Amazon Stops Giving Refunds When an Item's Price Drops After You Purchase It (recode.net)

Amazon has for years issued refunds to users when the price of an item drops after they've purchased it. But lately the e-commerce giant hasn't been doing that on a number of products, except for televisions, according to price-tracking companies. Recode reports: The move may have something to do with the rise of startups that track prices for Amazon customers and automatically request refunds when appropriate. One of them, a Santa Monica-based startup called Earny that is backed by the startup incubator Science, first pointed out the change. Earny scours a customer's email inbox for digital receipts, and then continuously checks the price on a retailer's website to see if it drops.

Comments

Newegg does the same thing

[Anonymous Coward]

Newegg has a price matching policy, but they make no mention of matching their own prices.... Although they tell you to report any lower price within 3 weeks they will summarily ignore your email if the price you attempt to match is from newegg itself. That site has gone way downhill over the years.

Re:Newegg does the same thing

[JackieBrown]

I haven't used Newegg in years. Their return policy is terrible.

If I get a defective product from Amazon, they send me a new one before asking for the return. Newegg wanted their product first, charge me return fees since it's not their fault it's defective, and charged me shipping for the replacement.

Only had to have that happen a few times to say to hell with them. Plus, their prices are not very competitive anymore.

Re:Newegg does the same thing

[twotacocombo]

I haven't used Newegg in years. Their return policy is terrible.

Amen. I bought a board from them a few years back. Got the PC all built and running, but something was causing lock ups. Turns out several individual pins were bent in the CPU socket. There's no way I'm good enough to just bend a single pin in several different places, so it had to have come like that. I didn't want to wait a week+ without a PC while I shipped it back and they shipped me another one, so I purchased the same one overnight from Amazon and had it up and running the next day. Newegg's return policy for mobos is "No". Just "No". Even if they shipped it to you in three pieces, you cannot return for a refund under any circumstance. It took several days for them to at least agree to give me store credit. After spending thousands with them over the years, I found this to be an exceptionally poor way to handle a $150 purchase. I haven't been back to their site since, and I spend every opportunity I can advising people not to shop with them.

Re:Newegg does the same thing

[Anonymous Coward]

> Newegg's return policy for mobos is "No". Just "No".

Here's a randomly selected motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128859

"GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD3 R5"

"Return Policies
Return for refund within: 30 days
Return for replacement within: 30 days
This item is covered by Newegg.com's Standard Return Policy."

Here is Newegg's Standard Return Policy: http://kb.newegg.com/Policies/Article/1167#44 and their rules regarding restocking fees: http://kb.newegg.com/FAQ/Article/1755

(The money quote on restocking fees: "Newegg does NOT charge restocking fees for returns of defective products. If you have received the wrong product or it doesn't match what was shown on our site or we have made some other shipping error, there will be NO restocking fee and NO charge for a return label, provided the item is within its return policy period.")

> Even if they shipped it to you in three pieces, you cannot return for a refund under any circumstance.

That is damage from shipping and is eligible for return for replacement. Read http://kb.newegg.com/Policies/Article/1167#overall and http://kb.newegg.com/FAQ/Article/1403 (starting at "FULL INSTRUCTIONS").

If your replacement item is undamaged and is not to your liking, it is covered by the original item's return policy. In the case of nearly every new motherboard, you can return for refund or replacement within 30 days.

I have had to return a few items to Newegg for replacement or refund over the years. The process has been universally quick and hassle-free.

Newegg may not have the lowest price for every item in their inventory, but they -unlike many Internet retailers (including Amazon)- absolutely will not settle with patent trolls under any circumstance. I'm willing to pay a bit more to help fund a company that refuses to feed the trolls.

Re:I have noticed this as well...

[PCM2]

That being said, my last three price adjustment requests in the past two weeks have all been denied, which is very odd.

Same. Only time I ever tried it was for a TV -- you know, an item where it would actually be worth getting the difference back -- and they denied it. Said there was no evidence it was retailing for the other price I mentioned, or somesuch (although my receipt might tend to indicate otherwise). I read some reviews and a lot of people apparently had the same experience. The refunds were fulfilled by some third party vendor who was apparently pretty shady (kind of like that godawful OnTrak shipping company that seems to be keeping itself afloat by tossing as many Amazon packages from still-moving vehicles as possible).