[AndrewShirley]

I rarely purchase anything from these guys (Barrie, ON) due to their non-competitive prices but today they became completely useless to me, even with their Price-Match "guarantee".

I walked in with a brick-and-mortar ad for a Sigma 610 Flash. I read their policy carefully and knew I qualified for their price-match option. But the salesman turned me down flat saying "I'm not interested in trying to match that, I don't want the sale that badly".

I have played the price-match game with all sorts of retailers, The Brick, Future Shop etc and they have all played along - gaining my future business. But Henry's? Not so much. I've actually been turned down each and everytime I've asked them to price-match so I am no longer willing to spend my time walking in there. So much for trying to support local business (chain).

[Pauld]

I've never had a problem with Henry's but I also never tried to "price match" anything. Did you ask for the manager? I personally would email someone at their head office and complain. I've done this many times before with good outcomes.

[AndrewShirley]

I've never had a problem with Henry's but I also never tried to "price match" anything. Did you ask for the manager? I personally would email someone at their head office and complain. I've done this many times before with good outcomes.

I've e-mailed their head-office with no resolution. Most recently I posted on their Facebook page and they responded with a typical "What happened?" but Its too late, they already lost the sale and a customer.

[Lloydy]

Isn't there a legal obligation to fulfill their promise ?

[monochrome]

I suspect you encountered a salesman who didn't want to discount his commission.

[Seamripper]

That's odd. I've gone in prepared to pay full price and actually had the salesman go online to find a better price so he could price match it for me. I've always been happy with the service, although I'm not in Ontario any more...

[Lukinosity]

This may not be a popular answer, but sometimes it makes no sense to match a price. Some stores will sell items at a loss to discontinue them and just be done with them. If the other seller (Henry's in this case) doesn't plan on discontinuing the item (i.e. - they actually sell it for the price it is supposed to sell for) what would their reason be for selling it to you for a loss? That maybe "in the future" this customer who shops all over for the lowest price decides to maybe buy something else?

Sorry, I own a small business and give discounts pretty often to regulars (usually without being asked). But the scavenger bargain hunter is best served by the online retailer. It's not a value judgment. Many things I want the lowest price on and I shop around. Other things, I'd rather pay retail (or just under) and let the retailer make some money so they stay in business and I have a place to buy stuff in person in the future.

I don't understand the beef anyway. Why not just buy from the advertised lowest price? Or was it a misprint or sold out?

[Medium FormatPro]

Contact BBB, and have a second filing under possible bait & switch; which they've been known to do.

It's time for the company either to remove the advertising claim or to live up to it

[Steinback]

I was a bit surprised to see Henry's advertising any form of price matching, generally their policy is MSRP or GTFO with discounts only coming into play when the manufacturer offers them.

Where did you manage to find a better price on the flash? Aden and Downtown camera have price matched stuff for me in the past if it's something they carry, which is one of the reasons I generally don't need to visit Henry's.

In some ways it is kind of sad that if Pentax Canada had a web store selling at MSRP they would be price matching just about every dealer in the country while Pentax USA feels they have to go out of their way to keep dealers from selling at too low a price.

[Dean Bradshaw]

This may not be a popular answer, but sometimes it makes no sense to match a price. Some stores will sell items at a loss to discontinue them and just be done with them. If the other seller (Henry's in this case) doesn't plan on discontinuing the item (i.e. - they actually sell it for the price it is supposed to sell for) what would their reason be for selling it to you for a loss? That maybe "in the future" this customer who shops all over for the lowest price decides to maybe buy something else?

Sorry, I own a small business and give discounts pretty often to regulars (usually without being asked). But the scavenger bargain hunter is best served by the online retailer. It's not a value judgment. Many things I want the lowest price on and I shop around. Other things, I'd rather pay retail (or just under) and let the retailer make some money so they stay in business and I have a place to buy stuff in person in the future.

I don't understand the beef anyway. Why not just buy from the advertised lowest price? Or was it a misprint or sold out?

I've been the manager of various retail stores for the last 15+ years and I think in this case it is to do with their advertised price match policy.

I completely agree that sometimes it may not make sense (in the short term) for a retailer to match a price, but they do have an advertised policy to do so. In this case it is not like the OP is just asking for a discount...they are asking the store to honour their own advertised policy. Maybe the OP doesn't "shop all over" for price every time, maybe he prefers the store location, range, past experience etc...there could be many reasons why they have chosen to request the store provide the price match (again, as per their own policy).

As mentioned, may well have been a sales person not wanting to drop commision. I think the best/only course of action to get the result would be to have spoken to the manager on the day and asked them to bring up their policy on their website and ask them to explain why they would not honour it.

Many retailers here in Australia have taken to advertising "Lowest Price Guaranteed" or "Price Match" offers. If this is a company policy and some one calls them on it...the company has to eat the loss or know they are damaging their brand name and goodwill. That's the reason to sell at a loss...honour their own ad, create goodwill and repeat custom (impress with service).

Sorry if a little "ranty"...just having worked in this environment for a while I feel it important that companies live up to their own advertising.

Cheers
Dean

[AndrewShirley]

I've spent thousands at their store over the years so I have no problem paying my bit to keep local businesses up and running. However, as most of you said, their word wasn't honoured here - I was careful to check their policy before walking into the store.

I think monochrome was right about the salesman who couldn't be bothered to work a product when they were receiving little to no commission.

However, from a business standpoint, losing a longtime customer and the thousands of dollars from future sales was a short-sighted error. I get the "we lose money so I won't sell it" argument but he didn't even come back with a counter-offer. He just said "I'm not interested in making that sale". I was prepared to pay their cost but that offer never made the table. All he had to do was look up my name and he would have realized I wasn't some "Joe" that was simply price-matching - but he blew it.

...And its not the first time. They come up with every excuse under the sun to exempt themselves from any match I've brought to them.

Maybe its just the Barrie location? Could be worth the drive to Newmarket lol

[Lukinosity]

now hearing a fuller version of the story, it's more clear that they did the wrong thing. Those price match policies seem like a problem waiting to happen.

[AndrewShirley]

Just got mine from Quebec, made it here in 1 day

[mrNewt]

That's what I would call a bad salesman ... in the nicest form I can think of.
I had some bad experience with some of the sales persons at Henry's (that was the manager too...) but changing the location solved my problems. Not all locations are bad. Most of the people I have dealt with at Henry's were very helpful and kind.

[thechumpen]

If you still have any loyalty to the store I would write to the manager and let them know what has happened. If I was the manager and cared about my business then I'd certainly want to know if a salesman had done something like this (to anyone, let alone someone who has spent so much money in the store). Or don't bother, up to you