So I requested a price match on a RS Reverb (420 x 31.6mm) today….£174.95 on Merlin Vs £269.95 on Evans. It was rejected with the reason “Incorrect price on competitors website”.

How do they know??? I’m pretty sure the last Reverb I bought (and did receive) at Merlin was £175, so I’m pretty sure the price is correct.

And yes, I could just buy from Merlin but I have some Evans vouchers I wanted to use.

Was that in store or online?

They’ve always price matched for me in store, with some significant savings.

Was everything exactly the same? Year, based kit, button side etc.?

Online. They did price match some tyres last week when the difference was only a fiver or so.

Most of the Reverb’s on Merlin are £219 but the one I want is at £174.95 without the bleed kit.

Do Reverb’s come as standard with a bleed kit, cos another £35 for some syringes seems like daylight robbery?? I see no mention of it being included on either website for the ones at the more expensive prices.

probably because they would have lost money if they had.

I got accepted for that very price match last Monday (left MMX button) so it seems its a case of which shop you go to. I ended up cancelling the order though as it went from 2 days to 2 weeks for delivery. They told me at the time that that price was less than trade.

Prob because the one on merlin is oem (hense no bleed kit) and evans only have after market versions.

Evans will match the ”same” as long as its in stock. The wording between the two listings are slightly different so were they saying it wasn’t the same?

So do after market Reverbs come with a bleed kit as standard – there is no mention of it?

no bleed kit = OE
bleed kit = aftermarket

If Evans is aftermarket and the cheaper Merlin is OE then they can argue youre not getting the same thing (I appreciate they dont appear to be saying this, theyre suggesting the Merlin price is an error).

Last Reverb we bought from merlin, late 2012, was £150-ish and was aftermarket…

So do after market Reverbs come with a bleed kit as standard – there is no mention of it?

Yes, they do

They told me at the time that that price was less than trade.

It is

Unfortunately we only price match when it’s exactly the same product, no bleed kit means it’s prob oe and even if its not it s a different product if it comes without an additional extra part, too much of a slippery slope if you match stuff that’s nearly the same. If someone can buy exactly the same product elsewhere for cheaper then it’s common sense to match the price but once you get into grey areas it’s a bit tricky, I doubt you’d find any shops that would price match the example you gave if they realised it wasn’t the same deal.

Ah,ok. Well, that’s the end of that then. Merlin or bust.

just buy the merlin one

(so there are bikes that come with droppers as OE ??)

You might not need the bleed kit, just depends on the bike it’s going on. Big cable that sticks out when you drop the post us annoying though, I’d mock up how long you think you’ll need with an old brake cable and then figure out if you’ll need to bleed it. Nothing more annoying than buying new kit and waiting for an extra bit before you can use it.

Seen plenty of bikes with reverbs as stock. Though a lot have the 100mm drop rather than 125mm.

If you are careful when shortening the hose then you won’t need to bleed your Reverb.

I never understood the point of price match… you found an item cheap through a reputable seller, but instead went to the effort of trying to get another shop to match the price? why.

^ so you can take it back to a local, physical shop if something goes wrong.

I never understood the point of price match… you found an item cheap through a reputable seller, but instead went to the effort of trying to get another shop to match the price? why.

From the OP

And yes, I could just buy from Merlin but I have some Evans vouchers I wanted to use.

Because he had some Evans vouchers.

I never understood the point of price match… you found an item cheap through a reputable seller, but instead went to the effort of trying to get another shop to match the price? why.

You prefer the other shop, you want to give them the trade, they’re on your doorstep, they’ve been good to you in the past, you trust them with any issues.

Will that do for now?

Its not a like for like price match, oe reverb of Merlin no box, no bleed kit etc and an aftermarket product with box bleed kit etc that costs the shop more than 175.