Hesitant about ordering an Amazon Kindle? The online retailer is apparently making a very tempting proposition to some of its customers: go ahead and order a Kindle, and if you don’t like it, you’ll get your money back — and get to keep the device. In other words, if you’re not satisfied you’ll get a free Kindle (and an Amazon-branded cover). Talk about putting your money where your mouth is.
The screenshots we’ve received look legitimate, but we haven’t been able to find any mention of this offer on Twitter or elsewhere (this seems like the sort of thing people would be going nuts over). We’ve contacted Amazon for confirmation. If you see it yourself, let us know in the comments. Update: Amazon has confirmed that it’s real. To give an idea of the kind of user who has gotten the offer:
Commenter Vladimir Cole has listed how many books he typically orders from Amazon (it sounds like he averages more than a book a week).
Commenter Alex L says that he sees it too. He’s only ordered a total of around 20 books in the last three years (most of which were last year).
Our original tipster says that he orders perhaps a couple of books per month and has been a member since 1997.
Assuming it is real, it’s pretty clear that this is only being offered on a limited scale right now — the promotion points out that the user who saw it is an “unusually active book customer” and the deal is non-transferable. It’s also obviously designed to entice these users to make impulse buys, as the promotion ends in only five days. Also worth pointing out: the promotion ends just over a day before Apple’s upcoming event. Perhaps Amazon is looking to grab any book-loving holdouts before the Tablet lands?
To those who can get the offer, it looks like you’ll have 30 days to make up your mind. Amazon isn’t making it excessively easy to make your money back — you’ll have to actually Email or call their support staff. Assuming the promotion is real, I suspect it will work out in Amazon’s favor. They’ve almost certainly done market research showing that bibliophiles love the device, and how likely these users are to request a refund.
Thanks to Arthur Wait for the tip
That’s just ridiculous.
It’s a great business move – it benefits them long term (they will eventually recoup their money because the user buys so many books) and short term (great PR and reinforces brand loyalty). There’s really no downside.
And if you really if you like reading you can’t compare an E-Ink based screen with LCD-type screen apple will use for their rumored tablet. So I really don’t see Apple’s tablet a competitor for e-readers, other areas yes.
Wow, so for a moment, Amazon makes the people infuriated with their new plans of giving toll-fees for each news on e-books they spread, and now this Free kindle bonanza? Lol, are they buying people out? Well, that’s why we have some alternatives, don’t we?
Skiff – will be the thinnest e-reader to hit the market, weighing just over a pound and sporting an 11.5″ touch screen. Now you can hear amazon ebook reader fans scratching their head.s now: More skiff detailsS: http://bit.ly/skiff-reader-amazing-details
Can we please add Skiff to the banned words list? Or simply ban Diablo from posting this spam?
Is season 3 of chuck up for grabs now?
agree. Like printer or some cellular handset schemes, you get the hardware at low cost or even free, and you will eventually repay by over-consumption.
Clever. The device is closely tied to Amazon through Whispernet. If you request a refund, I’m certain Amazon is shutting you out of future ebook purchases and firmware updates. I’m sure they’d look to expire supporting device software but who knows.
no, you idiot, the whole point is that they will want you to keep buying books so they recoup the fixed cost
Hmmm, I didn’t even think of that. I suppose that works too. Got some lulz from the idiot remark.
Sometimes when I read TC comments I like to picture people saying these things to each other’s faces.
I’d imagine the world would contain many more black eyes.
The ROI for the PR value of well read journalists saying “That’s ridiculous” is easy to calculate, so from an economic standpoint Amazon can manage the scale of the offer and get a return. Whether there is customer lifetime value in it from a CRM perspective is also relatively straightforward, given the detailed data available on Amazon customers who have previously switched to the Kindle.
But a marketing gimmick is a marketing gimmick at the end of the day.
Oh it just made my decision to buy Apple’s tablet right the day they launch
and it confirms that the tablet would be a cool ereader. If the incumbent is so freaking out, you know you don’t want to spend a penny more on them… The crazy monopoly they enjoyed is gonna be finally broken…
Where do I sign up?
My guess is that they are targeting VERY specific accounts…. people who have proven to spend A LOT of money at Amazon, read a lot of books, and maybe fit some other type of profile (age?).
Basically I think they are picking people who they are fairly certain won’t just exploit the offer. People who money isn’t a huge deal.
That’s my guess. It’s brilliant.
Agreed. I think they know what they’re doing.
I am sure they are somehow “guessing” people’s incomes as well, for whom $300 or whatever it costs is not an issue.
Just to reply to myself — that’s probably a largely overlapping demographics with the group who’ve never even heard of Twitter.
Exactly…that’s why I didn’t get the offer..lol
My guess is they will make this offer ONLY to folks who’ve already purchased tonnes on Amazon and thus would be less likely to abuse the offer.
