Hey guys, I just wanted to blog about a yet another unsatisfactory personal experience we had with Wal Mart today.  It seems that even if their online store says one price, your local store may have an entirely different price, and by different we mean more expensive.  Why is this the case?  We have no clue.  Does this make sense?  Hell no.

Here's what happened, I looked up an item for a family member on Wal Mart's website.  The site listed the price as $124.00, which is a great deal for this particular item, a Western Digital External 1Tb hard drive.

We used their "find in store" tool to see if our local Wal Mart had the item and we were happy to see the item was indeed in stock at a local store. However, when we got there, the price on the item was $199.00 and the "associate", being a manager, refused to honor the web site's price saying there was nothing he could do.  Nothing he can do?!  The site says one thing but you are gong to charge more?  Does the greed of Wal Mart really run that deep?

To make the fact that they wanted $199 for an item they listed as $124 more confusing, the site even said the price "was: $129.88" and was "rolled back" to $124.  We even checked the model number to make sure it matched and it was exactly the same item listed on the site as was in store.  The guy even checked his computer and still refused to sell the item for the price listed on the web site.

At any rate, after being irked at Wal Mart over the deal, we decided to check Best Buy's web site and found the very same item for $129.99. 

I called the local Best Buy store and what do ya know... they would not only hold the item back for us, but the price was exactly what their web site advertised.  Amazing, right?

Good job Wal Mart, you just lost $124.00 because you couldn't honor your own web site's list price! I wonder how many people all over the country have been through this.  I wonder how many people just go ahead and buy these items at the ridiculous price and how many find savings elsewhere.

I decided to share this experience with Best Buy's corporate headquarters.  I encourage you to do the same.

UPDATE:  Here is Wal Mart's response

Thank you for your message.

Dear Chris,

Our Every Day Low Price commitment is one of the ways we work to save people money so they can live better.  We keep a careful check on prices in every market where we do business. We are a ceaseless advocate for our customers and will do all we can to offer unbeatable prices; however, current cost factors do not always allow retailers to maintain the same prices.

Rest assured, when our suppliers bring price increases to the table, we don't just accept them, and increases do not necessarily show up in the retail price.  Wal-Mart continues to look for opportunities to maintain low prices, such as lowering transportation costs where we can, on products throughout the store.

Thank you,
Wal-Mart Customer Relations

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