Should price drops be paid?
 

After buying an AMD Athlon XP 2500 Barton last week, and today seeing the price drop $10 (on NewEgg), I wonder,
should companies pay you back the difference of money of an item you bought but they just lowered the price on?

This really irks me, cuz I could have used that $10 for another case fan or a new floppy drive or a cheapo sound card.

And I don't know why they lowered the price now, Intel's Prescott has been out for a few weeks..

Uhh... I don't see why they should. If they had to, they'd stick to one price and go with it, I'm sure - and that price would be high.

Why should impatience be rewarded at the expense of the retailer. When you pay for something, you are paying for the relative qualtiy and workmanship of an item at that point in time.

Would it be reasonable for me to buy a new car a week before the next years' models are released and return the next week to demand a $15,000 refund? Should I be able to bring my receipt for my IBM Aptiva wih a K6-2 and ask for $600 back out of the $800 I paid for it in 1997 because the components are now worth that much? Would it be unreasonable for me to take my new computer back to CompUSA (no pointing and laughing needed because I didn't build my own, my mom bought it for the family, I ddin't pay a dime for it) in a year and ask for half of the money back? We paid for a top-of-the-line system in August 2003, and that's what we got.

There's no reasonable expectation of a refund if you can't wait for the price to come down.

As MSD said, at the time you made the purchase, you thought the price was suitable; otherwise, you wouldn't have bought it. You can't beat yourself up over a future price drop. All computer hardware will price drop at some time; but, if you wait forever, you will never own anything. Find a price you like, and don't look back.

I never look at current prices of items I purchased last week.

You obviously agreed to pay that price by buying it, what's done is done. Why should stores be held accountable for drops in price, especially when in the computer world they happen about every week?

Memory prices tend to jump up and down a lot. How would you like it if you bought some RAM, then got a bill a week later from the company saying "that memory is more expensive now, here's your bill for the $20 difference"? It's the same thing, either way it's trying to adjust the price for a product you already purchased in the past.

If a company wants to offer price drop rebates, as sort of an incentive to keep loyal customers, that is fine. But I don’t think it is something a company should feel they have to offer.
It’s sort of like free air at gas stations. It’s nice to have; it makes me a little happier to do business with them. But I don’t think it should be expected.

I wouldn't expect it but I don't think it'd be wrong to ask if they'd be willing to help you out.

We ordered a mattress from Slumberland. The next Sunday there was an ad in the newspaper for almost $50 less. When we went to pick up the mattress I brought the add and asked if they'd be willing to work with us. They gave us the advertized price for it with no problems. Granted the "transaction" wasn't finished as we hadn't picked up the mattress yet but they could have said no since we'd already paid. It gave us a good experience with them though and we'll probably go to them for our next mattress.

Companies want to keep loyal customers and may be willing to work with you. Just don't get upset if they don't. It's within their rights.

I suppose I shouldve thought about it more..Thanks for the input.
Just a little ticked off.

But anyways my next computer parts certainly aren't coming from Newegg :)

Quick and clean explanation right there.
However, as raeanna, I also had a story in which they did offer me the savings. I bought a new mouse from Future Shop and the next week the exact mouse was on advertised on sale for $20 less. I brought the flyer and receipt into the store and asked for the discounted price, and they gave it to me. Mind you I bought it from (and returned to) the brick & mortar store, not online. Guess it would never hurt to ask though.

There isn't much thought you can put into it from this angle - you can't have an idea on what they'll post to be on sale the next week.

Quick answer: Not a chance.

Reasoning:
I've worked in retail for almost the last 3 years (College gotta get paid for somehow.) and its the people that always ask "If the price drops can I get the difference?" or "I paid 3$ more for that a few days ago, I demand a refund!" that just piss me off.

Cheapness will not lead you anywhere in life but a deathbed with maybe 500$ more in your lifetime, deal with it.

so then return it and buy it at the new lower price. You have a return period.

but if you don't think that any other retailer would do the same type of thing of lowering prices you got another thing coming to you.

Cant because 1) 7 day return limit on CPUs (bought it last monday) 2) pointless because the shipping and 15% restocking fee would cost ..alot.

