am i seeing things?

[ooohbeggie]

ok. i went to crucial.com to get 2x512 sticks of ram for my new g5 (dual 1.8 w/ 4 dimm sockets). on my work pc with internet explorer the price was $96 and some change. come home and check the price with safari and it's $102.81. so i fire up internet explorer on my mac and try it -- $94.08. huh? it's the exact same serial number and everything. just 3 different prices. i called a friend and got him to check it and he got a 4th different price.

could someone try this out and tell me if i'm just imagining things and don't need to operate a computer anymore or if there's really something strange going on.

thanks.

[jsw]

I get $102.81.

It's like playing the stock market! Gotta time your buy....

Man, I never knew prices were so volatile!

[ooohbeggie]

thanks for trying it out. not like a couple bucks is gonna kill me, it's just strange that with 3 different browsers i get 3 different prices. odd.

[jsw]

Man, that is weird. Internet Explorer on the Mac gives me the ~$96 price.

Very, very odd.

[jsw]

OmniWeb 5.0 Beta gives me the $94.08 price.

Unbelievable. Well, now I know to check. And Safari gives me the same price, regardless of the user agent I specify in the Debug menu.

Edit: this happens even when I paste the URL of the site with the price from one browser to another.

Here's the URL (http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.asp?Mfr%2BProductline=Apple%2BPower+Mac&mfr=Apple&cat=RAM&model=Power+Mac+G5+%28Dual+1.8GHz+DDR%2C+4+DIMM+sockets%29&submit=Go), for those wanting to play at home.

[ooohbeggie]

so i'm not crazy??? :confused:

[jsw]

For those of you with the Debug menu enabled in Safari, you can just open the page with other browsers from there and see the different prices.

[zyuzin4]

$99.90 with Firefox
$96.99 with Safari
$105.72 with IE

all OSX

[rareflares]

Firefox - $102.81
IE - $105.72




I got jipped! Other people are getting $94





Maybe they punish you for using bad browsers or something.

[SwitchingSoon]

108.63 on firefox

102.81 on netscape


what is this bull?

[zyuzin4]

wow this is really weird

[mymemory]

Ok, are you telling me that now "a browser can give you a better price on-line?"

This is twisted :eek:

[Finiksa]

Safari $96.99

Camino $108.63

I win! I win! I've got the highest price.

This game is fun…

[kant]

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=dynamic+pricing+&btnG=Search

add amazon.com to the search terms and read about their experimenting with it.

[edesignuk]

$96.99 (Firefox 0.9.2, WinXP) checking from work. How weird.

[ooohbeggie]

Safari $96.99

Camino $108.63

I win! I win! I've got the highest price.

This game is fun…


see, that's where it starts to get irritating. 2 or 3 bucks, no big deal. but the lowest price i got (on ie5.2 for mac) is 94.08 and you got a price of 108.63.

14.55 (x2) is quite a difference...

[Abstract]

What's REALLY confusing is that some people get different prices using the same browser.

[Finiksa]

see, that's where it starts to get irritating.
Exactly, I've always been a supporter of Crucial but this kind of unethical pricing scheme is disgusting. I was considering buying some RAM soon but I won't if they maintain this practice.

I'd recommend anyone pissed off by this send a polite letter of complaint to the Crucial General Manager (crucialgeneralmanager@micron.com), I think I'm going to give it a go later tonight.

[SwitchingSoon]

Safari $96.99

Camino $108.63

I win! I win! I've got the highest price.

This game is fun…


ahem, read my previous post! you tied!


by they way, i went there again a few minutes later and got 96.99

[Finiksa]

ahem, read my previous post! you tied!
Try using dollar signs next time, I searched the thread for previous prices yours didn't come up. Without a dollar sign it's just a number, I still win ;)

Still coming up as $108.63 with Camino, I'd love to know how their dynamic pricing system determines the price each time.

[ooohbeggie]

Exactly, I've always been a supporter of Crucial but this kind of unethical pricing scheme is disgusting. I was considering buying some RAM soon but I won't if they maintain this practice.

I'd recommend anyone pissed off by this send a polite letter of complaint to the Crucial General Manager (crucialgeneralmanager@micron.com), I think I'm going to give it a go later tonight.

my thoughts exactly. everyone i've talked to about buying additional ram says that crucial is THE way to go. but this kind of junk certainly makes it tough for me to give them my hard earned cash. i NEED the ram, and since crucial has such an excellent reputation for quality components, i'd much rather buy from them than from anywhere else. but i can't say that this pricing issue leaves me with a very good feeling.

i'm considering just going ahead and buying the ram at the lowest price, then sending an email (a polite one, of course) to their manager, letting them what i think of the situation...

[srchurch]

To add to the fun....
Try this one:
Remove all cookies from "www.crucial.com" and just "crucial.com" (they are being kind of sneaky there...)
Remove "www.crucial.com" from the list of sites you may have set on your browser for which sites can and can not set cookies. (These are usually in the advanced privacy setting on your browser - a good thing to know about!)
Set the cookie setting to always ask you first before setting cookies. Now your browser has no information for Crucial to snoop.
Go to the crucial website and poke through the menus to the memory described in the first post, the link posted by jsw might work too. If it asks you to set a cookie, deny them all so they don't collect any information from you!!
When you get the price quote, just hit reload and each time I get a different price each time! At least on Mozilla 1.6 running on Linux. On Firebird 0.9, I have to hit the buy button (which take me to a page saying there is something wrong with my cookies), and then hit the back button on your browser - and what do you know, a new price.
So for the cost of the two described memory modules, I get the following in no particular order or frequency...
$95.04
$97.98
$100.92
$103.86
$106.80
and
$109.87 (and I guess I am the new winner now...)
When I got one of the good prices, I went to the settings to allow cookies from the site again, and after it ask me if it can set cookies and I allow it, the price I last had sticks! Could save some money!! Someone else want to have fun.

