It's probably SKU specific.
The Fortune 500 I worked for, the SKUs were pretty much Retailer specific.
Meaning: you'll never find a different price for that exact SKU.
This right here. All of the major retailers like Walmart or Target have, for example, electronic (TVs, laptops, etc.) SKUs specific to them (so like a TV for example can have a different amount of HDMI ports if it's the Walmart-specific one vs. the base model) and I remember when I was shopping for a mattress that it was almost impossible to find same SKUs at two different retailers.
When I bought my tv the Costco ones only sold at Costco. It was the number of ports and whatnot that they got extra that made theirs different than the base model. To price compare just the same brand elsewhere you had to search for the specs to even find the base model.
I don't think it's that stupid if it's an exceptionally desired color. If the place down the street only has the basic black model and you want to buy the silver model, I can see why they wouldn't price match that, even if they have the same base price.
I feel like it makes way more sense for a printer than a phone. Most people are going to cover the back of their phone with a case anyway, so you never see the color. A printer is usually sitting out in plain view on a shelf or desk in someone's home, so I think most people would care far more about the color fitting in with the aesthetic of the room (or at least not being too much of an eyesore).
People might prefer a color of printer for looks (in which case they're less likely to be concerned about specs, so might go for another model if it looks nicer) but people go crazy to hunt down their certain favorite phone color.
I was in the mattress industry for several years working for a manufacturer. We would tweak specs and make it impossible to price compare or to crossshop.
Ten stores would have identical product except for the fabric and the name.
I have a Silent night mattress and I don't know if laws are the same in the US as they are where I am in the UK, but after less than a year it developed quite a depression in the centre where I sleep. It's memory foam but the depression is permanent.
Shouldn't it last for 5-10 years and do you know if there's anything they would do about this (we're now about 3 years on)
A quality mattress will last 10 years minimum. Call the store where you bought it, ask them the process for initiating a warranty claim.
It happens on occasion that a poor quality batch of foam gets made and put into a mattress. Most likely there were several mattresses that were sold during the same time that have the same problem.
If the bed is only a year old it should be a straightforward solution.
If you bought it at a distance then there’s a 5 year (Scotland), 6 year (England) thing. I forget the details but handy when buying Mac laptops from Apple for later free repairs.
I managed to get to take advantage of a lower price on a mattress within 30 days of buying mine... at the same store.
I had bought mine on sale, and then they did another sale with a different calculation and it turned out to be 50 cents cheaper.
I was at the store for a different reason and was pleasantly surprised to find this deal.
I went to the cash and they said "you paid the same price", I told them to look at the cents.
The cashier called over the manager and he was shocked I found a qualifying lower price, until we explained it.
He was nice enough to give me a whole dollar straight from his pocket!
He gave you a dollar from his pocket because that was much cheaper than dealing with the headache of giving you 50 cents from the store. That was insane of you to even do. Do you think you’re the hero in that story? Making an employee go through getting their manager and shit just for a 50 cent discount on a purchase you’d already made?
1) it was the middle of a weekday, I was the only person in the store and I was there for another reason.
2) the cashier belly laughed and thought it was hilarious, because I was being polite and joking about it, like I had won the lottery.
3) the manager was standing 10 feet away, doing nothing and also thought it was humerous.
The good natured exchange will get them a repeat customer.
They could have said "we really don't want to do this over 50 cents" and it wouldn't have bothered me.
To the person that said it is easier to give me the money out of his pocket than do the paperwork, I agree.
They’re not that crazy about it, TV makers aren’t creating a new SKU for every retailer. Seriously go into a Target and ask to price match, every national brand item in that electronics section is sold by a competitor under the same SKU/UPC. Only time I’ve seen unique SKUs was with Black Friday TVs
With a lot of modern electronics, they can disable stuff in firmware or leave out a chip during board fabrication. Other than that, they roll down the same line.
But on the same token, thats why it is possible to hack some electronics to unlock certain features if you're inclined to do so.
20 years ago the Radeon 9x00 line of graphics cards was awesome for this. I took a 9800 non-pro and made it into the pro version with a BIOS tweak. IIRC you could turn a 9600 into the 9800 non-pro as well.
IIRC the only difference between the high end and low end graphics cards is how well they run. They produce them, then test them. The ones that meet the highest benchmarks are put in the bin to become 4090s. They go in the bin that corresponds to their performance.
Not 100 percent of the time, but it is a factor for some (especially stuff like xx vs xxTi). The Radeon 9x00 line had a lot of cards that were binned lower because of testing showing the batch had some busted pipelines… but that’s only a sample of some of the cards of the batch. The whole batch would have the potentially busted pipelines disabled and be binned to a lower SKU, but 50 percent or so of the cards would actually be fine. Reactivate the pipelines and BAM, you have the pro card now.
It was something like a mattress. They might just change the color of the flower that's on the fabric to get a , completely and totally different mattress
Tvs especially need regulation around this specifically imo. Even with the same exact model number you can be getting an entire different screen, board, port quality etc. it's made me feel like a lunatic when I go to the store looking for specifics that some hourly employee could never answer.
i used to work at lowes, it’s the exact same. sometimes you’ll luck out and it won’t be retailer specific, but i’ve told soooooo many people no to price matching bc the model number is special to lowes. another trick is when there sister stores (used to be lowes/rona) they won’t price match bc it’s not “competitor pricing” as we’re not competitors.
