Question about Staples price match

[86plymouthcolt]

Will they match prices with any retailer including internet stores? Or must it be an "approved company" like Buy.com?

 

[odog]

anybody.... as long as they can find the website or phtsically see the flyer


search for "offical staples pricematch"


somebody actually posted the "real" staples pricematching handbook...... thats states pretty much every rule

 

[86plymouthcolt]

Thank you.

 

[dougjnn]

Yeah, BUT.

Sometimes they can be pretty tough about their pricematch routines.

They call up the store/ CSR for availabiliity, rather than taking the website's word for it, keeping you on hold. If they don't get someone soon, they tend to say call back.

They charge you the price of NEXT DAY AIR from the match site, whether or not that is what you want from staples. They figure their local truck delivery gives them taht edge, whether you care or not. Of course their omnipresence means you will get local taxed by staples and perhaps no tax from the other online guys, but they ignore that.

Maybe they will let you pick it up at staples if it's available at a local store - same call routine, they won't take a site's statement that it can be locally picked up at the site's word.

If there is a Staples rebate or a coupon, they are supposed to only price match if they are more expensive net of those things. I've had this slip buy sometimes and sometimes not. Seems that if the CSR kicks it up to a supervissor for any reason, you are likely to get nicked by the coupon/rebate deduct. If not, maybe not. If they have to wait too long to connect to get off hold with the other store for that stock check, you are likely to get the supervisor's glance over, and get whacked.

That's my experience with a few tries.

Sometimes you sail through though.

 

[Ranger X]

Someone should write a book titled "Price matching for Dummies".

 

[Merkat]

<They charge you the price of NEXT DAY AIR from the match site, whether or not that is what you want from staples.>

Has anyone ever received &quot;NEXT DAY DELIVERY&quot; from Staples? I know I never have. I've had shipments not delivered because they were supposedly &quot;out of stock&quot; only to find out upon calling that the store from which my shipments originate have the items in stock sitting on their fricking shelves.

Anyone know a good lawyer who would like to initiate a class action lawsuit against Staples for fraudulent advertisement? Their trucks are painted in big letters &quot;FREE NEXT DAY SHIPPING&quot;. Staples factors in &quot;FREE NEXT DAY SHIPPING&quot; when price matching. Either they lose the company motto... or deliver what they advertise/promise.

 

[Jamey]

Not getting those pricematched, coupon used purchase to you fast enough? As long as I get them within a week, and they give me the pricematch and coupon, I won't complain about having to wait a little while. Most of the time though, either they are out of stock, their computer is down, they can't get through to confirm, or some other BS reason.

 

[Merkat]

<Not getting those pricematched, coupon used purchase to you fast enough? As long as I get them within a week, and they give me the pricematch and coupon, I won't complain about having to wait a little while.>

The &quot;Pricematch&quot; is fraudulent if items are artificially inflated with &quot;FREE NEXT DAY SHIPPING&quot;. Coupons are an incentive offered by the merchant to entice customers to buy from their business. Price matching is also a marketing strategy designed to make the customer always think of Staples when buying a product. &quot;FREE NEXT DAY SHIPPING&quot; is another advertising gimmick. Rebates are another scam... I mean bait. When something is offered and then taken away... it is called bait &amp; switch. Either Staples should deliver what they promise... or come up with another con.

<Most of the time though, either they are out of stock, their computer is down, they can't get through to confirm, or some other BS reason.>

Not true. Read some of the complaints against Staples posted at &quot;ugetheard.com&quot;. At least part of my order sits on Staples shelf. I ordered the software at Staples.com both because of the good price &amp; the promise of quick delivery. I NEEDED THE DAMN SOFTWARE!. If I had known that Staples was going to take weeks to send me what I ordered the deal at any price would not have been worth any savings incurred at Staples.com. I would have rather bought the software at Bestbuy B&amp;M.

 

[dealchecker]

and talk to other CSR if one doesn't work. Each one will give you a different answer.

 

[dougjnn]

Although I got to say, I love online coupons, deal sites, and to a lesser extent rebates.

I mean, when it was only in the Sunday paper, I basically couldn't be bothered most of the time. Sure, if I was specifically looking for something big, I'd check. Not enjoying it much. But filing away coupons against need then in a few weeks? Hell no!!! Drudge work. Grubby. And kinda swarmy. With a high work to strike ratio.

Online it's kinda fun. Faster when you're on the hunt, once you've found a booked a few key sites, including this one. And its sort of, if not exactly glamorous, well hip and cutting edge.

Especially when there are communities like here.

My take anyway.

 

[Jamey]

I was saying what dealchecker said so much better than I. Getting around shipping for me has always been easy by calling another CSR as long as the PM had free standard shipping. More often, I have had problems getting prices matched for various other reasons, AFTER supervisors have flagged a particular pricematch as unfavorable. Once flagged, almost all CSR's will refuse a PM because of any number of reasons that may not be true. I do agree they expect to add overnight shipping charges when they don't deliver that way, but that is one of their flaws. Name another vendor that has B&amp;M stores, an internet presence, coupons after PMing internet sites, and carries lots of different items. If I can get to them, I will be glad to shop there also. I only say that with all the deals I get from them, I can cut them a little slack.