Well, I buy > 100 books a year, all other kinds of items, etc, from them and haven’t received the offer.
And I’ve been buying books at that rate for years, and been an Amazon customer since the first year they started.
I feel left out.
If legit could be a small first step towards some kind of subscription model. If they are sending these offers to frequent Amazon book buyers they are obviously counting on enough book purchases to cover the cost of refunds.
Next step would be to offer a Kindle for free with a requirement to buy two or three books a month for a two or three years…. 3 books a month at $9.95 per over two years is $716.
A deal like that would crush the competition just as they are trying to get out to market.
But how they would verify that I do n’t like Kindle..?
This is nothing but just a false kind of promotion to get more sales before Jan25th ,since Apple is going to release a new tablet PC. on Jan 27th!
I did n’t think Amazon will stoop to such a low level !
Because they go by the fact that 99% of the people are honest and they are willing to eat the cost of the 1% losers.
I’m sure that far more that 1% of people will take Amazon up on this offer, and I’m sure Amazon fully expects to give away majority of the Kindles “sold” with this promotion.
I just went to Amazon.com after seeing this and surprisingly this offer is available to me on the home page, and I placed an order for one as well as their $30 leather case, which the offer says you can also receive a refund for and keep.
I wouldn’t consider myself a very active book customer, I purchase books very occasionally but I do purchase most of my textbooks from Amazon, and last year I purchased 16 books on Amazon because one of my classes surveys the great works of social theory.
After counting more carefully:
19 books in 2009 (1 returned)
3 books in 2008
1 book in 2007
And that’s it. Many of them are not purchased from Amazon itself though, but from other stores using Amazon as a storefront.
I have bought 18 books in 2009 and I did not get the offer. I would have bought it too and if I found that Apple tablet to be better I would have just asked for a refund. whatever maybe it will become cheap on ebay for people who get it for free.
Why don’t they extend the date to 27 th evening. lol
Something will come and may take over this product. ???!!!!???!!!
The (marketing) strategy is called ‘risk reversal’ and this particular tactic is called a ‘Better than no risk’ guarantee’.
It’s a one up from the more basic, ‘no risk guaranatee’ in which the company will typically ask for the product back. Because they know that 9/10 customers won’t take the time to package up the product and send it back.
In this case, Amazon is prepared to take on even more risk in the transaction, but that risk is offset by the fact they are seemingly only offering it to their best customers. This one is going in my spellbook for sure.
1.i love my website
2.order kindle
3.don’t love kindle
4.get monney back
5.begin loving amazon:D
They would not give back money easily..they would have a lot of conditions…I presume!
I smell Apple Tablet fear…
I got the offer… been a pretty solid customer of Amazon’s since ‘97 and buy many books through it. Tempted to take the offer, but want to see what Apple’s got scheduled for the 27th. May take the option.
Do you have Prime?
Yeah, that too.
Congrats
Can you give us any ballpark idea of how many books you typically order in a month?
why wait? Get the Kindle and ask for a refund in a week. Keep the kindle. No risk to you.
There’s still the inconvenience factor tho. So long as the offer is still good after Apple’s “reveal,” then it makes sense to hold off a few days.
According to Amazon’s handy order history page…
31 orders placed in 2009
29 orders placed in 2008
25 orders placed in 2007
21 orders placed in 2006
25 orders placed in 2005
23 orders placed in 2004
Average 1-3 books per order. Sometimes 10, but most of the time 1 or 2.
Great, thanks very much!
Sometimes, though, no books. I order lots of other stuff (electronics, pet supplies, and — when I lived in Seattle — food).
i see a pattern.
This sucks, I’ve have spent an obscene amount of money on amazon, according to the order page my book purchase’s have been:
29 in 6 months
73 in 09
58 in 08
82 in 07
35 in 06
12 in 05
If anyone was going to get the offer you’d think it would be me. I buy almost all hardbacks, so that’s probably one of the reasons. I’d guess they have an algorithm that puts me over the threshold where it makes them more money for me to buy physical books.
this is the dumbest thing i’ve heard in a while
Here’s why I think Amazon gave me the above offer:
I’ve been ordering products (books, tools, kitchen stuff, jewelry, etc.) from Amazon for a long time (since 1997). I’m an Amazon Prime member. I have an Amazon Visa card (and use it regularly). And I’ve never returned anything to Amazon. So, from their perspective, I’m probably a low-risk, high-value customer.
I generally place one or two orders a month (which seems modest to me, but maybe I’m fooling myself???), so I’m skeptical about being an “unusually active book customer” as the ad states, so I think the other factors are playing a larger role.
The fact that this offer expires approximately 24 hours before the Apple event is very telling, in my view. Amazon is worried.
but the big question IS, are you going to get a refund even though (secretly you might like it)???
If not, Amazon has just actioned some marketing genius. Target active users with a deal they “think” they can’t ignore. Chances of refund request within period actually quite low!
