What's Shakin'?

Price Protectr has been getting some internet props recently.

We were listed among the top 100 Insanely Useful Web Tools You Never Knew You Needed. There are a lot of really great sites on there -- definitely worth bookmarking.

And, as if that isn't cool enough, we were recently awarded the Softpedia 100% Clean Award certifying that the Price Protectr Toolbar is free from spyware and malware:

Softpedia guarantees that Price Protectr Toolbar 1.0 is 100% CLEAN, which means it does not contain any form of malware, including but not limited to: spyware, viruses, trojans and backdoors.

This software product was tested thoroughly and was found absolutely clean, therefore it can be installed with no concern by any computer user.

There ya go, just another testament to the high quality of service we strive to provide for all our users. Keep telling your friends about us, linking us from your blog, and keep coming back! The more you use Price Protectr, the more money we can help you save!

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Price Protectr was mentioned today in CNN Money's article Never pay retail again. We're part of the "Triad of Shopping Awesomeness"... and I can't really argue with that.

Check out the article for the bit on us, as well as a bunch of other great money-saving tips!

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Price Protectr was recently featured on Pittsburgh's KDKA the other day. "Coupon Mom" Stephanie Nelson talked about the best ways to get the lowest price and, of course, we're part of the process. For our coverage and some other greats tips on saving money, check out the article and video!

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There's a great article in The Chicago Tribune today about Price Protectr and the price protection phenomena; Price Protection Guards Against Regret.

It's informative and has some great quotes. Here are a couple from James, our CEO:

"If a store has a price-protection policy that allows a consumer to buy something before Christmas and then take advantage of after-Christmas sales, how great is that?" Wallace said. "Money is tight. People don't want to be spending money and finding out later that they paid too much."

Taking advantage of price guarantees should be part of every smart spender's routine.

"At the end of the day, it's up to you and me as consumers," Wallace said. "If we want to save money, we have to be aggressive about it."

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Christopher Price named us Best of Web for 2007!

I have to say that Price Protectr is probably the best new innovation in consumer advocacy of last year. In case you haven't checked out Price Protectr... you really should. It offers instant, free price monitoring for all your online (and most in-store) purchases. You simply paste in the URL of the product from the online store, and give them your email address. They don't even require registration.

We agree :-) Thanks Chris!

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We had a couple big links to us and a little unexpected downtime this morning. Everything's back up and apologies to anyone who had trouble accessing the site this morning.

In case you're wondering where all the traffic came from, we got covered by the New York Times in A Universe of Gadget Advice and MSN Money in 6 Sites Every Shopper Should Know.

Thanks for stopping by!

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One of the great things about the internet is how one person can discover a site or a photo or a video, and all of the sudden it's a pop culture phenomenon. Here at Price Protectr, we haven't spent a cent on marketing, yet the word continues to spread. We owe a lot of thanks to all the bloggers out there who find out about the site and use their internet soap box to help spread the word.

How did you hear about Price Protectr? Let us know in the comments!

Here are a couple of the great posts this week:

Track Price Drops with Price Protectr from Get Rich Slowly
Money Saving Monday Tip#1 (Again) from Gather Little By Little
Never get stung by a price drop again: The promise of Priceprotectr.com from WalletPop
Let this Web site do the legwork for you from MSN Money Blog

If I missed your blog post, promote yourself and post a link!

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We were in the news again this weekend! We were mentioned in the Wall Street Journal's Set Up Web Price Alerts and the New York Post's Buying Protection; Websites Have Your (Green)Back.

Special thanks to Price Protectr users Bryan Lemster and Elizabeth Lipscomb for their great interviews, as well as everyone else who volunteered to help out!

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We're thrilled to be mentioned as one of PCMags Top Shopping Sites for Cyber Monday. There are a bunch of amazing sites on the list, so make sure to check them out!

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Just in case you needed more motivation to price protect your purchases, WBZ Boston ran a great TV spot, Service Helps Consumers Get Best Price For Product. Check out the video! And thanks to Brian Cummings and Bryan Lemster for their great interviews.

