If you bought your Christmas presents from Amazon and they've since been reduced in the sale, you can claim the savings back. Yes really! Here's how..
If you were one of the thousands of Christmas shoppers who bought your presents online, you probably felt quite smug. After all, I expect you saved yourself countless fruitless searches for items that had sold out, not to mention the nightmare of trying to find a parking space, let alone the time wasted standing in monstrous queues to pay.
And if you happened to order most of your gifts from online retailer Amazon, you may have the opportunity to feel even more pleased with yourself. Why? Because the company offers a "Price Drop policy". Essentially, this means if anything you've purchased in the past 30 days has dropped in price, you can claim the difference back!
Clearly, with the retailer currently holding a January sale the chances of what you ordered having been reduced since Christmas are pretty high so it's well worth checking out.
How to claim
Firstly, log into your account in Amazon and view the orders you've placed in the past 30 days.
Check the price you paid for each item, and then how much it is currently selling for (you should be able to do this by simply clicking on the item itself).
If the price has been reduced, make a note of it.
Now go to Help (top right hand corner of the screen) and select 'Contact Us'.
Click on 'Customer Service'. You should now be able to select the right order.
Next you should be able to select the item you would like the refund for and click on 'Contact Amazon'.
Explain that you would like a refund as the price of the item has dropped in the past 30 days. You should then receive an email to confirm the difference will go back onto the card you paid with.
So you can benefit from any sales reductions, while still having been able to give your loved ones their gifts on Christmas day itself. Fantastic.
Of course, if you were one of the organised few who ordered their gifts before 8 December unfortunately, your time to claim has already run out - but keep it in mind for the future. And for anyone who ordered after this date, time is running out so get your claim in quickly. What's great about this policy is that it doesn't just apply at Christmas - and I and a number of friends can vouch for the fact that it really works!
It is, however, worth noting that this policy only applies to purchases made from Amazon themselves. If you bought your items from one of the sellers in the Amazon Marketplace, you won't be able to claim any savings back, I'm afraid. If you're uncertain you should be able to find out very easily, simply by logging into your Amazon account and checking where your ordered items were purchased from.
Free extended warranties
And on another note, remember to claim anything else you may be entitled to. Most electrical items purchased from John Lewis, for example, come with an extra year's warranty for free, with televisions having an automatic service guarantee for 5 years.
But for those of you that have made purchases elsewhere by credit card, you may well be entitled to a free, extra year's warranty on most electrical items from your card provider anyway.
Nationwide Building Society's and Citi/Aadvantage's Gold credit cards, for example, are just some of the many cards offering this benefit - simply give them a call within 60 days of purchase with the item's details to register. What's more, the Citi/Aadvantage card offers a promise if you find an item you've purchased with the card cheaper elsewhere within 60 days, they'll refund the difference.
So if you bought your Christmas pressies from Amazon, check that you can't claim some cash back from them. And take a little time to check out the free benefits your credit card offers - you may just find them worth their weight in gold.
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