1800petmeds Bait and switch Internet

I tried to purchase a supply of Frontline Plus for my dogs from 1800Petmeds utilizing their price match guarantee, which I had successfully used a year previous.

They agreed to match the price of another dealer and placed the order, totalling $111-ish. Two days later, I received an email stating that this was below their cost and that they would not be matching it after all, but would instead be charging me $133 or so.

Their justification, paraphrased, read '<Other Dealer> is not a licensed pharmacy; we can't compete because they don't have our overhead' or some such.

I responded with a resounding "hell no, cancel the order" and I'll never buy from them again. I'd understand if they refused right away...anyone has the right to say "no, we're sorry, but we can't afford that deal," but to welch on me after agreeing on a price and taking my payment information? NO. Not happening.

This is Frontline, a simple flea killer, not a prescription drug! The other place can sell it at a lower price because they bought in bulk and aren't artificially inflating "their cost" by floating costs associated with a completely different set of products onto everything they try to sell. The fact that Petmeds is also licensed to distribute prescription pharmaceuticals is irrelevant to this product.

So be warned. Check your credit card statements twice. Make sure they didn't alter an agreed-upon price after the fact. If I hadn't been skimming my junk mail folder to make sure I didn't miss something from a new online purchase, I'd have had no idea what they were doing.