I’m an Amazon affiliate and I looked all over the place for this offer… but everywhere I look they’re selling for “Only $259″
So this promo seems to be a hoax.
Pure genius. For every customer who asks for their money back (and who would probably feel a little guilty if they actually do, in fact love the Kindle) I’m sure there will be 10-20 other customers who become ebook fiends and end up spending several thousands of dollars on books over the life of their new Kindles.
If I were Amazon, I wouldn’t worry one bit about the upcoming Apple tablet.
Sure, the Apple device will be amazing, I have no doubt. But it will be more computer than e-reader.
I just got a Kindle and love the thing, wish I didn’t wait so long! It is a pure reading device and that is what makes it great! The device so-to-speak disappears when you read. It is a true pleasure to use and I’ve found I am reading about twice as much. No way any of this happens with an LCD screen.
Lets not forget that the Kindle is $259 vs the speculated price of the Apple tablet at $999.
If I were Amazon, I’d stay the course.
I have been reading books on my iphone ever since i got my first one over two years ago. I read between five to ten books a month depending on their length and have never had any problem with this. Admittedly I have never even seen a kindle or any other similar device so its difficult to compare but for me the iphone is just perfect for my needs.
The advantage is I can also check my mails, play lots of fun games, watch movies, listen to music and many many other things.
In the long term, i have no doubt people will want a single multi-use platform.
Sounds crazy but it may be a brilliant promo by Amazon that will get them a lot of free advertising and press (like here on TC). They must have clearly analyzed the numbers to determine their total cost for this promotion and figured they would come out ahead. So here is a quick analysis : assume the 6″ Kindle (retails for $259) costs Amazon $175 – and let us say they make this offer to 10,000 active book-buyers : Assume they all take up the offer and then all request a refund – a 100% refund rate (which is of course very unlikely) – the total cost of the promo is $1.75 million. This is still cheaper than a 30-second superbowl commercial. Now assume a 50% refund request rate (still high but possible) – the cost would only be $450K when you subtract their profits on 5000 units from the cost of 5000 units. And they actually start making money at a refund request rate which is less than 33%.
All this of course, does not take into account all the free advertising they will get, the good will generated, and being one step ahead of Apple – all of which more than offsets these costs. So they could easily scale this up to 30 or even 40,000 users and still come out ahead.
It all boild down to , will the consumer prefer apple table t or kindle ?
Kindle does not allow you to read blogs and that is very big restriction.
Yes it does. Kindle allows you to subscribe to blogs and newspapers. Never seen one, eh?
The odds of Apple’s tablet thing being any where even vaguely in the same price realm as the Kindle is VERY VERY slim. Most estimates are putting Apple’s tablet thing around $900 — that’s a drastically different purchase than a $300 Kindle.
my guess is this is a publicity stunt. they’ve probably offered to people who are active commenters and likely to post the offer to blogs.
This is only valid for US customers who has a history of buying plenty of books from them
amazon fear and loathing in silicon valley…
This marketing for market share.
It gets Amazon additional free advertising and word of mouth.
It will help to bring market share leadership.
It will set back all possible competitors like Apple.
Amazon has the distribution channel and the brand name for written content world wide – the leadership will include the client devices too.
About 4 months ago, I was looking at getting the kindle, however due to no native pdf support at the time, I went for the sony touch.
I use mostly amazon.com with over 24 books in the last year, along with 3 from amazon.com last christmas. Only ever one return (ordered in error).
and only ever two reports of missing items in the post, one of which i returned after it arrived a month later.
No offer for me though.
I don’t think this is a sign of being afraid on Amazon’s part. It’s a nice way of riding the crest of the buzz around Apple to get more Kindle talk.
This is because the Kindle’s actual competition isn’t Apple or even B&N. It’s people who won’t yet read digital books.
More in depth thoughts on my blog.
Regards,
Mark Wilcox
http://pilgrimscreams.com/about/
Interesting marketing strategy. Not enough to entice me into buying. I’d buy a Kindle right now, if Amazon would pre-load or provide all the books (20-25) I have purchased from them in the last 6 months for free.
Why do you expect to get them for free?
You would then have 2 copies of the books for the price of one.
If you bought a load of vinyl from Amazon, but then bought an mp3 player from them, would you expect them to let you download all your vinyl songs for free?
Amazon = Brilliant!
Fucking fantastic. I’m buying one.
Amazon wins on this one, it’s clear, but I really want all the tablets out, and about before I buy one. It could easily go either way. I’ve discovered that tablet’s however raise your money spent of books area of the budget. Friends that used to occasionally read now buy books by the truck ton on their kindles.
So Amazon is banking on the idea that their loyal customers will voluntarily fork over money for a Kindle instead of just saying “nope, I hate it …give me one for free”? I find it heartwarming that they have so much faith in their customers then. In other news, I wish they offered me this deal.