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Amazon Will No Longer Offer Refunds on Kindles or Fire Tablets After Price Drops

15733221648_0701343c03_oFor the longest time Amazon has had a policy of refunding the difference between the sale price of a Kindle or Fire tablet and the price you paid last week. Now that policy is going away.

Recode is reporting on a Reddit thread where a lot of Amazon customers are suddenly saying that Amazon will no longer give them post facto price matches.

The first message in the thread has been deleted, but other users are chiming in with similar reports. "I’ve previously received price adjustments from Amazon, but when I requested one yesterday, I was denied & was pretty much told this," one wrote. Another blamed the price-tracking services like Panbus, and a third confirmed that this was an actual policy change:

I just got off of the most frustrating chat with an agent where I learned this new change. Except the agent told me the previous policy to refund the post-purchase drop in price was never in existence. Their supervisor told me this too! Just kept repeating I was an exception and never told me when this changed even though I kept asking. It took till I called and the agent on the phone told me the policy changed 2 days ago. They had me feeling like a crazy person on the online chat. Thanks for posting this.

Looking at the date stamps on the comments, Amazon actually changed the policy close to a month ago, and it is only just now coming to the attention of the press.

Except Amazon still insists that there’s no policy change. Instead, they say that the price matches were all exceptions rather than a policy.

From Recode:

Amazon spokeswoman Julie Law told Recode the policy was always limited to televisions and that any customer who has received refunds on other products was granted an "exception." But it’s clear that those exceptions were previously given out freely, and now they are not.

It’s also clear that startups like Earny and Paribus, which require users to hand over their Amazon account credentials, are on Amazon’s radar.

"[W]e take customer security very seriously and want to remind them not to share their Amazon account credentials with anyone," Law said.

I know of people who have gotten dozens of price matches on dozens of different products. While the official word is that this was never a policy, it was so widespread that any reasonable person would disagree.

image by hnnbz

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Comments


Rasputin May 23, 2016 um 6:09 pm

>> While the official word is that this was never a policy, it was so widespread that any reasonable person would disagree.

If Amazon say it’s not so, then I must beg to differ

/Amazon Brainwash-mode Off


Rasputin May 23, 2016 um 6:15 pm

>> Same exact thing just happened to me. I couldn’t get a straight answer, just copy-pasted responses over and over not addressing my question. So frustrating!

Customer-service you can rely on.


Anne May 23, 2016 um 7:35 pm

I called in November 2015 for a price match on two kids kindle bundles. What you’re saying is the "new" policy is what they told me the policy was seven months ago, televisions were the only exception.

Of course, I then asked them if they really wanted me to return for a refund and reorder at the new price. I was bumped to a supervisor who told me they would make an exception to policy and then he refunded the difference. I felt they were really clear on what the policy was back then. I was just happy to get the $40 without much pain.

I just checked that reddit thread. I cannot imagine asking for 50+ price adjustments in three years. That couldn’t have been all kindles and fires? Someone mentions a backpack so I guess not but that still seems like a huge number to me.

Nate Hoffelder May 23, 2016 um 7:44 pm

I can’t imagine asking for a price change for most things. I mean, if I buy it too early and miss a sale, that’s just bad/tough luck.


Scott G. Lewis May 24, 2016 um 12:16 am

No harm in asking Nate. Lots of stores have a specific, defined thirty day price match. Others will do it it if you ask. And some may say no.


Syn May 24, 2016 um 4:34 am

I got 3 price adjustments on the same tablet because the price kept dropping. Went from 850, to 800 to 749 within 30 days. This was two years ago but Amazon didn’t give me a hard time about it.


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