Thursday, September 29, 2011

Zappos - 365 Day Price Match Policy

One thing common among great companies is that they don't compete on prices. Competing on prices will mean that there is a high chance that someone will match it and worse beat it. So no, Zappos which I believe is a great company does not offer price match with its competitors. However, if the price of the item you purchased from Zappos went down during one year on Zappos website, they will match it, or rather I should say that it is in their best interest to match that price if a customer requests. I purchased a suitcase last month from Zappos for $207. Just yesterday, I was browsing the website and noticed that the suitcase I paid $207 for is now selling at $142. That's a $65 difference in less than a month. I contacted their live chat agent and she told me that their price match policy is only for 10 days but she'll do it once for me as a courtesy. I appreciated but reminded her that by virtue of Zappos 365 day return policy which included free shipping both ways, they are effectively offering a 365 day price match policy too. She disagreed and I had to explain her that if she refuses to price match in future, I'll simply order the same thing again, won't even open it when it arrives and then send it back with my previous orders receipt as if I was returning the original product that I might already be using. This will get me my price match and will cost Zappos extra money in shipping. Unless Zappos can find a way to tag every single item, they cannot differentiate between two similar pair of shoes or bags or anything. This will require an RFID tag which can be very costly (about 10 cents per item) and will also fly against their practice of exceptional customer service. So, in my opinion, Isabella, you are better off matching that price every time a customer requests as long as it is within 365 days, otherwise you'll end up with an unhappy customer who will figure out a way to get the price match and Zappos will end up losing price match amount plus two way shipping charges.