Every shopper has had this experience: You buy an item, only to find it on sale a few days later.
When this happens, shoppers are often forced to simply grin and bear it. However, some stores offer “price match” policies for sales, where one can return to the store during a sale and have the difference between their purchase price and the sale price refunded.
This isn’t the only way price-match policies work. In some cases, stores will price match with competitors, ensuring that buyers get the best price without having to shop around.
Although this may sound great in theory, in practice, some of these policies can be a little difficult to actually use. For example, one internet user documented the issues he had trying to price match his television, purchased at Best Buy, with the price available via Amazon.
In some cases, a store’s price match policy can be so confusing that even employees are fooled, leading to issues like Target’s accidental sale of $69 iPads.
Now, a user on Reddit says that he tried to utilize Best Buy’s price match policy, only to have his request rejected.
Why did this Best Buy refuse to price match?
In a post made to the subreddit r/BestBuy, user mnstorm claimed that their local Best Buy “refused to price match” as “they don’t price match at all over the holidays.”
“They said they’ll only price match on a Best Buy purchase against a price drop at Best Buy only. When I called customer service they didn’t understand this. The guy over the phone was able to honor the price match and now I’ll be picking up the item at this same store,” they write in the body of the post. “Anyone ever heard of this before?”
In a comment, they added, “This was a manager’s decision. I spoke to multiple employees. They didn’t even ask what the product I wanted to price match was!”
Commenters were confused by this refusal.
“Very odd. Might just be a local store or uninformed employee thing,” said a Redditor. “I know Best Buy does not price match for Black Friday stuff, but everything else during the holidays is fair game.”
“I have never heard of this. We never prevented anyone from price matching from a legit store,” added another.
That said, there were some commenters who claimed that Best Buy did not, in fact, price match on the holidays. So what is the truth?
Does Best Buy price match during the holidays?
According to the company’s website, Best Buy will price match with “qualified competitors.” While there are some exceptions to this rule, there does not appear to be an exception for the end-of-the-year holidays.
On the contrary, Best Buy has a “Holiday Price Match Guarantee,” in which the company writes that “most products purchased at Best Buy between Nov. 1 and Dec. 31 can be price matched through Jan. 14 with Best Buy’s Holiday Price Match Guarantee.”
This policy, the company says, “allows customers to request a price match to a current Best Buy product price for an immediately available new product during our extended Holiday Return & Exchange period.”
Why this specific store decided not to price match is unknown. But, if one has trouble with price-matching in-store, they can always call customer service—which is exactly how mnstorm ended up securing his price match.
The Daily Dot reached out to Best Buy via email and mnstorm via Reddit chat.
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