Member-only story
I Never Ask a Seller to Match a Competitor’s Price
It’s cheap market research for the seller and not fair to the competitor.
How many times have you seen this in an ad?
We meet or beat any advertised price!
Bring your best deal to us and we’ll beat it!
Shop with us last — we’ll beat our competitor’s price!
Or some other variation that essentially asks you to shop around and then bring your best deal so they can offer you a slightly lower price.
There’s nothing wrong with price shopping, nor is there anything wrong with pitting one supplier against another to get the best deal.
But the idea that a seller wants you to let another company do all the sales work and then they swoop in with minimal effort and undercut the price just seems sleazy to me.
It also tells me that if you go to the “we’ll beat our competitor’s price” seller without evidence of a lower price elsewhere, you’re likely to get ripped off.
Why didn’t they offer you the best price in the first place? Why force you to find a lower price elsewhere before they lower theirs?
