New Shady Practices w/Vendors?

[Bear22]

Hey Guys,

Is there a new lexicon/vocabulary term for the shady practice of changing the price of an item during checkout?

I'm calling WorldWideCorals out: just yesterday I had intentions of buying some frag pieces only to CXL the order after you guys changed/upped the prices within the checkout phase.

 

[The Wannabe Reefer]

I am fortunate enough to be near WWC, LR, and TSA and have been doing business with them for about ten years, with many thousands of dollars in business. One thing I can assure you is they are hard-working, honest humans; perhaps "shady" is not the appropriate lexicon. I am sure they are not going to risk their reputation on a frag.
It would have been better to phone them to verify possible mistakes or misunderstandings and post the resolution here. I am sure they are going to make it right.
Happy reefings...
r/

 

[Bear22]

I am fortunate enough to be near WWC, LR, and TSA and have been doing business with them for about ten years, with many thousands of dollars in business. One thing I can assure you is they are hard-working, honest humans; perhaps "shady" is not the appropriate lexicon. I am sure they are not going to risk their reputation on a frag.
It would have been better to phone them to verify possible mistakes or misunderstandings and post the resolution here. I am sure they are going to make it right.
Happy reefings...
r/

This isn't an isolated incident. It happens to be (for me) the most recent incident. My post isn't so much a roasting of WWW, but rather if people are experiencing similar phenomena.

I doubt that changing the price in checkout is some kind of a "computer glitch". And I am certainly not going to waste time trying to horse trade with somebody on the phone. It's much easier to just move on and find another vendor selling the same frag that isn't changing the price on me last second.

What I didn't mention in the first post is that WWW acknowledged the price change in checkout via notification. That's comes across as shady to me.

 

[The Wannabe Reefer]

This isn't an isolated incident. It happens to be (for me) the most recent incident. My post isn't so much a roasting of WWW, but rather if people are experiencing similar phenomena.

What I have noticed lately is the use of AI automated responses when you write to them, perhaps that system made a mistake. But in my recent purchases with WWC, no issues here.
Give them a call see what they have to say.

 

[bubbgee]

I noticed sometimes it’s a promo price and needs to hit certain thresholds or a coupon to get that price. Which is a common practice. I’d read what the sales banner says before buying any.

 

[exnisstech]

Maybe they update prices at regular intervals or when new livestock is added etc? It could be done automatically or manually but either way I doubt they are intentionally raising just the prices in your cart and probably don't have the time or ability to check prices in carts and keep them at the old price. Just speculation on my part. I rarely buy livestock online and have never purchased from WWC.

 

[Wonkabar]

This has happened to me a few times in life. Not just with coral vendors or within the reefing hobby. I have chalked it up to either I remember to double check right before confirming in checkout or I just blame myself for rushing and not being thorough. I don’t blame you for being annoyed though as I have been as well.

 

[Bear22]

Maybe they update prices at regular intervals or when new livestock is added etc? It could be done automatically or manually but either way I doubt they are intentionally raising just the prices in your cart and probably don't have the time or ability to check prices in carts and keep them at the old price. Just speculation on my part. I rarely buy livestock online and have never purchased from WWC.

As mentioned in post #3 above their website flagged a price change in checkout. This can easily be labeled as classic bait and switch business practices. Most states have laws against this kind of thing, but then again laws are only as good as to the degree that they are enforced. As a side note: it wasn't that the entire order changed in price, it was 2 pieces out of 4.

As an analogy, if I am at my local grocery store and the price of a loaf of bread goes from $3 to $5 at checkout then it's no different (classic bait and switch).

 

[exnisstech]

Ya but people don't leave stuff sitting in their cart at the grocery store for days or even never check out or clear their cart. Not saying you did that but I'm guilty of it as are many others. Not saying it's right or wrong but I can see how it could happen and it sounds like they made you aware of it. Contact them and see what they say and if the answer isn't the one you want move on, they aren't the only vendor.
As to grocery stores, I had a convience store refuse to honor an advertised price on a drink once. The store was right next to where I worked but for the next 12 years I didn't step foot in the store or any other owned by the same company. Problem solved

PS that was over 20 years ago and I still haven't spent a dime in one if the stores and they are a nation wide chain.

 

[Bear22]

Something also of interest, with another vendor who has a prolific posting presence within the Market forum of this website is this:

I recently placed an order with shipping + shipping date. A transaction posted on my AMX card, yet the proposed shipping day came and went with no shipping notification. I reached out to the vendor to inquire as to why and here was their response: "You didn't exceed our minimum order of $100 for the order to execute". It wasn't clear to me that this was conditional as far as order placement is concerned, yet the vendor argued differently.

For me, the eye-brow raising part is this: Why charge my credit card for the order if the order didn't meet some particular threshold?

 

[Bear22]

Ya but people don't leave stuff sitting in their cart at the grocery store for days or even never check out or clear their cart. Not saying you did that but I'm guilty of it as are many others. Not saying it's right or wrong but I can see how it could happen and it sounds like they made you aware of it. Contact them and see what they say and if the answer isn't the one you want move on, they aren't the only vendor.
As to grocery stores, I had a convience store refuse to honor an advertised price on a drink once. The store was right next to where I worked but for the next 12 years I didn't step foot in the store or any other owned by the same company. Problem solved

PS that was over 20 years ago and I still haven't spent a dime in one if the stores and they are a nation wide chain.

I hear you with the leaving something in limbo within the cart thing, but that wasn't the case here. I'd say less than 3 minutes (at most) was spent between cart to checkout.

 

[Jamie814]

The discrepancy you are seeing could be due to several factors. If you viewed the page earlier when the item was on sale or at a lower (or higher) price, your browser may have cached the page and reloaded the saved version when you returned. When you add the item to your cart, the current price is then displayed. Similarly, if you added an item to your cart days earlier, the price may have changed in the meantime. In such cases, the cart price may not reflect the current price until checkout, when it updates. If a website does not clear its page cache during price updates, customers may see a different price on the product page than in the cart. This is a common occurrence in e-commerce and generally results from how web pages and browsers store information for faster loading, rather than from any deceptive marketing.