DrHGuy Cyber-Bookmarks: 07 January 2007
Cyber-Bookmarks From DrHGuy are annotated links to arguably worthwhile, recently published online reading, new or revised websites of potential utility or ostensible interest, and other internet-accessible experiences that, were it not for the casually collected, cavalierly collated, & capriciously collocated components comprising these posts, could easily be overlooked - which would be, in some cases, a shame,
Pragmatic Management Of Amazon’s 30 Day Price Protection Guarantee
Timothy Noah has published a consumer-oriented article, Amazon’s Secret Price Guarantee, which provides the details of Amazon’s unadvertised pledge that, should Amazon lower its price on an item within 30 days of purchase, it will refund, on request, the difference between the price paid and the lowered price to the purchaser.
Readers may recall a recent (December 15, 2006) Heck Of A Guy post, Noah’s Numbers, lauding this same Timothy Noah and Slate for discovering and publishing the otherwise difficult to access customer service numbers for Amazon and iTunes.
So, is this another coup for the astute Mr. Nash? That depends, I suppose, on the timeliness criterion one uses to determine if an event qualifies as a reporting coup Vs. old news.
On January 2, 2006, you see, my regular e-mail correspondents, including Mr. Science, the Duke of Derm, the irrevocable Lawanda, Mindspin, and a few others, received an following e-mail message from me:1
Because I am indeed a heck of a guy (and have the domain name to prove it), I feel compelled to let you all know about a no-risk, low-hassle way to maximize your Amazon experience. I am, as you probably know, a big Amazon supporter; unfortunately, I receive no kickbacks or other financial rewards from the folks at Amazon.com – although God knows I’ve be happy to accept them.
Anyway, here’s the deal:
Amazon, as a courtesy, refunds any price differences within thirty days of purchase. I.e., if you buy, say, a $4,320 camera for me in gratitude and 20 days later, Amazon carries the same camera for $3,320, then you win. File a refund request with Amazon and you’ll get the $1,000 difference back as a credit. The problem is that you have to check and then notify them in order to get the credit. Well, snickerdoodles, it’s the net to the rescue. Just click your way to
http://www.refundplease.com/
Then, fill out a short form with information about the purchase, your email address, and either the ISBN#(books) or the ASIN#(non-books), which are listed on Amazon’s product page. They monitor the product prices and, if it goes down within 30 days, you’re notified. The notification provides a link to Amazon’s refund request page and instructions on filling it out.
So, does it work? Well, this morning, when the price of a gift I purchased went down by $10, I received an email informing me of the drop. I then filed a request and an hour later had a $10 credit at Amazon. No muss; no fuss. To give credit where it’s due, I found out about the notification service from one of my favorite blogs, lifehacker.com.
I don’t know, but I suspect this refund deal works only for products sold and shipped by Amazon so stuff sold by third party sellers who operate through Amazon may not be eligible. A rule of thumb is that most items that are “eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25″ are sold and shipped by Amazon.
Just thought you might want to know.
Yep, only one year before Slate broke the secret Amazon price guarantee story, Lifehacker readers and my buddies had the news.
Food Photos
What Does 200 Calories Look Like? is no more than the pictorial answer to the titular query – photos of food in 200 calorie portions. Yet, it’s fascinating.
Credit Due Department: This has been featured on lots of web sites; I believe I first saw it on J-Walk Blog
Footnotes
- This type of e-mail was a precursor to the Heck Of A Guy blog which came to life in March 2006↩
