The Best Buy price match policy serves as a great way to always get the lowest price when shopping for electronics. Surprisingly, I recently had a Best Buy employee tell me that not many shoppers take advantage of their fairly liberal price match policy. So I figured that maybe shoppers just aren’t aware of it and how to best use it to save money. So this article idea was born. Here’s exactly how Best Buy’s policy works, along with some insider tips to help you use it most effectively.

How Does the Best Buy Price Match Policy Work?

The price match policy at Best Buy can definitely save you some money if you know how it works.

If you find a lower price at a qualified competitor, or from a qualifying online retailer, Best Buy will happily match that price.

To get a price match, the item must be identical in terms of brand, model number, and color.

When in-store, just find a “Blue Shirt” and show them the competitor’s ad or website (via your smartphone or tablet) with the lower price displayed.

The Best Buy employee will then do all the legwork required to get you the lower price.

See Also: 7 Insider Tips to Save Money at Best Buy

Who’s Considered a “Qualified Competitor”?

Best Buy used to say the competitor had to be within a 25 mile radius of the store but that is no longer the case.

They now make it very easy and have a specific list of stores that they will price match.

They will ONLY price match the following 19 retailers, they include some heavy-weights in the consumer electronics category and offer a great opportunity to find a lower price.

This applies for BOTH an in-store price match AND an online price-match.

• Abt
• Amazon
• Apple
• Bhphotovideo.com
• BJ’s Wholesale
• BrandsMart USA
• Conn’s
• Crutchfield.com
• Dick’s Sporting Goods
• Home Depot.com
• Lowe’s.com
• Menards.com
• MicroCenter
• Nebraska Furniture Mart.com
• P.C. Richard
• RC Willey
• Sam’s Club.com
• Target.com
• Walmart.com

When shopping in-store, just show a Best Buy employee the product page from one of the above sites on your smartphone or tablet and they’ll verify the price and quickly get you a price match. The store MUST be on the above list and within 25 miles of the Best Buy your standing in.

When shopping online, you’ll need to either Start a Live Chat -OR- call them at 1-800-BEST-BUY for a price match request. From their site, “Best Buy will then review and verify the price match request on a Best Buy device.”

Which Items Won’t They Price Match?

These are there price match exclusions:

• Refurbished Items
• Clearance Items
• Open Box Specials
• Contract mobile phones sold by any online retailer.
• Competitors’ service prices.
• Special daily or hourly sales.
• Items for sale Thanksgiving Day through the Monday after Thanksgiving.

Fairly small list. The biggest one is no Black Friday price matching.

Can You Get a Match After Your Purchase?

Yes, absolutely.

Also known as “Price Protection” or a “Price Adjustment”, this is when you buy something from Best Buy only to have the price drop via a sale or a new everyday low price.

Crappy feeling for sure! The good news for you is that Best Buy now offers 15-day price protection.

From the Best Buy website, “If we lower our price during the return and exchange period (15 days), we will match our lower price, upon request.”

Just keep your receipt and head back to the store to get the lower price.

For online purchases, call them at 1-888-BEST BUY (1-888-237-8289) and request your price adjustment.

See Also: All the Stores that Offer Price Adjustments (32 Retailers and Counting)

3 Insider Tips for Success:

Here are a few insider tips to make the Best Buy policy work for you.

1. Use the Amazon App

A very easy way to check Amazon for a lower price is with their free app (iOS, Android).

Use the app to scan the product’s bar-code when standing in the aisle at Best Buy. If Amazon has the item cheaper, you’ll get that price. No Prime membership required.

2. Costco and Sam’s are Local Competitors

Surprisingly, Best Buy considers warehouse clubs like Costco, BJ’s, and Sam’s Club to be local competitors.

So if you find a lower price at any warehouse club, simply bring in evidence and show any “Blue Shirt”.

Look carefully at model numbers and SKUs as the product may look identical but in actuality be made specially for Costco and thus not be 100% identical to Best Buy.

Top Brands in Common: Samsung, LG, Apple, Vizio, Sharp, JVC, Canon, Nikon, Bose, Sony, and Yamaha.

3. “Local Competitor” Hack

Until recently, Best Buy would accept a price match from ALL local stores, not just one of the 19 large retailers that I listed above.

