One thing that drives shoppers crazy is when they buy something and then the price drops a week or two later and they could have gotten it for less. Enter the “Earny” app, that’s E-A-R-N-Y. Earny tracks price adjustments and automatically gets you your money back in these situations. My guest is Dori Yona, co-founder & COO of Earny.
Dori, how long has the Earny App been around and how did you come up with the idea for it?
Over a year. We launched in 2016 and now we’re available on all platforms. The reason we developed it is because of a real-life scenario: IN late 2015, my co-founders and I had recently moved to San Francisco and we were invited to a dinner. We needed to go buy appropriate suits and business clothes. I went to Zara and bought a blazer. My business partner borrowed one from a friend. They cost $130. About 2 months later, while planning for another event, my partner found the exact same blazer for HALF off. We remembered that credit cards often offer price protection plans. That guarantees that if you buy an item and the price drops, your credit card will refund you that difference. So I tried it. I disappeared for a week and tried it. And I got my money back. That made a lightbulb go off for us and Earny was born.
Give us the basics of how it works. What do people do when they sign up and what does Earny do for them?
•You download the free app and link your email and sometimes credit cards to Earny.
•Earny tracks price adjustments, and when the price of an item you bought drops, the Earny bot emails customer service on your behalf to get back the difference.
People may be familiar with the price protection plans many credit cards offer. So why would they need Earny too?
Although many credit cards offer price-protection policies, people rarely claim their refunds. Earny makes it easy. For example, you can shop for the holidays anytime you want, instead of waiting for Black Friday and Earny will automatically get you money back on items that go on sale during Black Friday.
How does Earny know what I bought?
When you shop online or in certain stores, many merchants email you an electronic receipt. Earny only recognizes the receipts that were sent to you by these specific merchants. He then analyzes the information to understand what you bought and starts searching for a better price. When you first sign up with Earny, you give him permission to collect these specific receipts from the mailbox you signed up with.
I know some receipts, like for Amazon.com, don’t indicate what item you bought. What then?
Over a million price drops happen every day on Amazon, which means you are most likely owed money. Because Amazon doesn’t send an itemized description in its receipts, if you want Earny to protect your Amazon purchases, you have to link your Amazon account to Earny. Earny will then make sure you never overpay for an item on Amazon again.
You mentioned Amazon. Does Earny work with any store? Or do you have agreements with certain stores?
We currently cover the top 30 retailers, which account for 85% of purchases.
For example, Amazon, Best Buy, Bloomingdale’s, Carter’s, Costco, the Gap Group including Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Athleta, and the factory stores. Also, JCrew, Jet, Kohl’s, Macy’s, Newegg, Nike, Nordstrom, Overstock, Sears, Staples, Target, Walmart and Zappos. we are always expanding the list of retailers we cover, and we appreciate any tips sent our way!
How much does it cost and how do you get paid??
Earny doesn’t take any money until he gets you back money. The app keeps 25% of the money it gets back for you. In other words, Earny is happy when you are! We receive our 25 percent via the customer’s linked credit card. We also have a referral program where we will give some of our 25% back to you if you invite a friend. You can earn 5% of your friend’s refunds!
Give me a juicy example: what’s the most you’ve saved any one individual so far?
I know we’ve had individuals who we’ve saved thousands per year. Many consumers have capped out at the $500 limit that stores allow in their price protection plans. The Eclipse glasses story is a great example. We had a user who bought 10 sets. He paid about $110 for the ten. The eclipse was over, life went back to normal, Earny continued to track the price of those glasses and it dropped down to about $20 for all ten! Earny submitted a claim and got that consumer $90 back!
Dori and team have written a guest blog post that explains, step by step how to take advance of price protection offers.
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