The Art of Pricematch (ALPHA version 0.1)
Work in Progress, will be updated with comments and suggestions as time goes on:
While the basics are simple and most PM's are successful, some price matches, especially the bigger ones, are harder to get. This guide is most relevant to those big scores, items that are hardest to get because the ad says "limited qty", the item doesn't have a model #, or the deal is just too big.
1. Everyone is playing a game to get money
The biggest misconception people have is that stores has to follow their policies, and when employees try to give excuses, customers take them literally and the price match devolves into squabbles over details like which stores are in stock, what is the exact model number, which are important but take alot of work. Actually I want people to think about price matches another way: Stores pricematch because the costs of PMing is smaller than the costs of evading. These costs will vary depending on the retailer: the position of the employee, his commission structure, the time of day, the branch's policies, and it will depend on you, your attitude, appearence, persona. You can control over all of these and by doing alot of little things, avoid all of the squabbles and get the price match immediately.
2. People don't serve policies, they serve themselves
On a 60% PM, I had gotten my pricematch, but at the end I was squaring with store manager for the price beat. Because I wasn't able to come in at a busy time, he was able to bring in guys from 3 departments and now 8 FS employees were staring me down as he just bluntly told me he wouldn't give me 10% of the difference, in an attempt to use social pressure. This required a new stratagem.
I began questioning his moral authority, saying that "Well that doesn't seem right to me". "I thought Futureshop had a 10% price guarantee" as I pointed at the big sign overhead which said they would beat 10% of the difference "Are you saying you aren't going to honour your policies" "So you're not going to do the proper thing". I acted surprised and disappointed, like I never imagined that futureshop would stoop to this level. The idea was to force him to either admit he was disobeying policies in front of a large number of his staff.
I had to be careful though. It was important to preserve as much of his face in front of his employees, because if I embarrassed him too severely he wouldn't let me win. So as I resolutely stood my ground in front, I acted like he was MY manager, using "Sir" in my statements to him, being polite and making allusions to his important work at the store. I showed respect at the same time I browbeat him about the store's policies.
In the end I let him a way out. "Ok sir, I understand what you're saying, I'll pay $120 (1.50 dollars more than the price beat, but he was giving me ~12 bucks more than his original offer). He accepted this, because I made sure that doing otherwise would make him seem a dishonourable dick in front of his employees while on the otherhand I reduced the loss of face caused by accepting my offer by giving a trivial amount. He tried to use social pressure but I flipped this trick back on him.
3. The store's hassles are your friend (never interrupt the store when they are making mistakes)
I was PMing an item that was ****REDACTED***** at another chain. This was a massive PM of 85% of the retail, selling at a third cost. The alarm bells rang at the CS counter, and the store manager was called in after I did battle with the department manager. They tried hassling me with the usual.
Now I used their songs and dances to my advantage. In addition to being ****REDACTED****, the item had a number of other problems which would normally be problems for price matching. By running the manager through these they would be worn down before they found the real problem. So I made nervous and excessive statements, to the effect that the item was in stock, that the chain had to match stores anywhere in Canada. This instantly attracted the attention of the store manager who fell for my trap.
Firstly the website did not show stock. This item was actually in stock at only 1 of 6 stores in the region. I knew the store but I didn't tell them to force them to tire themselves by calling every store possible to find stock. Then after they finally found the store, they came up with another normal excuse, that they would need to charge shipping costs. This was wrong, but this gave me another opportunity to sing and dance with the managers.
Finally after running through my maze and interrogating all of the usual suspects, they found out the real problem, ****REDACTED****, they couldn't PM. The model number of the item on Futureshop's computer was "A". But ****REDACTED*****...Sorry, no PM. But I had an ace card. I picked up 6 of the item at another branch, and the actual model number on the box was "C"! The chain's neat trick of changing the model numbers to dodge price matches suddenly backfired.
I pointed out there is no such item with model number "A", what are you guys trying to pull? I've been here for goddamn 30 minutes and you guys are wasting everyones time! (I had made sure of this, espiecally since I came in at the busiest possible time of the day). Finally the managers relented and I walked out with 6 Christmas presents way below cost.
4. Know the store and know yourself
5. Respect the store and yourself
This isn't about sticking it to Futureshop/BestBuy, whoever. It's about getting a good (or even amazing) deal for yourself. Don't blow things out of proportion or waste your time on vendettas, no matter what happens. Also, skip the complaint to the store or HQ. These are outlets designed by companies to let customers vent. I doubt anyone gets something substantial, (tell me if you do). Time = Money, use this fact to your advantage later.
