The furniture industry is ultra-competitive. Some might even say it’s cutthroat.
Big players in the $250 billion industry are constantly looking for ways to maximize profits and market share. For some, that can mean getting creative on pricing, specifically by advertising one price then tacking on a litany of fees to increase the cost and, ultimately, their revenue.
One woman says that an unscrupulous salesperson at an Ashley Furniture store has another way of tricking people into paying higher prices: lying about the price match policy.
TikTok creator Mallory (@my_winning_season) recently shared the story of what happened to her and her husband at an Ashley Furniture.
Mallory says that the couple went to buy a couch there about a year ago. They found a couch they loved and started discussing prices with a saleswoman.
She says the price seemed fair. “You know what, that’s actually a good deal,” Mallory says.
They went to the woman’s computer and started computing the final total. Mallory got sticker shock when the saleswoman told her how much it would ultimately cost.
“It’s like $1,500, $2,000 dollars more than what she had told us. And I’m like, ‘That’s a little crazy, right? Like that price went like way high,'” she recalls.
According to Mallory, the saleswoman brushed it off, saying that it was just the added expense of taxes, delivery fee, the warranty, and such that made the price jump so much.
Her husband had taken a phone call on an unrelated personal matter. When he returned, he started looking up the same couch online to see if they could get a better deal elsewhere.
Mallory says he found the same exact couch for about $1,000 less.
Price match amnesia
Then Mallory remembered seeing something about Ashley Furniture having a price match guarantee.
That way, Mallory says, they could get the couch for the competitor’s lower price but with the expediency of buying from Ashley Furniture.
So she asked the saleswoman about it.
“I’m like, ‘On your website it says that you guys price match. But it doesn’t give you good details on what it is that you price match. Can you explain that to me?'” she recalled saying.
The saleswoman fell silent.
“She looks off into the distance,” Mallory says. “[Then] she goes, ‘Oh oh oh that’s just if you find it on Ashley’s website for cheaper.'”
“No it’s not.”
She proceeds to show a screenshot of Ashley Furniture’s purported price match policy.
It states that it will match the price of five of its competitors—Target, Wayfair, Walmart, Overstock, Hayneedle, and Amazon—if they’re selling the same exact item for a lower price. To qualify, per the screenshot, the item must be the same brand, model, name, SKU, quantity, and color. The item also must be sold by the retailer and not fulfilled by a third-party seller.
There are other limitations, such as for items sold during various promotions, such as Black Friday.
“That’s when I knew for sure that they be over there scamming people,” Mallory says with obvious disgust.
“But seeing this lady’s video, now that I know it’s not just me, oh yeah, they out, like they really getting people,” she adds of another creator’s claim to have had a similar experience.
Price match complaints about Ashley Furniture
Complaints have been circulating for years about Ashley Furniture failing to fulfill its price match guarantee.
“They say they’ll price match online prices, but I couldn’t get a manager to call me back, so they never honored that promise,” a Yelp reviewer wrote.
But is it a scam? Not necessarily.
Ashley Furniture licenses its name to the people who run its stores. Different locations have different price match guarantee policies described on their websites.
A location in Canada, however, says it will price match identical items sold “by a competitor.” A company that runs nine Ashley Furniture stores in Ohio and Kentucky seems to have a similar policy.
The company itself says it matches prices for identical items on Amazon.com.
Per Ashley Furniture’s website, “AshleyFurniture.com has the final decision for matching an online price.” This suggests that it matches prices at its discretion.
People who reacted to Mallory’s post aren’t convinced.
“I’ve heard WAAAAY to many horror stories about Ashley Furniture. I will never buy anything from them,” wrote one.
Others shared similar sentiments.
One complained, “It’s as bad as buying cars.”
Mallory didn’t respond to a direct message sent via TikTok. Ashley Furniture didn’t respond to an emailed inquiry sent Thursday morning.
@my_winning_season I didn’t know #ashleyfurniture was out here scamming people actively and openly #furniture #scam #fraud #horrorstoriestok ♬ original sound – Livin’ Out Loud
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