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That's right, the biggest shopping day of the season is upon us. Mom Logic posted a their Black Thursday/Friday Shopping Tip Sheet today which should help you make the most of it!

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Yahoo just posted some shopping advice for Black Friday sales; How to Score the Best Deal in Electronics Stores. It's chock full of great tips (including a link to PriceProtectr).

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Way back In January, right after we launched, Sree Sreenivasan did a TV piece on Price Protectr. Now, 10 months later, Sree featured us again in his piece, Free Consumer Info on the Web (video is also available). Talk about a blast from the past.

Thanks again for the spotlight! It seems like we've grown so much in 10 months. Who knows where we'll be another 10 months from now.

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According to a new study, you can often get a lower price on an item just by asking:

More than 90 percent of shoppers who tried to negotiate a discount on furniture, electronics and appliances, floor and demonstration models, and medical bills got one on at least one purchase in the past three years

Click here to read the rest of the article.

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Paul Michael posted a great blog entry yesterday entitled Price adjust - your big, fat shopping safety net which talks a little bit about the business behind providing your customers with price protection policies.

He also gives us a little shout out toward the end. We're digging your blog too.

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Today's a big two-fer: The Apple Store and Music123. Not only are we adding two very popular requests, but as of tonight we now support 50 retailers!

And, don't forget that we're giving away a $400 shopping spree to the winner of the name the owl contest for any retailer we support. Thanks to Apple's recent price drop that means you just might be able to score a new iPhone.

Labels: links, retailers, statistics

Dealnews posted an article today entitled Don't get burned: Price-Protection Trackers comparing Price Protectr and a number of other price tracking tools out there. We got a glowing review;

[Price Protetcr has] the widest selection of tracking that I could find on the Web. In addition, it has a very nice privacy policy, too. They keep their mitts out of your in-box and don't sell your e-mail address.

Overall, it looks like PriceProtectr.com is your best bet for your price-protecting needs.

Thanks, Dealnews! All you guys need to do is keep saving money. We'll keep working to bring you the best price tracking tool on the web.

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A special thanks to Mike Antonucci for the great article about us that just hit the front page of the Mercury News Tech section. If you don't get the Mercury News you're missing out on a sweet graphic, but you can read the article online.

And another special thanks to everyone who's submitted their contest entries for the Name the Owl contest. We're getting some really great stuff, keep it coming!

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We were featured on Makeuseof.com's 40 Unusual Websites you should Bookmark today. We're not quite sure what makes us unusual, but we appreciate the shout out nonetheless! Bookmark us, tell your friends, and check out some of the other great sites.

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Price Protectr was featured on a CBS evening news piece in the Big Apple, How Not To Lose Money When Products Go On Sale! I'd like to give a special thanks to Bryan Lemster, a Price Protectr user who saved $100 on his new monitor, for giving us a great review. Read the article and watch the clip to learn more about Bryan's experience and hear our very talented CEO, James Wallace, talk about the service.

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We had a great news report about Price Protectr and consumer price policies, featuring Artem Aleksenko, a Price Protectr user who saved a bunch of money on his new HDTV purchase. You can watch the video here.

We're also in search of a Price Protectr user in eastern Massachusetts to do a similar interview. If you've used Price Protectr and saved some cash, send an email our way and you could be on TV too!

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We got a couple great write-ups recently from PC World and Mashable. So, welcome readers! Thanks for stopping by and take a load off, knowing your purchases are well protected.

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We're in the news again today! Check out the great articles from PC Magazine and Ministry of Tech.

The rumors are true! We've been working hard on redesigning the site for our official, out-of-beta launch. We even have a new mascot, and it's pretty darn cute. So keep an eye out for the launch coming in the next couple weeks, and some cool new features following soon after.

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As of this week, we've protected over $4 million dollars in purchases. That's a lot of iPods, HDTVs, and books! How much of that is yours?

