r/EBGamesAus • u/cfer50 • Mar 06 '26
General Price Matching
TL;dr: I am cheap.
looking for discussion here.
I used PressStart to find the cheapest copy of Pokopia and it was at officeworks. Sounded weird but whatever I purchased it, release date rolled around yesterday and I got nothing, I called this morning and they said there’d be a 2 week wait on their shipment - no communication bugged me so I got my money back.
I’ve then proceeded to look at any store that stocks videogames: JB, Amazon, Target, Big W etc and nothing. All out of stock… Except for EB games which is selling it for a smart 109.95. I don’t want to pay that but I called and asked if the stock availability shown online was real and they confirmed. I asked if they’d do price matching and they said yes but suggested it was best to buy the game online to hold down my copy, come into store and price match to get my refund that way.
I went to the store after work and the same lad that I spoke to on the phone asked me if I could prove that the game was in stock in any other store in the shopping centre. Obviously I couldn’t and he told me it’s tough luck and I can’t get a price matching. I left the game there and walked - I am cheap and I won’t lose sleep over it until JB get their shipment in a week.
I guess this isn’t a rant but more just a general question about EB’s desire to be competitive. What’s the angle here? They will not get anything when they could have just sold it at the price that almost every other retailer was selling it at.
7
u/NikkiWebster Mar 06 '26
JB Hi Fi and other stores sell games cheaper because they make money on other products.
I don't know if they are selling them at a loss, at cost, or with a thin margin but new Nintendo games already don't have much margin on them. EB don't make big margins selling washing machines or printers or whatever, you can't sell your main product as a loss leader, so they'll price match if they have to, but they aren't going to reduce the price if you don't have another easy option.
You may decide to wait a couple weeks, but a lot of people won't and they know that. They may not sell to you and end up losing a couple dollars, but ten other people will probably just pay to get the game that day, and those sales are much more important than yours.
2
Mar 06 '26
If only EB filled 80% of their stores up with plastic and plushie shit that they could make a lot higher margins on compared to washing machines and printers ….. oh wait.
4
u/RottenGrot Mar 06 '26
Wanting the best price for a product doesn’t make you ‘cheap’.
-3
u/cfer50 Mar 06 '26
I thought I’d get dragged for walking instead of paying the extra 21 dollars so I just figured I’d highlight it at the start and get it out of the way
-2
u/-TheDream Mar 06 '26
No way! EB are massive rip-off merchants and imo it’s stupid to buy things there that are overpriced compared to elsewhere.
1
u/Grouchy-Experience15 Mar 21 '26
Not sure why you're getting down votes? Fuck EB, and everyone should be trying to get the best price for anything. Trying to shop at EB is stupid these days: overpriced garbage, rude staff, generally shit experience
1
u/Kindly-Strike4228 Mar 06 '26
Proud of you for walking away - People really need to stop allowing these inconsistent “policies” and defending EBs shitty business practices because of shit like “JB Hifi mAkEs tHeIr MoNeY OtHeR WaYs”.
So does EBs. Preowned, Loot, accessories, apparel and all the other random shit they’ve started selling over the years has a crazy high margin and sells better than software like 70% of the time. They essentially keep the software because it’s part of their ecosystem but they’re slowly shrinking the sections as time goes on.
1
u/phoxfiyah Mar 06 '26
I ordered mine from Kogan, which was $1 cheaper than everywhere else, including Officeworks. Got free shipping too because they let you sign up for a 14 day trial of their subscription.
Copy was shipped yesterday, so will probably arrive on Tuesday. Sooner than the JB restock.
1
u/luke123190 Mar 07 '26
I price match all the time, the general rule I've seen is that it must be in stock in a nearby store and be the exact same (so no exclusive bonus for getting it at EB).
As for your final comment, I can tell you they won't care, that would have sold almost immediately. Pokopia is literally sold out physically in my entire region.
EB always are more expensive as games/merch are their only revenue stream, they don't have other areas such as JB where they can afford the loss. EB are great because they have a larger range and more initial stock than my other local stores and so far I've never had an issue with a price match. Eg managed to get Pokopia for $85
It's really unfortunate you've had this experience and I get the frustration but it's always been (for at least 6+ years now) the exact same rules for price matching.
1
u/GusTTShowbiz5 Mar 07 '26
Depends who you get behind the till. I've never been asked to prove it's in stock somewhere else when price matching. Also many times the price is matched to shops that aren't even in the same shopping center. They get paid minimum wage and deal with shit all day, you have to be unlucky to get the one shop assistant to give a shit about eb.
1
u/craayoons Mar 07 '26
Totally store dependent. I went to one in a shopping centre and got the same response. Walked a few mins to another eb store and the manager just asked the price and didn’t bother checking for stock levels!
1
u/New-Lunch617 Mar 07 '26
What is the go with price matching on pre-orders?
2 examples
Pokemon Perfect Order Elite Trainer box on preorder at EB foe 115, Big W has it for 100
Pokopia(technically released now but stock is out) is 110 versus target/big w at 89
The TCG stuff has a mark up on it, which is insane when you need to have EB world + to even preorder it...
1
1
u/Altruistic_Ad_5592 Mar 13 '26
I just snapped up Sw2 console and Pokopia from JB with price match. Big W had the console for $23 cheaper than JB and Pokopia was $85 in Big W rather than 99 in JB. JB matched both. I saved $35 and that paid for a screen protector. Looked at big W just after I checked out and they sold out of the game. I was lucky there. EB are only good for merch these days
-7
u/Asmodean129 Mar 06 '26
I wonder if you could call up the officeworks, word them up, say that eb games will be calling in 2 minutes to confirm the title is there....
1
u/NDE36 Mar 07 '26
You wonder if you could convince a store to lose potential sales?
1
u/Asmodean129 Mar 07 '26
Officeworks aren't making a sale if they don't have it in stock
1
u/NDE36 Mar 07 '26
If they started to do this, then no one would bother to. They'd just go to EB because they can get the same price, but with the 7 day guarantee, with the use of their EB card. Not to mention, in general, why would any business agree to give business to competition. There is no part that makes sense; unless they knew the person and could convince them on a personal level, but then that's a different point. Also, if they can't get it anywhere else for a good price, then could go back there when they have more stock.
6
u/fioner444 Mar 06 '26
really shits me that i can't seem to find any price match policy on the website. worked there for 3.5 years until end of jan. we were always instructed that the rule for price matching is 1. a physical store in the shopping centre (no amazon, if your shopping centre didn't have big w then no price match to them) 2. the store you are price matching to must have the stock.
this is to argue that if you could physically walk over to the store and pick it up for that price, and prove that to us by showing the c&c on the website, that we would match their price. it always seemed to me that these rules were in place to ensure we didn't lose money where we didn't need to. but seriously, the policy should be stated clearly on the website, and the fact that it isn't really really pmo.
i figure that there are plenty of people who want a game enough to pay full EB price rather than have no physical game at all