So playing cyber monday shopping fun, looking for sales, price matching and setting credit cards on fire.

Last week or so some items I have been watching were normal priced, as in within a few dollars or so of all the other retailers.

Specifically:
Lego freight train 7939 @149.99
Lego Passenger train 7938 @124.99

This week they have "Buy one get one half off sale".

Guess what the prices are?
Lego freight train 7939 @199.99
Lego Passenger train 7938 @ 149.99

So, being rather annoyed, I call to order by phone to get the price matching.

After waiting on hold to ask my question and get the price matching and being put on hold for that to happen I get a wonderful answer.

"We can only take 20% off the item, we would have to credit you the rest." This was for only the item 7938, she didn't wait long enough for me to give her the info for the other item.

Why the fuck do you advertise price matching and then you will not do it? I am about done with TRU because at this point, I cannot think of anything else that they do correctly anymore.

The sad part is they pull this stupid shit all the time.

Regular price then its all "Hey, buy one get one 1/2 off" let's jack the price up from normal.

I'm flat out pissed.

I hope one of their corporate people see this, would be nice to see if there is any intelligent life out there.

 

In all fairness, I don't think it's a practice soley used by TRU.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doing a little math...

The old price for the passenger train is, with rounding, $125. TRU lists it for $150 now. That's a price difference of $25, or roughly a 20% increase of the original price.

However, I'm assuming the lady on the phone was saying she could only take 20% off of the current price; the $150. Twenty percent of $150 is $30. That's lower than the original price by a measly ten bucks. I don't know if this is still higher than the price you want to match, since you haven't stated it.

Now, I'm also assuming you're implying that you wanted to get these two sets together under the BOGO(HO) deal, yes? Let's add them up

Old prices: $150 (Freight) + $125/2 ($62, Pass. with half off) = $212
New prices: $200 (Freight) + $150/2($75, Pass. with half off) = $275

EDIT: I forgot to do the old price calculation without the BOGOHO, so...

$150 + $125 = $275

It's the exact same price you would have paid beforehand, as it is now with the higher prices and BOGOHO. This proves all you're arguing about is the BOGOHO doing its job by attracting and driving more sales, because it's merely advertising. Amazing how math works, huh?

TRU is FAR from the only company that does this. It's a trick; people by nature are more inclined to buy things (especially on impulse) when they perceive they're getting a good deal through a promotion. They don't notice the raised prices that accompany the appealing offer.

Buy one get one free

Clothing stores do this all the time with 'markdowns' and 'sales'. Some time ago, a news reporter went around town and found that the 'sale' prices of random pieces of clothing on tags were applied on top of the original, lower price.

 

Walmart 112.49 for passenger set. So 20% is 29.99 for TRU price, not matched and I do not want to be "refunded".

Walmart 125.99 for freight set. So 20% is 39.99 for TRU price, not matched or even close and I do not want to be "refunded" the difference.

238.48, better than TRU buy one get one at regular price.

These are what I was trying to price match. I was so pissed at the halfwits there I didn't put it in at the time.

Believe me I am not a "Ohhhh look sale" like most people. Everything gets figured out to get best deals.

TRU sucks ass

Price match would not be with the same store it would be another store. I am convinced that TRU is completely fucking useless.

The math is right on TRU assumed pricing bullshit, but I was price matching it to Walmart since I will always use another store other than Walmart, but that looks like a waste of time anymore.

I have also never had this issue going in store and price matching to any accepted competitor, but I was trying to avoid going to any store.

 

The only store that does Price Match right is Wal*Mart.

And even they screw it up.

 

I've gotten TRU to price match BBTS without any hassle.

 

I don't like how TRU clearly doesn't take the time to actually figure out whatever the hell it is they're selling. "Cybertech" comes to mind for describing DOTM figures, or the recent "Sale on Prime Deluxe or Robots in Disguise figures"...

I remember one time there was a Buy two get one free and Buy one get one half off sale running simultaneously on deluxes (IIRC one was on Animated and one was on movie or something to that effect?) and the signs were so ambiguously done that I got 3 deluxes for the price of one and a half.

And that's just on the one line that I do follow, not to mention all the other ones that I don't.

I have also found that going to the store seems to work better for price matching and such... It's harder for them to argue if causing a scene irritates more than just you.

 

Half this post is justification in trying to tear down my math on the sole basis that I didn't use WM pricing...which you admit you failed to include in the OP.

Plus, you're trying to get TRU to act like WM, which isn't going to happen. WM, along with similar stores such as Target, will ALWAYS undersell TRU because the money they lose in toy sales is made up in bulk through grocery sales. TRU only sells toys and maybe baby items, they don't have that luxury. Basically, it boils down to wether or not you want to spend a few extra bucks to support a competitor of a company you don't seem to like (which I know full well why, considering it's Wal*Mart, so please don't go into detail about that part)

 

As a loyal TRU customer for over 10 years, I have never had this problem with them. I remember back in the early 2000s when Bionicle was big, I told them that Walmart was selling them for 5 bucks a piece (They weren't) but thanks to TRU's price match, they lowered the price of the Bionicles to 5 bucks and I got them for a bargain! Talk about smart shopping. To this day, I regularly tell them that "big" retailers are selling their toys for a lot less, whether they are or not, and badda-bing, I get them for a steal. How's that for smart shopping?

 

TRU doesn't accept a price match without proof. Bada-bing.

 

Thats called retail THEFT and I am once again calling Bullshit, because TRU won't price match unless someone checks it out online.

 

Haha, So you scammed them when you around 5 or 6 years old, and they believed you!!!

I smell something.

 

In the UK, if retailers offer some kind of deal, but raised the price immediately prior, they get done by trading standards. The problem is it requires ordinary Joe Public to report them, and because most people don't take note of prices all the time tricks like this slip through the net.

 

My bullshit detector is detecting...yep, bullshit.

 

Hm, I guess my local TRU is a lot more lenient than most. They never looked up the items online or anything. Weird.