How can I use Save Benjis' price matching engine when on my home computer? 

Save Benjis uses FindersCheapers to provide you with product and price information. We recommend that when you are away from your iPhone, you use FindersCheapers for all your price comparison needs. 

Why can't I find product XYZ on Save Benjis?

The answers here are as varied as the items you can possibly search for, but here are some tips to keep in mind to give you the best results.

1. Search in the right category.  If you are using a barcode, set the category to All Categories so you don't accidentally weed out potential products. 

2. Make sure you don't have residual data from an old search in another field (remember it could be scrolled out of view).  The best way to ensure this is to always press the "New" button when you are starting a new search. 

3. Check the spelling of the product.

4. Use the bar code, ISBN book code or Manufacturer's Product Number, when you can, instead of a keyword.  It is much more likely to find the exact product you are looking for.

5. When entering a barcode be sure to enter all of the digits under the barcode including those to the far left and far right.  Don't enter any spaces or dashes. 

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Finally, although Save Benjis does contain 15 million products and growing, it doesn't contain every product.   The product you are looking for may not exist in our database.  For example we aren't strong on food items or apparel.  You won't find a box of Twinkies but you will find a great deal on a Twinkies cookbook.

Why can't Save Benjis use the camera as a barcode scanner?  

First let me say that this was a very high priority goal for "Save Benjis" and that we spent more than a month working on this.  The biggest problem in the end was that the iPhone pictures turn out blurry when taking close-ups.  This is primarily due to the fact that the camera doesn't have a macro lens.  When a practical technology arrives to allow bar code reading, we will add it.

I've seen the iPhone read barcodes with a program called "Barcode".  How can you say it isn't possible?

"Barcode" reads a special bar code designed for cell phone cameras called QR code.  These bar codes, although cool, aren't being used on commercial products (I haven't seen them used at all, myself, but apparently they are on some movie posters).  As to whether it's possible to read UPC/EAN style bar codes I can't say, I suspect that it is possible, but very hard. To my knowledge, it has not been done practically on the iPhone.  What do I mean by practically?  Well we have had some unpractical success of our own.  We tried two different approaches, one to read the bar code directly and the second to read the characters associated with the bar code.  Both were not very accurate, improving the accuracy with sharpening algorithms only helped a little and was way too slow (it took more than 20 seconds to scan the image). Rest assured we haven't given up, and when a practical technology arrives to add automatic bar code reading, we will add it.

Why are the prices shown on the product details page different from the final price?

The prices on the product details page do not include shipping or tax, while the final price does.  Additionally Save Benjis prices are collected daily and may not reflect last minute price changes.  When there is a conflict, the product purchase page always has the more accurate price.

Can I autofill my email address, so that when I press the "To Email" button it always includes it?

Yes. Go to the Save Benjis entry of your iPhone's Setting application.  Here you can set the default To and CC email addresses.

I only want to see New items (not used). Can I filter the prices to only see new items?

Yes. Go to the Save Benjis entry of your iPhone's Setting application.  Select "Item Condition" and then turn the "Used" and "Unknown" conditions to "Off".

I don't want to see items from store XYZ.  Can I hide prices from that store?

Yes. Go to the Save Benjis entry of your iPhone's Setting application.  Select "Stores" and then turn the "XYZ" store to "Off". 

I would like Save Benjis to display the price including tax and shipping.  Can I get that?

We would like to provide this as well.  Currently our data feed does not contain this information.  When it does, we will update Save Benjis with this capability.

I would like to use Save Benjis in my country.  Why is it only available in America?

We would like to provide this as well.  Currently FindersCheapers is under contractual obligations to only provide the data within the U.S.A.   They are actively working on expanding this to other countries.  Once this is working, Save Benjis will be available in other countries as well.