Do you ever feel like you’re paying too much for your digital books? Kobo has a great solution for that. In 2015, they unveiled their price matching system, which allows users to shop around for the best price and then get the difference refunded to them, plus an additional 10% of their original purchase price.
The way it works is that you have to buy the book from Kobo first, and then within 7 days of your purchase, you have to file a price match form on the Kobo website. You can then compare the same book from other bookstores and if the price is lower, Kobo will credit you the difference, plus 10% of your original purchase price.
It’s important to note that the digital bookstore that is offering the book for a cheaper price has to be in your home country. So if you buy a book from the Australian Kobo store, you can’t say that the US price is cheaper. Also, with Kindle e-books, it might be a bit tricky since they tend to have ASIN numbers instead of ISBN numbers.
Once you’ve filled out the price match form, Kobo will verify the competing offer and reply to you within 3 business days. If your price match qualifies, they will award a credit to your Kobo account equal to the price difference, plus 10% of your original purchase price.
Kobo doesn’t advertise their price match system too much, since they would lose money if too many people took advantage of it. This is because publishers set the prices for audiobooks and ebooks and the margins for selling digital content is razor thin. Price matching would likely put Kobo in the red for that particular sale, but they look at it as satisfying their customers and making them more loyal.
Have you ever used the Kobo Price Match system? Did you know it existed? Would you ever use it to save a few bucks? Let us know in the comments!