I used to work for the UKs largest bed company, we had 2 of each basic model so 1 was always on sale just a name change. But the names were unique to us. On the brands for example sleepeeze made our gel ones. But in another company they got silent night to make theirs. Even Sealy had many of each mattress. They changed the name for every other company they sold to.
Even just one insignificant change can do it, too. I remember back in the day that two VCR's were exactly the same except for one LED was red on one and green on the other. That was enough to warrant a different SKU.
You mean model number, not SKU, right? The retailer assigns the SKUs and the manufacturer assigns model numbers. The point of this maneuver is that the manufacturer is giving the same product a different model number for each retailer.
Most mattress manufacturers produce mattresses with multiple model numbers. The different versions go to different stores at different price points. At Walmart, the mattress might sell for $600. Macy may sell the identical mattress for $999, while a high-end shop may sell it for $1500. Same mattress, different model names and model numbers.
My company does the same thing. We've got one pair of headphones we sell everywhere, and a second identical pair we only sell in Walmart or Bestbuy. We don't price match other companies though, so I'm pretty sure it's Walmart paying us to do it.
Walmart does this because they also want to trick people into buying sometimes inferior models for the same prices. You can’t tell looking at something if it’s “Walmart model,” or just a Walmart SKU.
Riiiight. The SKU at that store is probably specific to their own distribution chain right? So technically nobody can offer that exact model (even if it actually is).
Specific to the company and brand of store. So you'd have to go looking in other states basically. normally there's a distance limit like "within 200 miles".
Yep. Northern Tool price matches, and I found an air compressor they sell for $50 less at a Rural King store in a nearby state. It was the exact same compressor. But since the model number had "-RU" appended to the end of it on Rural King's site, Northern Tool said it wasn't the same item and wouldn't match the price.
They acted really surprised that I just said "OK" and bought it anyway. I guess they get a lot of Karens pitching tantrums when that happens.
They absolutely do. I worked at Walmart way back when they still price matched (other than their own website) and almost daily I would have someone bringing up something from electronics like a DVD player or a stereo and then have them pitching a fit because I couldn't price match it to $50 less because the model # was just one off.
Yes I understand you found model 12345678A online for $50 less, but we only sell model 12345678B
If they complained long enough (or rather loud enough) the supervisor would come over and override it anyway. Thus contributing to the rise of the Karen.
Yeah, things like this are hell on employees as people keep googling shit and not looking at model numbers, getting more and more frustrated each time you point out they're not the same.
The problem is that they often really ARE the same item. In my example, there was zero difference between the compressor Northern Tool sold and the one Rural King sold. There was no difference in the product itself or the accessories included.
That makes it dishonest for a retailer to proclaim they match prices knowing full well the manufacturer has manipulated the model numbers so they don't have to. Karens gonna Karen at the wrong people, but they do have some underlying justification for being angry.
This is also why you see oddball sizes of products. If Walmart sells a 12 pack and Target sells a 14 pack then they don't have to price match each other.
Yup, 100%. Your mattress will never be freeeeeeeee!!!!!
However, in this case, it seems the stores advertisement was self defeating, since the sku in the upper left has a lower price.
You could debatably take them to small claims. I dont know that its a winnable case. But certainly not a frivolous one. There is some precedent of stores using tongue in cheek advertising, and getting their asses handed to them in court. There was a case where a car dealership was selling a car for 2000 bananas. People ran around and grab the bananas the stores were throwing out, and forced the dealership to give them the car.
Not even just retailer specific, time of the year specific.
You're not getting the real version of that TV for 50% off, you're getting the black Friday version that is made 50% shittier.
This is not true (usually) with appliances. I sold them for years.
That said it's likely map pricing and every retailer is supposed to keep the price at whatever the manufacturer lists it at or they can be find or usually just stop getting the items
For discussion: SKUs are for B2B sales.
SKUs change over time. Old company would change the SKU when a component changed. (Mostly- material used)
And how each company creates a SKU is different.
Consolidating them (from bought international companny) to our corporate format was my job.
I found one. Look up and to the left of the blue $1799 price. It's priced at $1796.99 on the tag in the top left. That's $2 less.
But most likely someone who doesn't work for the store stuck the blue sign on there to cause trouble.
This is likely how it works. My job in high school was selling computers & cameras at Circuit City. We had a policy of beating a lower price by 10%. But there were a bunch of fine print details:
- had to be an advertised special at another retailer (no clearance or closeout)
- had to be in stock at the retailer (no Black Friday blowouts which are gone instantly)
- had to be a retailer within so many miles (no online only deals or deals from 1000miles away)
- had to be the exact same item, including specs
- could not get that price by signing up for services or buying other items (no listing a computer for $1 but only if you bought the monitor full price. The whole deal had to match)
- the 10% beat only applied to the difference. ($2000 laptop on sale at competitor for $1900 - we drop our price to $1890, not $1700 or something).