If you find a local competitor that has a lower price, but is NOT one of the 19 stores, TRY to get a price match anyways.

Since Best Buy changed their policy without any notice, I think you’ll still have decent success getting your price match.

I’ve been told manager’s are still being fairly lenient on this new policy as many shoppers aren’t aware of the change yet.

Ask the Reader: Have you ever used the price match policy at Best Buy effectively? If so, how much cash did you save and was it an easy process?

By Kyle James

Amazon sells a zillion products. While they sell most products directly to consumers, some are sold by 3rd parties, and some products never actually reach an Amazon warehouse yet are still sold via the Amazon website.

Because of all the distribution channels that Amazon employs, they’ve developed a counterfeit problem in recent years. But if you know the products most likely to be counterfeit, and who to safely buy them from, you can avoid a lot of “counterfeit headaches” and not get ripped off. Here’s what you need to know to protect yourself when shopping on Amazon.com.

From the site The Counterfeit Report, here are 13 of the more popular items sold on Amazon that have had counterfeits in the past.

• SanDisk: Micro SD Memory Cards – All genuine SanDisk memory cards should have a serial number and a manufacturing country’s identity.
• Samsung: Micro SDXC Memory Cards
• Apple: A1385 USB IPhone Chargers – Counterfeits have not been evaluated by UL and could be dangerous to use. Real Apple Model A1385 adapters have the UL mark on them.
• Vans: iPhone 5 And 6 Cases – These are all fakes as Vans does not make an iPhone case.
• Gillette: Fusion Razor Blades – Very hard to tell the difference between counterfeits and real razors until you shave with one.
• Otterbox: Defender Cases – Otterbox cases labeled as un-packaged, yet “New”, is a good indication it’s a counterfeit.
• Beats Headphones
• Gerber: Bear Grylls Ultimate Knives – The trademarked “Gerber” logo is a stylized proprietary font. The counterfeit knife doesn’t have the correct Gerber font on it.
• True Religion Jeans
• Bose: QC 15 QuietComfort Headphones
• Monster: NCredible NTune On-Ear Headphones
• Coach Handbags
• Duracell AA/AAA Batteries – Battery label slightly peeled off. Positive (+) mark on the battery does not have an arrow next to it.

I’ll keep this list updated and add potential new Amazon counterfeits as I discover them.

How to Protect Yourself from Amazon Counterfeits

According to The Counterfeit Report, “Apple reported that 90% of Apple products it purchased from Amazon Direct were counterfeit.” Also, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, close to 25% of music CD’s they purchased from Amazon were counterfeit.

Bottom-line: Amazon has a problem. And while they’re doing a lot to get rid of counterfeits, there’s still stuff us shoppers can do to protect ourselves.

First, it’s important to understand the three ways Amazon currently sells stuff:

1. Amazon Direct: This is the stuff that is sold and shipped directly by Amazon. Much less likely to run into counterfeit items when you’re buying directly from Amazon.
2. Amazon Marketplace: This is the stuff that’s sold via the Amazon website, yet it’s shipped by via a 3rd party seller. These products never enter an Amazon warehouse and are never inspected for authenticity. Buyer beware as a big percentage of Amazon counterfeits are sold this way.
3. Amazon Fulfillment: Lastly, this is the stuff that is stored and shipped in an Amazon warehouse but is owned by a 3rd party seller. Because Amazon has more control, they can weed out counterfeits when they enter their warehouse. Still, be sure to read product reviews and check out counterfeit sites if your gut tells you something fishy might be up.

The single best way to protect yourself from counterfeits is to only buy items that are sold and shipped directly by Amazon.

Most importantly, always trust your gut instinct. If the price seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Also, if the product reviews talk about the item not being what the reviewer expected, stay away and instead buy the item from your local Walmart or Costco.

Ask the Reader: Have you ever ordered a specific brand from Amazon, and upon delivery, had the item seem counterfeit?

By Kyle James

Photo credit to Thanh Pham.

The stars all seemed aligned when I recently pulled the minivan into the Vacaville Outlets as we had a couple extra hours to do a little shopping before we finished our drive to visit friends in the San Francisco bay area. The stars quickly seemed to be exploding as the parking lot was TOTALLY packed. I almost said “screw this” as I drove the minivan around and around looking for an empty stall with 3 kids in the back who were getting “anxious” to get out.

