Silly Best Buy price match "Policy"?

Re: Silly Best Buy price match "Policy"?

John, I'm getting the impression Brian works for Bestbuy. Given the attitude he's shown and your experience at the store these responses are really no surprise. I learned from my dad that you can always tell how wrong something is by a persons persistence to defend it( retail stores policy). If somethings right it's right and needs no defense. Oh well, like you said it seems to be going nowhere.

Re: Silly Best Buy price match "Policy"?

Whatever the motivation is, I've argued this issue all I care to.

Re: Silly Best Buy price match "Policy"?

Just because I don't agree with the point doesn't mean I "missed" it.

And others have mentioned that they were brought into play for them in other cases. They don't always do the comparison. They're not obligated to. This part of the "point" is therefore irrelevant.

Absolutely NOT. Business retain the right of DISCRETION. The only prohibitions is if that discretion is applied in a manner inconsistent with civil rights: They can't only apply the comparison a expression of a bias against any of the protected classes. Beyond that, they have an absolute right to apply their policy inconsistently, as long as when they fail to apply their policy to the letter (i.e., NOT doing the comparison) it is in the customer's favor. That is the case.

This is not a insignificant fact. This is a foundation of mass market consumer business. Every single business has that discretion.

Correct. Neither perspective deserves an unrebutted soap-box.

That is how you folks are coming off to me, as well. You don't want anyone to represent the business perspective in this thread. That's not a constructive approach to discussion IMHO.

With respect, I don't think you know much about how to handle the mass market. It is vastly different from managing a mom-and-pop business. Beyond that, I bet mom would be pretty shocked about how disreputable many consumers are today, lying, stealing, cheating, exploiting, etc. The consumer world has changed, especially where you have competition from online stores.

I'd agree with that, but only if it is more profitable to do so.

Come down of that high horse... you're straining my neck!

In the last few months, I've been accused of working for Best Buy, Verizon, Comcast, American Airlines, The Disney Company, and Exxon-Mobil. It seems to be a very common tactic, for folks who don't like to see a pro-business perspective, to accuse the pro-business supporter of working for the business, instead of just being a real capitalist.

Re: Silly Best Buy price match "Policy"?

As a business owner and a consumer, I'd tend to side with Brian's point of view. There's a reason why mass market retailers have put the mom and pop stores out of business time and time again. Consumers want more for less. They don't care about customer service until something goes wrong. Since that doesn't happen 99% of the time, they take the risk by getting what they want at a lower price.

The only way for businesses to give the consumers what they want is to lower prices, which means reduce costs. Mass market retailers can do that through volume discounts from wholesalers and by paying wages that only "I don't give a rat's ass about my job, I'm only here because school's not in session and I need some going out cash while I live with my parents" or "this is my second job, it pays less than my first job but I'm here because I have to pay the bills" people will accept.

Mom and pop retail shops trying to compete with the BBs, CCs and Wal-Marts of the world can't retain the good employees or maintain a consistent turnover at low enough wages or get the lower cost items to compete on price so they are screwed.

Re: Silly Best Buy price match "Policy"?

And to be clear, my "point of view" is not my preference. It is simply a description of reality. :shrug:

Re: Silly Best Buy price match "Policy"?

I guess my problem with that is, I've seen too many examples that contradict it. I have and will continue to shop at Bestbuy. About 3 years ago I almost said to hell with them. I seemed to have bad experiences left and right. I would go in on new release day and be told that things were sold out after asking about them, only to see them sitting in another part of the store. So, I was basically lied to. I brushed it off as a mistake the first couple of times, but, after awhile it seemed to be a consistent problem. Then there would be instances where I would be looking all over the place for a rep and when I finally got ahold of one they were like, "this isn't my section." WTF? In a last attempt to see if it was me or them with the problem, I wen't looking for a dvd which had exclusive bonus content to BB. I didn't see it anywhere in the store. I went to a rep and told him I wanted to purchase it and couldn't find it. He said," I'll check in the back and see if I can find it." I thought to myself, "yeah, Riiiggghhht." He came back out with it in his hand and said, "there you go." As small a thing as that may seem to be, it made my day. Over the years I've watched the service of the BB in my area improve. Now, I'm not saying it's the best by any standard, just way better then it was. So, what changed? Why the renewed interrest in customer service if people don't give a damn as long as it's cheap? The facts are, no matter how big or small the business, customers do matter and so does how the're treated. When this thread started it was about BB calling around to confirm a store had something in their ad so they could in turn do a price match for the item. We'll gentlemen, stores don't get bigger than Wal-Mart and as long as you have the competitors ad with the price in it they do the match no fuss, no muss and no phone call. Unless, you're saying that BB and CC's are, compared to Wal-Mart, mom and pop stores.

Re: Silly Best Buy price match "Policy"?

