Ed
09-10-04, 01:00 AM
Ok folks, taken straight outta the pricenetwork.ca forums where I first learned to do this (kudos PN), here goes my 2 cents on how to pricematch. Many times big electronic dealers will guarantee that they give the lowest prices on all their equipment, and if you find it anywhere else, they'll match it and then beat it. So what they do is they'll match it and then say they'll beat it by however many % of the DIFFERENCE, including if things are on sale. Here's the list of the big stores I do it at, feel free to add to the list:
Futureshop: 110%
Bestbuy: 110%
...and the big one
Staples: 150%, to a maximum of $50
All prices and stores will be Canadian, I don't know what you Americans have down there except best buy :P.
So here's an example, I'll use Staples since they give by far the best deal. This actually happened. A 120 gig Maxtor HD went on sale in a Bestbuy flyer for $120 a few weeks ago. Staples had it in store for regular at $220. So a few people brought in the Best Buy flyer, and the procedure is Staples will call the store to verify the price, model #, and if it's in stock. If all three are answered positive, then the procedure is they'll match the price down to $120, and then take off 50% of the difference. well the difference in price here is $100, so they take off $50, which is the maximum amount they'll take off by the way. That leaves you with a $70 HD. It was an awesome deal. I recently pricematched a wireless B PCI card at staples and it ended up at around $60. They had it at a regular price of $90, and London ****s had it for $70. What was even better was that I combined this with a $15 mail in rebate and well, $45 for a wireless PCI card's a steal to me. I haven't mailed it yet though, so I wonder if they'll accept it.
Be quick though, I've heard stores like Staples say they're out of stock on something and hide the items in the back after someone's pulled the pricematch off for the first time, or they'll change the price. Another thing you should make sure before you go pricematch is that the item is actually in stock in the store you're pricematching with.
The advantage? Well, lower price first of all, but the tricky part is, some stores like staples have a vague policy on internet websites. Some people have pulled off pricematches with ncix.com or tigerdirect.ca. I've been scouring trying to look for a monitor, but nothing's been better yet. The bottom line here however is that the shipping is what kills on things like monitors or speakers, so try pricematching and see what they say, also saves the wait. however, they have also told me that I need to include shipping in my price I give to them, so they could screw you that way...but still, it may end up cheaper. You can also pricematch up to a set amount of days after you bought something, so make sure to keep an eye out on flyers for things that you've bought to see if you can get them cheaper. I got a Phillips DVD player at best buy a few weeks ago for $120, and the next day I found out it was only $100 at Radioshack, so I pricematched it and ended up getting $21 back.
Hope this has been helpful, happy PM'ing guys. If you want more updates on what to PM or alerts on anything you can do it on, just let me know and I can start posting updates every friday, or go to www.pricenetwork.ca or www.redflagdeals.com.
Futureshop: 110%
Bestbuy: 110%
...and the big one
Staples: 150%, to a maximum of $50
All prices and stores will be Canadian, I don't know what you Americans have down there except best buy :P.
So here's an example, I'll use Staples since they give by far the best deal. This actually happened. A 120 gig Maxtor HD went on sale in a Bestbuy flyer for $120 a few weeks ago. Staples had it in store for regular at $220. So a few people brought in the Best Buy flyer, and the procedure is Staples will call the store to verify the price, model #, and if it's in stock. If all three are answered positive, then the procedure is they'll match the price down to $120, and then take off 50% of the difference. well the difference in price here is $100, so they take off $50, which is the maximum amount they'll take off by the way. That leaves you with a $70 HD. It was an awesome deal. I recently pricematched a wireless B PCI card at staples and it ended up at around $60. They had it at a regular price of $90, and London ****s had it for $70. What was even better was that I combined this with a $15 mail in rebate and well, $45 for a wireless PCI card's a steal to me. I haven't mailed it yet though, so I wonder if they'll accept it.
Be quick though, I've heard stores like Staples say they're out of stock on something and hide the items in the back after someone's pulled the pricematch off for the first time, or they'll change the price. Another thing you should make sure before you go pricematch is that the item is actually in stock in the store you're pricematching with.
The advantage? Well, lower price first of all, but the tricky part is, some stores like staples have a vague policy on internet websites. Some people have pulled off pricematches with ncix.com or tigerdirect.ca. I've been scouring trying to look for a monitor, but nothing's been better yet. The bottom line here however is that the shipping is what kills on things like monitors or speakers, so try pricematching and see what they say, also saves the wait. however, they have also told me that I need to include shipping in my price I give to them, so they could screw you that way...but still, it may end up cheaper. You can also pricematch up to a set amount of days after you bought something, so make sure to keep an eye out on flyers for things that you've bought to see if you can get them cheaper. I got a Phillips DVD player at best buy a few weeks ago for $120, and the next day I found out it was only $100 at Radioshack, so I pricematched it and ended up getting $21 back.
Hope this has been helpful, happy PM'ing guys. If you want more updates on what to PM or alerts on anything you can do it on, just let me know and I can start posting updates every friday, or go to www.pricenetwork.ca or www.redflagdeals.com.