Just a quick shoutout to Data Vision, the computer “superstore” on 5th ave at 39th in NYC. I went in last week to buy an external enclosure for a notebook hard drive (yup–I yanked the drive out of the dead Sony from my previous misadventures, and it’s now the backup drive for my MacBook Pro!). I didn’t have time to shop around, and didn’t want to mail order, so I took it on faith that their prices are usually pretty on par with anywhere else, and paid $39.99.
Imagine my shock when I got home, looked up the enclosure I’d purchased, and found that every other source (including that place I swore I’ll never give another dime to, see aforementioned Sony laptop) had it somewhere in the range of $14.99. So, with the still unopened package, I went back to the store and asked if they’d price match, since they didn’t have a posted price match policy I could find. I dreaded an argument when they refused that and insisted on enforcing their stated 15% “restocking fee” and only refunding it for store credit. Boy, was I pleasantly surprised.
After verifying the price on the evil store’s website, the manager (I think) I spoke to said he was going to go talk to their buyer, and he’d be right back. I waited about 5 minutes or so, and he returned and, no further questions asked, told the cashier to refund the difference between what I’d paid for it and the $14.99. And they refunded it right back to the card. (I’ve returned something there once before, and while they didn’t ask for the restocking fee (which I have mixed feelings about as a general concept, but will save for a different time and different blog) they were only willing to do it as store credit.)
But, where it becomes really remarkable to me (although it shouldn’t be), is that by the end of the day (which was only a few hours), they’d gone ahead and updated their website, so that the website price (formerly $32.99, which evened out with the in-store price once you add shipping at about $7) is now listed as $14.99. (I imagine the in-store price is slightly higher, but the $14.99 prices I found online were all from mail order places that charged shipping; I would have been happy if they’d told me they’d adjust to $20 or so for me, since the price I gave was an online price. Many major chains refuse to match online prices at all!)
So, way to go Data Vision, you’ve definitely won a fan here!