Questions & answers

The things people actually ask. If yours isn't here, email tiershop.23@gmail.com — a person reads every one.

Using it

What does TierShop actually do?

You type in one thing you want to buy. It searches the live web and comes back with exactly three products — a budget pick, a midrange pick and a premium pick — compared on the numbers that matter for that category, with a straight recommendation about which to get.

Why only three? I want to see everything.

Seeing everything is the problem. If twenty options helped, you'd have decided already. Three is enough to understand the trade-off between cheap and good, and few enough to actually choose from.

Why does a search take so long?

Twenty to sixty seconds, because it is genuinely out reading the web right then — retailer pages, reviews, spec sheets — rather than looking things up in a list someone built months ago. That's also why the picks shift as prices and stock change.

How accurate are the prices?

Treat them as a guide, not a quote. They come from what was findable at the moment you searched, and they go stale fast: prices change hourly, differ between sellers, and vary by size or colour. Always check the retailer's own page before buying. That's also why every result carries that warning.

Why does the buy button go to a search page?

Because it always works. Deep links to specific product pages break constantly — retailers change their URLs, products get delisted — and a dead link is worse than one extra click. The search is pre-filled with the exact brand and model, so the product is normally the first result.

Can I use it outside the United States?

You can use it, but it won't serve you well yet. Prices are in US dollars and the shops are US retailers, so they may not ship to you. Proper support for other countries isn't built. If you'd like it, say so — that's how it gets prioritised.

Is this AI?

Yes. A language model does the searching and the comparing. That's why it can handle "an espresso machine" and "a used pickup truck" with the same box, and also why you should sanity-check anything that matters before you spend money.

Searches and billing

What counts as a search?

One Normal search uses one. An Advanced search uses three, because it reads about three times as much of the web. Repeating a search someone recently ran is free — the answer is already there.

What does it cost?

Two free searches to try it. After that, $10 a month for 40 searches or $20 a month for 100. If you run out mid-month you can buy a one-off pack — 40 for $12 or 100 for $25 — and those never expire.

Prices are in US dollars. Sales tax is added at checkout where your state requires it, so the total is a little higher than the headline figure.

Do unused searches roll over?

Monthly searches don't — they reset each billing period. Searches from a top-up pack never expire, and your monthly allowance is always spent first, so a pack you paid extra for is never quietly used up while you still had monthly searches left.

How do I cancel?

Click Manage subscription inside TierShop. It opens Stripe's billing portal, where cancelling takes two clicks. You keep your searches until the end of the month you've already paid for — we don't cut you off the moment you cancel.

Can I get a refund?

Searches are delivered immediately and cost real money to run, so payments are generally non-refundable. But if you were billed twice, charged after cancelling, or the service was broken when you paid, email us and we'll sort it out. See the Terms for the full version.

Do you make money from the buy links?

Yes, from some of them. TierShop is an Amazon Associate, which means if you click through to Amazon and buy something, Amazon pays us a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. You pay the same price either way — the commission comes out of Amazon's end, not yours.

It does not affect which products we pick. The commission is added to the link after the three picks have already been chosen, and the part of TierShop that does the choosing has no idea the commission exists. It can't prefer Amazon, because it isn't told which shop pays. If a Walmart product is the right answer, that's what you get.

Account

I've forgotten my password.

Self-service password reset isn't built yet — honestly, it's the next thing on the list. For now email tiershop.23@gmail.com and we'll get you back in.

How do I delete my account?

Email us from the address on the account and we'll remove it, normally within a few days. Deleting cancels any subscription straight away and gives up unused searches, including paid packs — so if you only want to stop being billed, cancel instead and keep the month you've paid for.

What do you do with my data?

Email address, password (stored scrambled, never in plain text), your search history and your subscription status. Payments are handled by Stripe — we never see your card number. The full detail is in the Privacy Policy.

Still stuck?

Email tiershop.23@gmail.com. TierShop is one person, so you'll get a real reply rather than a ticket number — though possibly not at three in the morning.