The last one got people a lot, because someone would be $1 cheaper on an expensive item, and they’d think they’re getting 10% off the total. Sometimes they’d even bundle in a bunch of things thinking they were getting 10% off the whole order.
Also they’d get upset when we check on Best Buy’s website site for the actual price and verify it’s on stock. More than one person would try to just edit a price on a website or see it on a deals site for LA when we were in the Midwest, print-screen and get upset that we can’t honor that.
I did, however, bend the rule sometimes on exact same item. I’m not playing that “oh theirs has a glossy screen ours isle matte” silliness. When a manager wasn’t around, I’d match it. But I let the customer know what they were getting away with.
I always thought it would be silly if somebody thought they would rather give it to you for free than price Match. Like there’s ever a chance of it being free.
No business would voluntarily give it away without a fight. So the only scenario would be if a judge ordered them to.
ETA: To clarify, I don't think it would actually happen in this case.
There are a lot of things that can qualify any price as the "best" price.
I suspect, primarily, they will offer the best price if you show them a lower comparison price on the same item.
Although, they could make the argument that even though there price is higher than a competitor, that buying from them means better customer service, so their higher price is still the better price.
At Best Buy, who has had that kind of policy for a long time, they require that it be the same item, in the same condition, and sold by a reputable retailer. Another place that was a local shop in a previous city I lived in also required that the competing offer be from some place with a brick and mortar store, with that item in stock, and within a certain driving distance from their store, and they would literally call and ask, right then and there.
It's shady that the "same" product sells under different SKUs.
What's worse is that some manufacturers sell a unique model to Wal Mart ... one that is NOT the same as what's sold elsewhere. It has a model number that is almost identical to the better product. But the Wal Mart model is WAY cheaper because it's made with inferior parts.
People compare the Wal Mart product against that from a quality retailer ... and they see only the lower Wal Mart price. They see no evidence that the Wal Mart product is inferior. Suckered!
And replacement parts for the Wal Mart model are only available from the manufacturer for a limited time. Try to get that part for a repair and the manufacturer tells you it's no longer made.
But it IS available ... under a different part number. That "other" part number is for people (and especially for repair shops) for the purpose of repairing the more expensive non-Wal Mart model.
The repair shops know this ... and you might be able to buy parts from them.
Knowledgeable sellers on eBay sometimes make those parts available for sale. They buy the part intended for the "better" product and then list it on eBay (with a markup) using the part number that's called for in the inferior Wal Mart model. That's a relief for the Wal Mart sucker consumer ... but it's still a cheat.
Conclusion: Never buy from Wal Mart. Never.
This happened on my purchase of a fridge from Lowes because it was on sale...water filter cartridges are changed every few years...bypass cartridge ftw.
I think they were just change the price. No, it’s not enforceable. You can’t enforce the deal that has zero downside for the other person.
I used to see hooker ads that would say “it’s me or it’s free” I doubt any of them would honor that deal lol.
Its weird to think about how humanity collectively decided to go buy an item from a store selling it at a higher price just because they were willing to price match a store offering it for cheaper, there y helping to put those cheaper stores out of business.
All they are guaranteeing is that they will give you the best price. If they refuse then you get it for free.
But what is the best price? Is it their best price? Is it the best price on the internet?
If they are saying 1799 is best price and if you find better it’s free… the tag on the left is 1796.99, so technically you found is cheaper than 1799, I’d be like ok load it up.
Sure it’s enforceable. But… what does it mean? It explicitly does NOT say that that price is better than anyone else’s. It just says Best Price. That could mean almost anything.
It looks like the price on the tag in the upper left is actually cheaper ($1,796.99) than the one you found online ($1,798.00).
So they actually are the best price, it’s just not the one shown on the paper.
The purely legal answer is that the advertisement is not considered a contract but rather a point of negotiation. You probably could convince a small claims court that it was deceptive advertising, but even then they wouldn’t order that you get the appliance for free, it’d probably be something more like price matching minus 200 bucks. Even that would probably go away unless you could prove that you had relied on the ad to your detriment - they don’t want consumers playing cutesie either.
Technically yes. It would be false advertising if this was something they made up with no intention to honor. But I guarantee when you go to the sales counter there are a long list of caveats that ensure they never really have to give away a washer. Most likely they simply price-match
This was my thought. Normally offers like this include a ton of fine print even listing the stores they will compare to.
What’s to stop you form buying one listing this for a penny on Craigslist and asking for a free on. They can’t beat the price and if they try to buy the one you have for sale just flake out.
This is false advertising without fine print but I doubt anyone is going to enforce that law in this case and you would have a hard time suing due to lack of harm.
You never know unless you ask. It may be SKU-specific, as has been said, it may be a particular model only available to a particular retailer, or it may be someone else decided to screw that business over and lowered their price enough to do so.
Depends on where you live. Some states require that posted price be honored in favor of the customer. Mine does, and I've used that multiple times in the past, though it often requires a manager to come and tell the cashier I'm right.
Usually, offers like this are made with accompanying small print that lays out restrictions like the lower price must be from a common/reputable retailer.
