THE OTHER DAY I noted that some people were upset by the demise of Amazon’s price protection policy. Reader Lois Brenner emails that it seems to have reappeared, at least in places.

UPDATE: Mike Daley thinks it’s no big deal: “Having time to waste, I just went thru the last year or so of my Amazon orders/pre-orders (pre-orders being the operative class), out of over $800 of purchases I found I’d saved $3.84. Super-saver free shipping has saved me at least 20X that amount.” Yeah, it’s not a big issue to me, but it is to some people, apparently.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Scott Boone says I’m confused:

I wanted to fill you in with a bit more info re: your 10:13pm post about Amazon’s pricing protection. The link you provided as an example of it “reappearing” does not reflect the policy in question; the policy that Amazon discountinued was the POST-purchase price protection. The policy that link shows is the PRE-purchase price protection. Given that Amazon promises that they will not bill your credit card until a pre-order ships, it just makes sense that they MUST provide a PRE-purchase guarantee. On the other hand, the POST-purchase price guarantee is a service that several other retailers (B&M and etailers) offer, Circuit City, Target, Best Buy, et al.

The reason that Amazon’s PPPG being cancelled is so egregious is that Amazon’s prices fluctuate more than the stock market. For instance, I routinely save about $10-$15 per month (or was) following my purchases over the subsequent 30 days. I saved $50 alone on a purchase of an iPod nano just recently. The primary harm, I feel, that will result from this action is it will significantly impact my Amazon Prime purchasing frequency. Up to this point, because of the security of the 30 day protection, Amazon Prime has become to me nearly as impulsive as the check-out aisle at the grocery store (which incidentally is a place I’m NOT impulsive). This will change.

Although what seems to be “unintended consequences” on Amazon’s part of discouraging purchasing, I’m beginning to think this shift in policy direction might in fact be a stealthy way of Amazon throttling back Amazon Prime’s success and, hence, subsequent costs due to the 2-day shipping resulting from impulsive high-volume purchasers like myself.

Er, and myself. I hope not. I live Amazon Prime.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Okay, that was supposed to be “I love Amazon Prime.” But it’s accurate as written, too . . . .