While the basics are simple and most PM's are successful, some price matches, especially the bigger ones, are harder to get. This guide is most relevant to those big scores, items that are hardest to get because the ad says "limited qty", the item doesn't have a model #, or the deal is just too big.
1. Everyone is playing a game to get money
The biggest misconception people have is that stores has to follow their policies, and when employees try to give excuses, customers take them literally and the price match devolves into squabbles over details like which stores are in stock, what is the exact model number, which are important but take alot of work. Actually I want people to think about price matches another way: Stores pricematch because the costs of PMing is smaller than the costs of evading. These costs will vary depending on the retailer: the position of the employee, his commission structure, the time of day, the branch's policies, and it will depend on you, your attitude, appearence, persona. You can control over all of these and by doing alot of little things, avoid all of the squabbles and get the price match immediately.
2. People don't serve policies, they serve themselves
On a 60% PM, I had gotten my pricematch, but at the end I was squaring with store manager for the price beat. Because I wasn't able to come in at a busy time, he was able to bring in guys from 3 departments and now 8 FS employees were staring me down as he just bluntly told me he wouldn't give me 10% of the difference, in an attempt to use social pressure. This required a new stratagem.
I began questioning his moral authority, saying that "Well that doesn't seem right to me". "I thought Futureshop had a 10% price guarantee" as I pointed at the big sign overhead which said they would beat 10% of the difference "Are you saying you aren't going to honour your policies" "So you're not going to do the proper thing". I acted surprised and disappointed, like I never imagined that futureshop would stoop to this level. The idea was to force him to either admit he was disobeying policies in front of a large number of his staff.
I had to be careful though. It was important to preserve as much of his face in front of his employees, because if I embarrassed him too severely he wouldn't let me win. So as I resolutely stood my ground in front, I acted like he was MY manager, using "Sir" in my statements to him, being polite and making allusions to his important work at the store. I showed respect at the same time I browbeat him about the store's policies.
In the end I let him a way out. "Ok sir, I understand what you're saying, I'll pay $120 (1.50 dollars more than the price beat, but he was giving me ~12 bucks more than his original offer). He accepted this, because I made sure that doing otherwise would make him seem a dishonourable dick in front of his employees while on the otherhand I reduced the loss of face caused by accepting my offer by giving a trivial amount. He tried to use social pressure but I flipped this trick back on him.
3. The store's hassles are your friend (never interrupt the store when they are making mistakes)
I was PMing an item that was ****REDACTED***** at another chain. This was a massive PM of 85% of the retail, selling at a third cost. The alarm bells rang at the CS counter, and the store manager was called in after I did battle with the department manager. They tried hassling me with the usual.
Now I used their songs and dances to my advantage. In addition to being ****REDACTED****, the item had a number of other problems which would normally be problems for price matching. By running the manager through these they would be worn down before they found the real problem. So I made nervous and excessive statements, to the effect that the item was in stock, that the chain had to match stores anywhere in Canada. This instantly attracted the attention of the store manager who fell for my trap.
Firstly the website did not show stock. This item was actually in stock at only 1 of 6 stores in the region. I knew the store but I didn't tell them to force them to tire themselves by calling every store possible to find stock. Then after they finally found the store, they came up with another normal excuse, that they would need to charge shipping costs. This was wrong, but this gave me another opportunity to sing and dance with the managers.
Finally after running through my maze and interrogating all of the usual suspects, they found out the real problem, ****REDACTED****, they couldn't PM. The model number of the item on Futureshop's computer was "A". But ****REDACTED*****...Sorry, no PM. But I had an ace card. I picked up 6 of the item at another branch, and the actual model number on the box was "C"! The chain's neat trick of changing the model numbers to dodge price matches suddenly backfired.
I pointed out there is no such item with model number "A", what are you guys trying to pull? I've been here for goddamn 30 minutes and you guys are wasting everyones time! (I had made sure of this, espiecally since I came in at the busiest possible time of the day). Finally the managers relented and I walked out with 6 Christmas presents way below cost.
4. Know the store and know yourself
5. Respect the store and yourself
This isn't about sticking it to Futureshop/BestBuy, whoever. It's about getting a good (or even amazing) deal for yourself. Don't blow things out of proportion or waste your time on vendettas, no matter what happens. Also, skip the complaint to the store or HQ. These are outlets designed by companies to let customers vent. I doubt anyone gets something substantial, (tell me if you do). Time = Money, use this fact to your advantage later.