Any sufficiently advanced business model is indistinguishable from a scam.
Some Dark Patterns Now Illegal in UK
91–100 of 267 posts
Re: Some Dark Patterns Now Illegal in UK
#92Hey AirBnB. I hope you're listening. Sneaking in service charges and "cleaning fees" is no bueno. I know it's not you doing the later but I hate it when I find an apartment at an appropriate price then good hoodwinked for additional services I don't particularly care for.
Cleaning fees make perfect sense to me. When renting a house out, if I stay 1 night, the owner has to clean the house once. If I stay 1 week, the owner has to clean the house once. Seems like this is just matching pricing to costs.
Re: Some Dark Patterns Now Illegal in UK
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's the 60 EUR for? Printing your boarding pass?
They updated it last year: "Starting December 2013, boarding card reissue fees will be cut from €70 or £70 to €15 or £15." You can see their fee schedule at: http://www.ryanair.com/en/fees/ — yes, they charge a fee to even assign you a seat. (Anecdote: I had a printed boarding pass all crumpled up at the bottom of my bag (they let you check in weeks before your flight, so it had to survive for a while) and my poorly…
> yes, they charge a fee to even assign you a seat.
Everyone does that now. Delta, BA, AA, Virgin, etc. I can think of very few airlines that give you free seat selection before check-in.
I don't agree with it, but it is the way things have gone for all airlines. Just like baggage fees on local flights (even though that causes mass delays during boarding since now everyone is trying to show too much into cramp overhead lockers).
Re: Some Dark Patterns Now Illegal in UK
#94Hey AirBnB. I hope you're listening. Sneaking in service charges and "cleaning fees" is no bueno. I know it's not you doing the later but I hate it when I find an apartment at an appropriate price then good hoodwinked for additional services I don't particularly care for.
Cleaning fees make perfect sense to me. When renting a house out, if I stay 1 night, the owner has to clean the house once. If I stay 1 week, the owner has to clean the house once. Seems like this is just matching pricing to costs.
Fine. Then announce the fixed fees upfront.
Announcing "x per night, y fixed cost" is different from announcing "x per night" but then tacking in the charge for y at the last minute.
Re: Some Dark Patterns Now Illegal in UK
#95Hey AirBnB. I hope you're listening. Sneaking in service charges and "cleaning fees" is no bueno. I know it's not you doing the later but I hate it when I find an apartment at an appropriate price then good hoodwinked for additional services I don't particularly care for.
Cleaning fees make perfect sense to me. When renting a house out, if I stay 1 night, the owner has to clean the house once. If I stay 1 week, the owner has to clean the house once. Seems like this is just matching pricing to costs.
Nobody is saying that there can't be extra fees, and this EU law does not outlaw extra fees. It outlaws not telling the consumer about extra fees up-front, or sneaking extra fees into the purchase.
Re: Some Dark Patterns Now Illegal in UK
#96when will the US adopt a similar law? Ticketmaster will be first one to go bonkers if this law ever makes it to the US
I'm more annoyed by telecom, internet and other utilities that add fees for "regulatory compliance" or for other costs that the provider had to pay. If you want to pass your costs on to your customers that's fine, but then raise your prices. Don't advertise a fake, unobtainable low price and then add fees disguised as government mandates.
"Oh, poor us! The guv't wants our money! May you perchance help us? It was a total surprise, honest!"
It's an easy sell in the US, I imagine.
Re: Some Dark Patterns Now Illegal in UK
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
Cleaning fees make perfect sense to me. When renting a house out, if I stay 1 night, the owner has to clean the house once. If I stay 1 week, the owner has to clean the house once. Seems like this is just matching pricing to costs.
Fine. Then announce the fixed fees upfront. Announcing "x per night, y fixed cost" is different from announcing "x per night" but then tacking in the charge for y at the last minute.
The cleaning fee is announced up front. Service fees, not so much.
Re: Some Dark Patterns Now Illegal in UK
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
Huh? There are loads. I can think of several companies that I buy things from because I know I won't get messed with even if the headline price might appear a little higher than their competitors (think EasyJet v.s. RyanAir).
Ryanair don't do that. The price they advertise at the flight choice time is the price you pay. THey then try shove extras down your throat, but you're not obligated to buy travel insurance, rent a car, use their jet ski etc .
That's not the case - I flew with them a few weeks ago. Turns out in order to print the return journey boarding pass more than a week in advance you need to pre-book a seat (for a cost). Not great if you're going away for two weeks without guaranteed access to a printer.
Re: Some Dark Patterns Now Illegal in UK
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Let's hope a form of this law spreads throughout Europe Ummm... this is a EU wide law. The UK, as a member state of the EU, had to implement it into UK law (that's how EU laws work). This is already the law of the land in all EU countries. Nearly all good consumer rights laws are done at the EU level.
You misread the quote. They said "Europe" not the EU. So presumably they were hoping it would spread to non-EU European countries also.
I find that it's increasingly the case that "Europe" gets used in place of EU in much the same way as people will say "America" when they mean the USA.
Re: Some Dark Patterns Now Illegal in UK
#100I'm really looking forward to buy airplane tickets from Ryanair without having to remove insurance from my shopping basket manually.
EU has been doing lots of good things to ensure consumer rights over the years.