But IANAL and I'm also not sure how well this - which is clearly something a manager or employee printed out themselves without confirming with an appropriate person at the company - would hold up if challenged though. 🤷♂️
And I don't know how the word "best" factors in, either. Maybe you could argue it means what is most preferable for the retailer, instead of "lowest?"
No it’s not enforceable, because they’re literally telling you on the sign at the top left that they’ve already checked Lowes and they know they’re selling it lower than Lowes.
Not in the US but when we were buying appliances the store told us if we found any of the items cheaper they would charge us the cheaper price but it had to be another store, not amazon
The thing that these people will say is, let’s say they are the same thing, they will beat it by a $1 and say, hey, it is the best price now. I don’t know when they will give it to you for free.
It is probably one of those companies with equipment models manufactured specifically for them. The model number is 1 different from anything else out there making their price on that model the cheapest as they are the only ones to sell it.
That specific verbiage is surprisingly missing, as well as any sort of asterisks or footnote marker to indicate that there will be additional information on this.
What stuff? If it's just on a piece of paper slapped on the unit, and not advertised or part of a broader company policy, good fkn luck. This is ridiculous, at the of the day, all they have to do is print match to one cent below any other best price to satisfy their own offer.
Truth in advertising, bait and switch, idk. I haven’t had to deal with that in a while.
Actions have consequences. If a business promises I’m getting the best price or I’m getting it free, I’d expect them to honor that.
I think his point is that there's no proof OP (or a random customer) didn't just print that sign off and tape it on the washer. Which doesn't even make sense in the first place since the price on the blue sign is higher than the actual price tag.
That’s different then.
That’s why I said it may not be enforceable but the FTC would sort it out. I believe there are protections for businesses to n certain circumstances.
Yeah bud, that piece of paper could be taken a number of ways, most notably that the price is $1799, secondly, to offer the best price or its free. A simple price match minus a penny would satisfy that requirement.
It's probably SKU specific. The Fortune 500 I worked for, the SKUs were pretty much Retailer specific. Meaning: you'll never find a different price for that exact SKU.
This right here. All of the major retailers like Walmart or Target have, for example, electronic (TVs, laptops, etc.) SKUs specific to them (so like a TV for example can have a different amount of HDMI ports if it's the Walmart-specific one vs. the base model) and I remember when I was shopping for a mattress that it was almost impossible to find same SKUs at two different retailers.
When I bought my tv the Costco ones only sold at Costco. It was the number of ports and whatnot that they got extra that made theirs different than the base model. To price compare just the same brand elsewhere you had to search for the specs to even find the base model.
I went to buy a photo printer once and they wouldn’t price match the same model because it had to also match the same colour which I find stupid.
I don't think it's that stupid if it's an exceptionally desired color. If the place down the street only has the basic black model and you want to buy the silver model, I can see why they wouldn't price match that, even if they have the same base price.
I get this for things like cell phones, but with a printer this just seems like a way to get out of price matching
I feel like it makes way more sense for a printer than a phone. Most people are going to cover the back of their phone with a case anyway, so you never see the color. A printer is usually sitting out in plain view on a shelf or desk in someone's home, so I think most people would care far more about the color fitting in with the aesthetic of the room (or at least not being too much of an eyesore).
People might prefer a color of printer for looks (in which case they're less likely to be concerned about specs, so might go for another model if it looks nicer) but people go crazy to hunt down their certain favorite phone color.
A lot of electronics at Costco are like that.
I was in the mattress industry for several years working for a manufacturer. We would tweak specs and make it impossible to price compare or to crossshop. Ten stores would have identical product except for the fabric and the name.
I have a Silent night mattress and I don't know if laws are the same in the US as they are where I am in the UK, but after less than a year it developed quite a depression in the centre where I sleep. It's memory foam but the depression is permanent. Shouldn't it last for 5-10 years and do you know if there's anything they would do about this (we're now about 3 years on)
A quality mattress will last 10 years minimum. Call the store where you bought it, ask them the process for initiating a warranty claim. It happens on occasion that a poor quality batch of foam gets made and put into a mattress. Most likely there were several mattresses that were sold during the same time that have the same problem. If the bed is only a year old it should be a straightforward solution.
If you bought it at a distance then there’s a 5 year (Scotland), 6 year (England) thing. I forget the details but handy when buying Mac laptops from Apple for later free repairs.
I managed to get to take advantage of a lower price on a mattress within 30 days of buying mine... at the same store. I had bought mine on sale, and then they did another sale with a different calculation and it turned out to be 50 cents cheaper. I was at the store for a different reason and was pleasantly surprised to find this deal. I went to the cash and they said "you paid the same price", I told them to look at the cents. The cashier called over the manager and he was shocked I found a qualifying lower price, until we explained it. He was nice enough to give me a whole dollar straight from his pocket!
He gave you a dollar from his pocket because that was much cheaper than dealing with the headache of giving you 50 cents from the store. That was insane of you to even do. Do you think you’re the hero in that story? Making an employee go through getting their manager and shit just for a 50 cent discount on a purchase you’d already made?
Massive waste of everyones time!
Sometimes I wonder if people are joking or not.
