A tale of 2 Best Buy pricematches

Introduction

So my reselling buddies and I went nuts today because Staples has the iPad mini 4 on sale this week for $299…or so we thought.   Looks like Staples made an oopsy because when you tried to buy the item online on Sunday, it showed up $399 in the cart.  I know of ONE person who got it to go through at $299, but the rest of us were not so lucky.  However, I heard that in-store, they were ringing up as $299 or if you had a nice Staples manager, they could pricematch it to the $299.  The best route however was to pricematch Staples to other local competitors like Target and Best Buy.

Staples in-store

For some reason, the Staples in the Seattle area carry bare-bone stock of iPads.  The one by my house probably has no iPads available and others within a 25 mile radius had ZERO in stock.  I’m not sure if it’s because the resellers had gotten to them already, or if they really do suck at stocking iPads.  Anyway, I went to the store and grabbed an ad, and tried to get the manager to buy 1 at the kiosk and pricematch it to the ad.  The manager told me he had none in stock and that he could try to call a different store.  Store B, which usually has them in stock, also had NONE in stock.  I would have tried to do an in-store order for delivery, but I honestly don’t think the manager knew how to do it, so I didn’t push it and left the store.

Best Buy pricematch

I drove a mile down the road to the Best Buy.  Even they had barely any stock of them.  I told him I wanted 3 grays, but they only had 1 gray and 2 silver, which was fine with me.  He rang them up, I whipped out my Staples ad.  He looks at it, then confirms it’s today’s ad, and then calls a manager over to approve the pricematch.  When the manager came over, I think the cashier softly muttered that he did verify stock availability at Staples, even though I don’t think he did.  He then had to manually pricematch each one while the manager stood there and waited for him to finish so he could type in his code.  The manager was very laid back and left when the pricematch was done.  I of course then paid with Apple Pay to get my 22% from Discover and left the store a happy customer.

Best Buy #2

Best Buy number 2 is in a more affluent neighborhood and had more people in the store.  Once again, I told them I wanted 3 iPads.  After he rung them up, I showed him the ad and he said he couldn’t do it because it was a “special buy.”  I was like, “What the hell is a special buy?  It’s a SALE in an AD, which you pricematch.”  Immediately, I was irate at them trying to not let pricematch for a bs excuse.  He then grabbed another coworker and said something like, “We don’t pricematch special buys right?”  I then asked him wtf a special buy was.  Coworker B said it was when a store is clearing out an inventory.  I told him, “This is a mini 4.  Staples isn’t clearing these out.  They WILL get more stock.  If this was a mini 3, I would buy that excuse.”  He then nodded in agreement and walked away while coworker A called over the manager.  The manager came over and of course the vigiliant coworker A led him on with, “He’s trying to pricematch this to Staples and I think it’s a special buy.”  Once again, I reiterated, “It’s not a special buy.  It’s a SALE.”

Anyway, I immediately pulled out my phone and started to read BB’s pm policy.  The manager then went out to Staples.com and said 1) it’s showing up as $399 and b) more importantly, it’s out of stock for pickup.”  I said, “Did you check other stores?”  Wise ass then said, “Yes, I know there are other stores.  I can’t do ‘store pickup’ so it’s not in stock.”  I then argued, “Well can you call the store since sometimes the inventory online doesn’t match what they have in store?”  BECAUSE I KNOW FOR 100% THAT BESTBUY.COM’S INVENTORY NEVER MATCHES IN STORE INVENTORY.  The manager said, “Nope.  It’s not available.  I can’t pricematch.”  I realized at that point no matter how much I argue with him about the corporate price match policy, he wasn’t going to relent, so I grabbed my ad and left.  Usually, I’m courteous and say, “Thanks anyway,”  but this time I just walked away.

Conclusion

There were a couple of things that pissed me off about the 2nd pricematch – 1) of how the first cashier just automatically tried to deny the pricematch by claiming it’s a “special buy” (I hate it when people try to look for technicalities, especially when they are wrong) and 2) of how the manager didn’t even both to try calling the Staples.  It’s not like he was busy; there were more employees walking around than customers!  The corporate policy says “A local retail competitor for retail store purchases is a retail store authorized by a vendor to sell a new, factory-sealed product with a warranty and is located in the same market area (within a 25-mile radius) of your local Best Buy store.”  If he had called the Staples and they said NO STOCK, I would have been happy, but not even trying because he didn’t want to do the pm was what pissed me off.  Plus, I had read that others were being denied because the nearest Staples didn’t have any in stock.  I just hate it when local managers try to make up their own rules.

Look I know after reading this post and the BBB post from last week that some of you think I may feel entitled, but I actually don’t.  In this game, you have to be ready to get rejected by managers who care just a little too much.  You should always put up a fight by making your strongest argument, but you have to know when it’s going to be a losing battle.  I considered complaining to corporate, but I’m sure it’ll fall on deaf ears, so will let this fight go.  Plus, I know I’ll win the war when Best Buy no longer exists in 5 years.   In this game, you win some and you lose some, and it’s all cashier/manager YMMV.