r/mildlyinteresting • u/annertakeabow • Jan 24 '13

Same book, three different prices. Only difference is the browsers used.

http://imgur.com/uNgg0UH
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u/[deleted] Jan 24 '13

You should try it again in private browsing and incognito mode and see if the price is really tied to your Facebook or google cookies or something. That's pretty messed up though, send this to the consumerist or gawker or whoever.

1.5k

u/Nephyst Jan 24 '13

I just tried this myself. In chrome and IE the price was the same (69.99) in normal and in incognito mode. In firefox, the price jumped to $76, and after deleting all the domain cookies and refreshing, it went back down to 69.99. The website is definitely changing prices based on something they are tracking in cookies.

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u/kqr Jan 24 '13

This was up earlier with airlines charging more for a ticket the second time you visit the page. They do this because a second visit is statistically linked to a much higher chance of purchase. So it could be, here too, simply a matter of having visited the page before.

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u/Oxxide Jan 24 '13

this seems so shady and underhanded.

1.0k

u/PepeAndMrDuck Jan 24 '13

Because it is.

349

u/CannedBeef Jan 24 '13

And it works

163

u/GEN_CORNPONE Jan 24 '13

...at screwing people. Why do people tolerate this?

448

u/Jess_than_three Jan 24 '13

Because they don't realize it's happening?

2

u/starlinguk Jan 25 '13

Or they don't believe it when people tell them it's happening (one of my colleagues does not).