It’s happened to just about everyone before: you go shopping, buy something, and find out just days later that the item has gone on sale. Worse is when you pay for an item at one retailer and find that another offers the same thing for a significantly lower price. The result of either scenario is a feeling that you’ve somehow been cheated and buyer’s remorse typically follows.
This is a major reason why some stores have price match guarantees. Such policies allow you to get a refund of the price difference for recent purchases that have gone on sale. Some retailers also price match lower prices found online or at competing stores. Here are seven companies that offer price match guarantees.
1. Best Buy
With its price matching policy, Best Buy is truly aiming to live up to its name. The store will price match items on its own website compared to in-store prices, and you can also price match with local competitors and online sites including Amazon, Newegg, HP, Crutchfield, Dell, TigerDirect, and BHPhotoVideo. When price matching prices in-store versus those on BestBuy.com, bring your receipt to the store and the price difference will be refunded as long as you’re within in the allowed return and exchange period.
The same applies when you’re price matching against Best Buy’s competitors. There are some situations and time periods when Best Buy won’t honor a price match, such as when items were priced incorrectly, when you’re comparing clearance items or merchandise bought with coupons, and from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday.
2. Kohl’s
If you’re a fan of Kohl’s you’ll be glad to hear that the store has a reasonable price matching policy. It offers in-store price matching versus local competitors, but online price matching isn’t included. To get refunded the difference, bring your receipt and the competitor’s ad with the current date printed on it to a store location. When you opt for price matching you can still earn Yes2You Rewards and Kohl’s Cash.
Just as Kohl’s doesn’t price match with items sold on its own website, it doesn’t price match against the online prices of its competitors. Still, if you primarily shop in-store it’s easy to get good deals with the retailer’s policy.
3. JCPenney
One of Kohl’s main competitors is JCPenney, and the retailer has a price matching policy that aims to be more attractive to shoppers. In fact, it has one of the most impressive price match guarantees around. Though items sold on the company’s website aren’t included in the policy, JCPenney matches competitor’s prices and knocks off an extra five percent.
You can’t price match against third party sellers on sites such as eBay or Amazon, and clearance items and major appliances aren’t included. However, virtually everything else is fair game and to price match all you have to do is bring the competitor’s ad to a store location within 14 days of your original purchase date.
4. Lowe’s
It’s common for fierce retail competitors to have similar price match guarantees, and that’s true of Lowe’s and its rival Home Depot. If you find a lower in-store price at a local competitor, Lowe’s will beat the price by 10 percent. To take advantage of the policy, bring a current ad from the competitor with the date on it along with your receipt to a Lowe’s store.
Lowe’s will even match prices with competitors on their sale items, but in that instance the store matches the final net price of the item. Since the retailer sells many big ticket items and appliances, it’s definitely worth price checking when shopping at Lowe’s. The few restrictions that the retailer has on its policy are reasonable — price matching isn’t available for installation labor costs or special order, closeout, clearance, damaged or discontinued items.
5. Bed Bath & Beyond
One of the unique things about the price match policy at Bed Bath & Beyond is you can use coupons to save even more off the matched price. Items advertised as being closeouts, liquidations, or on clearance don’t count, but otherwise you can price match an item sold at the store as long as it’s identical to the item sold by a competitor.
If you happen to have a manufacturer coupon for the item in question, definitely bring it to the store so you can get a great deal. Items sold by just about every Bed Bath & Beyond competitor can be considered, even those on sites such as Amazon.
6. Toys “R” Us/Babies “R” Us
Since Toys”R”Us and Babies”R”Us are owned by the same parent company and offer similar items, each store has the same price match guarantees. When it comes to price matching with competitors, local brick and mortar retailers and online stores are eligible. This means you can compare prices with Walmart, Target, Sears, Kmart, Amazon, Buy Buy Baby, Best Buy, and others. However, the price matching only applies to items bought at physical Toys”R”Us or Babies”R”Us locations, not those bought on the stores’ websites.
The exception is that each store will match their own prices at ToysRUs.com and BabiesRUs.com. Some types of items aren’t eligible for competitor price matching, including doorbusters, store-wide and category discounts, buy one get one deals, and items sold from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday.
7. Target
Target has one of the most flexible of all price match guarantees. Not only will the store price match retroactively for sales, but you can also price match items on Target.com and compare with retailers like Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy. To take advantage of retroactive price matching for in-store sales, simply bring your receipt back to the store within 14 days of the date that you made your purchase.
For items bought on Target’s website, you can go in-store to do price matching as long as you bring your receipt or order number. The great thing about the retailer’s policy is there are few restrictions on brands and nearly all of the items sold at Target are eligible, from electronics and clothing to toys and grocery items.
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