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Companies use drip pricing to overcharge consumers

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Re: Companies use drip pricing to overcharge consumers

#201

Post by JKCalhoun »

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…

When I was being trained to work at a McDonald's restaurant (like four decades ago) they had us watch an awesome PSA about "the customer". To this day I remember the closer spoken by the poorly treated customer in the video, "I don't get mad, I just don't come back."

I've left notes on my bill explaining to "management" why I'm not returning to a particular restaurant. I don't like doing it, but I think someone needs to call them out.

Re: Companies use drip pricing to overcharge consumers

#202

Post by lavezzi »

duxup wrote: post #18
vr46 wrote: post #9

In 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.

The same concept is already heavily ingrained in American culture. Try and name a place that provides you with a price quote up front that is already inclusive of all taxes and fees.

Re: Companies use drip pricing to overcharge consumers

#203

Post by ryandrake »

myself248 wrote: post #45
ericmcer wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same happens with my ISP. I just call customer service and tell them I want to cancel. They offer me a significantly better price for a year, I take the new price and after the year it goes up again and I call to cancel again.

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.

This didn't work last time I called Comcast. I told them I wasn't happy that my Internet bill went up again by $15 and that if they can't reduce it back to what it was, I wanted them to cancel it. They placed me on hold while I sat there grinning about my awesome negotiation skills. Expected to get sent on to customer retention where I could get a better deal. Then the rep came back on and said "As requested, your internet service is terminated as of (next business day). Is there anything else I can help you with?"

Re: Companies use drip pricing to overcharge consumers

#204

Post by version_five »

imroot wrote: post #177

Hotels are horrible for this. This is what my itemized stay was for a single night: 2023-01-18 * Residence Inn expenses:travel:marriott 171.00 USD expenses:taxes:salestax:tx 10.26 USD expenses:taxes:salestax:tx:plano 11.97 USD ; city hotel tax expenses:fees:recovery 1.28 USD ; tax recovery fee expenses:fees:recovery 2.13 USD ; parking recovery fee expenses:taxes:salestax:tx .18 USD ; taxes on parking recovery fee. as…

I once had a hotel charge me a $30 per night "urban fee" - literally it was called that- on top of the advertised nightly rate. It was for work travel so I just payed it. I emailed them (I know pointlessly) to tell them I was never coming back (it was a hotel i used to go to a lot) and they just ignored me. Imo it's criminal, and it also looks pathetic for the companies doing it.

I have a company, and if I charged made-up fees to my clients after quoting them a price, they'd tell me to get lost and I'd lose their business. You can always tell who has inappropriate market power

Re: Companies use drip pricing to overcharge consumers

#205

Post by viraptor »

At least at smaller restaurants this is easier to take a stand against than with Airbnb. Unless it's a huge chain, it doesn't take many negative reviews on Google maps or whatever is the common local service for the owners to notice what behaviour is not ok.

"1 star, they tried to add X% fee sneakily" can do wonders.

Re: Companies use drip pricing to overcharge consumers

#206

Post by abruzzi »

I haven't encountered anything that egregious but in the last year or so, a number of local resaurants have started charing the CC fee back to you, and in some cases, way more than the CC fee is likely to be (i.e. 5% or 7%). It seem to be associated with some of the fancy new payment processors--evey place I go with an old fashioned CC machine doesn't do this, but the fancy touch screen one seem to have that feature and some of the local restaurants are abusing it. As I learn about them, I try to avoid the restaurants that do that.

Re: Companies use drip pricing to overcharge consumers

#207

Post by jessaustin »

phpisthebest wrote: post #61
dqv wrote: post #23

It would be nice to have bundle reform that requires all prices to be listed as taxes-and-fees-inclusive here in the US. Ok, it’s not going to happen federally, but I’d at least like it where I live. Changing prices is already regular maintenance, so the idea that this would place a burden on businesses is BS. If they have metadata at the cash register to know how to tax different items, they can have it at the label…

>>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…

In many cases, especially for flashy new restaurants in my state, the TIF fee exceeds other "taxes". Since these are solely for the benefit of the real estate developer and its tenants (including the restaurant), I would prefer that these were never split off from prices because that's misleading.

Re: Companies use drip pricing to overcharge consumers

#208

Post by selectodude »

ryandrake wrote: post #203
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.

This didn't work last time I called Comcast. I told them I wasn't happy that my Internet bill went up again by $15 and that if they can't reduce it back to what it was, I wanted them to cancel it. They placed me on hold while I sat there grinning about my awesome negotiation skills. Expected to get sent on to customer retention where I could get a better deal. Then the rep came back on and said "As requested, your in…

I’ll never forget when I did that with Verizon and they said “we invite you to try out the competition”.

Bastards. They were right though. They’ll get ~$80/mo from me for the rest of my life.

Re: Companies use drip pricing to overcharge consumers

#209

Post by tibiapejagala »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #175
djkivi wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They were treated like dirt on this visit--being asked to pay an unexpected 20% extra.

Not by the waitstaff. Why not kick the dog on the way out too?

A waiter who doesn’t ensure that you know about such unexpected fee is doing a terrible job.

Re: Companies use drip pricing to overcharge consumers

#210

Post by habitue »

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…

I mean, it sounds like every part of this where a restaurant owner is committing a crime sucks.
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