Decide.com jumps from price predictions to price guarantees with new 'Got Your Back' program
Gadget price prediction site Decide.com prides itself on letting consumers know when the best and not-so-best times are to invest in new technology. Now, via its new Got Your Back program, the site is putting its money where its predictions are.
The program basically works like this: Each day Decide will present ten "Got Your Back" deals for products it's pretty confident aren't going to get any cheaper in the short term. If Decide is wrong and the price of the product does drop within two weeks, Decide will pay the difference between the previous price and the new one, up to $200. (It works out pretty well for Decide as well, what with all the referral commissions it will get for sending buyers to sites like Amazon.)
As a proof of purchase, Decide requests that the buyer send in two things - a purchase receipt as well as a picture of them alongside whatever device it is that they purchased (the terms of use calls this "supporting documentation "). While the logic behind this seems pretty sound, it's likely that many buyers will be too lazy or too uncomfortable with sending Decide pictures of themselves to bother following through.
One other notable caveat is that Decide limits the number of users that can partake in each deal, which is a clear hedge against losing too much money from a bad prediction. Here's how they explain it:
Great deals sometimes go fast, and Got Your Back deals are no exception. The same product may still be available on Decide.com without the Got Your Back guarantee.
So, for example, if certain type of really expensive plasma television suddenly drops $300 right after Decide offers 250 "Got Your Back" deals for it, the most Decide would have to shell out is $50,000 -- which is a lot, but certainly not as much as it would be without the safeguards in place.
Decide's first set of deals includes a camera, printer, mini-fridge, and even a power juicer, showing that, if anything, the program's certain to be home to a lot of diversity.
The idea is both interesting and a bit zany. Not a retailer itself, Decide is putting a lot of faith in a lot of things it has no control over -- manufacturer price cuts, retailer sles, etc -- and I wonder how long it will be until someone finds a way to game the new program.