Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Companies use drip pricing to overcharge consumers

passingtime.substack.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 425 posts

Re: Companies use drip pricing to overcharge consumers

#151

Post by 9WwFaLaTtBDaoS »

drdec wrote: post #136
jzb wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, because as we all know, service staff have enormous power and dictate restaurant policy. This is why they're so highly paid and aren't abused at all by customers, for example. /s

The server could have made sure they were aware of the policy before they ordered. Seems like the best way to make sure you get a tip to me.

yes.

People like to act as if wait staff are completely innocent, but when I was younger I had a policy that if a female waitress started touching me close to the closing out of the deal she got no tip.

I personally find that behavior gross.

Re: Companies use drip pricing to overcharge consumers

#152

Post by [deleted] »

barbazoo wrote: post #62
myself248 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most places in the US, the local tax is the same statewide. Not in Ohio, where it can vary by township, sometimes across invisible boundaries. I once attended a large flea-market where such a boundary cut through the fairgrounds. Taxes were different on one side of the line than the other. It's so bad that Ohio actually has a mobile app that uses your phone's GPS to figure out which jurisdiction you're in and show th…

> I once attended a large flea-market where such a boundary cut through the fairgrounds. Taxes were different on one side of the line than the other. Does this matter though? Even if the tax is different from one stall to another, they could still publish a price that includes tax.

[deleted]

Re: Companies use drip pricing to overcharge consumers

#153

Post by davemp »

lxgr wrote: post #133
Dowwie wrote: post #88

Contractors have been doing this for decades. Here are two examples of the scam. The roof of your property needs replacing. You call a few roofers to come by and give an estimate for work. You choose the cheapest roofer, who uses the same materials as the others and has been allegedly in the family-run business for the last 125 years. After the first half of day's work, the shingles of the old roof were removed. The…

This definitely sounds bad, but at least in custom services, I can imagine scenarios where it's not possible to give an accurate estimate before starting the actual work (and already incurring cost in the process). There is just no justification at all for goods and services with a uniform sticker price, such as a meal in a restaurant. If you can program it into a POS, you can print it on the price tag.

In my state roof contractors are required to give the per board price for replacing roof decking in the estimate

Re: Companies use drip pricing to overcharge consumers

#154

Post by bradleyjg »

tommoor wrote: post #37
bradleyjg wrote: post #4

This 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.

I'm not defending the restaurant as I hate this as much as the next person but I'm sure the fee was mentioned on the menu - probably in small print and this was omitted for the sake of a good story.

If you’re going to reprint the menu to add that, just bump the prices 20% and be an honest business.

Re: Companies use drip pricing to overcharge consumers

#155

Post by phpisthebest »

hansvm wrote: post #139
phpisthebest wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>It would be nice to have bundle reform that requires all prices to be listed as taxes-and-fees-inclusive here in the US No no no no Taxes should be listed for atleast 3 reasons 1. The company is not paying the tax, you are. You owe the tax not the company, the company is merely collecting the tax for the government. In many states the company is paid to collect this tax on the governments behalf. If the tax was not…

Hypothetically, what do you think about requiring a big, up-front total and a high-level cost breakdown (section numbers for tax codes, overall material cost, amortized facilities cost)? To some of your points: 1. Isn't super important because on the 2. Break it out as a line item. Bold it. Maybe a bit more transparency would help with the pattern of stores raking in record profits when any upstream supplier has a mi…

I dont think simply putting on the reciept is a solution to #3, because people internalize pricing and make the choice to buy before the transaction. it would only work if the before Tax and After Tax price was displayed before purchase.

Anything less is still hiding the taxation IMO

Also I am intrigued by the people that say they are "Having to memorize the tax rates in every city" and "apply those accurately on the fly" I am not sure I have ever in my life needed to that? Why would you need to calculate that on the fly? Unless you are buying a big ticket item costing thousands of dollars then the tax should not be a factor on if you are going to buy X or not so what purpose would it have to calculate it in your head like that?

