JHZR2
Staff member
I generally buy oil on price. With the proliferation of Chinese filters, I have not bought oil in the combo deals at the parts stores in quite a while.
So that means WM, Amazon, and other sales at parts stores. As one can imagine, WM typically wins. I am in no way a WM fan - the in store experience is not generally worth the savings, but few places have such a broad range of oils to shop at reasonable prices, that I put up with it for that.
I was looking to buy Valvoline VAS for our van. $21.97 at WM. Thought there was a $10 rebate on it. There wasnt. So I wanted to go PP 0w-20, which was on a shelf labeled $22.97 at WalMart #1. It rang up wrong. They went back, saw the shelf, but saw elsewhere that it was priced higher, at $27.97 or so. So wouldnt give the price.
I found while waiting for the price match, that HD in the same town had PP 0w-20 for $25.98. WM wouldnt price match it until they asked their manager, though the WM website clearly says theyll match homedepot.com for WM.com purchases (Yes, I recognize I was there in person, but the WM.com site said I could buy online for delivery today, so....???). Not friendly, and the store, the shoppers, etc all made for a horrible experience.
Left there and went about my business, which took me to another shopping center with a WM, call it WM#2. Having seen the thread on $17.97 rollback, figured Id have a look. Nope, $27.97. Took some up front because this store is known to be friendlier and more with it. They would not price match either. So apparently I could buy on walmart.com for same day pickup, and get HD price match (or just buy at HD, but was concerned about the $10 rebate). They at least confirmed that walmart in store no longer matches prices on ads or otherwise. Period. Even if its $2 or so for customer satisfaction.
Disgusted, left there, rolled by Pep Boys, and noted the $14 PYB oil change. Interested in not giving WM the business, even on the $17.97 PYB I just bought, I went in. Filters were Chinesium so I avoided the combo deal, but the shelf price at Pep Boys was $16.97. Next to it was 5qt PP 0w-20, for $24.97 - cheaper than WM and HD! Success, so the $17.97 5qt of PYB will be going back to WM at some off hour to avoid the line of 15+ people waiting to return stuff and get money orders.
So Pep Boys got my business, for 15 qts of oil. Being curious, I looked up the PP price at pepboys.com - $38+!!!!!
So Id never have stepped foot inside PB had the $14 oil change rebate special not been on the window. Im glad I did - PB has won some goodwill from me (particularly since they let me take 5 x 1qt bottles for the 5qt jug price. Ill be back there.
WM is under boycott for ALL things (really I only ever got oil there, but have occasionally bought other things there). Nope. I wasted a TON of time in walmart stores I wouldn't have otherwise gone to, to save not a lot of money. WM #1 could have easily adjusted the price, and made the sale on that plus another $50 or so worth of stuff in a cart that I abandoned out of disgust. WM #2, who was more friendly could have made it right too.
But how does one generally get accurate pricing on this stuff in a time-efficient manner? PB obviously isnt accurate between their store and the shelf prices...
Thanks, rant off.
