After finding a killer deal on deals.woot I scored Diablo 3, Battlefield 3, and Skyrim @ my Walmart via ad match $31.44. Here’s how.

TL;DR Version – Know the small print before you go. Don’t volunteer information that will invalidate your argument. Be persistent.

http://deals.woot.com/deals/details/0c64cce9-913f-41f5-bd99-47a96b278894/elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-for-pc#34

Tonight after finding this deal (Skyrim for PC (and others) $9.99 at Toys R US) I immediately set off for the local Toys R US. I checked the website and found the nearest one and drove the 20 minutes to get there… I immediately noticed the big sign was off. When I got closer I saw that the the place was empty and a sign on the window said they’d moved and the new store opens next week. I drove home beat and started coming up with my next idea.

I googled the Walmart Ad Match policy and saw that it does indeed say that you don’t need a copy of the ad. I familiarized myself with the ‘small print’, considered printing it out, and drove to Walmart. I shopped for a few other things then marched to the electronics department and got BF3, Diablo III, and Skyrim and put them in my cart. I went to the electronics counter and the salesman (who happens to be that same guy that shot down my last price match deal) asked me if I needed to check out. The electronics counter was closed so I imagine he was going to send me up front to the half-hour lines. I told him that I needed a price match and started to explain. When I told him the amount he said he needed to get a manager.

A young man in a Walmart shirt and tie came over and heard my case and immediately said I needed the print ad. I told him that I reviewed the price match policy prior to coming to the store and that I had it up on my phone and it explicity states I don’t need the print ad. He said that you may not need to have it, but the price must be IN A PRINT AD. I told him that I had reviewed the policy on corporate.walmart.com and I didn’t see that anywhere in the price match policy. I began to list the limitations that I remembered. He told me that Walmart didn’t have a “pricematch policy”, they have and “ad match” policy and he knew the ad match policy and I didn’t need to tell it to him. I said, “Okay, that’s good because I read it too so we both know it.” He said they don’t match internet prices. I told him it was a price on the toysrus.com website but that the product had to be purchased at the physical store, and even the product details said that it IS NOT available online. I told him it couldn’t be shipped but that I would have to go to the store in person and buy it and that if they were open at 11:00 at night that is what I would have done, but they are closed so I came to Walmart knowing they had an AD match policy. I asked him if they had the internet on the store kiosk so I could show him the webpage. He said it only went to Walmart.com but if I had a smart phone I could pull it up. I whipped it out; my handy smart phone that is, on my crappy mobile provider started loading toysrus.com. During the 5 – 10 minutes it took for the website to come up he also went to the site on his phone. He pulled up Diablo 3 and started looking over the page.

About the time mine finally came up, and amidst small talk about what carrier he was on, since I hardly get signal in the store he told me that the problem is that it was below their cost for the product and there was no way he could sell me over $100 worth of games for $30. He said ultimately it was managers discretion. I told him that I understand that, but I’d like to think that if it meets the ad match criteria then the ad match policy would be honored and I didn’t see anything in the policy indicating that a certain percentage of cost had to be met as a condition of the ad match. His retort was that it was ultimately Managers discretion. I responded that, if the ad match criteria is met and Walmart doesn’t match the price that destroys the integrity of the entire ad match policy. “Nuh uh”… Though he already had it up on his phone I showed him the webpage clearly showing the retail price and the sale price. He told me that the problem is that this had to be a special promotional item and they probably got it highly discounted from the manufacturer. “For example”, he said, “all of the black friday stuff are specials SKU’s that they don’t even sell most of the year and the ad match policy says it has to be the exact same item.”

At this point I was fairly certain I had won.

I said “So, if I can find the SKU on the website and it’s the same item, you will match the price?”
He said that he had just looked at the website and didn’t see the SKU. I said let me take a look on my phone and see if I can find it and while I looked I saw him pull out the key to “open” the register. I think he knew at this point I had won as well. One tab over, under details it showed the SKU for Diablo 3.

IT WAS THE SAME!

I showed it to him and he was already clicking away at the register working the Walmart dark voodoo to change the prices for me. I asked him if he needed to see the other SKU’s because it would probably take me a minute to pull them up. He said he didn’t need to see them and rang me up. He had to call someone else over to undo the security tag on Diablo 3 but after a short, tense wait, my receipt in hand and FEARING that before I had my items in the bag and out of the building he’d find some loophole and invalidate my sale… I waited… the Jeopardy theme going in my head… but finally, the siege was over. My items in the bag with receipt, and the rest of my items rangs up, I said “Thanks for honoring the ad match policy” and walked quickly for the exit.

SCORE!

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General by mortalwombat