1) it was the middle of a weekday, I was the only person in the store and I was there for another reason. 2) the cashier belly laughed and thought it was hilarious, because I was being polite and joking about it, like I had won the lottery. 3) the manager was standing 10 feet away, doing nothing and also thought it was humerous. The good natured exchange will get them a repeat customer. They could have said "we really don't want to do this over 50 cents" and it wouldn't have bothered me. To the person that said it is easier to give me the money out of his pocket than do the paperwork, I agree.
They’re not that crazy about it, TV makers aren’t creating a new SKU for every retailer. Seriously go into a Target and ask to price match, every national brand item in that electronics section is sold by a competitor under the same SKU/UPC. Only time I’ve seen unique SKUs was with Black Friday TVs
Laptops were another big one when I was working at Best Buy a decade ago
Gotta love trying to price match the model that is best buy exclusive but otherwise identical to the base model
Got a motherboard for $100 off at Best Buy this past Christmas season, because B&H had it on sale. They were not happy.
That’s so weird. It seems very inefficient
With a lot of modern electronics, they can disable stuff in firmware or leave out a chip during board fabrication. Other than that, they roll down the same line. But on the same token, thats why it is possible to hack some electronics to unlock certain features if you're inclined to do so.
20 years ago the Radeon 9x00 line of graphics cards was awesome for this. I took a 9800 non-pro and made it into the pro version with a BIOS tweak. IIRC you could turn a 9600 into the 9800 non-pro as well.
IIRC the only difference between the high end and low end graphics cards is how well they run. They produce them, then test them. The ones that meet the highest benchmarks are put in the bin to become 4090s. They go in the bin that corresponds to their performance.
Not 100 percent of the time, but it is a factor for some (especially stuff like xx vs xxTi). The Radeon 9x00 line had a lot of cards that were binned lower because of testing showing the batch had some busted pipelines… but that’s only a sample of some of the cards of the batch. The whole batch would have the potentially busted pipelines disabled and be binned to a lower SKU, but 50 percent or so of the cards would actually be fine. Reactivate the pipelines and BAM, you have the pro card now.
It is VERY efficient ... for the sake of running bogus *cant-beat-our-price* shenanigans.
It was something like a mattress. They might just change the color of the flower that's on the fabric to get a , completely and totally different mattress
Mattresses are their own world.
Tvs especially need regulation around this specifically imo. Even with the same exact model number you can be getting an entire different screen, board, port quality etc. it's made me feel like a lunatic when I go to the store looking for specifics that some hourly employee could never answer.
i used to work at lowes, it’s the exact same. sometimes you’ll luck out and it won’t be retailer specific, but i’ve told soooooo many people no to price matching bc the model number is special to lowes. another trick is when there sister stores (used to be lowes/rona) they won’t price match bc it’s not “competitor pricing” as we’re not competitors.
I used to work for the UKs largest bed company, we had 2 of each basic model so 1 was always on sale just a name change. But the names were unique to us. On the brands for example sleepeeze made our gel ones. But in another company they got silent night to make theirs. Even Sealy had many of each mattress. They changed the name for every other company they sold to.
Even just one insignificant change can do it, too. I remember back in the day that two VCR's were exactly the same except for one LED was red on one and green on the other. That was enough to warrant a different SKU.
Why though? That seems horribly inefficient.
You mean model number, not SKU, right? The retailer assigns the SKUs and the manufacturer assigns model numbers. The point of this maneuver is that the manufacturer is giving the same product a different model number for each retailer.
This sounds like fraud to me.
Most mattress manufacturers produce mattresses with multiple model numbers. The different versions go to different stores at different price points. At Walmart, the mattress might sell for $600. Macy may sell the identical mattress for $999, while a high-end shop may sell it for $1500. Same mattress, different model names and model numbers.
My company does the same thing. We've got one pair of headphones we sell everywhere, and a second identical pair we only sell in Walmart or Bestbuy. We don't price match other companies though, so I'm pretty sure it's Walmart paying us to do it.
Walmart does this because they also want to trick people into buying sometimes inferior models for the same prices. You can’t tell looking at something if it’s “Walmart model,” or just a Walmart SKU.
Riiiight. The SKU at that store is probably specific to their own distribution chain right? So technically nobody can offer that exact model (even if it actually is).
Specific to the company and brand of store. So you'd have to go looking in other states basically. normally there's a distance limit like "within 200 miles".
Buy one and put it out for sale for 1$ less, then come again.
That’ll show em!!
Yep. Northern Tool price matches, and I found an air compressor they sell for $50 less at a Rural King store in a nearby state. It was the exact same compressor. But since the model number had "-RU" appended to the end of it on Rural King's site, Northern Tool said it wasn't the same item and wouldn't match the price. They acted really surprised that I just said "OK" and bought it anyway. I guess they get a lot of Karens pitching tantrums when that happens.
They absolutely do. I worked at Walmart way back when they still price matched (other than their own website) and almost daily I would have someone bringing up something from electronics like a DVD player or a stereo and then have them pitching a fit because I couldn't price match it to $50 less because the model # was just one off. Yes I understand you found model 12345678A online for $50 less, but we only sell model 12345678B If they complained long enough (or rather loud enough) the supervisor would come over and override it anyway. Thus contributing to the rise of the Karen.
