On Sunday, February 28, 2016 at 12:35:29 PM UTC-5, Doug Miller wrote:
SWMBO and I were told by a salesperson at a local plumbing supply house that, while they're
happy to price-match other local dealers on Delta faucets, they won't match online prices
because (supposedly) the Delta faucets sold by online retailers are a lower quality than those
that they sell, even though the model numbers are the same.

Sounds like BS to me -- among other things, believing this means believing that Delta applies
the exact same model number to two different products. I've spent enough of my career
working in manufacturing environments to know how much of an inventory nightmare this would
create.

Anyone care to comment on this?

Sounds like BS to me, mainly based on the inventory issue that you mentioned.

However, I have seen different store sells slightly different models from
the same manufacturer so that price matching couldn't occur. Lowes and
Home Depot used to (may still) do this with the InSinkErator line of
garbage disposals. The models might vary by an 1/8 HP or have a different
dB spec which meant they had a different model number. This slight variance
could be found across the entire line, from the lowest priced unit to the
top of their line.

I guess that both stores sold enough units that InSinkErator was willing to
produce 2 different, but very similar, product lines. It also prevented price
wars which could have caused the stores to ask for discounts from InSinkErator.
Everybody wins, except for the consumer.

But as you said, same model number, different product? I think not.