Consumer

3 On Your Side: Price Tracker

PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) ― It's happened to all of us at one time or another, you buy something and then days later it goes on sale.

If you don't find out, you could lose out. With shoppers expected to spend over 474 billion dollars this holiday season, 3 On Your Side's Jim Donovan tells about some free services that can help you get some money back.

Buy now or try and save later. Around the holidays, it's a gamble to wait for sales. But now you can cash in, even after you've checked out!

Brian Cummings did when he bought a flat screen TV. "We saved over $600," he said. That's because Brian used priceprotectr.com, it's a free website that tracks purchases and lets you know if the price goes down so you can go back and get the difference. "Within a few days, I got an email saying the price had dropped and I said this is something," Cummings added.

Here's how priceprotectr works. After buying something, go the store's website and find the URL for the item. Copy and paste it into the priceprotectr window, then put in the amount you paid and your email address. If the price drops, priceprotectr will let you know.

"Most people don't have time to sit around all day and check the price which is why we have the owl watching the prices for you," said James Wallace, founder of Priceprotectr.

Another site you can use is refundplease.com. "Last year I got 6 refunds on 6 different gifts because I had refundplease price track it for me," said Stephanie Nelson, the self-proclaimed Coupon Mom. Refundplease.com tracks purchases made online at amazon.com. "It's absolutely free, you do not have to enter any personal information other than your email address, the name of the item and the price you paid," Nelson added.

If the price drops, refundplease will send you an email with a link to obtain a credit from Amazon.

Dozens of major retailers have price guarantees. If the price of an item drops within a specified time frame, you can bring your receipt back in and get a refund of the difference. The time frames vary, usually anywhere from two weeks up to as many as 3 months.

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