Mere days after I finally convinced my boss to sign a deal with Amazon rather than with the rather appalling IBS, I read this:
Wired [Online Prices Not Created Equal]:
“Amazon apparently offers good discounts to new users, then once they get the person hooked and coming back to their site again and again, they play with the prices to make more money,” wrote one angry poster in the online forum DVD Talk.A number of other posters in the same forum fumed about prices varying wildly for the same DVDs, depending on whether the surfer accessed Amazon from his own computer or someone else’s. Several angry Amazon customers emailed complaints to Wired News.
Amazon.com acknowledged that it’s been presenting different prices to different customers in its DVD store, but denied that it does so on the basis of any past purchasing behavior at Amazon.
The article goes on to argue that targetted pricing could be the way of the future, with people who are more likely to pay more for a product being put in a position where those are the only prices they are offered – and with this happening often without their knowledge. This so clearly has the potential to be horribly immoral that I can’t think that it will work – people will protest or governments / fair trade associations will intervene. But in the meantime I think this is a matter for protest: Equal Rights to Fair Prices!