I'm getting ready to make a fairly significant size purchase. I looked online and found a price at Wal-Mart (the store that every one loves to hate). I looked at a real brick-and-mortar store, one with a good reputation and the same item costs about 10% more.
There's no question in my mind that the real store will do a better job of service. I can take the item back, ask for help, ask for suggestions, etc and they would spend time with me. But how much is that worth?
6 comments:
Not enough info to answer. How much is 10%? A dollar? A hundred dollars? Walmart will take it back, so it will depend on whether I think I will need questions answered or suggestions (that I couldn't find with a Google search.)
Brian, good to see your name again.
Purchase is roughly $2000 (maybe as low as $1500). 10% is about $200...
does online give you a site to store option? with that, can you get the online price and pick it up at the store?
At that price point I'm leery. The biggest purchase I made online was our previous TV at $900 and at that it was from Best Buy, so a local return option existed. I would end up at the store for this, but your mileage may vary.
I am not mad at Wal-Mart for making money. I don't believe the hype that they kill Mom and Pops. And I shop there when I think I can get the better deal there.
With that being said, Wal-Mart has a pretty good (nearly No-Questions-Asked) return policy... http://walmartstores.com/7658.aspx
I don't put a whole lot of value on the service side of the equation. When I bought my TV from HH Gregg, I left happy and haven't been back regarding the TV. They will all be about the same on return and hopefully a $1-2K purchase will render a quality product that doesn't require long-term care.
My final answer...if Wal-Mart offers site-to-store (free shipping) and is 10% cheaper than said brick-and-mortar specialty store, make it happen!
Thanks to all who commented. I made my decision to go with the bigger store and pay a premium over Walmart Site-to-Store.
Bottom line, I just didn't trust Walmart's handling of the product. And I wanted the expertise I got at the specialty store. I did manage to negotiate a better deal. Instead of discounting the price of the main object, I received some of the extras at a discount.
This was truly a win-win solution. The specialty store got a sale they would have lost and I got some extras.
Sorry, there's still a secret about what I bought, I'll blog about that in a week or so..
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