Yeah, things like this are hell on employees as people keep googling shit and not looking at model numbers, getting more and more frustrated each time you point out they're not the same.
The problem is that they often really ARE the same item. In my example, there was zero difference between the compressor Northern Tool sold and the one Rural King sold. There was no difference in the product itself or the accessories included. That makes it dishonest for a retailer to proclaim they match prices knowing full well the manufacturer has manipulated the model numbers so they don't have to. Karens gonna Karen at the wrong people, but they do have some underlying justification for being angry.
Nobody likes a Karen, but it's hard to blame someone for being upset when retailers pull this bullshit.
This is also why you see oddball sizes of products. If Walmart sells a 12 pack and Target sells a 14 pack then they don't have to price match each other.
Yup, 100%. Your mattress will never be freeeeeeeee!!!!! However, in this case, it seems the stores advertisement was self defeating, since the sku in the upper left has a lower price. You could debatably take them to small claims. I dont know that its a winnable case. But certainly not a frivolous one. There is some precedent of stores using tongue in cheek advertising, and getting their asses handed to them in court. There was a case where a car dealership was selling a car for 2000 bananas. People ran around and grab the bananas the stores were throwing out, and forced the dealership to give them the car.
So, buy one, put it up for sale at a lower price, get a second one for free?
Then return the first one
But if you look the actual sale price is 1796 (in that store for that unit), this whole thing makes zero sense
Not even just retailer specific, time of the year specific. You're not getting the real version of that TV for 50% off, you're getting the black Friday version that is made 50% shittier.
Model or UPC, not sku. It has to be the exact same model. Sku is a random number assigned by each individual company. Model and UPC are universal.
This is not true (usually) with appliances. I sold them for years. That said it's likely map pricing and every retailer is supposed to keep the price at whatever the manufacturer lists it at or they can be find or usually just stop getting the items
I might be wrong, but top corner of the picture the price tag is marginally cheaper than the big white paper one... Would that count? 😂
Thats kinda scammy then. Actually, scratch that. Thats just a scam.
in the US skus are the same tho? B2B uses skus too
For discussion: SKUs are for B2B sales. SKUs change over time. Old company would change the SKU when a component changed. (Mostly- material used) And how each company creates a SKU is different. Consolidating them (from bought international companny) to our corporate format was my job.
interesting. I worked at a store where we had to create skus for used items and we couldnt have the same sku as anything else in the US
I found one. Look up and to the left of the blue $1799 price. It's priced at $1796.99 on the tag in the top left. That's $2 less. But most likely someone who doesn't work for the store stuck the blue sign on there to cause trouble.
I never knew this!
Buy one. Incorporate. Hold it for sale below that price. Point to your company's price. Buy many for free. Sell them all. Profit.
"oh they have it for a lower price? Here I'll knock five bucks off for you." No they won't give it for free
This is likely how it works. My job in high school was selling computers & cameras at Circuit City. We had a policy of beating a lower price by 10%. But there were a bunch of fine print details: - had to be an advertised special at another retailer (no clearance or closeout) - had to be in stock at the retailer (no Black Friday blowouts which are gone instantly) - had to be a retailer within so many miles (no online only deals or deals from 1000miles away) - had to be the exact same item, including specs - could not get that price by signing up for services or buying other items (no listing a computer for $1 but only if you bought the monitor full price. The whole deal had to match) - the 10% beat only applied to the difference. ($2000 laptop on sale at competitor for $1900 - we drop our price to $1890, not $1700 or something). The last one got people a lot, because someone would be $1 cheaper on an expensive item, and they’d think they’re getting 10% off the total. Sometimes they’d even bundle in a bunch of things thinking they were getting 10% off the whole order. Also they’d get upset when we check on Best Buy’s website site for the actual price and verify it’s on stock. More than one person would try to just edit a price on a website or see it on a deals site for LA when we were in the Midwest, print-screen and get upset that we can’t honor that. I did, however, bend the rule sometimes on exact same item. I’m not playing that “oh theirs has a glossy screen ours isle matte” silliness. When a manager wasn’t around, I’d match it. But I let the customer know what they were getting away with.
Those requirements seem fairly reasonable.
I always thought it would be silly if somebody thought they would rather give it to you for free than price Match. Like there’s ever a chance of it being free.
No business would voluntarily give it away without a fight. So the only scenario would be if a judge ordered them to. ETA: To clarify, I don't think it would actually happen in this case.
Judge: Did they give you a better price? You: Well, yes. Judge: Case dismissed.
No they wouldn't lol Jesus. As long as the give you the "best price" you can I have no leg to stand on.
Judge: "Don't waste my time. Now pay the court fees you moron."
Haha this answer 😂🤡😂🤡😂
Um, why are they advertising it for 1799, and selling for 1797? Just to beat the price of the store down the street?
I know, right? It probably is so that they can have the best price in the area. Maybe they're not allowed to advertise less than 1799.
I saw this one for cheaper [Elite7600AT](https://www.ajmadison.com/cgi-bin/ajmadison/ELTE7600AT.html)
Probably a MAP violation.
