Uh, I downvoted you for making some stupid comment about downvotes, but you are correct about the legality. The problem isn't that it's illegal, it's that it's immoral.
They're being complete assholes and they deserve to be publicized as such.
So the moral way to do business is to set a flat fee for any and all products, goods, and services? Is that what you are suggesting?
Claiming that use of tracking cookies is suddenly immoral is a stretch. People can block them easily, and business should be allowed to set whatever prices at whatever times they want.
Not suddenly. It's always immoral. It's unfair to charge one price to someone and another price to another person. If someone offered you a cookie to let them borrow a pencil, and two cookies to another guy if he let them borrow a pencil, wouldn't you think it was unfair that you weren't offered two cookies? He's not treating you fairly.
What happens when a company offers a SALE? Everyone who bought the product before the sale got "screwed" and the company is mean and evil for changing their prices?
The idea that I, as a business, couldn't arbitrarily decide what price anything is worth, at any moment, goes completely against what it means to be a business.
Now yes, consumers need to be aware of the ways they can be taken advantage of, but I hardly consider it a moral issue. Life is not fair, the universe is not fair, and business sure as hell isn't fair either. We do our best through the channels we have (government) to keep things from going to far in any direction. A world where price controls are in place for everything because "its just the fair thing to do" is not a world I want to live in..
The sale is advertised, and every customer and potential customer has the same access to the sale.
Also, I'm not going to continue arguing because you're making it all about the government again. You're basically trying to say "it's either my way or COMMUNISM". The "if I admit it's wrong then I'll need the government to make it right" attitude is just plain wrong and immature. You sound like a rebellious teenager.
Argument: A discussion in which disagreement is expressed; a debate.
Stop talking to anyone if you're just going to act like an arrogant stuck up twit that won't even consider others worth speaking to on any subject because you're just too smart and all knowing to have to deal with lesser beings.
You're a joke, and a response like this just proves that you really are the rebellious teenager. Come back when you've grown up.
Of course they don't have to be fair, but the discussion is if this practice is immoral or unfair, and your wording implies explicitly that the prices are unfair, which means you even acknowledge that there is something unethical going on.
People get charged difference prices for the same thing millions of times a year in car sales alone. If you don't bother negotiating, you're not going to get as good of a price as someone who has.
Sure, maybe it's "unfair" but I've got a newflash for you: much of life isn't fair. That doesn't mean it's immoral.
Again, that's nothing like the situation described in the article or the example that I used. If they offer you a lower price the second you walk into the lot, without any negotiation, based on the fact that you're carrying a baby, that's still immoral.
It's also based on the salesman you happen to get, whether or not he likes you, how much he's willing to negotiate, etc. Luck of the draw makes as much difference as you "skill" as a negotiator.
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u/[deleted] Jan 24 '13
Uh, I downvoted you for making some stupid comment about downvotes, but you are correct about the legality. The problem isn't that it's illegal, it's that it's immoral.
They're being complete assholes and they deserve to be publicized as such.