Isolated anecdotes, perhaps, but if you rely on anecdotes, you'll be continually and bitterly disappointed with life. The vast majority of circumstance is what matters.

Because it is going down, overall, despite your feelings that things are improving for you in one circumstance. And customer service is degrading because consumers take it and still make the purchase, or because consumers don't financially reward companies that provide better service.

Re: Silly Best Buy price match "Policy"?

I think the whole point of the original posting was that it seemed to be a waste of time for a CS person to call Cicruit City for an item that only cost $6. He could be putting in over $6 effort. I think this policy is reasonable and practical for more expensive merchandise.

Re: Silly Best Buy price match "Policy"?

Best Buy doesn't pay that well.

Re: Silly Best Buy price match "Policy"?

This happened to me recently when I got BB to price match an HP printer. The salesperson called CC to see if they had it in stock before she would honor the price match. I was similarly irritated while waiting until I actually read the huge sign you mentioned. The policy states they will match competitor's advertised prices "on the same AVAILABLE brand and model, let us know and we'll match that price on the spot, tax included."

The keyword there being available. While I agree it seems a little silly to check stock on a nominally priced DVD, the salesperson was following company policy.

Re: Silly Best Buy price match "Policy"?

Was the printer $6.00? If not, then it's a little different with regards to the price match policy. The original point here was to discuss why an employee of BB would call CC to confirm a $6.00 price on a $10.00 regular price sd dvd. The $4.00 difference doesn't seem worth the effort or time wasted.

Re: Silly Best Buy price match "Policy"?

Actually, I think Scott hit on the real issue. Policies aren't really about common sense anymore. Yes, it makes sense to check on large items, though sale prices from places like CC are going to be legit and not some sham like someone earlier said they "could" be. It just strikes me as a waste of time on a run-of-the-mill sale price on a DVD. Particularly, as I had said before, since BB had run this DVD at the same price before and after this particular sale.

I think some of the responses illustrate part of the problem as well. These big retailers offer regular sales and other things to get people in their doors, and then resent customers for using them. There is this bizarre hostility toward customers anymore. Yes, some people will abuse anything they can. That doesn't make it a good policy to assume everyone who walks through your door is going to try to rip you off.

I'm not a very consumerist person. I don't buy much, but I try to get things on sale when I can. I also virtually never take up one moment of the sales peoples' time. I had been wanting to buy this title and had seen it on sale for the same price many times, but I don't typically make a special trip. This time, it was on sale and I was going right by BB, so I decided to get it. The result is, next time I just won't bother.

Two days ago I bought new tires and tubes for my bike, which is my main mode of transportation in the summer. I needed a little help, but the "sales" person seemed rather inconvenienced. There was "no difference" between the different tires. Then, when I said I also needed tubes, she handed me two boxes. After I had installed everything, I realized the tubes were too small a diameter (I noticed on the boxes), so I had to take everything apart again, drive back, and exchange them. The manager had to handle the exchange and didn't seem to be the slightest bit apologetic, or surprised about the whole thing.

All this contempt for customers is just odd to me.

Re: Silly Best Buy price match "Policy"?

This entire thread has me completely baffled, mostly because of every single thing that Brian has written. It is one thing when a store has something on sale, but is not listed in an ad. Then it is reasonable for a competitor to call that store -- NOT to see if they have the item in stock, but to see if they indeed have the item on sale. But if a customer brings in a competitor's ad listing a sale price lower than the store they're standing in, it is unreasonable to call that store. Whether they have the item in stock is completely irrelevant. The fact the item IS on sale for a lower price is proven by the ad and that should be the end of it.

Stores CHOOSE to engage in price-matching policies. Why? Because those stores want you to buy the item in THEIR store, where you may also buy other items; if not this trip, then perhaps another. If the stores wish to treat price-matching in an adversarial manner, then simply drop the price-matching policy. But if you're going to have the policy, then abide by it.

If these stores have lost business to the internet, then it would be in the best interest of these stores to provide the customer with something they can't get on the net: one-on-one, face-to-face, quality customer service.

Customers are not the enemy of customer service reps. Customers are the reason CSRs have a job.

Re: Silly Best Buy price match "Policy"?

Mike, that really is my point. Some retailers choose to have the policy. It is by no means required. It succeeded by getting me in their door rather than CC. Then, they spend 5 minutes trying to find a reason to send me away empty handed and angry. I don't know about others, but I wouldn't grudge them checking on a Plasma that some place was blowing out at 30% off, but that isn't the case here.

Re: Silly Best Buy price match "Policy"?

