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02-25-09, 06:30 PM
CBO's current "Price Smash" promotion claims to beat any competitors price by 5%. Unfortunately, CBO's so-called promotion amounts to false and deceptive advertising – they're not honoring their promotion.
I found a pair of WTB Dual Duty FR 26" Rims at Nashbar for $22.99 each. The exact same rims are advertised at CBO for $39.95 each. I went through CBO's "Price Smashing" process, their system immediately approved the "Price Smash," and I continued with my order, adding nearly another $100.00 of non-price smashed items to the order. Everything went through with flying colors, or so I thought.
Two days later I received an email from CBO indicating that they could not honor their advertised "Price Smash" and that my order was cancelled. Why did they renege on their promise? Because they simply didn't want to honor it. Apparently, some "Price Smashes" are just too much to handle for CBO and they find it perfectly reasonable to decline an advertised offer because their competitors can actually out-price them – so much for beating competitor's prices. Here's how CBO responded to me:
"[Nashbar's prices] are simply lower than we can go... they just simply have us beat in this case."
These days when every penny literally counts, when trust in corporate America is waning rapidly, when consumer confidence is at an all-time low, and when buying anything these days is not taken lightly, I look for retailers that share my concern for value, that I can trust will keep their word and honor their advertised promotions, and that give me the confidence that they will look after their customers first as a matter of improving their bottom line rather than looking at their bottom line first as a matter of sorting out which customers they value versus which customers they do not.
Unfortunately, Cambria Bicycle Outfitters believes they have the luxury in this economy to chose which customers they believe will help their bottom line and which they can cast aside - this is the second (and last) time that CBO has declined a price match for the above reasons. I guess I'll continue shopping at JensonUSA and PricePoint, who have never declined a price-match request from me.
I found a pair of WTB Dual Duty FR 26" Rims at Nashbar for $22.99 each. The exact same rims are advertised at CBO for $39.95 each. I went through CBO's "Price Smashing" process, their system immediately approved the "Price Smash," and I continued with my order, adding nearly another $100.00 of non-price smashed items to the order. Everything went through with flying colors, or so I thought.
Two days later I received an email from CBO indicating that they could not honor their advertised "Price Smash" and that my order was cancelled. Why did they renege on their promise? Because they simply didn't want to honor it. Apparently, some "Price Smashes" are just too much to handle for CBO and they find it perfectly reasonable to decline an advertised offer because their competitors can actually out-price them – so much for beating competitor's prices. Here's how CBO responded to me:
"[Nashbar's prices] are simply lower than we can go... they just simply have us beat in this case."
These days when every penny literally counts, when trust in corporate America is waning rapidly, when consumer confidence is at an all-time low, and when buying anything these days is not taken lightly, I look for retailers that share my concern for value, that I can trust will keep their word and honor their advertised promotions, and that give me the confidence that they will look after their customers first as a matter of improving their bottom line rather than looking at their bottom line first as a matter of sorting out which customers they value versus which customers they do not.
Unfortunately, Cambria Bicycle Outfitters believes they have the luxury in this economy to chose which customers they believe will help their bottom line and which they can cast aside - this is the second (and last) time that CBO has declined a price match for the above reasons. I guess I'll continue shopping at JensonUSA and PricePoint, who have never declined a price-match request from me.