Patronized by Staff at Rooms To Go

See my response below, after "I agree" by Fifi la flea.

I don't understand why you didn't just buy the other items you wanted
at RTG, and then go back to Ashley to buy the less expensive mirror.
It seems like an easy and obvious solution to me.

In the Bible. The Bible with which I'm going to beat you. (I'm
quoting Shakespeare now.)

:) Good to see you back, funny guy.

"An Eye for an Eye blinds the whole world." -- Gandhi

What? They were rude to you for saying "no"?

If it was so important, go to the other store and buy it. The manager
made it quite clear their policy. Then, you wasted their time by
demanding to speak with the manager.

Why do you deserve an apology? Sounds like they simply said "no",
which was policy.

"No" is not patronizing. "No" is a legitimate answer.

Get over yourself.

I always found Ashley more expensive then RTG. I purchased a living
room set and a box spring/mattress set from them becuase after price
comparisons I found them to be the cheapest place around for the
quailty...and I do mean I checked a LOT of places!

I dont think that RTG here in San Antonio does price matchs either.
But I never asked.

But I think that most place who DO price match let you kmow that on
the top end....I know when I was looking a few places would tell me to
come back if I found something like it someplace else and they would
match the price.

Sorry, but you didn't see the "exact same mirror" at RTG you saw at
the Ashley store. To the untrained eye, both mirrors probably look
alike, but that doesn't make them identical.

These two companies are among the largest home furnishings retail
chains in the U.S. Both do their own sourcing, mostly if not all from
Asia, and have the power, due to their size, to demand and get
exclusive contracts with vendors.

The difference in price is most likely due to a difference in design,
quality, manufacture and basic materials. You can probably find
similar mirrors, maybe even cheaper, at other retailers.

The furnishings industry has some of the same problems as the clothing
business. High-end designers sell their goods for lots of $$$, but
find their original designs "knocked-off" by producers at the low-end
of the market which make minor changes in the design, use cheaper
materials and sell it under their own name for a lot less. As long as
they didn't copy the original point by point, these low-end producers
get away with it.

Yawn.

not matching the price is not patronizing you nor is it insulting your
intelligence. what is your justification for not simply purchasing
the cheaper mirror next door? you caused the trouble, got yourself
upset, when you could have just gone next door. what is wrong with
you that you missed this?

I missed the part where the manager said or did something to insult
your intelligence.

I suspect there's some important detail missing from the letter, like
the manager saying "yeah, like I really believe that another store is
selling this mirror for less."

On the other hand, your insistence that his inability to price match
wasn't true... that's insulting him. If you had proof that he was
able to do so, you should have raised that to his attention. Ditto on
your insistence that he leave the store and walk over to a competitors
store.

Maybe it was stupid of him not to price match, but it's not
patronizing to say "no."

Wow. I would say get over it and go buy the cheaper mirror!

Simply buy the cheaper one. I would never consider asking for a price
match. Most places only offer this on advertised items.

It may have been in the manager's best interest to price match here.


Many years ago, I worked at a local store that sold they say types of
things as bed, bath and beyond. A woman came in looking to outfit an
entire new condo. I am talking everything from window treatments to
soap dishes for the bathrooms.

My boss let me help her and I was all excited, my first huge sale.
The customer said the pricing at a shop a few miles away for the
bedroom items was wanted was less expensive and asked for a price
match since she was buying so much

Our usual policy was NO DISCOUNTS< NO PRICE MATCHING, so I apologized
and said no. My manager happened to hear me, came up and offered her
10% off her entire order. The woman ended up saving something liek
$500

My manager explained how sometimes a one-time exception can benfit us
and how she may have gone elsewhere and we would have lost all that
money.

Two weeks later, the same customer came back with a friend and helped
that friend pick out a huge amount of custom window treatements.

This is how I learned about incremental sales. Sometimes, I think it
makes sense for a manager to "give in".

Are you serious? Why wouldn't you just buy the mirror at the other
store? It was right next door so you wouldn't have even had to waste
gas.

You asked and the manager gave you an answer. Price matching is a
courtesy not a right. Just because you didn't get the answer you were
looking for doesn't mean the manager was rude.

Part of being a good longtime customer of an establishment is learning
to accept their policies and procedures.

Steven K.,

OK which way is it? Did he or did he not say he would price match?

"A few minutes later the manager came out and looked at the mirror and
then told me that he could match the price. I felt like he was
insulting my intelligence, because this is obviously not true."

The way I see it Price matching is a courtesy and just because they do
not do it does not make their treatment of you patronizing.

As far a some sort of apology or "solutuion" based on your letter I'm
torn on what they should do if anything.

BillR.

Yet again another consumer who equates "no" to being rude.

One can only assume the manager said he could "not" price match both
times. Otherwise the mirror would have been purchased and this letter
wouldn't be here.

*Asking* if the store could price match is completely understandable,
and it makes sense that it would be easier for the customer to buy the
mirror from the same place as everything else.

However, once you are told "no", the answer is to buy the product from
the place that sells it cheaper. Not berate the manager for
"insulting your intelligence."

Furniture shopping is difficult and time consuming. If you gave up
purchasing several items over not wanting to buy one of them next
door, you must have a lot of time on your hands.

I think the person doing the patronizing here was YOU. "A few minutes
later the manager came out and looked at the mirror and then told me
that he could match the price. I felt like he was insulting my
intelligence, because this is obviously not true."

How do you know it's not true? For all you know, Ashley was selling
the mirror at or below cost. Maybe he has parameters within which he
must stay when he's adjusting prices for customers. Ahem. DIFFICULT
customers.

I would like Steven K. to learn to accept "no" from a manager.
Additionally, it would be nice if Steven offered some sort of apology
for patronizing this manager.

I'm really confused after reading this letter. Did the manager offer
to price match or not? You say initially when the salesperson asked
the manager if he would price match, the answer was no. Then you say
the manager himself came out and told you yes he would after looking
at the mirror. But then you say that he "certainly could have called
the store next door or done something to accommodate me."

So, did you word the letter incorrectly and the manager did not in
fact offer to price match the mirror? Or did you word the letter
correctly but didn't like the two differing answers you received?

In my honest opinion, there is no reason you shouldn't have simply
gone back to the first store to purchase the mirror. In fact I know
these locations and they are simply a walk from each other. There
really is no need to get upset here in my opinion. Had Ashley put out
an ad with a sales price in it and RTG wouldn't honor it even if they
price match, that would have been a different story.

I'm really kind of struggling here with how the store manager was
patronizing you.

I'm not sure right now if your letter has a typo in it. It says that
the manager said "he could match the price." If that's the case, I'm
not entirely surwe what the problem is.

I'm thinking that you meant he said "he could not match the price."
So, in essence, you as the customer are saying "I'd rather deal with
you than the competition, but I don't want to pay what you're asking."
I'm not sure the Manager saying "no" is either rude, patronizing, or
bad service.

I see a couple of websites that say Rooms to Go does price matching,
but I'm not seeing any policy stated anywhere on their website, nor do
I see you making a reference to it.

"A few minutes later the manager came out and looked at the mirror and
then told me that he could match the price. I felt like he was
insulting my intelligence, because this is obviously not true."

Was this a typo? Did he say he would or he wouldn't match the price?

I don't really see how he was patronizing you. Plenty of companies
don't price match. You don't know how much the mirror cost them. $200
is a big cut for Rooms to Go to take on it. Maybe it wasn't a big
seller at Ashley and they lowered the price to clear it out.

Why not just buy it at Ashley?

They don't offer price matching. Buy it at Ashley. No store has to
price match.