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am i seeing things?

O

ooohbeggie

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 16, 2004
13
0
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.
 
I get $102.81.

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

Man, I never knew prices were so volatile!
 
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.
 
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, for those wanting to play at home.
 
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.
 
Ok, are you telling me that now "a browser can give you a better price on-line?"

This is twisted :eek:
 
Finiksa said:
Safari $96.99

Camino $108.63

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

This game is fun…
Click to expand...


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...
 
ooohbeggie said:
see, that's where it starts to get irritating.
Click to expand...
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, I think I'm going to give it a go later tonight.
 
SwitchingSoon said:
ahem, read my previous post! you tied!
Click to expand...
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.
 
Finiksa said:
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, I think I'm going to give it a go later tonight.
Click to expand...

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...
 
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:
 
Further explanations of dynamic pricing

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

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....
 
ooohbeggie said:
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...
Click to expand...

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.

srchurch said:
To add to the fun....
Try this one:
Click to expand...
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.
 
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...
 
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