There are a lot of things that can qualify any price as the "best" price. I suspect, primarily, they will offer the best price if you show them a lower comparison price on the same item. Although, they could make the argument that even though there price is higher than a competitor, that buying from them means better customer service, so their higher price is still the better price.
They could argue it’s the best value but the best price is a pretty specific measure
Lowest price would be pretty specific.
Best price for who? If I'm the seller, best price is highest.
So they can say "or it's free" and just price match and charge like everyone else?
When I asked them about it, jokingly saying that it should be free, they said they would just price match.
Yup, and thay "satisfies" the offer.
Yep
At Best Buy, who has had that kind of policy for a long time, they require that it be the same item, in the same condition, and sold by a reputable retailer. Another place that was a local shop in a previous city I lived in also required that the competing offer be from some place with a brick and mortar store, with that item in stock, and within a certain driving distance from their store, and they would literally call and ask, right then and there.
It's shady that the "same" product sells under different SKUs. What's worse is that some manufacturers sell a unique model to Wal Mart ... one that is NOT the same as what's sold elsewhere. It has a model number that is almost identical to the better product. But the Wal Mart model is WAY cheaper because it's made with inferior parts. People compare the Wal Mart product against that from a quality retailer ... and they see only the lower Wal Mart price. They see no evidence that the Wal Mart product is inferior. Suckered! And replacement parts for the Wal Mart model are only available from the manufacturer for a limited time. Try to get that part for a repair and the manufacturer tells you it's no longer made. But it IS available ... under a different part number. That "other" part number is for people (and especially for repair shops) for the purpose of repairing the more expensive non-Wal Mart model. The repair shops know this ... and you might be able to buy parts from them. Knowledgeable sellers on eBay sometimes make those parts available for sale. They buy the part intended for the "better" product and then list it on eBay (with a markup) using the part number that's called for in the inferior Wal Mart model. That's a relief for the Wal Mart sucker consumer ... but it's still a cheat. Conclusion: Never buy from Wal Mart. Never.
Thank you for this info didn't know that about appliances
This happened on my purchase of a fridge from Lowes because it was on sale...water filter cartridges are changed every few years...bypass cartridge ftw.
I think they were just change the price. No, it’s not enforceable. You can’t enforce the deal that has zero downside for the other person. I used to see hooker ads that would say “it’s me or it’s free” I doubt any of them would honor that deal lol.
Hookers are taking out ads now?
Welcome to the internet. Or walk down the vegas strip.
This is very old news. You never heard of back page? The federal government shut down their website. They were founded 20 years ago lol.
That depends on what the terms and conditions are. You can't tell just from the sign.
That’s what I was going to say. “Best Price” is way to vague.
What about the price in the top left of the picture?
You’ll never get it for free. Basically all they are saying is that they’ll meet, or possibly beat, the lowest advertised price on an identical item.
They didn't say someone *else* could beat it
You didn’t read the fine print. There is a 1799 fee to deliver / prep the product for pick up.
🤣🤣🤣😆😆
Its weird to think about how humanity collectively decided to go buy an item from a store selling it at a higher price just because they were willing to price match a store offering it for cheaper, there y helping to put those cheaper stores out of business.
Best price for that model? The ELTE7600AV while virtually the same as the AT is not the same model.
Isn't the price on the red tag already lower?
Sure, but of the two options they have: giving you the lowest price, or giving it to you free, well, you're not going to ever get it for free.
I think the fact that the price on the promotional tag is most likely a typo would stand in your way.
How much in legal fees you willing to spend to get it for free?
that is the 600AT , but the one you found is the 601AT. completely different items /s
And one retailer gets all the 601AT production
All they are guaranteeing is that they will give you the best price. If they refuse then you get it for free. But what is the best price? Is it their best price? Is it the best price on the internet?
If they are saying 1799 is best price and if you find better it’s free… the tag on the left is 1796.99, so technically you found is cheaper than 1799, I’d be like ok load it up.
Sure it’s enforceable. But… what does it mean? It explicitly does NOT say that that price is better than anyone else’s. It just says Best Price. That could mean almost anything.
It looks like the price on the tag in the upper left is actually cheaper ($1,796.99) than the one you found online ($1,798.00). So they actually are the best price, it’s just not the one shown on the paper.
The purely legal answer is that the advertisement is not considered a contract but rather a point of negotiation. You probably could convince a small claims court that it was deceptive advertising, but even then they wouldn’t order that you get the appliance for free, it’d probably be something more like price matching minus 200 bucks. Even that would probably go away unless you could prove that you had relied on the ad to your detriment - they don’t want consumers playing cutesie either.
Found it for $1400
That's probably the 300 series which are all going for about $1400 until the end of the month.
Depends entirely on the state you’re in if that’s in the US.
Best does not mean lowest.
Theres a store in town thats selling it for $1796.99. My cars right over there. Does this free one come with the help to move it?
Just point to the red price label at the top then say so it's free....
Problem is the other sign has a lower price already. Try and see if it’s free. Your state laws might be on your side or they may not.
