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Comment by FireBeyond | Hacker News Reader

It's not refusing to price match that is the swindle - the swindle is promising it, and then using things like retailer-specific SKUs to avoid price matching otherwise identical items.

"Sorry, this is a 512GB-SANDISK-AMZN SD card, we only carry the 512GB-SANDISK-BBY, it's a different model".

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The definition of swindle is "to obtain money or property by fraud or deceit". Neither is happening in the scenario where the price match is refused.

I would argue that making an offer that you know cannot be fulfilled "We price match other retailers!" because you know other retailers don't carry that SKU for identical products because it is limited to your store is misleading/deception.

I walk into Best Buy thinking I can get a price match on a digital camera because they advertise price matching. They say sorry, "this is the Best Buy exclusive version of that very popular camera, we can't price match it. You see it comes with a special lanyard in the box." So I'm in a position where I've driven to Best Buy, and either have to pay their price or go home and order on Amazon. So maybe I pay their higher-than-Amazon price.

The price match was deceitful, they obtained money from it. Sounds like a swindle to me.

Easily avoided if you compared model numbers from the 2 web sites before getting in the car. Besides, your issue is with the camera mfg for making not-quite-identical models.

More easily avoided by just ordering on Amazon to begin with, after trying it out at Best Buy if I feel like it.

Fraudulently wasting my time is just as much of an issue. The wrong occurs when a store works to deceive me. Whether the deception is successful or not does not change the mortality of the action.

Deceit: the action or practice of deceiving someone by concealing or misrepresenting the truth.

In what way is tricking people into thinking they'll be able to easily price match not deceit?

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