Searched, didn't find anything relevant. It is not a deal per se, but since it is relevant to all Amaz0n patrons, I considered appropriate to post this here. Mods, feel free to move it to another forum (possibly Deal Discussion or Groceries).
Long story short, I found a discussion in the Amaz0n forums about them doing away with the 30-day window allowed for price adjustment, if the price goes down after the purchase. The discussion is here. Could not find an official announcement regarding this, it may really be an attempt to not draw attention to it.
Please contribute with references and links to the new policy, if it is or becomes available.
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I got 5 items price adjusted yesterday and got back $6/ item or $30 total. all items were individual orders. g10ny said:Searched, didn't find anything relevant. It is not a deal per se, but since it is relevant to all Amaz0n patrons, I considered appropriate to post this here. Mods, feel free to move it to another forum (possibly Deal Discussion or Groceries).
Long story short, I found a discussion in the Amaz0n forums about them doing away with the 30-day window allowed for price adjustment, if the price goes down after the purchase. The discussion is here. Could not find an official announcement regarding this, it may really be an attempt to not draw attention to it.
Please contribute with references and links to the new policy, if it is or becomes available.
I quote from a message in that Amaz0n forum: Amazon forums said:Only orders placed before September 1, 2008 are eligible for a price difference refund under the Post-Order Price Guarantee policy. As of September 1, 2008 we are no longer offering discounts if prices change on our website after you make a purchase.
lordofducks said:Their price adjustment policy was the main reason I shopped there. Looks like I'll be going to Buy.com instead. I shop there also because of their excellent customer services and return policies. I don't know why they terminate the price adjustment policy. Maybe people call in too much every time the price fluctuate? If this is the case, they only need to stop changing the prices every two hours, and no one will call in!!
I wish they'd atleast drop it to a 7 day guarantee, or even 3 day. I've had several times where I have a page open (linked from fatwallet), let it sit in a tab for a few hours, come back and buy it—only to see that i've been charged a higher price. It's always been adjusted just fine; I hope they still honor those adjustments.
I just recently price matched a book last night and received an email this morning to get the price difference. This is what it said in the email:
If you see another price change on our website for an item in your order within 30 days from the shipment date, please visit this link to request a refund:
lordofducks said:Their price adjustment policy was the main reason I shopped there. Looks like I'll be going to Buy.com instead.
That is pretty silly. If Amaz0n has the best delivered price, order from them if that is a good deal. Too bad if the price goes down later, at the time you ordered it was a good deal then it still is a good deal. Order from bye dot com when they have a higher price just to "punish" Amaz0n? Go right ahead .
I think this will backfire on Amazon.com. They have a very good "return" policy -- even allowing you to print return labels with Amazon.com footing the return postage. If a product drops in price within 30 days and they don't offer an adjustment, the consumer just might send it back to Amazon for a refund and then reorder the product with the new lower price. (Or just order the lower-priced product and then immediately return it as if it were the higher priced one). That will be MUCH more costly for them unless they ALSO change the return policy whereby the consumer must pay for return postage. Of course, doing all of that will REALLY turn off consumers. I'm wondering if they are thinking this through carefully enough.
ricwhite said:I think this will backfire on Amazon.com. They have a very good "return" policy -- even allowing you to print return labels with Amazon.com footing the return postage. If a product drops in price within 30 days and they don't offer an adjustment, the consumer just might send it back to Amazon for a refund and then reorder the product with the new lower price. (Or just order the lower-priced product and then immediately return it as if it were the higher priced one). That will be MUCH more costly for them unless they ALSO change the return policy whereby the consumer must pay for return postage. Of course, doing all of that will REALLY turn off consumers. I'm wondering if they are thinking this through carefully enough. Normally if you do not have "adequate" reason for the return (i.e not happy with product quality ...), you will pay for the return shipping.
ricwhite said:I think this will backfire on Amazon.com. They have a very good "return" policy -- even allowing you to print return labels with Amazon.com footing the return postage. They pay for return shipping ONLY if there has been an error in the order; does not mean they'll pay return costs because the price drops. If you claim the item is defective they'll send you a replacement at the original price (not the new lower price).
I think enough people were abusing this like arbitrage. Costco had to to the same for a lot of product and changed their decades long policy last year. To many items fluctuate in price and people can work it selling Amazon stuff with eBay, essentially placing all inventory the price risk on Amazon.
It is a shame they did it, but long time fatwallet readers know exactly why.
Well, I can tell you for certain there have been items that I only ordered from Amazon because of their 30 day price guarantee policy. And I'm sure I'm not the only one. I have no idea how much business this will cost them but it will definitely cost them some. Amazon needs to remember why they created the policy in the first place. I'm sure one of the reason was so if a customer was on the fence about buying something because they thought the price might be dropping soon then they could go ahead and order it and Amazon assured themselves they got that sale. And that's exactly why I've ordered some items from them I otherwise would not have. This seems like yet another recent example of how their previous belief in doing right by the customer better than anyone else is going out the window. Like when they off-shored their customer service. Granted, the reps in India are perfectly nice but it routinely takes several emails now to resolve a problem that has any sort of complexity to it because their understanding of the language is not quite good enough. Whereas before, the same type problem would get handled with just one email. I know some people who place a LOT of orders with Amazon (i.e. corporate gifts and such) and they all say the same thing. And some of them are already shifting orders elsewhere out of frustration. I realize Amazon needs to cut costs when possible but when doing so also cuts out sales then they should reconsider.
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