Deals, coupons & price drops: 12 real cases

Watch two new phones for a price drop during the price-match window with a daily Claude Cowork check, and claim $40 back

George Liu bought two Samsung phones from Best Buy, one for themselves and one for their father, and noticed a 30-day price match policy covering drops at Best Buy or major competitors. They spent 15 minutes building a Claude Cowork skill, gave it the model number and told it to check Best Buy, Amazon, Costco and a few other retailers every morning at 7 AM. One morning it found a quiet $20 drop on Best Buy's own product page: not a coupon or a sale, just a lower price. They opened Best Buy's chat, its AI walked them through the price match and a human agent approved a refund of $40 plus tax for the two phones.

Find this week's drugstore deals and coupons to stack with Gemini Spark, though one promo code didn't work (partial)

TechCrunch's Sarah Perez asked Gemini Spark for product suggestions for an everyday drugstore trip for household items, based on weekly deals and coupons they could clip. Spark told them which products matching their needs were on sale, suggested coupons to clip in the Walgreens app, and explained how to stack coupons on one item with online promo codes for a pickup order. One of the promo codes was invalid when they tried it, even though they met the requirements Spark had described, but buy-one-get-one-free and rewards deals Spark pointed out made up for it.

Ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude for Prime Day tech picks, and check the discounts they claim

A TechRadar editor asked ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude what discounted tech to buy on Prime Day. Gemini focused on deals but overstated one: it said Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones were 50% off when they were actually 20% off at $198 (was $248). ChatGPT tailored picks to their interests from past chats but was less tuned in to actual discounts, and Claude, which knew least about them, gave fairly generic deals.

Compare contact lens prices across retailers from a prescription with Perplexity and save $150

Needing new contacts after an eye exam (the old lenses were discontinued), Dmitry Shamis found 1-800-CONTACTS expensive, so gave Perplexity the prescription and asked it to find prices. It checked 1-800-CONTACTS, Costco, Walmart and other sites and organized a comparison; Walmart was $150 cheaper for the same contacts, a retailer Shamis hadn't known sold them.

Find a washing machine deal within budget in a Black Friday sale with Grok

When their old washing machine died, a UAE-based poster asked Grok for help buying a new one within budget. The poster says Grok suggested links, compared options and asked what suited them best, and they got their first-ever Black Friday deal, saving around 600 AED, with delivery due in three days.

Look for Black Friday laptop deals with ChatGPT (and double-check them)

TechRadar deals writer Alex Whitelock tested ChatGPT on Black Friday laptop deals. Its first picks were pricey and left out MacBooks; asked for budget options, it suggested sub-$200 Chromebooks they felt were too basic. Prices were up to date and brands well known, but after digging they concluded there were better deals elsewhere and say you need to double-check prices and cross-reference expert reviews.

Find the right TV in Black Friday sales with ChatGPT's questions and agent

Knowing next to nothing about TVs, Tom's Guide's Alex Hughes told ChatGPT (Thinking mode) they wanted a 43- or 50-inch TV for £300 or less and asked it to question them to narrow things down. They then switched to ChatGPT agent to search the sales; it returned options with links, reasons and discount details plus two cheaper alternatives, and a top pick. They say the whole process took 20 minutes, mostly agent search time while they did other things, and left them with 7 suitable deals.

Clip every digital coupon on a grocery account with Claude Cowork

Claude Cowork logged into the poster's Jewel-Osco account and clipped every available coupon.

Compare prices for 60–70 garden plants across 5 sites with OpenAI Operator

Overnight, Operator cross-referenced a list of 60–70 plants across 5 sites into a price comparison table; the poster called it buggy but fun.

Find a store with a chair in stock using OpenAI Operator

The only shop the poster had found had 60 working days' delivery for a chair, so they asked Operator to find a store with it in stock; 11 minutes later it had.

Poster says:11 minutes

Find working coupon codes at checkout with ChatGPT agent

ChatGPT agent kept trying coupon codes until it found ones that worked; the poster says it saved them $79.

Poster says:$79 saved

Daily product restock check with ChatGPT agent

A scheduled ChatGPT agent checks every day whether a product is in stock, reports at 8am, and even flags status changes like 'out of stock' becoming 'coming soon'.