most people from doing it.

      • Deadalready on 22/02/2022 - 14:30

        Your managers and execs will actually try to dissuade you from price matching… that's the kicker.
        "Have you tried selling them another product, have you up-sold? Have you checked they need the product?", all of it essentially amounts to maximising profits (it doesn't always make sense).

        If it was as simple as "wham, bam, thank you mam", all employees would be keen to push the custom on with their day.

  • RolandWaites on 21/02/2022 - 22:52

    Scared of being told off

  • revheadgl on 22/02/2022 - 18:36

    Because we are paid to make a profit for the company we work for.

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