Customers Scammed Wal-Mart Into Price Matching Sony’s PlayStation 4 For $90
Back on November 13, Wal-Mart announced that it would price match select online retailers which included Amazon.com. However, consumers took advantage of this and were recently able to scam Wal-Mart into price matching Sony’s $400 PlayStation 4 for only $90.
Proof of the fraud was noticed by CNBC as photos of receipts were posted on Twitter and Reddit by consumers who were able to get Wal-Mart to match the price of third-party sellers on Amazon by tricking the employees into thinking it was an authentic-looking Amazon page. The problem is, any Amazon member that has a registered selling account is able to create such pages. Once the page has been created, someone can just take a screenshot of the listing and then show it to the cashier at checkout.
But now Wal-Mart is cracking down on the scam. One consumer posted a picture that showed an in-store sign saying that there would be no the store would not match the PS4 Amazon.com ad “due to fraud.” Photos also showed updated price match requirements for any “huge” price differences.
The PS4 scam follows an incident where Sears accidentally listed Nintendo 3DS ($200) and Wii U ($300) bundles for $60 each. While Sears was able to correct the mistake, it wasn’t fast enough for consumers to go to various retail outlets and get a price match.
While the Sears incident was, most likely, an honest mistake, that is not the case when it concerns Wal-Mart and the PS4 scam. Perhaps Amazon might need to rethink its approach to third-party sellers such as making it easier to discern a third-party seller’s page from an authentic Amazon page?
Proof of the fraud was noticed by CNBC as photos of receipts were posted on Twitter and Reddit by consumers who were able to get Wal-Mart to match the price of third-party sellers on Amazon by tricking the employees into thinking it was an authentic-looking Amazon page. The problem is, any Amazon member that has a registered selling account is able to create such pages. Once the page has been created, someone can just take a screenshot of the listing and then show it to the cashier at checkout.
But now Wal-Mart is cracking down on the scam. One consumer posted a picture that showed an in-store sign saying that there would be no the store would not match the PS4 Amazon.com ad “due to fraud.” Photos also showed updated price match requirements for any “huge” price differences.
p>LMAO Amazon and Walmart jig just got ps4 for $97 pic.twitter.com/pEIKsCvdHN— Taahaa Mobeen (@taahaa8) November 18, 2014
The PS4 scam follows an incident where Sears accidentally listed Nintendo 3DS ($200) and Wii U ($300) bundles for $60 each. While Sears was able to correct the mistake, it wasn’t fast enough for consumers to go to various retail outlets and get a price match.
While the Sears incident was, most likely, an honest mistake, that is not the case when it concerns Wal-Mart and the PS4 scam. Perhaps Amazon might need to rethink its approach to third-party sellers such as making it easier to discern a third-party seller’s page from an authentic Amazon page?
