I went into Officeworks today to see if they would honour their Price Beat Guarantee for an iPhone SE 64GB in black. They are currently selling it for $678, while Toby Deals is selling it for $639.35 with a free shipping.

I read all the terms and conditions of the price beat guarantee before heading into the store. It states that it has to be an identical model, in stock, and cheaper including shipping. It doesn't say anything about no grey imports, excluding certain websites, needing to have identical warranty conditions, or reserving the right to refuse the guarantee for any reasons not listed in the terms and conditions.

In store, the manager (I assume) argued that they couldn't honour the guarantee because she had made the assumption that Toby Deals doesn't offer any warranty, while Officeworks offers a 12 month warranty. I later read more closely and saw that Toby Deals does indeed also offer a 12 month warranty on all phones, however because the business is operated in Hong Kong (but only sells to Aus & NZ), presumably the conditions of the warranty may differ somewhat. I have seen on other forums, Officeworks denying the guarantee before on the basis of the item not having an Australian warranty.

She kept reiterating that because the 2 items don't have the same warranty, they are not identical items. My argument was that a warranty is not an item. The phone is the item, and they are indeed identical. Also it does not mention warranties anywhere in the terms and conditions on the website.

In addition, she also said that they have been told not to price match from certain websites. Another employee mentioned that the competitor has to have an Australian ABN. That would be understandable if it were mentioned in their terms and conditions, but it's not.

As an aside, she also incorrectly argued that it was a different model. The Officeworks website listed the model number as "MX9R2X/A", while Toby Deals references "A2296". I showed her evidence that A229 & MX9R2X/A are actually the exact same model. Multiple websites reference both when referring to the same item. Amazon says that MX9R2X/A is the part number, while A2296 is the model number for the same product. She said it doesn't matter. The competitor website has to say "MX9R2X/A" on the listing. She also argued that they were not the same because in the heading in the listing on Toby Deals, it mentions "dual sim". She insisted that the model sold at Officeworks is not the "dual sim" model, but I later checked the specs on the Apple website, and all 2nd gen iPhone SEs are dual sim, and even the Officeworks website itself mentions dual sim in the specs.

Regardless of whether an argument can be made for why they shouldn't have to price match items with a non Australian but equal length warranty or grey imports, this is never mentioned or even alluded to in their terms and conditions. Is it right for Officeworks to refuse to honour their guarantee when the item meets all the criteria in their terms and conditions on their website including their listed exclusions, or is that false advertising?