In case you were wondering, I looked up the word “anxious” in the smart-ass dictionary and it means, “driving Mom and Dad crazy and making them want to saddle up to the bar at Chili’s.” But anyways, here are the ways to maximize your savings when shopping at an outlet or factory location.

Many “Outlet” Stores Ain’t Outlets!

The biggest takeaway from my family trip to the outlets was that you have to be really careful about the pricing.

Just because a store looks like an outlet, has an outlet bathroom, smells like an outlet, and has outlet employees, doesn’t mean the prices are any better than their regular retail location.

Some have the exact same merchandise, at what appears to be the exact same price, which is really odd to me. What the heck is the point? Shoppers are eventually going to catch on (if they haven’t already).

The actual percent of merchandise found in most outlet locations, that are either irregulars or factory seconds, is around 1% to 5%. Everything else is either the same stuff found in regular retail locations, or cheap stuff made specifically for the outlet or factory store.

If you’re going to have an outlet location, at the very least take last season’s merchandise, poke some holes in it, mark the tag with a Sharpie, and lower the price by 20%.

Here are the 3 main types of “Outlet” stores:

• Factory Stores – These are stores located within an Outlet Mall that sell items made specifically for the Factory Store. Clothing and apparel is often of lesser quality. Popular factory stores include Coach, Nike, Brooks Brothers, J.Crew, Calvin Klein, GAP, Banana Republic, Burlington Coat, and Tommy Hilfiger.
• Actual Outlet Stores – These stores sell items that were originally in the conventional retail location. Products are usually overstocks, or have small dents, scratches, or blemishes on them. These outlet stores often have the best deals on first quality products. Popular examples of “real” outlet stores include REI, Coldwater Creek, and Lands’ End.
• Conventional Retail – These are simply regular retail stores dressed up to appear like an outlet location. The deals found at these locations often mirror exactly what you’ll find in your local shopping mall. Examples include Old Navy, Merrell, Famous Footwear, Sunglass Hut, and American Eagle Outfitters.

By knowing the differences between these 3 types of stores, you can shop knowing exactly what potential deals you’ll find within.

“Holiday” Sales Rock

Once we finally found a spot to park, we were very impressed with the Labor Day sales many outlets had going on.

In particular, American Eagle Outfitters had a 50% off the entire store sale going on, even on clearance items. My wife bought some blouses that were regularly $45 for like $12 since they were on the clearance rack and she got an additional 50% off.

I had no idea that AEO even had outlet stores since I always see their overstocks at our local TJ Maxx. But sure enough they do, and the 50% off dealio was pretty awesome.

I asked the gal when we were checking out if they do this often and she said “No, only twice a year can you buy this trendy, Cambodian made, crappy clothing for 50% off our ridiculously expensive regular prices.”

Kidding, but that would have been the BEST ANSWER EVER. I think I would have leaped the counter and given her a huge bear hug. At which point I probably would have been tased by Paul Blart.

Other holiday weekend to check out include Memorial Day, 4th of July, Thanksgiving, and the 5 days between Christmas and New Year’s.

Impulse Purchases? Be Careful

Gotta say that if you have a weakness for good deals, most of which you clearly don’t need, you might want to stay away from outlets like I stay away from the center aisles at Costco. The deals tend to call out my name and pull me in with their force field.

This was especially true when I was standing in the long checkout line at the Nike Outlet where they have all these cool socks, clearance shoes, and other awesome sports thingies.

It was all I could do to keep my blinders on and stay focused on why I came into the store which was to buy my son some new duds for school.

Luckily, I was able to “Just Do It” and DID NOT end up with 7 pairs of Nike Elite socks and some really cool Retro Jordans.

Also, since most outlets (including the one we went to) are located in the middle of nowhere with cow pastures on both sides, I’m not sure we would make a special trip as the cost to get there eats into any savings.

But if you happen to be passing by an outlet it’s definitely worth checking out.

Ask the Reader: What is your take on outlet shopping? Worth it? Yay or nay?

By Kyle James

Photo Credit to Mike Mozart.