All the more reason to stay home and cook your own food.
Companies use drip pricing to overcharge consumers
11–20 of 425 posts
Re: Companies use drip pricing to overcharge consumers
#12I thought it was already illegal to force a change of price after fulfilling your half of the deal? Unless the customer agrees to these fees before service, I don't think you can legally force them to pay it. If they do it without question, of course they can get away with it.
They should get the state attorney general to look into it
Re: Companies use drip pricing to overcharge consumers
#13This is far worse than Airbnb. As annoying as the cleaning fees are, they are disclosed before you obligate yourself. A 20% fee only disclosed after you’ve already ordered and eaten is just fraud.
This. The other industries mentioned might tack on fees at check-out time, but the service/product hasn't yet been consumed, so the consumer can back out.
This isn't true with dining out, where you see a price list, order, eat, and then get a bill at the end. You can no longer opt to eat elsewhere. You either make a scene or pay the undisclosed fees. Restaurants should at least put a notice on the menu in a highly visible location, but even that isn't going to be foolproof.
Really, this practice should be banned everywhere. As a consumer, I largely don't give a shit what expenses a vendor has; I only care about the final price. I can see an argument for disclosing regulatory fees, because as a resident/citizen, I can at least lobby politicians to change those fees. But, even that's a bit of a crap argument.
Re: Companies use drip pricing to overcharge consumers
#14This is far worse than Airbnb. As annoying as the cleaning fees are, they are disclosed before you obligate yourself. A 20% fee only disclosed after you’ve already ordered and eaten is just fraud.
This. The other industries mentioned might tack on fees at check-out time, but the service/product hasn't yet been consumed, so the consumer can back out. This isn't true with dining out, where you see a price list, order, eat, and then get a bill at the end. You can no longer opt to eat elsewhere. You either make a scene or pay the undisclosed fees. Restaurants should at least put a notice on the menu in a highly vi…
A little assertiveness can go a long way. "I was not made aware of this fee, so I am only paying X" and walking away should work.
Re: Companies use drip pricing to overcharge consumers
#15I will sometimes succumb to drip pricing for the reasons given (already received service, already done research and made purchase choice, etc) but I remember and avoid giving them repeat business. I don't have time for scammers. Best remedy is to cut them out of my life.
Unfortunately you are in the minority, in general these hidden or drip fees increase revenue[1].
1. https://therooster.com/articles/stubhub-experiment-shows-tha...
Re: Companies use drip pricing to overcharge consumers
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
This. The other industries mentioned might tack on fees at check-out time, but the service/product hasn't yet been consumed, so the consumer can back out. This isn't true with dining out, where you see a price list, order, eat, and then get a bill at the end. You can no longer opt to eat elsewhere. You either make a scene or pay the undisclosed fees. Restaurants should at least put a notice on the menu in a highly vi…
A little assertiveness can go a long way. "I was not made aware of this fee, so I am only paying X" and walking away should work.
You can only do that if paying cash. And if you do, what will effectively happen is that the money you intend to leave as tip will go toward the fee instead.
Re: Companies use drip pricing to overcharge consumers
#17A local restaurant tired a wellness fee (it was actually a small %) in my area (Midwest USA), got a ton of bad press, traffic when I went by looked like it had dropped off significantly. They survived but according to the manager I spoke to only because they were owned by a restaurant group that had income from other restaurant without a wellness fee.
They made a big public statement, emails, flyers, about reverting the fee and so on and eventually recovered.
Re: Companies use drip pricing to overcharge consumers
#18In America. This would not fly in Europe, I hope. Pretty sure menus have to be displayed out front with full pricing and service charges have their own rules.
>In America.
America is a big place, so is Europe. I wouldn't expect this to fly in a lot of places in America either. I've seen a place in America where they tried it and it failed.
Re: Companies use drip pricing to overcharge consumers
#19I've seen this over and over in SF and now rarely eat out. Many friends and coworkers are taking the same approach, most of whom never used to cook at home. Scamming your customers 5, 10, 20% at a time doesn't seem like a great long term strategy
Re: Companies use drip pricing to overcharge consumers
#20Boost Mobile did this recently when my wife and I switched cell carriers. They advertised a $30/month/line plan (after a 3-month introductory period at an even lower price), but we are now paying closer to $45. This has pissed me off enough that I want to look for another carrier, but this seems to be SOP for this industry. Telcos behave like nothing less than a criminal cartel, so I was hardly surprised by this play. Nice to know it has a name.
Another comment here pointed out that the FTC is aware of this practice and has solicited comments from the public. Quoting from their linked article on `ftc.gov`:
> FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz asked consumers to share their drip pricing stories with the FTC. Consumers can call us at 1-877-FTC-HELP.
I gave them a call, and the first thing the automated system informed me is that one can file a complaint online: https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/