Nexus 7 – Price Protection for Australian buyers

Over the weekend we saw a number of reports from the US and UK about refunds for customers who purchased a 16GB Nexus 7 before the recent price drop and announcement of the 32GB model. Both Google and ASUS in Europe and the US appear to have enacted some kind of Price Protection policy – Google offers a credit if you purchased on or after October 14, and ASUS is giving out vouchers for their own online store.

Ausdroid approached both ASUS Australia and Google Australia, to find out their local policy on the offer and they had quite different things to say.

Disappointingly, it appears ASUS Australia will not be offering the same scheme offered overseas:

This promotion is not being offered to in Australia at this stage

Google had more positive news – if you purchased through the Google Play store, which has a Price Protection for Devices area in the Play store’s support area. This page states:

Nexus 7 (16GB version only) purchases from Devices on Google Play are currently eligible for Price Protection if the purchase was made on or after October 14, 2012. If your purchase is eligible, we’ll refund the difference in price within 14 days of your request.

A representative from Google Australia’s Play Store support line advised that the pro-rata refunds are indeed being offered to customers who purchased the 16GB model between October 14 and 29. Importantly, you need to request the refund – it will not be given automatically.

Those who ordered the 8GB Nexus 7 are unfortunately not included – this is likely because the device has been discontinued rather than discounted.

If you qualify for the partial refund, find the invoice for your original order (you’ll need it), check the details on the Google Play Support page, and go to the refund request form. You’ll need to use the Google account you used to order the device and you’ll need your order number, item description (almost certain to be ’16GB Nexus 7′) and the purchase date. This information can be found in the invoice that was emailed to your account when you placed your order.

It’s also worth remembering that some credit cards offer price protection, although the details of the policy vary from program to program.