Thanks to everyone who helped us hit this milestone, and be sure to check out our press release.

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Price Protectr was featured as an integral piece of 'How to Save on Amazon' by howtobewebsmart. Check out the video on YouTube for their other great advice on being web smart!

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I got a great tip the other day from a Price Protectr user about Best Buy's internal website. Here's an excerpt from the article:

Under pressure from state investigators, Best Buy is now confirming my reporting that its stores have a secret intranet site that has been used to block some consumers from getting cheaper prices advertised on BestBuy.com.

The problem doesn't seem to be very widespread -- I've received a bunch of emails from users who have had no problems getting refunds from Best Buy. But, when you head back with your receipt looking for that sweet $100 refund on your new digital camera, make sure the customer service rep is looking at prices from the external site!

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I was chatting with a user earlier today about Costco's return/price protection policy. There's been a lot of talk on the web about them changing their incredible unlimited policy. No one seems to have a straight anwser on the new policy's length -- there are conflicting reports of everywhere from 30 days to six months.

I found a link to one of Costco's promotional documents listing the policy as 90 days, so I'm going with that one. I've upped the protection period in Price Protectr (it used to be 30 days) and updated everyone who currently has Costco purchases under protection.

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First of all, welcome to everyone who's visiting this site from the Kim Komando Show. Price Protectr was featured as the cool site of the day for February 20th.

I received a number of emails today asking how to sign up for Price Protectr. For anyone who might be confused, the site's completely free and everyone can use it. However, if you tried to create a My Stuff account without every having used Price Protectr, it would tell you that the feature was only available for users. That was just an arbitrary decision -- I figured people wouldn't want to see their price protection history if they had never used the site. Well, it seems that enough people do, so I've removed that restriction. Have fun!

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Price Protectr has been featured in The Consumerist's latest article, 10 Shopping Tricks That Stores Hate. Check it out for a bunch of other great tips for the savvy-minded shopper!

And, not to be outdone, Thrillist has posted a great review as well. HDTV prices are dropping like hot cakes, so take their advice and pick one up for that Superbowl party! (It's going to take you all week to figure out all those fancy new features anyway)

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I was hoping to get more user visible changes done tonight, but it's late... and I did end up finishing a number of backend fixes that should help things run a bit smoother around here.

Oh, and a quick shout out to all the new visitors from Lifehacker and Gizmodo. Good luck catching a price drop!

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This morning, Price Protectr was featured on New York City's ABC7 Tech Guru! Check out the online article, Sree's Thoughts on PriceProtectr.com. In the bottom right you can watch a video of the actual news segment. Or, if you're on the run, get the Tech Guru podcasts! Sree reports on a lot of great sites and gadgets -- it's well worth the listen.

He also makes a good point on the air that some people might not have known; Price Protectr works both for online and in-store purchases. Just hold on to that receipt and take it to the customer service desk if the price drops. They'll refund you the difference with no questions asked. Keep in mind that in-store and online prices might differ, so give em a call and double check the price before you drive all the way out there!

(10/15/07 -- the above links are no longer active)

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Since being linked on Digg, Price Protectr has been getting a lot of attention. Over the weekend visitors submitted about 700 new items and saved over $2,000. Not bad for two days.

I've received a lot of requests via email and have a number improvements planned for the site, so I figured this blog would be the best way to everyone up to date on what's happening around here.

Since the original post, I've added support for amazon.ca and amazon.co.uk. Not having made a purchase from those sites myself, I made a best guess as to where to go to request a refund. If anyone goes through the process and finds that the instructions are incorrect, please let me know.

It's also worth mentioning that if anyone has problems with or comments about the site, you're welcome to email me about it. It's more productive than making snide comments on forums... although maybe not as satisfying. Really, there's no reason you can't do both. Chances are if you contact me about it, it'll get fixed faster.

Anyway, thanks for stopping by. Take off your shoes and stay a while.

Labels: links, retailers, statistics