I was looking for a printer at a good price, so I went comparison shopping at Chatswood, a major shopping district. I was checking out the various choices, when I stumbled across a stand in the middle of the mall that Canon had set-up in conjunction with a local camera shop. Canon employees who knew their stuff were there to answer my questions, show me the printers in action and negotiate special deals. Looking through my list, I realised their new printer was exactly what I was looking for.<\/p>\n
I bartered the salesperson down to $269, and he went to fetch me a printer.<\/p>\n
He came back slightly embarrassed. The sales had been great that day, and there was limited room for stock on the stand. He was out. He wrote me a “raincheck” so I could get the printer at the same price from the camera shop three days later.<\/p>\n
I wandered off, happy that I had found a good deal, but not happy that I would have to come all the way back to Chatswood, negotiate traffic and parking, just to pick up a printer. Instant gratification was gone too – I had to wait until the following weekend to play with my new toy. However, none of the other computer shops I had visited stocked the Canon printer I had chosen.<\/p>\n
So, 15 minutes later, I was delighted to walk past the same printer on display in a major department store. The sticker price was $299.<\/p>\n
I presented my raincheck to the sales clerk and asked him to match the price: $269.<\/p>\n
I found his response mildly surprising: “I’ll have to check” he said. This was a major department store, and I had thought they would always simply price match – especially when I had documentary evidence of a competitor’s price.<\/p>\n
He looked through his prices book for a couple of minutes, and came back to apologise. “I’m sorry. I can’t match that price. I’m not permitted to go below $271.”<\/p>\n
I ummed and ahhed briefly, and decided that it was easily worth $2 to me to have the printer now, rather than driving back next weekend. “Okay, I’ll buy one for $271.”<\/p>\n
“Oh no, sorry, sir,” said the sales clerk, “Our policy is that if we can’t match the price, we charge full-price.”<\/p>\n
I was stunned and confused. “So, if this raincheck said $271, you would sell it to me for $271, but because it says $269, you want me to pay $299?”<\/p>\n
“That’s right, sir.”<\/p>\n
I paused again to consider my options. <\/p>\n
I was planning on asking to speak to someone with enough authority and perspective to see that this was a silly policy, and that an exception should be made. However, I figured that there was no point having this debate if there were no printers in stock. I asked the sales droid to check on the stock while I cooled down and marshalled my arguments.<\/p>\n
He was gone for at least five minutes, probably closer to ten, but I hung around. He came back saying that he had searched everywhere but he didn’t have any of the printers in stock.<\/p>\n
“Ah! I said. You have one of the printers on the display, but you don’t have any in stock. Will you sell me the display model for $271?”<\/p>\n
“No, sir,” he said, “I can only offer a 10% discount on display models.”<\/p>\n
This was getting weirder!<\/p>\n
“Okay,” I explained patiently, “I will take the display model at a 10% discount. $299 with a 10% discount comes to a smidgin over $269.”<\/p>\n
He rung up the sale and I went home happy with a new printer, and a new story to tell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Julian tries to buy a printer. The department store has policies. Hilarity ensues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23,24,35,41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-based-on-a-true-story","category-cathartic-rant","category-heroic-failures","category-story-telling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.somethinkodd.com\/oddthinking\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.somethinkodd.com\/oddthinking\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.somethinkodd.com\/oddthinking\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.somethinkodd.com\/oddthinking\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.somethinkodd.com\/oddthinking\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.somethinkodd.com\/oddthinking\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.somethinkodd.com\/oddthinking\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.somethinkodd.com\/oddthinking\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.somethinkodd.com\/oddthinking\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}