 

[cisco]

I've had staples csrs tell me that they will only match a website that has its own warehouse, that if the website dropships they won't pricematch them, but that was only the csrs on duty that weekend.That weekend they were trying to avoid PMing the color PDA (I think). That night the on duty manager put the word out not to pricematch an item and all the CSRs said the same thing.
So the manager on duty has alot to do with the PM policy of the moment.
just my experience ...

 

[OldPro]

I think the overnight delivery is only if you are in their &quot;service area&quot; or whatever thyey call it. When I want to pricematch, one of the first things I do is supply my zip code. They will always explain that in my area, the items will come UPS ground. I say fine, THEN I hit them up for the price match. Too late now for them to claim they have to add the cost of overnite shipping to the price match equation!

P.S. And I, for one, when I've already got a 10 - 20% discount for pricematch PLUS then adding a coupon for even more discount, think it's really tacky to complain about not getting it overnight. They're giving you the product for less than they had to pay for it, let alone having to pay freight into their warehouse and shipping to you, and you want to sue them??

 

[bworrell]

My local store screws up the &quot;next day delivery&quot; so often that sometimes I will wait until the item is NOT delivered the next day to do the pricematch. That way if they try to hit me with the next day air charge I can tell them honestly -- &quot;well you didn't deliver it next day&quot;. It's worked every time for me.

 

[Cheapster]

If your printout of the webpage doesn't show the shipping and they're too lazy to look, they'll add $5 at the B&amp;M. But if the purchase is more than $50, you could fight for no shipping charges. The official internal memo from Staples has been posted on here before, which mentions that the customer is right, but they should try to discourage you. How you want to fight it is up to you. If you call the Corporate office and complain, odds are you'll get your way.

 

[Babbles]

Been lurking for quite a while so I suppose this is as good as any time to start posting.

Anyhow the only two items which I pricematched via Staples (Elsa Gladiac GeForce2, and ViewSonic PF790) both arrived the next day.
I think that, however, was due to the proximity of my house and their distribution center thingy.

Anyhow they do seem to be anal about their shipping. When I ordered the monitor, the company with whom I was pricematching had shipping for ~$23, but Staples wanted to charge me overnight shipping on the monitor which was going to amount to >$100. Between the shipping and tax, I would have paid MORE going thru that particular PM then I would just ordering it form Staples (who sold it for like $509.99 or something like that). Anyhow, I just had to persuade the CSR that method was kinda unreasonable. She actually understood which was cool, but the fact that I had to talk to her about it was kinda annoying.

 

[immortalis]

mods asleep?

 

[Merkat]

<P.S. And I, for one, when I've already got a 10 - 20% discount for pricematch PLUS then adding a coupon for even more discount, think it's really tacky to complain about not getting it overnight. They're giving you the product for less than they had to pay for it, let alone having to pay freight into their warehouse and shipping to you, and you want to sue them??>

I live close to a distribution center. So... I am supposed to get &quot;free next day delivery&quot;. Price matching is not so easy for me. I can't work the number that you described in your post. The coupon is nice. But, without the coupon Staples prices aren't that great. Staples works the &quot;free next day delivery&quot; bit when PMing. The only &quot;hot&quot; deals that I have ever gotten out of Staples is with a rebate which I may or may not get. If Staples uses the &quot;Free Next Day Delivery&quot; gimmick to attract customers then they must deliver what they promised. Without the &quot;Free Next Day Delivery&quot; I would have bought some items elsewhere. Waiting two weeks for software that I can buy for a few bucks more locally isn't worth the hassel. Staples is conning customers with promises that they do not keep. Some of us actually buy from a company because of the promises that they make. I factor into my purchases at Staples &quot;free next day delivery&quot;... which they do not honor.

I'd sue 'em just as quick as you'd scam 'em with your price matching routine.

 

[xenolith]

Where do you get NON-online Staple coupons? You know, the kind you actually hold in your hand. At the B&amp;M store? In the fliers? Sunday paper? In the mail? Where?

Or do you just record the online coupon codes and do the pricematch + coupon deal only over the phone?

And just remember now, all of you were PM newbies at one time.

 

[Bleeding Jawa]

Several months ago, I posted a scanned copy of the &quot;official&quot; guide given to store managers. I took down the file, but I know several people had mirrored it when I put it up. If you cannot find it in a search, email me &amp; I may post it again or email it to you.

 

[8602081]

I ordered a 17 inch Monitor from Staples..
It was $149 - $40 coupon = 109 plus tax..
this had $60 MIR

On the web, it said next day delivery..

I ordered around 1 PM, I received the package 11 AM the very next day..


Never had problems..

 

[vm]

Hey could anyone give me some links for good coupons sites?
The ones I've checked kinda suck :|

thanks