I don't get this. It just makes me think I'm getting screwed if they don't post the price for everyone to see. Maybe it's not the case but, I just don't understand it.

I've seen several threads where someone claims to have "the lowest prices or, prices too low to list, PM for price" only to be higher than several advertised prices form other vendors.

WTF?

 

It's just marketing, one reason is for that they don't want to list a price out there and so another vendor could be like hey, we have the same thing for $xx.xx less than what he's offering, buy from us!... at least I think so

 

It is the policy of some of the companies whose products they carry to not allow advertising of prices that are below a certain amount for each product. So if they say PM for pricing that usually means this is cheaper than we are allowed to advertise and we don't want to get in trouble.

 

Yeah, they don't want to get undercut. It's a strategic thing. Also, there are cases where they are selling below the agreed-upon price floor and don't want the manufacturer to know.

 

There are two main reasons, one being undercut and two selling it cheaper then they are allowed to...

 

Also manufacturers have what they call "lowest advertised price"

 

MAP pricing.

 

from my expearance. if they say "priced too low to list PM for priceing"
It's not going to be that cheep and usually its not the cheepest price and you can price cheep prices elsewhere

 

I was wondering exactly thr same thing.....

then i realized most of it has to do with SHIPPED prices. If you provide the shipper with your zipcode, then they can quote you a price that includes shipping. If a vendor were to simply post all these figures, there would be a lot of discrepencies and certain people may think they are getting ripped off.
For example. I live in Wisconsin...lets say i am buying from a vendor in Michigan. If i ask him for a price and you also ask him for a price; mine would probably be about $10 less because i am only a state away from him in shipping terms, and you are a much further distance away (which requires a higher shipping fee).

Another reason for vendors to PM prices is that frankly some employees at shops have a higher "cut" than others. I found out this FIRST HAND when i PMed two people from Nolimitmotorsports about some cams. I ended up buying the cams from them, but was quoted COMPLETELY different prices from employees from the same company. I will keep names out of this.....C quoted me 600 shipped, while S quoted me 525 shipped. I made sure that "S" did not mean 625, and to my surprise he DID mean 525. Obviously, "C" wanted a higher cut and wanted to make a fat buck at my expense.
It REALLY angered me, and after i purchased the cams from "S" i mentioned to him about the price difference compared to his fellow employee "C". He was as astonished at the difference and admitted that some employees jack up the prices to fatten up their wallet. He gave me and AMAZING deal and i thanked him for that.

I learned that it can be VERY beneficial to ask for price quotes from different employees of a company. In this instance it was a a $75 difference! '
This has also worked for me when ordering a Dell laptop. I was quoted 300 less after calling a second time! Another time this happened was when i was shipping my evo from cali to WI. I got a quote online off of a "instant quote" the transport company offered. I kept putting in the info for the quotes and each time i did it the price lowered! It went from 550 to 520 to 475 to 425 then back up to 530. I kept the 425 and did not mention the higher quotes!

Its amazing, angering, and somewhat surprising at the same time......one company, multiple employees, and multiple prices discrepencies!

 

Seriously, the word is "cheap."

 

So that they don't have too compete for prices half as much as they already do.

Scorke

 

Another reason is some companies say that they will beat anyone elses listed price. When all of them dont list prices then they dont have to price match.

 

It's the same as tv/radio ads that say "prices to low to advertise" or "we're not allowed to mention the price on radio!!!". Like someone said above the "real" reason is that manufacturers can set price limits (often because they sell the product themselves or have agreements with other vendors who sell their products) on how low you can sell it or even advertise it, so as not to undercut other sales.

The problem is some companies pretend they are doing it for that reason, but it's not real, and like someone else said, it's not a low price at all. You really never know unless you comparison shop, or you're at least aware of what you should be paying.

 

MAP pricing "MINIMUM ADVERTISED PRICE" BASICALLY, you cant advertise things like exedy hd twins for 1335$ shipped and AEM widebands for 269$ shipped because it violates the policy.

 

HAHAHA Its "S" from nolimitmotors.....thanks again for the amazing price!