Amazon Customers Are Furious Over the Site's New Refund Policy
Shopping at Amazon can be a savvy strategy for saving money on certain items. But a new report shows that the site may be cracking down on one trick shoppers had used to save cash, even after the purchase was over.
According to Recode, if you bought an item on Amazon, and then the price dropped within seven days, you used to be able to contact customer service and get a partial refund for the amount the price fell. But apparently, that strategy no longer works, unless you're buying a television.
A spokesperson for Amazon told the site that the refund policy was always limited to televisions, and that anyone else who received a partial refund was given an exception to the rule. But it does appear that Amazon isn't granting those exceptions anymore. Customers on Reddit noticed the change and complained that customer service reps are now claiming the "exception" never existed in the first place, even though they successfully got refunds all the time.
Amazon's website now reads:
"Amazon.com consistently works toward maintaining competitive prices on everything we carry and will match the price of other retailers for some items. Amazon.com will price match eligible purchases of televisions with select other retailers. For all other items, Amazon.com doesn't offer price matching."
The change might be because there are apps out there like Earny and Paribus that alert you if a price has dropped and automatically request refunds on Amazon. But in order to use these apps, you have to hand over your Amazon login information, which Amazon discourages for security reasons. According to PC Magazine, Amazon's supposed policy change will definitely hurt apps like Earny and Paribus, since more than half their users request refunds on Amazon, but if you're interested in getting refunds elsewhere, these apps are still good bets.
TechCrunch reports that Amazon's competitors may offer better price-matching. Best Buy offers around 15 days of price-matching protection, while Walmart offers a whopping 90 days. If you're just looking to track prices on Amazon items, check out camelcamelcamel, which alerts you if prices drop, but doesn't offer automatic refund requests.