Re: Companies use drip pricing to overcharge consumers

#156

Post by TuringNYC »

myself248 wrote: post #46
TuringNYC wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My favorite is when wireless carriers can charge a "Regulatory Recovery Fee", which is basically part of the price, but can magically change and magically appear on your bill. The fact that the FTC is fussed about free chat apps rather than wireless carrier practices in the US is obscene.

You know it doesn't have to be one or the other, right? They can care about both?

Regulatory recovery fees have been around for over 20yrs in the US. Sure, the FTC could tackle both, but they 20yrs have gone by, and you still cannot actually get the final price for a wireless contract in the US until after you sign up for a 2yr plan.

Instead we're focusing on chat apps which were born in the past decade, require no 2yr plans, and for that matter, dont even cost money and have 50 free competitors.

Great prioritization.

Re: Companies use drip pricing to overcharge consumers

#157

Post by csomar »

lolinder wrote: post #89
crazygringo wrote: post #84

Note that drip pricing for restaurants (e.g. 10-20% non-tip surcharge) is illegal in many jurisdictions (if not "conspicuously advertised" before eating), but some restaurants try to do it anyways (claiming the policy is "conspicuously advertised" on the last page of the menu, or a tiny sign behind the bar). Sometimes you can just refuse to pay it and they'll back down because they want a repeat customer more. Someti…

> Sometimes they'll insist, but you can still just... not pay it, if you don't plan on going back. It's not like they're going to call the police, and you're paying the main bill. This only works if you have enough cash on hand to cover the main bill or you're able to be really pushy and get them to run only the main bill on the card.

They are only authorized to charge what you have approved. Period. If they charge more, then charge them back for the extra or the whole amount. Make it clear before they run your CC.

Re: Companies use drip pricing to overcharge consumers

#158

Post by adrianmonk »

I support restaurants breaking out health insurance as a separate charge so that it's very conspicuous.

In the restaurant industry, it isn't customary to provide health insurance benefits. (It shouldn't be that way, but right now, in the US, it is.) If a restaurant is going to try to treat their employees better, it's crucial for customers understand why they're paying more.

Otherwise, they'll just think it's a bad deal and go to another restaurant. Then the restaurant will have to stop providing insurance.

I don't think you can make it work if it's built into the price. You can try telling people about it and putting up signs, but you'll run up against two unfortunate laws of human nature: people don't listen, and they don't read.

This add-on fee should be disclosed beforehand as prominently as possible so that you don't get charge more than you expected. But I think it needs to be a separate fee. Otherwise, I just don't see how you can get customers to understand that your food prices are comparable to other restaurants.

Re: Companies use drip pricing to overcharge consumers

#159

Post by autoexec »

py1 wrote: post #92
myself248 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup, once a year like clockwork. Call the ISP, play a game of brinksmanship to avoid being taken to the cleaners. Meanwhile my conflict-averse friend is paying $94/mo for less bandwidth than I get for $25. It's psychological discrimination, is what it is.

Your conflict-averse friend might want to check out Trim. They negotiate lower bills and split the savings with you (can't say I've used it myself). https://www.asktrim.com/

I'd hold off until AI can do that job for us at no charge.

Based on their privacy policy it looks like Trim takes a lot more than just a cut of the savings. They collect a shit ton of very personal data. They sell your personal data to advertisers, their "partners", and other "businesses and third-party websites". They keep your private data for as long as is "permitted under an applicable law". They promise to spam you with third party offers and to promote their own services and while you use their service they subject you to ads and let their "advertising partners" collect your data.

"Our advertising partners may also transmit cookies to your browser or device when you click on ads that appear on the Services...use tracking technologies with the Services. This may include the collection of information about your online activities"

If you go anywhere near that service read their privacy policy very very closely and make sure you know what you're getting yourself into.

Re: Companies use drip pricing to overcharge consumers

#160

Post by jghn »

giraffe_lady wrote: post #60
mortenjorck wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If an establishment adds a 20% surcharge to a dining check, that's a tip, and generally considered to be on the higher end in the US. I would simply consider them to have chosen my tip amount for me and leave it at that.

> and generally considered to be on the higher end in the US. Maybe in 1998 but it's pretty much standard now.

In more cosmopolitan areas, 25% is the new 20%
Post reply on HN