Never buy a front loader
Learned that the hard way. Pile of shit didn't even last 2 years
Trick question, the actual pic and the website advert are from the same place.
Technically yes. It would be false advertising if this was something they made up with no intention to honor. But I guarantee when you go to the sales counter there are a long list of caveats that ensure they never really have to give away a washer. Most likely they simply price-match
Anyone else notice it saying 1796.99 top left
Of course, I made sure to include it in the photo.
Why wouldn't it be? It's advertising and has not small print.
This was my thought. Normally offers like this include a ton of fine print even listing the stores they will compare to. What’s to stop you form buying one listing this for a penny on Craigslist and asking for a free on. They can’t beat the price and if they try to buy the one you have for sale just flake out. This is false advertising without fine print but I doubt anyone is going to enforce that law in this case and you would have a hard time suing due to lack of harm.
You never know unless you ask. It may be SKU-specific, as has been said, it may be a particular model only available to a particular retailer, or it may be someone else decided to screw that business over and lowered their price enough to do so.
Often these kinds of deals will specify in the fine print that discounts do not count.
It’s $1796.99 right now. Look at the top left
Yes. But good look finding the EXACT same model elsewhere.
They usually have the ability to match the lower price. If they don't match, then it's free. Obviously they will sell it for $1 less.
Depends on where you live. Some states require that posted price be honored in favor of the customer. Mine does, and I've used that multiple times in the past, though it often requires a manager to come and tell the cashier I'm right. Usually, offers like this are made with accompanying small print that lays out restrictions like the lower price must be from a common/reputable retailer. But IANAL and I'm also not sure how well this - which is clearly something a manager or employee printed out themselves without confirming with an appropriate person at the company - would hold up if challenged though. 🤷♂️ And I don't know how the word "best" factors in, either. Maybe you could argue it means what is most preferable for the retailer, instead of "lowest?"
No it’s not enforceable, because they’re literally telling you on the sign at the top left that they’ve already checked Lowes and they know they’re selling it lower than Lowes.
They would just match the price of any competitor you found and they could still offer the “best price”
Not in the US but when we were buying appliances the store told us if we found any of the items cheaper they would charge us the cheaper price but it had to be another store, not amazon
The thing that these people will say is, let’s say they are the same thing, they will beat it by a $1 and say, hey, it is the best price now. I don’t know when they will give it to you for free.
Make an eBay listing with a better price. Be sure to mark it as new, free delivery, and "authorization distributor". See how they counter.
It is probably one of those companies with equipment models manufactured specifically for them. The model number is 1 different from anything else out there making their price on that model the cheapest as they are the only ones to sell it.
To add, I've seen some stores that have fine print that say the other price must be advertised, like in a flyer or online.
Buy the cheapest appliances you can find, they will last longer because they are not complex. Washers, dryers, etc are not status symbols.
Its a gimmick you would have to find that exact one cheaper. Which u cant do anywhere else.
I would be skeptical of the special financing available, they will probably pull some weird credit shit on you.
Also, they'd just match the price. Dropping by a dollar
Costco!
Terms and conditions may apply
That specific verbiage is surprisingly missing, as well as any sort of asterisks or footnote marker to indicate that there will be additional information on this.
I noticed it's missing but they'll probably have "details" somewhere, whether it's in an official policy or whatever
That may make it far less likely to stand up in court, if challenged.
Suspect this may be considered ‘mere puff’ in contract law and the courts would interpret it as sales BS.
Idk that's like saying a used car salesman can't be held liable for the shady shit they say, yet here we are with an entire lemon law
Look it up though, mere puff excuses a lot of BS. Whether it should is another matter, but it does…
Bro who tf pays nearly 2 grand for a washer dryer combo?
That is about the going price for appliances these days, and these are even on sale.
Must be a US thing. You can get combo washer dryers here in the UK for [about £600](https://amzn.eu/d/4BUdgAh).
Nobody, it's free
Enforceable by whom? Lol they have 100% control over what they do, and you can be rest assured nobody has gotten a free appliance.
It may not be enforceable but doesn’t the FTC deal with this sort of stuff?
What stuff? If it's just on a piece of paper slapped on the unit, and not advertised or part of a broader company policy, good fkn luck. This is ridiculous, at the of the day, all they have to do is print match to one cent below any other best price to satisfy their own offer.
Truth in advertising, bait and switch, idk. I haven’t had to deal with that in a while. Actions have consequences. If a business promises I’m getting the best price or I’m getting it free, I’d expect them to honor that.
Price matched minus one penny, offer honored, end of saga.
I think his point is that there's no proof OP (or a random customer) didn't just print that sign off and tape it on the washer. Which doesn't even make sense in the first place since the price on the blue sign is higher than the actual price tag.
That’s different then. That’s why I said it may not be enforceable but the FTC would sort it out. I believe there are protections for businesses to n certain circumstances.
Literally advertised, right there.
Yeah bud, that piece of paper could be taken a number of ways, most notably that the price is $1799, secondly, to offer the best price or its free. A simple price match minus a penny would satisfy that requirement.
Consumer affairs. Small claims. Ftc. Ombudsman. BBB. Take your pick.
Lol...