# Pre-Order Price Guarantee on Kindle books?



## GMUHistorian (Jul 1, 2009)

I read through the appropriate section on Amazon.com, which only discusses the Pre-Order Price Guarantee is applicable to "books, CDs, video, DVD, video game, or software item." It doesn't mention Kindle specifically at all. 

The book I ordered is being published by Crown. Since Crown's a Random House publisher I don't expect it'll get higher than the current $9.99 but one never knows these days. Does anybody know if the pre-order price guarantee applies to Kindle books? I suspect the answer is yes, because Amazon's usually pretty intelligent about customer service and pricing.


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## mom133d (aka Liz) (Nov 25, 2008)

Yes, they honor the pre-order price. I have even had a price adjustment when the price I paid became lower. With this new agency model stuff, I can't swear that its still true, but I can't believe Amazon wouldn't honor it, they'd get too much backlash from us. Plus I don't think legally they change charge you more w/o your permission, they'd cancel the order first (which I think I've read about on the boards)


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

My understanding of the pre-order price guarantee is that if you pre-order a thing and the price goes down, then they will let you know and charge you at the lower price when the item is actually released.

Kindle book purchases are specifically excluded from the pre-order price guarantee.  However, if the price goes up, they also will not charge you the higher price; you pay what the pre-order price was when you placed the pre-order.

Some will advocate watching the price and if the pre-order price drops, cancel and re-order the pre-order.

Others have said that they were actually charged the lower price on a pre-ordered Kindle book, even though they hadn't jumped through that particular hoop.

I think if you pre-order when it's $12, you'll be billed $12 whether the price is $10 or $14 on release day.


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## MLPMom (Nov 27, 2009)

I know with movies you will be billed the pre-order price but then credited back the difference if the price goes lower on release date. I would imagine they do that for Kindle books as well.


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## 1131 (Dec 18, 2008)

Amazon has been honoring the preorder price guarantee for ebooks.  I just got a book I preordered at $15; I was charged $10 for it.  I've had that happen with others as well.


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## Labrynth (Dec 31, 2009)

Not that I've done a lot of them, but the few Pre-orders I've done have all come in at the price I pre-ordered them at.  Including the new Rachel Morgan which was 8 something.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

imallbs said:


> Amazon has been honoring the preorder price guarantee for ebooks. I just got a book I preordered at $15; I was charged $10 for it. I've had that happen with others as well.


That's good to know. But I would caution that, since they don't actively advertise that they'll do this for Kindle books, it might not be wise to count on it. 'Cause they could stop at any time.


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## 1131 (Dec 18, 2008)

Ann in Arlington said:


> That's good to know. But I would caution that, since they don't actively advertise that they'll do this for Kindle books, it might not be wise to count on it. 'Cause they could stop at any time.


True, you should never count on a price drop. I always assume I will be paying the preorder price on anything I order from Amazon. If it isn't worth that price to me, I won't order it. There is no guarantee there will be a price drop on anything or that they will honor a price drop on ebooks.


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## Neekeebee (Jan 10, 2009)

I emailed Amazon to ask about pre-order price guarantees for Kindle books, and they said that they did not do that.  I did not mention any specific book in my email, but Amazon did give me the lowest price on a Kindle book I had pre-ordered at a higher price.    So it looks like they do it, but don't promise they always will.  This was a couple months ago, so things may have changed since then.  

N


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## 1131 (Dec 18, 2008)

The last one I got the price drop on was released on April 20th.  
My personal opinion - Amazon does not have a policy of offering price guarantees on ebooks in general so they don't guarantee the preorder price. They stopped the match on previously purchased books a long time ago. Prices were changing more rapidly then than they are now. But if they didn't' reduce the price on the preorders, they would get a lot of returns and people would reorder at the lower price.  At least that is what I would do.


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