This deal still works in Colorado Springs, though I had to stand my ground with the store "Sales Manager" (whatever that title means) for 30 minutes to get it. He wasn't going to match the price because, "I won't match that because you're getting too good a deal".
!?!?!?!
I took the gentleman by the elbow to a position directly in front of the big price guarantee poster that they had posted behind the help desk and went through it sentence by sentence. I pointed out to him that his interpretation didn't match the posted policy. He proceeded to try to argue it both ways, ie. "The rebates make these the same price in the end. Therefore, there is no price to match".
Again, line by line we went through the policy and I pointed out that the last sentence states that rebates are not considered in the price match policy, and nowhere did it say that "getting too good a deal" invalidated the terms of the policy. He agreed, but said I would still get too good a deal on this price match and that he had discretion to make his own policy.
GRRRR.
For 25 minutes he wouldn't budge from his position, even though I had him backed into his corner for the whole time. I finally told him that I was going to be late for an appointment, but I was going to stay here and get this settled before I left because he was clearly wrong on his interpretation of his own policy. I also pointed out that he was in a sales supervisor position and should know better than to try this sort of silliness on a customer. I mentioned that I might have expected this from a new hire, but he was smarter than this and knew he was wrong.
"You're trying to beat up a customer for 30 minutes over a $20 price match, when you know you're wrong in the first place. Why is that?", I asked.
"You should be ashamed of yourself, because you know better than to try to pull this on a customer. You're not selling used cars here you know." I think that it didn't hurt that I was shaking my finger in his face at this point, even though he was a pretty big guy.
That was all it took. He caved. I guess when logic doesn't work, shaming them will.
These price matching policies are written simply enough, and most managers are bright enough to understand them, but when they need "help", we should be only too happy to "assist" them in coming to the correct interpretation.
All things considered, it's still a great deal on the router. I doubt most folks will have as much trouble as I did in getting CC to meet their obligation under their own price match policy. Sometimes it takes a bit of effort on our part though.