NCIX's Price Matching is useless.

[Narci]

I walked into a NCIX and asked if they price matched. They said It depends, they'll try thier best or give me thier best price. I'm thinking...we'll that's not price matching is it?

So I get a ticket and wait. My turn comes up. I ask if I can PM something and he says 'Sure'. He asked me how much I saw the item for and I gave him a price. He didn't even check my PM Source. All he did was go onto NCIX's site and look up the item points out that he can't move on what the price says on the NCIX site.

So what's the point of having a price matching policy if:

A) You don't price match all legit PM's

B) You don't even check the source of the PM so see if it legit

C) You try to give the customer the best price but still above the PM's price.

[deep]

They are pretty clear about their concept of Price Matching...it's not an iron clad guarantee, but I'd still say it's better than nothing. I've never had an online PM rejected, but I've never tried a really crazy one, either.

Does NCIX.com match competitors’ pricing?

Although it is not always possible to match the prices offered by our competitors, we would like the opportunity to win your business. At the bottom of the checkout page, there is a Price Match button. Clicking this will allow you to enter competitive pricing, and the source for the price (which must be included). Unfortunately, Price Match is only offered to our Canadian customers at this time.

Prices considered for Price Match must be IN STOCK and available as a NEW item at a retail business or a web based store, with full e-commerce functionality, a valid SSL certificate and credit card verification. Exact items, model numbers and part numbers must match to qualify for Price Match requests. Most computer products are sold as Retail, OEM or Promotional products, and while they are often similar products, we cannot match prices on items with different packaging.

Prices submitted for Price Match must be from a Canadian retailer and must be in Canadian funds. No foreign retailer Price Match requests or currency conversion equivalents will be accepted. Price Match requests will be rejected for any competitor’s prices that appear to be a misprint, typographic error, fraudulent price or misrepresentation of a product.

As verification of competitors' pricing is done manually, allow up to an additional 1-3 business days for Price Match processing.

Please note that many competitors' quoted prices include a 2-3% cash discount, when their customers are paying by cash or certified check. In such cases, if we can match a competitors' price, the cash discount will be added back to the matched price.

[Rai_Polo]

I've never had them reject my price matches but I buy online. Maybe the price matching is more geared towards online buyers..

[lil Hercules]

There are many reason why a company even though they say they price match, cannot price match.. Stores like bestbuy or NCIX, have to match based on the item and the price..

Most of these stores like canada computers, tiger direct sell alot of products that are not authorized by the dealer, they carry no warranty by the manufacturer, which makes it cheaper to sell. They also sell OEM products which cannot be matched either even thought the product maybe the same, the situation in which it comes in is very different. This is not a great reason but sometimes they do not match the price because the competitors price is ridiculously cheaper then there cost price.. usually if this is the case then the store they're getting the cheaper price from has a reason for the cheaper price.

I'm not exactly sure what there reasoning was for not matching but, that could have been it.. .. lol. or you just got a bad sales person.

[Narci]

There are many reason why a company even though they say they price match, cannot price match.. Stores like bestbuy or NCIX, have to match based on the item and the price..

Most of these stores like canada computers, tiger direct sell alot of products that are not authorized by the dealer, they carry no warranty by the manufacturer, which makes it cheaper to sell. They also sell OEM products which cannot be matched either even thought the product maybe the same, the situation in which it comes in is very different. This is not a great reason but sometimes they do not match the price because the competitors price is ridiculously cheaper then there cost price.. usually if this is the case then the store they're getting the cheaper price from has a reason for the cheaper price.

I'm not exactly sure what there reasoning was for not matching but, that could have been it.. .. lol. or you just got a bad sales person.

The service rep didn't ask me where I got the price from or even looked at the site where the product was cheaper.

NCIX also sells OEM products. Both products were exactly the same and OEM.


On, maybe scam is a harsh word. If a mod can change scam to useless, thanks.

[Rai_Polo]

If you ask for a price match on a product that they aren't making profit on or are making very little profit they don't even need to know your source. They just can't match it.

What did you ask for? What was the product?

[GVRtrader]

The service rep didn't ask me where I got the price from or even looked at the site where the product was cheaper.

NCIX also sells OEM products. Both products were exactly the same and OEM.


On, maybe scam is a harsh word. If a mod can change scam to useless, thanks.

You can actually change it yourself.

NCIX's price match policy = generally the first thing they do is look at the cost of the item. If you're PMing something below their cost, they generally won't even bother looking at it because odds are its a different product or they PM to lose money on sale (stupid isn't it?).

Also PMing in store, they generally try to make as much money as possible so (mainly in Richmond), they will offer you a slightly lower price but not the PM value. If you PM online with an authorized retailer, than you generally will get the PM unless its below cost.

Also, even if the product is OEM, NCIX carries a warranty on it (as in they will warranty it if the manuf doesn't). Not every retailer will do that.

Bottom line, its better to have their PM policy than no policy at all. Their policy is also a lot better than other companies because they are willing to match other places in Canada (Canadacomputer, TD, etc). If you actually ordered online from any of those locations, you will need to pay shipping... that generally cancels any saving you get anyways. Basically, you should feel lucky if the PM, because if the place was local, why would you PM in the first place?

For example, Anitec has something cheaper, why bother going to NCIX to PM when you can easily goto Anitec to get the product? If you are heading to NCIX or NCIX is closer, you can try, if they reject, just goto Anitec (replace Anitec with any local company). Speaking of Anitec, their PM policy is easier for local stores (altho i believe they only match local stores). So far i have had 100% full PM @ Anitec for local stores (PM just 'cause i was there buying something on sale... successful stores include a-power, cancomputer, ncix).

[crimsona]

Did you walk into the Richmond location by any chance?

In any case, NCIX has PM'ed 100% of the stuff I've purchased, all online with instore pickup

[Firefoxer]

Did anyone got rejected with pms from DirectCanada or NXSource?

[Jon Lai]

Did anyone got rejected with pms from DirectCanada or NXSource?

Nope, they always PM their own sister companies.

[divx]

How does their sister companies work? Anyone know a bit of economics? I don't understand why they have their subsidiary companies in direct competition with each other.

[crimsona]

I figured DC is a way of nabbing the marketshare of internet direct order companies, against competition across provinces (TD, CC, etc), while being able to keep prices high for (what I guess) is the more lucrative and higher margin in-store customers at NCIX

If NCIX had DC prices (and DC did not exist), their gross margins would decrease a lot, although their out-of-province sales would go up. This way, by having a fairly lenient PM process, they lose that margin only on a small minority of in-store orders rather than every order.

In short: Targeting slightly different markets, and eating the cost of PMs to build customer loyalty. I know I haven't stepped into a non-NCIX computer parts store in years - I just get literally everything pricematched.

Addendum: NXSource seems more focused on business users while the other two are consumer

[Amourek]

NCIX pricematching - lesson 1: Always pricematch online. It will go through 99% of the time. In-store, YMMV greatly.

[gman]

NCIX pricematching - lesson 1: Always pricematch online. It will go through 99% of the time. In-store, YMMV greatly.

+1. So far, they never fail me. However, I did not push the envelop either such as PM price error, door crash sale item, etc.

[torontoraptor]

Anyone ever been successful in PMing an out of stock item? I want to PM some RAM but it's not in stock at the other store. It's not a sale or anything but it is a decent amount cheaper than at NCIX.