The rules we run on
A service that files claims on your accounts can either save you money or get you banned. The whole design of Downtick is built to make sure it is only ever the first one.
Only real, store-backed price adjustments
We will only ever file one thing: a legitimate refund of the difference when a store's own price drops on the identical item, inside that store's stated window, under a policy that is still active. We verify the item match and the window before anything goes out. Nothing marginal, nothing expired.
We never file a fake or abusive claim
We will never file an 'item not received', damaged, wrong-item, or return-style claim to manufacture a refund. Those are the claims that get a shopper's account suspended, and they cross into fraud. Price adjustments are a completely separate, legitimate mechanic, and we stay strictly in that lane.
We respect each store's filing rules
Some stores, like Nordstrom, do not accept third-party filing. There we detect the drop and prepare the claim, and you submit it yourself. We rate-limit claims per account so we never look like abuse, and if a store denies or reverses one, we stop and reverse our fee.
We don't need your passwords
Most people connect Gmail, which lets Downtick search for retailer order, shipping and refund emails and read only those messages to find what you bought and what you paid. It is read-only: Downtick can never send, change or delete anything in your mailbox, and you can disconnect at any time. You can also forward receipts to a Downtick address, use the browser helper that reads an order page while you are already logged in, or enter an order by hand. We never store retailer passwords.
Your card is vaulted, and we only charge after you're paid
Card details are held by Stripe, a PCI-Level-1 processor. We never see or store your card number. We charge the 15% fee only once the merchant confirms the recovery, we itemize every charge, and if the store later claws the refund back, we reverse our fee.
We hold the least data we can
We keep only the receipt fields we need to file, encrypt them, delete what we no longer need, and never sell your data. Our privacy and terms, our agent-authorization language, and this fee flow all get a licensed attorney's review before public launch. This page is how we operate, not legal advice.