Without any fanfare Amazon quietly edited price protection policy on all products except televisions. This includes Kindles, Tablets and Fire TV streaming media boxes. This was done because there are a handful of small startups on Amazons radar that processes automatic refunds when the price dropped.
Amazons previous policy allowed consumers to get a refund if they purchased an item within seven days and then it was discounted within this time frame. However, unlike many stores, Amazon only matched its own prices for items, not competitors’ pricing — with the exception of TVs and cell phones.
Amazon is disgruntled that many new companies are requesting login details in order to automatically process refunds and bypass Amazons own customer service system.
For example, newcomer Earny recently debuted a mobile app that helps consumers get their money back on purchases after price drops. Earny co-founder Oded Vakrat says that, so far, around 50% of the refund requests the app handled were for Amazon purchases. Earny also competes with Paribus, which offers a similar service both online and on mobile. Meanwhile, older sites like camelcamelcamel allow consumers to track Amazon price drops and receive alerts.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