WHY for chrissake? They advertised the chip at a certain price. You willingly paid that price. You obviously felt the chip was worth more than the money you spent for it. So what the hell is the problem? Now that YOU have bought it, NewEgg is NEVER allowed to lower their price on it? That's crazy.

Just seems kinda dumb to me that you'd decide never to shop at a place again just because they work to make their prices more competative.

I dont know about other places but I know out here you actually can get the difference back. I have been in several situations where I bought something on say Monday the 1st, and then Friday 5th I see an ad in a flyer saying the exact product I bought is on sale. If you have the original receipt for the date of purchace and it HAS been WITH IN 7 days they will give you the difference back. Also a lot of places if you can show them a product that is identical to something they are selling but available at another store cheaper then what they sell it for they will beat the other companys advertised price by 10%.

I didnt feel the chip was worth more than the price I paid for it.
There is practically no difference between this chip and my Duron 1.4 GHz. Sure, games may load faster but only a few seconds faster. XP loads in the same time, and so do apps.
What a rip.

I bought it after the Prescott chips came out, so I thought the price was low then.

Competitave (sp?) to whom? Newegg is the only place most of my computer-literate friends will ever shop at for comp parts.
Even at $85 a XP Barton 2500 is a steal.

Even if I got a $5 cert for Newegg I would buy from comp parts from them as long as they were in business. Probably a few grand.

I my state, stores are required to pay you the difference if you contact them with your receipt within 30 days. I doubt anything like that will ever be forced on internet companies because it would kill a lot of stores, as well as be a major pain in the ass to do all the 'paper work'.

Yes you did. You felt the chip was worth more TO YOU than the money you paid for it. Otherwise, you would have kept the more valuable money. Most people don't go running around buying stuff that they feel is worth less to them than the money they paid for it.

If things aren't going faster for you, then you have it configured wrong. Are you sure your jumpers are set to run the chip at its full speed?

Exactly. You thought the price was low. You felt you were getting a good deal on it. It's not new egg's fault that at a later time the price dropped more.

Why do you think that is? Because their prices are never more than a few dollars higher than prices elsewhere, and their service more than makes up for any price difference. Once you factor in shipping (often free from the Egg) I rarely find anything anywhere else selling for less than I can get it at New Egg.

A 1.4 GHz Duron compared to a 1.83 GHz Athlon XP Barton is a joke. If games aren't running much better, it's because your videocard sucks. CPUs are often bottlenecked if the videocard in the system is shitty. The Barton WILL run at least twice as good as the Duron (if not more!) if in a nice system.

NewEgg dropped the price...that's because they want to be competitive. That's not their fault. It's not their fault that you bought it a week earlier, either. I don't see the big deal here. It's $10. It would be different if you bought a videocard for $500 and then the next week it was $200, but this is a measly $10.

I advise you to NOT stop shopping at NewEgg -- they have slightly higher prices, but it's for a good reason. Their tech support, RMA policy, and refund service is worth the extra dollars, trust me.

-Lasereth

All these guys are right. Technology prices are always dropping relative to what they were, as performance increases, price constantly decreases over time. Don't leave newegg over a few bucks. The alternative is bzboys and shit stores like that, who send out shitty-shitty broken processors and DON'T ship stuff fast, or often in working order.

well take my story, I bought a 2.8Ghz P4 and while i was waiting for the case to assemble the computer, the 35% drop for the prescotts hit, that was like $40.

Im ok with it, cause i see it as if i screw up, its cheaper to replace

Fine I admit I am wrong. Newegg is a cool company.
And I do have it setup right, DIP switches aren't really that hard to figure out. Plus I have DDR266 RAM (not DDR333) so it doesn't run in sync. And my Geforce3 Ti200 leaves something to be desired. Yes I am an ass for bringing this up, however I was pretty ticked off at the time, so please forgive me.

Course it could have been that Newegg sent me $5 to match the price differance..

Only if they have a 15 or 30 price matching policy, like at BestBuy or something. Newegg gives you the lowest price they can at a given time, so no they shouldnt.

You paid market value for it. The market changed. It happens. Don't be mad at the company. They are charging what the market will tolerate. Computer prices are very volatile.

Let the buyer beware.

What you don't know - The salesman does (and he will use it against you).

BZ Boys ... will not get a good indorsement from me, ... or future business.