This Chrome Extension Saved Me $50 On One Online Shopping Purchase
The following is a firsthand recount of my experience with PriceWaiter Market, a Google Chrome extension that allows you to make your own price when shopping on Amazon and other online retailers.
Admittedly, I’m an online shopping novice. I suck at buying things for people. I lack the patience to search far and wide for deals. But this, brave followers, was a revelation.
Here’s how I got a 35% discount on a brand-new pair of Ray-Bans by simply making an offer on Amazon using PriceWaiter Market.
Part One: Making An Offer
It’s May. The sun’s shining down on Chattanooga, Tennessee. And yours truly has nothing to cover my eyes from its blinding rays.
I pull up Amazon and scan the listings for Ray Ban aviators. My target look — a cross between Iceman in Top Gun and Terrell Owens during the ‘That’s my quarterback!’ meltdown.
After a few minutes — I settle on my target purchase.
Hello beautiful.
I scan the $153.00 price tag. I have zero knowledge of the premium sunglasses market. It’s an utterly foreign thing to me.
All I know is this — $153.00 is way more than I’m willing to pay for these bad boys. Fortunately, two pink banners suggesting that I ‘Make an Offer’ have subtly joined the screen.
I click the pink ‘Make an Offer’ button below ‘Add to Cart.’ Then I type in my specs.
$99.00 is my offer. I name the price, color and date I’d like to receive them by. I check the time. Just after 10am EST.
Part Two. Managing My Offer
A notification hits my computer. PriceWaiter Market has sent me an email congratulating me on making my first offer. “Thoughtful,” I murmur. I log into the portal to see what I’m dealing with.
The backend UI is much fresher than I anticipated. I was anticipating something rough-looking, like a cross between Craigslist and eBay. The actual UI was refreshingly clean, consisting of the right mix between simplicity and helpful information about my offer.
Somewhat emboldened, I returned to my work. Forgetting momentarily about the offer, I dove deep into a blog post I’d been working on.
Part Three. Making the Purchase
At 11am EST, I got another email notification from PriceWaiter. I pulled it up.
I sat there, momentarily stunned. The turnaround time between offer and acceptance? 58 minutes.
An online retailer had accepted my offer for $99.00 — or 35.3% off list price, as the PriceWaiter Market email helpfully notified me.
I entered my credit card info in the checkout and proceeded to make the purchase.
Another email zipped into my inbox.
Reaction:
I double-checked the online portal to make sure I was seeing everything correctly. There had to be a ‘gotcha’ or two with this, right?
Nope.
“Holy hell,” I thought to myself. “This thing is real.” The sunglasses arrived in the mail today, May 21st. I put them on and got back on Amazon — feeling a new frame of mind when it came to online shopping.
“Alright retailers,” I said to myself. “Now I can be a nice guy … or I can be a real mean sumbitch. It’s all … up … to you.”
Install PriceWaiter Market for free.