Generally speaking, working low-level retail/customer service jobs can be a depressing, alienating, dehumanizing, and relentlessly soul-crushing experience. All 9 of my jobs have been retail/customer service jobs so I have a pretty good insight in this arena. I've worked at a video store, two movie theaters, Border's (bookstore), the Nature Company/Discovery Channel Store, Ritz Camera (photo lab/camera shop), Beverages & More (alcohol retailer), Target, and now at a small upscale grocery store. Actually I've found most of the jobs tolerable or even enjoyable, and the reasons I've had so many despite my relative youth (late 20's) are that none of them were ever intended to be a career, and I alternate between going to school and working...
Can you guess which of these jobs was the basis for my initial description? Target was by far the worst and I've spent a long time considering why that is. Without going on forever, I will say there is something innately problematic with huge stores and huge corporations like Target (and to a lesser but nevertheless significant extent,) Best Buy. While it may seem obvious from the outside that these stores eschew every consideration that doesn't relate directly to their profit margins, what this means from the inside is that they pay their employees shit, provide the minimum amount of training and resources necessary for them to do their jobs, enact sweeping general policies and regulations for purely financial or legal reasons which often run counter to common sense and require the staff to enforce and abide by them, eliminate all personal discretion of the workers to make independent decisions without deferring to management who themselves are hamstrung by their duty to enforce the aforementioned policies, and more or less promote an atmosphere of submissive, robotic behavior.
Furthermore, your value as an individual (on both sides of the counter) is totally meaningless to stores like Best Buy that rely on volume. When you work under the premise that you are completely expendable, or shop at a store that likes your money but doesn't need your business; well, in the words of a Chinese lady I used to work with: "YOU PAY AND GO."

Re: Silly Best Buy price match "Policy"?

Common sense would dictate that they not offer price matching on small items.

There is no reason to believe that there is anything personal. Rather, retailers don't want pricing models disrupted by transgressive abuse. They also need to keep their cost model low, to fulfill their fiduciary responsibilities.

I would find it bizarre to consider such actions as hostility.

I'm sorry but your comments sound very consumerist to me.

Don't mistake the human failings of an employee with aspects you're ascribing to the employee's employer. Generally, what you experienced is a reflection of cost-containment, prompted by the fact that consumers, as a group, don't sufficiently reward suppliers that pay to attract better front-line employees.

Recognize that much of it is self-imposed. Consumers want low prices. We're willing to accept crap-a-mundo as long as the price is low.

Re: Silly Best Buy price match "Policy"?

Since you are baffled by my messages, and perhaps equally baffled by what retailers do, please accept that perhaps the reason for both is the same. I'm explaining how things are: the hard, cold reality of the business, which governs what you, as the consumer, will experience.

Note, no where have I said I like any of the things I've posted about.

Nah, that's discredited logic. At the retail level, there is practically no value in customer loyalty, since consumers too often make purchasing decisions based on price, and will generally not be loyal, which is defined by business as the consumer being willing to pay a premium (i.e., pay more) for the same thing. Look at the airlines for a good example of where things could go if retailer aren't careful: Sure, they can get you to fly their airline, right? However, they lose money on every ticket... not good for business.

Checking is part of the implementation of the policy. The policy does not preclude checking.

Adding cost; reflected in the price (so they can fulfill their fiduciary responsibilities) results in consumers going into the B&M store, sucking as much insight as they can out of the staff there, then going home and buying online. There is no way a B&M store can make the same profit as a national online retailer, selling the same product at the same price. There is absolutely no way. If the B&M store cannot figure out some way to make more money than the online retailer, then they'd be better of closing, forcing consumer, even more, to rely solely on online retailers. So one way they try to bridge the gap is reduce their costs as much as they possibly can.

Re: Silly Best Buy price match "Policy"?

Exactly. Especially considering most places with ads (including the one that started this thread) are chain stores. It shouldn't matter if the CC across the street has it in stock. There's probably 10 more within 50 miles or so. What's the goddamn difference!? For me, it's more about saving gas. CC's website won't tell you if a DVD is in stock, but Best Buy's does. I've walked into a CC on Sunday morning when the doors opened and they didn't have half the cheap DVDs that were shown in the ad at the door. That's bullshit. I've had some luck matching at BB when this happens, but I still hate BB in general. They had a rack of ONLY the movies that were on sale for the week one time. All the titles had signs below them with the name of the movie and price. However, there were like 4 copies of the Director's Cut" of something, but only the theatrical was on sale. Any place else (Walmart, for example) would've honored the mistake then fixed it. The little bastard of a CS rep/manager wouldn't do it. If that ever happens again, I intend to demand the store manager/director, not some CS lackey.


BETTER!?!? HAHAHAAHAHAH!! You can't be serious. Are you on crack or something?

Re: Silly Best Buy price match "Policy"?

Hmmm.... what can I say in response to that incredibly insightful tidbit of wisdom?

Re: Silly Best Buy price match "Policy"?

This thread has run its course.

M.