John Lewis local price matching - wtf do they want?

zlorf

Hi all
I'm trying to buy a teleivison and after lots of research I've narrowed it down to one Samsung model.

We found out that John Lewis (who we like because of their good customer service) offer a "Local price match" deal where they beat any competitor. The only stipulation is that their competitor must have physical shops which are open to the public, and are not an internet-only retailer.

I found the same TV for sale in both Richer Sounds and JL, with the one in Richer Sounds being priced around £50.00 than JL cheaper, with a 5 year warranty against faults. Some Richer Sounds products are advertised as "In-Store Exclusive" i.e. you can't buy it online, you have to buy it in person from their shop. Fair enough.

So, I submitted all of the relevant info. to John Lewis over the phone for the price match, and got a call back a few hours later from our local Exeter branch, saying they would NOT honor the price match in this case.

Why? JL said, on the Richer Sounds website the television is described as an "In Store Exclusive" and therefore, according to the cheerfully condescending young lady who called, "because it is "Exclusive", the deal is not available to everyone and therefore John Lewis cannot match the price". Baffling.

I patiently attempted to explain that "Exclusive", in this context, means that it is available to in-store customers only (you can't but it from their website) and that is the only restriction.

The JL rep. robotically repeated the same nonsense, and didn't care about my point.

We've bought expensive-ish things (including a TV) from JL before, and have had no issues, but never shopped with Richer Sounds and I would much rather stick with a company I know when it comes to big purchases like a TV, where problems can arise.
  
Not happy to be honest. Have you had any experience with JL price match service? What can I do to get through to them?

Rich Marshall

Richer Sounds after sales service is (in my experience) at least as good as John Lewis.

Inked

Were you going to be collecting from JL?
It's likely they are refusing to match the price as the RS TV is collection from store only.

JL undersale policy not only states that the goods need to be identical but that the service level be comparable (which is where the lack of delivery available on the product you are looking at comes in).

If you were planning to collect anyway, then I'd just buy it from RS as it comes with their 5 year warranty FOC

zlorf

I'm not attempting to have the item delivered by JL. I want to go to John Lewis, Exeter branch directly and collect the TV myself.

The "Local Price Match" blurb on the John Lewis website confirms this is permissible.

zlorf

That's good to know. I'm about to give up on John Lewis and just chance it with RS now.

Inked

It's not necessarily about you trying to get JL to deliver, more the fact that Richer Sounds won't deliver the item you are looking to buy (thus, not offering the same level of service as JL)

Tell them that you are willing to collect and see if they will match on that basis.

Not trying to argue with you over it, just letting you know the way JL view the undersale policy as someone that used to deal with it day in, day out for almost 15 years.

jaybro187

I think this is in the wrong section?

Garrett

BTW I have a policy not to use shops that charge more than other shops but promise to price match. They to me want two bites of the cherry. Charge more for there goods if people don't price match, and if they do want to take custom from traders that do sell cheaper.
As apparently from above comments both offer the same after sales service you know which Id give my custom to.

Inked

It's a reasonable policy to have, I think some customers (and I don't mean the OP) just want to be able to say they purchased from JL.

If it were me in this instance, I'd just buy from RS too.

I have no problem with price matching in general though, as many things will affect the price a company sets, rather than just wanting to charge a higher price than other places with the option to match it if a customer sees it cheaper.

ayrejc

I tried a price match with JL beginning of this year on my sony tv.  JL refused to match a competitor as their store was on an industrial estate not the high street so was not comparable!   However brought from RS with 5 yr warranty.  Two days later saw same tv on rgb direct i think fot £80 less and RS price matched that and refunded me the money as store was within 50 miles etc according to their policy.  so dont worry abt jl and get from rs is my advice.