Ten years ago, I was working at a big box electronics retailer just south of Seattle. This was the era of Pentium Procs with MMX, Pilot 5000s, and PCS cellphones. Our store offered price protection to its customers, which is the practice of refunding any difference in price resulting from a price change in a purchased item. Let’s say you pick up a 15-inch CRT for $399 on the 2nd, and then the store’s price drops to $349 a week later. You could return with your receipt and get the difference back, as long as it was within 30 days of your purchase. This is common amongst the Circuit Cities and Best Buys of the world.
But really, who keeps tabs on this stuff? Price Protectr, that’s who. The vowel-dropping, Web 2.0-looking website tracks the prices of products from many of the Web’s most popular vendors and tells its members when price drops that could garner them rebates are made. Make an account and put in your purchased merchandise and purchase date, and let the website do the rest. If a price drops, you’re notified by email. Nice.
So far it only works for websites, not brick and mortar retailers, but since most stores that offer price protection include their online presence as well, you might be able to fold in your real life purchases. The site design is hinky, sure, but it’s a handy website if you spend a lot of money on gadgets (if you don’t, why are you here?).
Website [PriceProtectr, via TechCrunch]