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Bill to ban hidden fees in California signed into law
51–60 of 480 posts
Re: Bill to ban hidden fees in California signed into law
#52Laws like this aren't going to make services and products any cheaper. They'll just shift around and hide the fees into the core price. Sure, that's better I suppose, but end of the day still costs the same amount. Not convinced at all this is a area policy makers should be focusing on.
You don't want to drive to a resort, hotel or store with a headline figure of say $300 and end up finding out additional fees double that to $600
Re: Bill to ban hidden fees in California signed into law
#53From the article linked in the first paragraph: "The legislation — the first bill of its type across the state — would prohibit advertising a price for a good or service that does not include all required charges other than taxes and fees imposed by a government.
Why are taxes and govt fees exempt? This reeks of "rules for thee but not for me." Either to goal is to avoid misleading customers with low advertised prices, or it's not. For example, California has a ~50 cents/gallon fuel tax. Can gas stations start advertising prices that are 50 cents lower than they actually charge and be compliant with this law?
Re: Bill to ban hidden fees in California signed into law
#54We could learn from for example Japan where there is no cents and all fees included so 5000 Yen is 5000 yen no tip no tax no fees no cents it's really cortisol reducing.
Caveat: 1 yen is worth about 1 cent USD.
1 cent is equal to 1.5 yen. The nice conversion of 1 cent equals 1 yen has been lone gone. :(
Re: Bill to ban hidden fees in California signed into law
#55Laws like this aren't going to make services and products any cheaper. They'll just shift around and hide the fees into the core price. Sure, that's better I suppose, but end of the day still costs the same amount. Not convinced at all this is a area policy makers should be focusing on.
The issue is that you can't compare apples to apples. One company charges more built into the price, another company hides some fees you only see at checkout and can't avoid. It's not adding value and it's not improved by competition (competing with this tactic means hiding more fees than your competitor)
Re: Bill to ban hidden fees in California signed into law
#56I've always wanted to bill some contract work to AT&T in particular and include my personal taxes and fees after the negotiated price.
Re: Bill to ban hidden fees in California signed into law
#57From the article linked in the first paragraph: "The legislation — the first bill of its type across the state — would prohibit advertising a price for a good or service that does not include all required charges other than taxes and fees imposed by a government. Why are taxes and govt fees exempt? This reeks of "rules for thee but not for me." Either to goal is to avoid misleading customers with low advertised price…
Taxes and government fees are exempt because it promotes transparency!
I wish gas stations showed taxes separately, but I'm guessing retail gas stations aren't the ones collecting and remitting those taxes. It's probably taken earlier in the supply chain.
Re: Bill to ban hidden fees in California signed into law
#58Comments that are bringing up taxes (which are totally exempted by this bill anyway) and tips (with one small caveat) are completely missing the point. You can have a debate about how to display those items on a price list, but everyone knows about them and they are expected. The whole point of this bill is to prevent bait-and-switch, where loads of unknown or variable fees are tacked on after the price is initially…
Disagree. Bait and switch is one symptom of the issue that the price is not what you'll pay. Which to be clear is awful.
And that matters if you have to be careful about spending. Also, "everyone knows about them", really? If it's so easy to "know" the local tax rate for various things, why isn't it easy to label them?
See the rest of the world, where even young kids can go shopping. If you give them 5 , and the item they want is less than 5, or they want five of something that is 1, they can buy it.
Re: Bill to ban hidden fees in California signed into law
#59> Hidden fees are fees in which a seller uses an artificially low headline price to attract a customer and usually either discloses additional required fees in smaller print, or reveals additional unavoidable charges later in the buying process. Like tips?
The hidden fee that I hope this deals with is the mandatory "resort fee" that is showing up more and more frequently on hotel bills. You find an online room rate for $120, go to book it, and it is $120 + $50 resort fee + taxes, and it ends up being > $200.
Re: Bill to ban hidden fees in California signed into law
#60From the article linked in the first paragraph: "The legislation — the first bill of its type across the state — would prohibit advertising a price for a good or service that does not include all required charges other than taxes and fees imposed by a government. Why are taxes and govt fees exempt? This reeks of "rules for thee but not for me." Either to goal is to avoid misleading customers with low advertised price…
A classic example in the US is sales tax. Those are taxes determined by the final sale price which can vary depending on state, county, or city. More importantly because those fees aren't controlled by the company doing the bait and switch it's the same for every company.
This bill is very clear that the target is "prices" that reject parts of the price that are entirely set by the person selling the goods or services. e.g. Ticketmaster, etc's entirely bogus "service" charges, or airbnb's that say $x/night but have a $500 cleaning "fee".