#688 - Tough luck, guy!

[cleveresttitle]

So, uh, why does this guy think reporting Lily to Best Buy would... do anything at all, really?

"Yes, we'll just fire the owner of a competing store. That's definitely something that makes any sense at all."

Actually, now I want to see him embarrass himself further by trying it.

[Horizon]

Ah, the sweet smell of stupidity, how I love it so.

[cyberchihuahua]

Not only has this arc made me like Lily a little, especially this page, but I also have to say she is keeping very cool all things considered. My store or not, there would have been open insults, possibly F-bombs, thrown at this guy at least three pages ago.

[Satinavian]

Is pricematching really that common in the USA or Canada ? It has to be very prevalent to make ludicrious offers to screw over the competition a common valid strategy.

[Nepene]

Price matching is very common. They're careful to have a long list of exclusions and terms and conditions so they can refuse price matching at their convenience. Price matching also allows you to have higher prices. If you have higher prices then the store across the road then that gives others the chance to price match and come into your store and means you can attract bargain hunters too.

[Arancaytar]

There are some chains that price-match where I live (Germany), but they're pretty explicit about excluding special prices. Anything else wouldn't really make sense - after all, a sale price is artificially low, possibly at a loss, for some specific reason (eg. loyalty rewards, clearances) that just don't apply to any other store. You can only match real prices that an actual business is charging to make a profit.

As for matching coupons... who even does that? "Wow, our competitor promised you that we'd give you free stuff? Sure, our honor demands that we keep his promise."

[Technoir]

Oh, the eye-twitch and bulging temple veins of the about-to-have-a-brain-aneurysm-due-to-being-outmaneuvered Ted Peterson. Enjoy that ambulance ride, Ted!

[CPUGuy1]

WHOO HOO!!! Great Timing Ellen.

Still loving Lily and her Words of Wisdom.
All of this ... and She still hasn't gotten mad. She got Firm ... not mad.

[Schismatism]

Sale prices are indeed specifically low on many items, oftentimes items which are overstocked or near expiry, or which are about to be superseded by a New, Faster, Better product. Even when they're not, they qualify as what's known as a loss leader: an item which is priced low as the equivalent of a dangling fishhook. Once you get the customer into the store, they can be directed to several Shiny! items which they never knew they needed but suddenly want. Loss leaders in the grocery market include day-by-day items like milk, bread, eggs, et cetera. Loss leaders in the electronics market are a bit more tricky, but if you can get the customer in for a new USB drive, hey, how about this nice little 1TB HDD which can store so many movies?

Lily's little gambit is perhaps the wisest possible move. You know that Ted Peterson would undoubtedly be back the next day, complaining that the 8-port router doesn't properly forward ports to his VOIP, then the next day claiming that his XBox is suddenly on a strict NAT type*, then the next claiming that he can't send out e-mails to 500 of his closest friends. Customers do this. They do this all the time. Whenever they make a change to their network configuration and something goes wrong, it's always our fault. Change your modem and suddenly your PC is crashing on boot? It's OUR FAULT! Plug in a USB stick from a 'trusted' source and your computer is filling itself with malware? Our fault! Take a sledgehammer to your toaster the day after your new PVR arrives, and suddenly you can't toast? Guess who's to blame!

(I, too, work for a Canadian ISP.)

* He would, of course, also fail to bring in the hardware which is encountering issues.

ETA: If the assmuppet returns the following day, claiming, 'You broke my internet', I have dibs on calling it.

[Strawberrycocoa]

How is Mr. I'm Gonna Sue Everybody guy not hearing Panel 2 as, "Best Buy, a major retail chain with much deeper pockets than these chumps, gave me inaccurate and misleading information about how to claim and utilize their coupons"?