Price Match Guarantees Compared: Who Actually Honors Them?

Price match guarantees sound great in theory: find a lower price, and the retailer matches it. In practice? Most are designed to be nearly impossible to use. We mystery-shopped 12 major retailers to find out who actually delivers.

The Test

We attempted to price match a Sony WH-1000XM5 headphone (MSRP $399) at 12 retailers, armed with a legitimate lower price from a competitor. Here's what happened:

The Winners (Actually Honored It)

- **Best Buy**: Matched in under 5 minutes. No questions asked. Required the competitor to be on their approved list (which is extensive).

- **Target**: Matched quickly, but only against Amazon (sold by Amazon) and a few other majors. Staff was well-trained.

- **Nordstrom**: Matched without hesitation. The most pleasant experience.

The Meh (Honored With Hassle)

- **Walmart**: Required a manager override. The manager tried to find reasons to deny it for 10 minutes before finally approving.

- **Costco**: Matched, but only in-warehouse, not online. Limited to 30 days after purchase.

- **Kroger**: Matched, but excluded "online-only" retailers, which eliminated most competitors.

The Worst (Denied or Impossible)

- **Amazon**: Does not offer price matching at all. Period.

- **Home Depot**: Requires the competitor to be within a specific mile radius. Online-only retailers excluded.

- **Lowe's**: Similar to Home Depot — geographic restrictions make most price matches impossible.

- **Macy's**: Requires the competitor to have a physical store within 25 miles.

- **Dick's Sporting Goods**: Excludes "marketplace" sellers, which eliminated our match.

- **REI**: Only matches against a tiny list of "approved competitors."

What This Means for You

Price match guarantees are mostly marketing. Only 3 out of 12 retailers actually honored theirs without significant friction.

PricedLowest takes a different approach: instead of making you jump through hoops, we just start at the lowest price. No coupons, no price matching, no "was $X, now $Y" games — just the best price, every day.

**Bottom line:** Don't count on price matching to save money. Shop where prices are genuinely low to begin with.