Update:  I’ve been making use of the policy below for years, but I had read this past week that it was discontinued on September 1st. This is a major bummer to me, as it was a great deal which I’ve gotten much money back from. Perhaps that is the reason they stopped doing it. I wrote to Amazon Customer service earlier this morning and inquired if it was the case, and this is the disappointing email I got back:

Hello from Amazon.com.

Thanks for writing to us asking about post-order price policies for items purchased from Amazon.com.

While we don’t always beat the best available price on every product, we do offer deep discounts on many thousands of items and cannot offer discounts after your order is complete.

From time to time, prices on some items will change due to special offers from suppliers and manufacturers or our inventory and sales volumes. When we can offer a lower price for new purchases, we will.

You may have been able to take advantage of post-purchase discounts on orders you placed in the past, but that policy was discontinued on September 1, 2008.

I am sorry this may disappoint you.

Major bummer. :(

Original Post from August 24, 2006:

I’ve been an Amazon.com user for a long time now – my first order with them was placed on June 24, 1997. I could probably figure out how much I’ve spent with them over the years, but I’d be afraid to. :)

But money is why I’m writing this short article you’re reading. Being a long time member of Amazon, I was surprised to find out earlier this year that they have a 30 day price guarantee policy. I don’t know what Amazon officially refers to the policy as, because it’s not mentioned in their help anywhere (that I could find). However, if you notice that Amazon.com drops their price on something after it’s been shipped to you, you can write them and request a refund in the amount of the difference, and they’ll do it. It is internal, it’s not like they honor a lower price anywhere (say at buy.com), but it works internally. At least that’s how I understand it to work, anyway.

It doesn’t matter how small the amount is (I’ve written in for as little as 8 cents), they’ll give it to you provided it’s within the 30 days (after it ships, I believe). Anyway, what you do is go to Amazon.com help area, and select the “Refunds” option in the “Returns & Replacements” section. From there, select the “Contact Customer Service by E-Mail” option, and then “Refund Inquiry” from the dropdown. From there you are presented with an interactive list of your previous orders, you find the one with the item you want the refund on, and then you are given the option to type in a message. That’s where you actually ask for the refund. Make sure and mention the 30 day Amazon price drop policy.

It’s a little bit of a hassle with all the clicking to ask for the refund, and you have to keep an eye on your orders for 30 days after they ship, but the way I look at it, if they’re going to give me money back, I’m gonna take it – even if it is just eight cents! Make Amazon pay you! :)

I also tried this at Amazon’s UK store, and it worked there; I don’t know if it works universally at all their stores (amazon.ca, amazon.de, amazon.jp, etc), but it does at these two.