Price match advice?

Sianey

Hi there,

I'm fairly new to MSE so I hope I'm posting in the right forum :hello:

I'm looking to buy some shoes off a website, they are priced at £72 with a price match guarantee plus 10% off if they're cheaper elsewhere.

They're also on another site for £64.99, so cheaper than the site promising the price match plus 10% off. (They are out of stock now, but when I submitted my price match query they were available.)

I contacted the first site who said that they would check the seasons of both the shoes and they told me: "If it’s the same, we’ll be happy to match it."

I've not heard from them for 5 days now so I phoned both websites myself to check the seasons of the shoes, and they are both the same. I then called the first website back to ask them how my price match query is coming along and they said that they are unable to do it because they would be making a loss on the shoes.

From my point of view, they have advertised a promotion that they are not willing to follow through with. Can anyone advise on any rights I have here?

Many thanks!

somethingcorporate

It'll be down to the wording and T&Cs of the price match guarantee. A million years ago when I worked in Jessops we had the same thing, we could match to a point but doing so to cause a loss would just have put us out of business so we often refused to do them if it would cause us to lose money on an item.

They can refuse to sell to you for any reason so for the sake of £10 it would probably not be worth pursuing more than a couple of phone calls / emails. As to rights, again, it will probably be far more hassle for the sake of such a small amount in asserting them (if you indeed have any) than to simply buy them at the best price they can do.

McKneff

I/m confused as to why you just didnt buy them from the company who were selling them at £64.99, wouldnt that have been much easier. No hassle.
Yes, I know the 10% was there but youve probably spent more than that in time and telephone calls.

Sianey

Thanks for your quick responses!

I didn't buy them from the cheaper site as they weren't as well established as the site promising the price match guarantee, I just wanted to stick with a company I knew since I thought I had a choice. But in all the time it's taken to get to this point, the shoes have now gone out of stock on the cheaper website, hence why I'm pursuing my query!

The website in question doesn't actually have any T&C's available to view regarding their price match offer so that's why I'm a bit clueless on what to do here.

I accept that a company can refuse to sell to someone, but surely it's false advertising if they're promoting that they'll price match and not providing details of how far this extends to?

lucy03

I would examine the terms and conditions of the offer, if a company is offering a blanket discount (without conditions) it may be a matter that trading standards would be interested in as I would say there's a potential breach of the 2008 Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations and potentially the 2008 Misleading Marketing Regulations Act if it refers more specifically to another business.

Personally, I'd let it go if the business tried its best and just couldn't afford to match the price. If they were getting lots of trade by the offer, with no hope of it being met, I might progress it.

hcb42

tried this one when buying a camera recently, the fact the cheaper store had no stock meant the best price guarantee would not be honoured

For that difference in price I would just suck it up and pay the difference, (as indeed I had to with the camera, as couldnt get stock elsewhere!)

Sianey

Thanks for the further advice.

I followed up with them again today (felt like they were avoiding my enquiry) and happy to say that they honoured my price match as they had kept me waiting for so long for an answer :j

Lusinda

This is what they will do. The blurb in their magazine is obfuscating.

........."Thank you for your email. We are unable to price match with EBay as we only price match with our main online competitors. Our stores cannot price match online stores unless it is Jessops online. They can look in to price matching with retail outlets within a 15 mile radius of the store."

Lusinda

Jessops price match? This is what they will actually do.

............."Thank you for your email. We are unable to price match with EBay as we only price match with our main online competitors. Our stores cannot price match online stores unless it is Jessops online. They can look in to price matching with retail outlets within a 15 mile radius of the store."

wealdroam

Lusinda wrote: »

This is what they will do. The blurb in their magazine is obfuscating.

........."Thank you for your email. We are unable to price match with EBay as we only price match with our main online competitors. Our stores cannot price match online stores unless it is Jessops online. They can look in to price matching with retail outlets within a 15 mile radius of the store."

Lusinda, why have you posted this on a thread from last year?

Jessops was a different company last August and may well have had different price match conditions.

somethingcorporate

wealdroam wrote: »

Lusinda, why have you posted this on a thread from last year?

Jessops was a different company last August and may well have had different price match conditions.

If you see my post above my price match experience was actually with Jessops when I used to work there about a decade ago.

There would never be a blanket guarantee, just wouldn't make commercial sense.

To Lusinda, they would never match eBay - they are an online auction and why would they?