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

221–230 of 425 posts

Re: Companies use drip pricing to overcharge consumers

#221

Post by pcthrowaway »

cute_boi wrote: post #215
jasode wrote: post #28

A reddit thread made the front page with a similar example of surprise "Economic Recovery Fee" added onto the restaurant bill: https://old.reddit.com/r/mildlyinfuriating/comments/10gowkx/... If a government watchdog like FTC doesn't stop this or a new explicit law that only allows "total final price" clearly displayed before purchase, it means every type of business will want to play the "Ticketmaster-convenience-fee…

Does the link have some issues? I see a hair in the upper right part of the screen and it scrolls too. I thought it was my hair strand and tried to remove it. I realized it was not my hair and then suspect my monitor has damaged. Opened a new tab and finally realized it was the page haha.

This is the mildlyinfuriating subreddit. It's intentional

Re: Companies use drip pricing to overcharge consumers

#222

Post by vikingerik »

HelixEndeavor wrote: post #196
abawany wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most prepaid vendors afaik seem to offer a tax-included price - two examples are Visible and Mint.

Why are prepaid carriers so much better then traditional ones, it seems? I've been on Metro for years, service is identical to T-Mobile at a fraction of the cost with no hidden fees.

Competition. You can switch to anyone else easily when it's prepaid with no contract durations getting in the way, so they have to behave well to keep your business. I've been on AT&T prepaid for years at 30/month with only sales tax on top of that.

Re: Companies use drip pricing to overcharge consumers

#223

Post by the_snooze »

tibiapejagala wrote: post #209
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Absolutely. A server who doesn't explicitly tell the customer about these fees in advance is complicit with it, and I'll assume they get the full benefit of these fees in lieu of tips.

Re: Companies use drip pricing to overcharge consumers

#224

Post by bradleyjg »

lxgr wrote: post #125
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.

It's still annoying, since they don't show up when you search on the map, as far as I remember. Mostly due to this, I've given up on Airbnb in favor of traditional hotel booking sites (specifically the one with a capital B). Many private apartments are also listed on them these days, and I value not having to play stupid pricing games more than the slightly higher availability on Airbnb. When changing the country to…

I agree it’s annoying, it’s just not as bad as changing you 20% after you leave for an unannounced “Fair Wage and Wellness” fee. The restaurant is straight out stealing.

Re: Companies use drip pricing to overcharge consumers

#225

Post by mcherm »

MDWolinski wrote: post #137
lotsofpulp wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> which seems to have started at Starbucks (edit: at least that's where I first saw it occurring for counter services) In my experience, it existed before in the form of tip jars (in NYC area), but really blew up when tablet point of sale systems like Clover came into the picture. They earn a percent of the transaction, so adding a simple option to increase the amount of the transaction is a no brainer for increasing…

Pre-Covid, wife and I went and tried a Grilled Cheese place in town that had been open for at least a year. As we were checking out on the tablet they had, my wife asked something about the Tip prompt on it. The cashier said, "Don't worry about it, the tips just go to management." So, makes me wonder at every other place, how well the tips are distributed. The other area I have an issue with (although I still tip her…

> The cashier said, "Don't worry about it, the tips just go to management."

This happens, but it IS illegal in most jurisdictions.

Re: Companies use drip pricing to overcharge consumers

#226

Post by maweki »

xbar wrote: post #171
nraynaud wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In France the prices have to be visible from outside the restaurant and you’d better be able to pre-compute your final bill before pushing the door. I am always surprised that a country like France protects its invisible market hand better than the US that is more capitalist minded. Information symmetry is absolutely essential for market actors to behave in their own best interest.

Is that all of EU?

Probably not. In Germany you have to show an excerpt of the menu (including prices) outside the restaurant.

Usually the owners prop one or two of the middle pages of the menu and a page of the seasonal menu in a wall display by the entrance.

Re: Companies use drip pricing to overcharge consumers

#227

Post by ComputerGuru »

myself248 wrote: post #48
pjsg wrote: post #43

I always object to US retail adding Tax to the price of the items. In the UK (and I expect Europe) the price on the shelf is the price that you pay. VAT is included. In the US, you walk into a store and have to become an expert at understanding local taxes in order to figure out how much anything costs. Hotels often have four of five extra fees tacked on. I'd like "The price you see is the price you pay" to be the ru…

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…

There are cities and counties with their own tax separate from the state sales tax in most states, if I’m not mistaken.

Re: Companies use drip pricing to overcharge consumers

#228

Post by strawhatguy »

Only silver lining that can come from this is that this offers a path to fold wait staff into this service charge, and maybe we can drop the tipping culture nonsense in the US (still may need to drop the income tax in order to do so, though).

But yeah, I wouldn’t return to a restaurant that pulled this sh*t, and I’m not tipping if I get suckered into one that does.

Re: Companies use drip pricing to overcharge consumers

#229

Post by Dalewyn »

myself248 wrote: post #48
pjsg wrote: post #43

I always object to US retail adding Tax to the price of the items. In the UK (and I expect Europe) the price on the shelf is the price that you pay. VAT is included. In the US, you walk into a store and have to become an expert at understanding local taxes in order to figure out how much anything costs. Hotels often have four of five extra fees tacked on. I'd like "The price you see is the price you pay" to be the ru…

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…

>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 the applicable tax rate.

I'm curious how legally binding/legitimate that is, considering consumer-grade GPS can be fairly inaccurate at the best of times.

My gut feeling is it's a "don't quote me on that" good will guesstimate, but some professional insight would be interesting.

Post reply on HN