I know corporate reads these forums, which is good in this case. I want them to read this, and to know how stupid their new price change restrictions are.
Recently they added restrictions to the POS limiting what kinds of price changes you can make. The problem is that it isn't consistent, at all, it isn't well understood, and it creates a hostile environment for TM's.
Some departments can no longer have their price adjusted more than 25%. This was the maximum amount I could decrease the price of a Dyson at least anyway, I assume it is the case for other restricted items as well.
What this means is that a Dyson for example that is $449.99 cannot be price adjusted to anything below $337.49. By anyone. This is not a TM restrictions that a TL can override, it is a restriction in place for all employees.
Today I had a guest come in who received a Dyson vacuum. It was $449.99, they had gotten it for $224.99 as part of a 40% off sale combined with some other circle offer recently. It was defective. We no longer have an exchange option, which means the only way to handle an exchange is to return the item and resell it to them. The problem I am sure is evident, I can't lower the price of the new vacuum to $224.99. In the end we had to call corporate and have them send the guest a replacement vacuum.
Another scenario: Walmart has the Air Pods on sale for $69. There is no reason we should not be matching the sale.
It is in stock, sold by Walmart, does not require Walmart+, is not a clearance price, or a lightning deal. It meets all the criteria our pricematching policy outlines.
So we just pricematch it, right? Nah. You try and the register tells you to get fucked. Or at least it did, originally.
Yesterday it wouldn't let me match the sale price, today it did.
What this suggests is that when someone calls corporate and complains that a price match that should work doesn't, it gets changed, eventually.
The problem is that it's inconsistent. We are going to run into scenarios where someone comes in, tries to do a pricematch, gets told no, sorry, we can't do it. Then someone else will come in later and request the same pricematch, and it will work fine. Odds are, this is going to get back to some of the first guests, where someone they know will let them know they were able to match the price afterwards, and this will anger the first guest, and potentially result in them accusing us of discriminating against them. It's just a whole can of worms we shouldn't have to deal with.
Restricting TM's price adjustment capabilities is fine. Restricting TL's is not. Monitor the price changes TL's make, if they make changes that appear to be egregious, take action against them, but don't handcuff them and make it so no one in the store is capable of helping guests when it is perfectly reasonable to do so.
The other weirdness is that it's by no means a thing with all items. I changed a $200 Air Fryer to $5 without it stopping me. Clearly that's not sensible. I'd never really sell it at such a price, but I merely wanted to see if it would let me to try and figure out how the restrictions worked and what items were impacted by them.
Recently they added restrictions to the POS limiting what kinds of price changes you can make. The problem is that it isn't consistent, at all, it isn't well understood, and it creates a hostile environment for TM's.
Some departments can no longer have their price adjusted more than 25%. This was the maximum amount I could decrease the price of a Dyson at least anyway, I assume it is the case for other restricted items as well.
What this means is that a Dyson for example that is $449.99 cannot be price adjusted to anything below $337.49. By anyone. This is not a TM restrictions that a TL can override, it is a restriction in place for all employees.
Today I had a guest come in who received a Dyson vacuum. It was $449.99, they had gotten it for $224.99 as part of a 40% off sale combined with some other circle offer recently. It was defective. We no longer have an exchange option, which means the only way to handle an exchange is to return the item and resell it to them. The problem I am sure is evident, I can't lower the price of the new vacuum to $224.99. In the end we had to call corporate and have them send the guest a replacement vacuum.
Another scenario: Walmart has the Air Pods on sale for $69. There is no reason we should not be matching the sale.
It is in stock, sold by Walmart, does not require Walmart+, is not a clearance price, or a lightning deal. It meets all the criteria our pricematching policy outlines.
So we just pricematch it, right? Nah. You try and the register tells you to get fucked. Or at least it did, originally.
Yesterday it wouldn't let me match the sale price, today it did.
What this suggests is that when someone calls corporate and complains that a price match that should work doesn't, it gets changed, eventually.
The problem is that it's inconsistent. We are going to run into scenarios where someone comes in, tries to do a pricematch, gets told no, sorry, we can't do it. Then someone else will come in later and request the same pricematch, and it will work fine. Odds are, this is going to get back to some of the first guests, where someone they know will let them know they were able to match the price afterwards, and this will anger the first guest, and potentially result in them accusing us of discriminating against them. It's just a whole can of worms we shouldn't have to deal with.
Restricting TM's price adjustment capabilities is fine. Restricting TL's is not. Monitor the price changes TL's make, if they make changes that appear to be egregious, take action against them, but don't handcuff them and make it so no one in the store is capable of helping guests when it is perfectly reasonable to do so.
The other weirdness is that it's by no means a thing with all items. I changed a $200 Air Fryer to $5 without it stopping me. Clearly that's not sensible. I'd never really sell it at such a price, but I merely wanted to see if it would let me to try and figure out how the restrictions worked and what items were impacted by them.
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