Amazon reimbursed me for a price drop after my purchase. Here’s how I did it.
Tags: Customer Service, Amazon, Sales, Comedy, Shopping

Amazon reimbursed me for a price drop after my purchase. Here’s how I did it.

Spoke to 7 Amazon representatives in one month.

Photo by Christian Wiediger on Unsplash

You know that shitty feeling when you purchase something online only to discover a huge price drop shortly after?

I found out firsthand when I bought a Kindle as a gift earlier this year. I screamed “ethics!!!” but really, I was just a pawn of capitalism.

But I was not going to let it go. So I spent almost a month trying to get back the grand figure of $70 and I did.

Here’s what happened and how I did it:

Case in question

Product: Kindle Paperwhite — Now Waterproof with 2x the Storage — 8GB (International Version) (note: damn you fancy marketing titles)

Purchase price: $210

Price after sudden price drop: $140

Reimbursement sought: $70

Amazon representatives spoken to: 7

24 Feb — Order delivered

All great for now. But then came the sudden price drop.

I didn’t take a screenshot of it, rookie mistake because Amazon could just play it off. So take your screenshots if you ever get in such a situation.

03 Mar — The complaint

Note: I am seeking a “reimbursement” because frankly speaking, they are not obligated to “refund” me.

I started off a little humbly, hoping to get my $70 back and move on.

But then came the reply.

Amazon rep #1 — Tanveer

Tanveer’s response made more determined to be reimbursed.

I let him know what I thought of his “return for full refund and make a new purchase” suggestion.

04 Mar — Escalate

Still fairly calm. But as you can see, I’m not wasting time with Tanveer.

The first line of customer service (read: defence) can only offer so much. Always request to escalate to a higher authority when your issue is not immediately resolved.

Next, Habib came along.

Amazon rep #2 — Habib

Okay Habib is not helpful either but the key is to persist.

06 Mar — Escalate #2

Not wasting time with Habib either. Straight to the point.

18 Mar — Enter Amazon Rep #3

Amazon rep #3 — Zareena

Judging from the response crafted, Zareena is probably a more senior rep. So it’s likely that my case had been escalated but still, there was no resolution.

Firstly, Zareena didn’t say anything new besides fluffing up the service recovery. Second, notice the gap in response. It was a war of attrition. But joke’s on them, I was well prepared for battle — I was an unemployed fresh graduate who really needs his $70 back.

19 Mar — Leverage and reiterate

I reiterated what I said to Tanveer and Habib and also leveraged on the poor service response.

But out of nowhere, Purohit arrived.

19 Mar — Purohit confusion

Amazon rep #4 — Purohit

Zareena had disappeared. At this point, it became clear that they had switched to a strategy designed to confuse me. First, with the sudden change in rep, then in claiming some error with my email address.

I responded quickly.

20 Mar — Zareena reappears

But before I could sort things out with Purohit, Zareena reappeared. It only got more confusing. Amazon’s non-personalised service emails means neither Zareena nor Purohit were cc-ed in each other’s emails.

But what became clear was that they were trying testing my resolve. Confusion was just another tactic in their art of attrition.

Well played, but not this time Amazon.

24 Mar — Persist

As you can tell from the 4-day gap, I contemplated giving up. But I persisted, and asked to get on a direct call to resolve this circus show.

25 Mar —New challenger Lahari

Unfortunately, Zareena ghosted me again. However, a new rep came to my “service”.

Amazon rep #5 — Lahari

Lahari continued to toot the same tune as the 4 Amazon reps before her. But notably, she added that the return window for my purchase had expired which meant that I was unable the “return and full refund” solution was no longer available to me.

She was essentially saying “Too bad bro, we played the long game and you lost.” Now I knew I had to recalibrate my angle of attack onto Amazon’s live chat.

27 Mar — Amazon live chat

Here, I spoke to Tarunkishore and asked him to look into my case.

It seemed like live chat worked because Tarunkishore finally agreed to reimburse me. I believed it might be because he reviewed my case and saw how persistent I was.

An automated email followed to ask if my problem was solved.

Amazon rep #6 — Tarunkishore

Dear reader, I wished it was. But it wasn’t.

27 Mar — False resolution

When Tarunkishore reimbursed me, he issued me a $70.18 Amazon gift card even though I specifically requested to refund it through the card I used to purchase.

I was not going to be trapped into spending $70.18 on Amazon. I wanted a cash reimbursement to spend my money poorly elsewhere.

But this is the problem with Amazon and their customer service system.

Computer generated email addresses that tries to frustrate you and make you drop the matter.

31 Mar — Resolution

Amazon rep #7 — Harish

7 Amazon reps and almost a month later, I finally got my $70 back.

At what cost? An unnecessary amount of time and effort.

Was it worth it? I’d like to think yes.

So, the next time you encounter a price drop and want to get a reimbursement, get on a call or live chat. Escalate if your problem is not immediately resolved. State your argument clearly and persist if their solution does not make sense.

That could save you the trouble of going through a month-long journey with 7 different customer reps. But then again, maybe that’s just the how the game goes. So… seek a reimbursement at your own risk mate.

If you have a similar crazy customer service story, share them with me in the comments. Would be nice to know I’m not alone.

P.S. Special thanks to Tanveer, Habib, Zareena, Purohit, Lahari, Tarunkishore, and Harish.