This doesn't sit well with you?

Oh I see, you were thinking that the primary responsibility of a business is to try to give you and every possible customer the best possible deal available.

Are you upset that some people negotiate a better deal on their new cars than others because the dealers don't post a sign that states our bottom dollar prices that we will sell these cars for are listed below?

And I suppose you are upset that some people get their magazine subscriptions cheaper than others because they had a discount card from another magazine or some such deal.

And you are really upset that they guy sitting next to you on the airplane found a better deal on a different website than you did because the airline didn't advertise that the lowest price they were selling this ticket for was X and it can be found here.

And you are probably irate that you paid more for your Dell computer than your neighbor because Dell sent you a coupon for 20% off but sent him one for 25% off. (I have two different sources of getting Dell coupons and just today they both got a Dell coupon for the same exact items, one received a 20% off coupon and the other email received a 25% off one .... How dare they.)

I visit these blogs because there are occassionally useful tidbits here but unfortunately I find so much of this niave whining about fairness and companies not doing what they should do. This betrays such a level of immaturity and ignorance about finance and business.

There is no false advertising here, no misleading consumers, no bait and switch, just a lack of telling them every possible way they could get a better deal, just like every other example listed above.

Companies need to maximize their revenue in order to maximize their profits. They maximize their revenue by getting different amounts of money from different people based on their ability and willingness to pay. Thats just the facts. If they already have a customer that is happy paying a certain price are they going to notify them of a change in prices that they could signup for? Not unless they believe not doing so will be detrimental to their business. Neither would I and neither would most people here. But they love to whine about it when someone else does it.

You want to point out that a better deal is out there. Fine, Shout it from the mountain tops. But you want to take the company to task for some kind of illicit behavior that doesn't exist, then go join some anti-capitalist group where you can be with like minds, because it looks remarkably foolish from someone who is supposed to understand finance and business.

Perhaps that is the problem since anybody and his dog can start a weblog on anything they want. Try to show some command of the subject matter if you want to be taken seriously.

Wow. Seems like I touched a nerve.

Many posts here have touched that nerve and I decided to go off on you about it. :)

I see lots of undertones here on many posts that attack companies subtlely or directly that tend toward the concept of implying that companies are out to get you or do you harm for their greedy desires. Its the kind of thing I would expect to find in an activist community, not in a community that caters to finance and business. Thats the thing that tends to set me off I suppose.

I would just suggest that you think about whether or not something truly wrong has been done by a company before implying that the company is sinister.

I never intended to imply that they're sinister. It just doesn't seem to me that things like this are good business practices (over the long run). Sure, you get a few extra bucks in the near term, but people eventually sniff out things like this and don't end up appreciating. It costs an awful lot of money to capture customers so, if it were me, I'd be doing anything (within reason) that I could to retain them.

Oh, and with reference to news cars, magazine subscriptions, airline tickets and computers... I'm never upset that others got them for less than I did because that pretty much never happens... ;)

I don't disagree that this can be detrimental depending on the situation. Thats something the business has to decide. They may have decided poorly but I do believe in their right to decide it and I don't believe there is anything immoral or that makes them a bad corporate citizen by deciding one way or the other.

Thats the great thing about the invisible hand that Adam Smith talks about working through the free market system. Clearly mistakes are made by many companies along the way but it tends to show the ways that work and the ways for which you get punished and companies eventually avoid the ways they get punished.

Since you always find the great deals, you should help the consumers out by posting how to find all those great deals, because the companies don't go out of their way to make them available (and shouldn't have to :) but we should be equally free to pass around what we know.

With regard to good deals, I do try to pass along what I know. For example, we just bought a car and I wrote a series of posts detailing the steps that we went through to get a great deal. You're right, though, I probably should write up more of what we do to find the best deals in various areas.

Let's all face reality here. With the Internet, the price of just about anything can be looked up and pretty much ordered from anywhere in the world. If you really wanted to know who the lowest ISP is in your area go to http://www.dslreports.com to find out.

The real question: Why do Businesses continue to think that they are going to get away this type of price modeling? Eventually word spreads (through the Internet) and people get pissed off.

I don't know what the answer is for businesses in the long run; seems like EVERYTHING is becoming a commodity these days and the lowest price almost always wins.

But Nickel, I think you hit it on the head. Everyone is concerned about short term gain. Those few extra bucks translate into this quarters increased earnings per share and it's up to the next management group to find a way to make the following quarter even better.

Any intelligent reader knew exactly what nickel meant. Last night's mayo-smothered hamburger didn't "sit well with me." Does that mean I'm an anti-capitalist pinko, demanding reform from Burger King, Kraft Foods and the California beef industry?

I was with you in the housing thread D-man, but now I think you're just yapping to hear yourself yap. Maybe you need a blog of your own? You could tell all the other bloggers what they should and shouldn't say. Clearly you're an expert on that subject, right?

I hit him pretty hard didn't I? My comments were over the top. Should have stayed off my soap box on that one I guess.