Beware of whose cookies you eat! You don't always know what they could contain...... :eek:

[andrewm]

After a quick search (per kant's post) I found an objective explanation of the dynamic pricing system. It's rather long, but it's divided into sections with examples, and it's not filled with legal terms as some other documents are.

Dynamic Pricing and the Future of E-Commerce (http://www.vjolt.net/vol6/issue2/v6i2-a11-Weiss.html)

I find myself rather disturbed after reading the last section, especially, about the legality. I had thought that such a practise would be illegal... but it's already completely legal.

It's also half-past midnight. Not a good time to be disturbed.

I shall dream of courtrooms tonight....

[Finiksa]

i'm considering just going ahead and buying the ram
at the lowest price, then sending an email (a polite one, of course) to their manager, letting them what i think of the situation...

Yeah I'd just buy it at the lowest price too (It's not a bad price and the RAM is good quality). Then I'd email/call and complain, they might even give you a further discount if say you feel you're being scammed want to take your business elsewhere.

To add to the fun....
Try this one:
Damn you're right, I've been getting random prices between $94.08 and $109.87. I just tried it with some iBook RAM but the price remains the same looks like they're only doing this with the high end stuff, I've got way too much free time.

[ooohbeggie]

ok,

placed my order for 2x512 @ $94.08(each). i'll be sending an email in the morning when i've had some sleep and am less likely to be rude.

i want to thank you all for your help and responses.

we'll see what happens tomorrow...

[Diatribe]

Damn I should've tried more times to get a better price before I bought mine. :D Oh well I only paid $98 but still. This is just weird. I have heard of daily price changes with memory but this is just ridiculous. I wonder what the reason for this is.

[Abstract]

So why does it give you a different price each time you press the Reload button? If I use one browser without deleting my cookies, then I should get the same price each time. I'm sure its more complicated than that, but I'm just trying to understand the crazy world I live in. :(

[Squire]

I assume you guys are talking about the "Most Popular" one highlighted in yellow. I hit reload several times and still got $94.08. Same with the debug option. Pretty crazy, though.

Squire

[jsw]

I assume you guys are talking about the "Most Popular" one highlighted in yellow. I hit reload several times and still got $94.08. Same with the debug option. Pretty crazy, though.

Squire

Well, if your browser sticks you with the lowest price no matter what you do, that's not such a bad thing.... ;)

[ExoticFish]

man this is the first i've heard of this and i have to say that this is crazy!! there have been some bad ideas in the past few years but this is up near the top of them imo.

[jsw]

man this is the first i've heard of this and i have to say that this is crazy!! there have been some bad ideas in the past few years but this is up near the top of them imo.

I agree. Regardless of how "egalitarian" (http://www.vjolt.net/vol6/issue2/v6i2-a11-Weiss.html#introduction) [link stolen from post above] it might be, it's going to make people hesitant to buy on the internet again. At least, without checking multiple browsers and with/without cookies to see if they're getting the best price.

Pretty soon, we'll be seeing "I found xxx at $xx.xx at this URL - do you see a better price?" posts. Within a few months, there will be more of those posts than "iBook vs PB", "free iPod!", and "I just bought a ___" posts combined. Mark my words....

[the future]

Could someone who read about it explain in a few simple words why a company (like in this case Crucial) would do a thing like this? I fail to understand how it benefits them. :confused:

[jsw]

Could someone who read about it explain in a few simple words why a company (like in this case Crucial) would do a thing like this? I fail to understand how it benefits them. :confused:

They're attempting to determine how to get the most money out of a given customer. In essence, if they can somehow determine that a customer is poor, frugal, etc., they'll list a lower price. If they can determine that a customer is rich, a spendthrift, etc., they'll charge more. The art and science is in how they determine those things. With no cookies, they have very little info other than your browser and what you're trying to buy. With cookies, they know more.

I expect to see more of this in the future, then a backlash, then less, and a cycle of the same going forward.

It's not really unethical. Sales people do this all the time. It isn't wrong - no one's forcing anyone to buy anything. But it can create very bad PR.

[Elan0204]

I got $94.08 in Safari. I didn't bother trying other browsers.

[Chip NoVaMac]

Maybe it is time to look at OWC? Prices and service are up there with Crucial.

OWC's price is $95.99. And guess what they aren't playing pricing games. I checked on IE and got the same price.

I will never buy from Crucial based on this news. It is just wrong.

[jsw]

I just realized that this opens up a new market - the trade/sale of cookies that indicate you're poor and frugal!

Now the people that are in the "business" of boosting Google ranks can sell something to consumers.... ;)

[ooohbeggie]

I just realized that this opens up a new market - the trade/sale of cookies that indicate you're poor and frugal!

Now the people that are in the "business" of boosting Google ranks can sell something to consumers.... ;)

:D you know, i'm laughing, but at the same time, that's a scary thought in that it's probably not entirely untrue.

on another note, i sent an email to Crucial's general manager a few minutes ago. hopefully i'll hear something back. i'd love to hear this explanation...

[Squire]

I just realized that this opens up a new market - the trade/sale of cookies that indicate you're poor and frugal!

The funny thing is, I don't have an excess of cash (I continuously got the $94.08 price), but if you checked out my cookies you'd think I was a millionaire. Damn, I had just read an article on Lamborghini on Forbes. They should be trying to rip me off!

Squire