Price guarantee tracking service
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsTravis M. Grigsby, Albert A. Lamb, Lee M. Surprenant, Thomas J. Freund
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Price guarantee tracking services are an automated method for acquiring price guarantee terms and conditions from retailers and subsequently viewing them. A system for tracking a price guarantee includes a processor; memory operably connected to the processor; a find price guarantee program loaded into the memory and operable by the processor; a parse price guarantee program loaded into the memory and operable by the processor; and a list of price guarantee terms loaded into the memory and operable by the processor.
Claims15
A method for obtaining a list of price guarantees comprising:
- determining a plurality of retailers;
- obtaining respective machine-readable price guarantees of the plurality of retailers;
- for each of the machine-readable price guarantees of the plurality of retailers,
- parsing the machine-readable price guarantee to determine price guarantee characteristics that comprise a refund calculation formula, price guarantee time period, price guarantee scope, price guarantee documentation requirements, and excluded items;
- associating, in a machine-readable storage medium, the price guarantee characteristics with the respective one of the plurality of retailers;
- and
- tracking eligibility for a potential refund for a customer based, at least in part, on the price guarantee characteristics, purchase information of the customer, and subsequent prices off each of the plurality of retailers.
A system for tracking a price guarantee comprising:
- a processor;
- memory operably connected to said processor;
- a find price guarantee program loaded into said memory and executable by said processor to,
- determine a plurality of retailers;
- obtain respective machine-readable price guarantees of the plurality of retailers;
- a parse price guarantee program loaded into said memory and executable by said processor to,
- for each of the machine-readable price guarantees of the plurality of retailers,
- parse the machine-readable price guarantee to determine price guarantee characteristics that comprise a refund calculation formula, price guarantee time period, price guarantee scope, price guarantee documentation requirements, and excluded items;
- associate, in a machine-readable storage medium, the price guarantee characteristics with the respective one of the plurality of retailers;
- and
- a potential refund tracker program loaded into said memory and executable by said processor to track eligibility for a potential refund for a customer based, at least in part, on the price guarantee characteristics, purchase information of the customer, and subsequent prices of each of the plurality of retailers.
A computer program product for finding a price guarantee comprising:
- a computer readable storage medium having program instructions stored therein, the program instructions comprising,
- first program instructions determine a plurality of retailers;
- second program instructions to obtain respective machine-readable price guarantees of the plurality of retailers;
- third program instructions to for each of the machine-readable price guarantees of the plurality of retailers,
- parse the machine-readable price guarantee to determine price guarantee characteristics that comprise a refund calculation formula, price guarantee time period, price guarantee scope, price guarantee documentation requirements, and excluded items;
- associate, in a machine-readable storage medium, the price guarantee characteristics with the respective one of the plurality of retailers;
- fourth program instructions to track eligibility for a potential refund for a customer based, at least in part, on the price guarantee characteristics, purchase information of the customer, and subsequent prices of each of the plurality of retailers.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.