Frugal Tool Chest Tip #1: Get Money Back On Your Purchases With Price Protectr

The Frugal Tool Chest is a recurring series covering practical tips and tools that will arm you to save even more money on your online purchases. I

The first frugal tips involves a website that will notify you when the price drops on any of your recent purchases. How does this help? Well, most stores have a price protection policy that allow you to receive a refund if the price of the item you purchased dropped before X number of days post purchase.

For example Amazon’s policy is currently this :

Post-Order Price Guarantee

Amazon.com’s prices for released items will change from time to time based on a variety of factors. If Amazon.com’s price for an already-released item decreases within 30 days after we ship the item to you, we’ll be glad to refund the difference in price if you contact us. Please click the Customer Service button on the right side of this page, and be sure to have your order number handy so we can assist you.

So how do you protect your purchases. Going back to the item listing for the next 30 days is just not feasible, so you let a site like Price Protectr do it for you. Here is my review…

All you do is supply the link to the item you purchased, verify the when you purchased it, verify the purchase price, supply your email, and click submit. That’s it! Price Protectr will snotify you that the item is being protected and then send another email if the price drops before the price protection policy expires for the site. It really is that easy. The have a large list of sellers that they support, but they don’t support every site.

Since I was reminded of the site a week ago by a co-worker, Ray of Taco Man and Burrito Boy fame, I have saved about$5. One item dropped on Amazon twice for a total of about $4.35.

A sample Price Protectr alert email looks like this :

Price Protectr saw a price drop on the Pinzon 400-Thread-Count 100% Egyptian Cotton Hemstitch Queen Sheet Set, Sand you submitted for price protection at www.priceprotectr.com.

You purchased the item for $42.34 and it’s now $39.99! The item URL is:

Pinzon 400-Thread-Count 100% Egyptian Cotton Hemstitch Queen Sheet Set, Sand

Please verify the item and price, and review the retailer’s price protection policy before requesting a refund.

To claim your refund: Visit their contact page, click the ‘e-mail’ tab, and choose ‘Refund Inquiry’ from the dropdown list. Or contact their customer service department at 1-800-201-7575. Hitting 7 should get you to a customer service rep right away.

If you collect your refund (or try to), don’t forget to log into your My Stuff account and leave a retailer review!

To change your notification settings, go to the account setting of your My Stuff account.

Thanks for using Price Protectr!

Following the instructions in the email, I sent a brief two sentence email to Amazon and had a refund back on my card in about 24-48 hours. The email doesn’t have to be anything special either…here is what I put in the email contact page :

The price of the sheets i recently purchased dropped a $2.35 cents since I bought them, I would like a refund for the difference as the price protection policy states.

Thank you for the great service and products.

Done! It is really quite gratifying to receive a Price Protectr alert! Give a try, you bank account will probably notice.