This post has been updated in 2020
Here is where you can find the latest Nordstrom price match and price adjustments policy. Even throughout the years since I wrote this post I have had varying price adjustment situations with Nordstrom so I still wanted to leave this post up for those of you who may be wondering about their policies!
My best advice is to inquire about your price adjustment online as this has been the most consistent for me.
Original post below:
I have a little story to tell, but before I begin, here is a little background:
If you are a longtime reader, (or if you have perused my archives) you will know that I love designer shoes. They are the one thing that I always splurge on. My closet is full of designer shoes and the place that I buy most of them are from Nordstrom.
I have a shoe sales associate that I am very loyal to and buy most of my shoes from him. They know that I’m a loyal customer as I get sent thank you notes all the time, I get calls from sales associates about upcoming sales, about pre-sales, about special events. I have been a Nordstrom card holder since I was 19! So as you can see, I’m very loyal to them as well.
So onto the story…
Does Nordstrom Pricematch?
About a week and a half ago, I went to Nordstrom to go shopping and I found a beautiful pair of Dior pumps that were regular price. They were expensive, but like I said, I tend to splurge on designer shoes and I loved them so I purchased them.
I haven’t worn them yet because with all the designer sales going on at Barney’s and Saks, I wanted to see if maybe I could find a pair of shoes that I loved and were on sale to save me a bit of cash.
Price match with online stores
Just this weekend, I was perusing online and found that both Bluefly and Saks Fifth Avenue had the same exact Dior shoes on sale. Saks had them for 40% off and Bluefly had them for 20% off. I was excited! Yay! I could save at least $200 on these shoes that I loved! I then remembered recently reading about this post/video on Clutch 22 where she went to do a price match at Nordstrom on a code that she found from shoes.com.
Basically shoes.com carried the same shoe as Nordstrom but if she ordered from them she would get 20% off so she went to see if Nordstrom would give her the 20% off as well.
In the end she succeeded and even attempted a second time to see if they would do a price adjustment after she found a 25% off coupon code and it worked as well. I also remembered seeing signs around Nordstrom that said “We won’t be undersold” or something like that and said that if you found a price cheaper somewhere else, they would match it.
My experience with Nordstrom Price Match
So, with that in mind and receipt in my hand I called up Nordstrom. My sales associate wasn’t working at the time so I ended up talking to the manager of Salon Shoes.
I told him the same story, as to how I was just there and purchased these shoes but then saw that Bluefly had them for 20% less and if they would price match. (If you are wondering, I told them about Bluefly first because they had my size in stock.)
He then told me that since they are a retail store, they do not do any price matching of online stores. He said it had to be a retail store like Macy’s (which Macy’s does not carry Dior or any designer shoes, at least the one in Seattle doesn’t) so I then told him that I actually found the same shoes on Saks for 40% off. He responded that Saks was closing their doors and that’s why they were marked down and that he wouldn’t price match those either. I then asked why it appeared that so many stores had these same shoes on sale but Nordstrom didn’t. He told me that they might possibly go on sale in the next few weeks and to check back. I told him Thank you and that I would check back and then hung up. To be clear, it wasn’t a bad conversation, he was polite about it and I didn’t argue with him or anything.
At first I wasn’t bothered about it because I knew that they had to have certain policies. But the more I thought about it, it bothered me because Jordana (of Clutch 22) did not have any problems price matching for coupon codes that they were both for online stores.
I was confused about the Saks comment because I didn’t know that Saks was closing their doors (did you?) but then I think does it matter if they are? Because if they are selling the exact same product, at the exact same time with a cheaper price, then why wouldn’t Nordstrom match it? I could just order it online from Saks and return my Nordstrom pair so Nordstrom would lose the sale after all.
I am not telling this story to complain about my situation, it’s just that with posts like the one from Clutch 22 it appears that Nordstrom WILL price match any or similar situations but with my story, it shows that it’s not true.
I think it’s awesome that Jordana did her research and got Nordstrom to make the price match and I think it’s great that Nordstrom was willing to do it. But it bothered me that my situation was similar but I didn’t even get a “Let me see if I can do that.” it was just a straight “No we don’t do that.”
Now, I don’t know if it made a difference that her shoes were $100 and mine were $600 but I just think that they need to be consistent with their policies. Also, if they are posting signs in their stores claiming that they won’t be undersold, you’d think they’d have clear policies regarding price matching.
I want to be clear that I do not think that I deserve the price difference. I totally understand that Nordstrom is a company and that companies need to have policies and do what they need to do to earn a profit. I don’t expect Nordstrom to just hand me the shoes at any discount I find. All I am saying is that if they have policies, it needs to be consistent so that all customers get the same treatment.
Price compare and do your research
Don’t get me wrong, this is not a big enough deal where I will stop shopping there. I still love shopping at Nordstrom and the shoe section is still one of my favorites. I just know that I will do a lot more research online.
I know that this experience changed my shopping habits a lot in that I was so used to being able to get the same prices everywhere (for designer items mainly) but I think now with all the competition and sales out there, you can always find a better price somewhere else. So make sure to look and don’t overpay like I did! 🙂
