Has Amazon Killed Its Price-Protection Policy?

Advertising Disclosure: When you buy something by clicking links on our site, we may earn a small commission, but it never affects the products or services we recommend.

Image Not Available

Amazon apparently no longer offers price protection except for TVs — although the company insists that nothing has changed from its earlier policy.

People who shop at the retail giant say it has matched its own prices in the past. For example, it would offer money back if the price of an item it sells dropped within seven days of your having purchased it.

But such price matches are no longer offered, according to Amazon’s “About Price Matching” page:

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.

Reports of people regularly being denied price-match requests by Amazon have been surfacing online over the past few weeks. Nonetheless, Amazon says it has not made any such policy changes.

In a USA Today report published this morning, an Amazon spokesperson said the company “always had a no price matching policy, because we believe we’re always making the best pricing decisions on behalf of our customers.”

The spokesperson also told the newspaper that, because it does not have a price-matching policy, its customer service associates have broad freedom in what they offer customers. So it’s possible customers have received price matches in the past and still are receiving them at times.

Whatever the case may be, there’s probably little that shoppers can do to sway Amazon.

Get smarter with your money!

Want the best money-news and tips to help you make more and spend less? Then sign up for the free Money Talks Newsletter to receive daily updates of personal finance news and advice, delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for our free newsletter today.