Best-Price Guarantees January 26, 2017January 25, 2017 But first: Jason Kander on Trump’s millions-of-illegal-voters fantasy. Four minutes. Watch! And Frank Bruni’s goes-without-saying-but-glad-he-said-it-anyway how NOT to go after Trump. (“There’s so much substantive ground on which to confront Trump. There are acres upon acres. Why swerve into the gutter?”) And now . . . Joey: “Companies have found a way to keep consumers from price comparing. Lenovo (largest PC seller) makes the SAME model for Best Buy, Costco, Wal-Mart, etc., but gives them each a slightly different model number. Lenovo also sells the same unit on its own website with a slightly different model number. The one character difference in model numbers is probably a code indicating which store is selling it. So, not only can’t you price compare, but you can’t get a refund from your credit card company for the difference even if you have ‘price match’ on your credit card. I’m attaching a short chat with Lenovo where they state that the models are EXACTLY the same. I gave it to Citibank because my top-of-the-line card has price match, but Citi’s self-owned insurer won’t match because the model numbers are different. Do insurers ever pay out on anything?” Me: Your model is 80VF00A8US. Best Buy is 80VF00AYUS. Sales Rep: its the same. Me: Is it EXACTLY the same? Sales Rep: yes Me: THE SAME EXACT SPECS? Sales Rep: yes Me: No difference whatsoever? Sales Rep: no Joey paid $1,899 plus tax at Best Buy; he showed Citibank the receipt — and a screenshot of Lenovo’s website offering the same unit for $1,649 — to no avail. “Shop around.”