121–130 of 425 posts
In some countries it would be illegal. If you haven't seen the additional fee before ordering and they mention it only afterwards, it's a fraud. Personally, I can't imagine I would pay it. Yes, I don't shy away from a confrontation.
Boost 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…
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…
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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.
There is no right for the timid to receive as much as the bold. Your friend also does equally poorly in salary negotiation. $25 doesn't keep the lights on and there are far more of your friend than there are of you ergo you ought to be careful for what you wish for because fair pricing looks a lot more like you and your friend both paying $94.
Therefore consumers would benefit on net from fair pricing. Certainly some hard negotiators do benefit from discriminatory pricing, but their gains are less than the losses incurred by those who aren't.
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.
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 Europe (or currency to EUR?), listings even include taxes and local fees, allowing a true apples to apples comparison between offers.
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You should be able to do that with a card as well. They can’t charge your card more than you authorize. (And if they did a call to the CC company will get it all taken care of).
They can decline to charge payment for anything other than the full figure leaving you with the ability to walk out or pay. If you opt not to pay you are dining and dashing and subject to prosecution the fact that you offered to partially pay notwithstanding. Logically pay the bill then leave a negative review and never eat there again.
They have violated the contract, added new fees after the fact. They have violated the contract, refusing to accept the agreed upon payment.
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The problem with AirBnb cleaning fees is that they don't disclose what's included in them. If you're going to charge me $500, fine, but it's not great when I show up and find out that you expect me to wash and remake the beds, power wash the deck, get rid of that wasp nest that's been there for a month and also assemble some Ikea furniture. These days I ask for a list of cleaning requirements before I book.
Airbnb should set standards. Some places make me do absolutely nothing like a hotel room. And some places make you wash the linens, dishes and sweep/vacuum the floors while paying $300+ for a cleaning fee. Probably why I now prefer hotels because i know what i am getting.
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…
> If businesses are trying to get more money, they should do it by transparently raising prices instead of tricking people into paying hidden fees. Yup. This seems like a terrible long term strategy. If I'd eaten expecting $X, and the total is now $X + $Y, and they have the nerve to remind me it's not a tip, I'm probably not leaving a tip, and I'm -definitely- not coming back. Most cities are rather static in populac…
But those restaurants are highly dependent on Yelp reviews et al; such fees are a great way to get bad reviews.
Boost 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…
I am very impressed that my Cricket bill is what they say it would be -- inclusive of taxes even. They say $25, $25 is what my card is actually charged, total! I almost couldn't believe it until it happened over and over again. So it's not actually industry-wide... and hopefully even serves as a differentiator?
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.
Online, you can get away with (figurative) murder.