Shopping online? Watch out for this...

[omslaw]

First off, howdy y'all; I've been scarce lately - My company moved their world headquarters from KS to MO so that has been keeping me buried. I'm now about 1/2 way through a 3 week stretch "working from home" in VA. That part has been going really well

Hokay - so long story, but I needed to get a new belt for Michelle's mustang... I will usually shop online for parts and then "pickup" at the local store. The only close parts stores to her are Napa and Advance... I'm partial to Advance Auto so I login to my acct and start searching for a belt. I find the belt....it's "on sale" for $16 and change. Well, we were going to town later anyway, so I opted to just run by and pick it up. When I get there, I rattle off the part # that I need, the gal gets the belt and says "That's $29.59 before tax..."

WHOA!? $29.59?! I said "is that the MSRP?! It's $16-something online..."

She was a little irritated and just told me that the price is $29.59 and that I would have to order it online if I wanted the lower price. I asked her if she would match the price and she said 'no'. That was odd because the store I deal with in KS WILL match the online price and HAS DONE SO for me. Whatever...I leave there irritated... We finish our errands and head home.

So - now we're home and I pull out my iPad to order the part (Michelle works around the corner from Advance, so she can pick it up) - I do my search...WTF?!? $26.59? HUH?! I do the search again and the same price, $26.59. I'm thinking 'Am I going crazy?!' So I hop back on my computer and pull up the session I had earlier...yep $16.19. So I click 'Add to cart' - and all of a sudden the price changes to $26.59!?

OK, now I'm frustrated...and I recall a news story about Mac users being shown higher priced hotel choices... Mac Users See Higher-Priced Hotels on Orbitz - ABC News . So I'm thinking 'I wonder if they're doing that on browsers... I launch Firefox and check the price - $29.59!!!! Exact same laptop...two different browsers...two different prices! OK, fire up Internet Exploder: $16.19! WHAT?!? 3 browsers...3 prices! EXACT same site...EXACT same part!

Well, to add more to it, I have 2 iPhones here; I check from both of them...TWO DIFFERENT PRICES! $29.59 and $26.59!

Ultimately, I ordered the belt from IE and got the lower price...but AS SOON as I ordered it, the price went up to $29.59! Wow... Now, here's a kicker - I cleared my cookies in IE...the price went back down to $16.19! I cleared cookies in Chrome and Firefox, but that didn't do anything...


So - sorry for my long story, and I hope it wasn't too confusing - bottom line - if you're out shopping online, you may want to try from different browsers...you never know what you'll find!


So y'all can see - keep in mind, this is all for the EXACT same part:

Here's 3 browsers...3 different prices...same computer:







And here are the two iPhones:

 

[GsxrBots]

That could be the DUMBEST thing I've ever heard. Someone should be shot for allowing this to happen.

 

[VaBusa]

All I'm thinking as I saw this unfold was "Welcome to Virginia"

Seems to be some price fixing going on with online sales...glad he's sharing it here. Hope it'll save all of you some $$ when doing your online shopping...

There should be a law against this

 

[card16969]

seriously ive seen that before difference in price on my laptop vs my dads computer when i sent him a link to something

 

[MO-BUSA]

humm first time i have saw that one, thanks for the heads up Omar

 

[GoldenChild]

So which browser we need to use for lower prices???

 

[dadofthree]

Apparently you don't get a low price. When going to cart it changes. I noticed years ago that when I shopped for tires on-line the prices changed, just not 50%

I would find the lowest price, go back to purchase and it would be higher. Need to clear cookies next time and see what happens when I go to the cart.

 

[VaBusa]

So which browser we need to use for lower prices???

I think he found the cheapest price using Internet Explorer, but if he didn't clear cookies and looked again the next day, same browser, it went up...

???

 

[PandaNin]

One thing that affects this is what zip code they have stored for you in the cookie.

I've found that if I have a different zip code from when I was travelling still in the cookie I get a different price and directed to a store local to that zip.

 

[Dust]

Mind posting the link so others can check it out?

 

[The Big Red One]

humm first time i have saw that one, thanks for the heads up Omar

Thats a first for me as well......thanks for the info
Companies just get crooked'r and crooked'r. Sickening.

 

[sanket_420]

humm first time i have saw that one, thanks for the heads up Omar

+1 thanks

 

[omslaw]

So which browser we need to use for lower prices???

Well, initially it was Chrome that I used, but it then showed me the higher price later in the day. IE is the browser I used to ultimately make the purchase, but as soon as I purchased it, the price jumped back to $29.59.

 

[omslaw]

Mind posting the link so others can check it out?

Link to....?

Advance Auto Parts: Car, Engine, Batteries, Brakes, Replacement, Performance & Accessories is the site I purchased the belt from.

 

[omslaw]

One thing that affects this is what zip code they have stored for you in the cookie.

I've found that if I have a different zip code from when I was travelling still in the cookie I get a different price and directed to a store local to that zip.

Agreed. And to check that out, I checked a couple zip codes; they both gave me the same higher price.

 

[fallenarch]

Makes you wonder how messed up those guy's inventory is. With all those numbers flying around how could they keep track? If they sold a couple hundred of those at the wrong price that could really hurt.

 

[lil charlie]

I had this hapen to me when I was ordering a Gas line trimmer from Sears' website.

 

[VaBusa]

Makes you wonder how messed up those guy's inventory is. With all those numbers flying around how could they keep track? If they sold a couple hundred of those at the wrong price that could really hurt.

It's Advanced Auto...they're all over the place. What was so frustrating is that Omar found the $16+ belt online, so we head to the store to buy it and they say they can't price match. Willie, you know Redline will price match other vendors, right? Advanced won't match their own prices?! So, we had to leave, order it online, then drive back and get something they had sitting on the shelf all along I wish we'd thought to just stand in front of them, order it on the iPhone (if the price were the same), then say "OK, I'd like to pick this up now"

 

[mynewride]

first off, hello Omar! hows it been. i just went there myself and looked at the exact same part with I.E. It showed 16.19 till i went to check out and it jumped to 26.59. thats bizarre.

 

[Blanca BusaLess]

So you bought an iPad and two iPhones to buy a $16 auto belt?
Probably spent four hours trying to figure out how to save two bucks



Strange what you found.