FTC bans hidden junk fees in hotel, event ticket prices

Re:FTC bans hidden junk fees in hotel, event ticket prices by dchichkov on Tuesday December 17, 2024 @05:11PM (#42445904)

I wish that "Online Coupon Price Tags" in stores would also be banned. I'm talking about these yellow price tags that show lower than "Club" prices, which are only valid if you collect a coupon online.

Like FTC, I estimate that banning these would save U.S. consumers millions of hours they currently spend searching and clicking on pointless coupons on their phones before making purchases. It would also increase happiness, as it's extremely annoying to pay $20 extra, knowing that a lower price is available if only you spent ten minutes struggling with a store's website on your phone.

Whoever invented this is evil and is destroying happiness.

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Re:FTC bans hidden junk fees in hotel, event ticket prices by floxy on Tuesday December 17, 2024 @05:35PM (#42446173)

>I'm talking about these yellow price tags that show lower than "Club" prices, which are only valid if you collect a coupon online.

Which store is that with the yellow price tags?

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Re:FTC bans hidden junk fees in hotel, event ticket prices by dchichkov on Tuesday December 17, 2024 @05:43PM (#42446246)

Safeway, Walgreens.

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Re:FTC bans hidden junk fees in hotel, event ticket prices by wlesieutre on Tuesday December 17, 2024 @06:32PM (#42446594)

Kroger too

You have to log in with an account and “clip” the imaginary coupons in their app for the price to apply when you scan your card

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Re:FTC bans hidden junk fees in hotel, event ticket prices by Spivak on Wednesday December 18, 2024 @09:59AM (#42450934)

I'm less mad about those since it's basically just price discrimination. If you are price sensitive enough that you're willing to clip the coupon then you get the cheaper price.

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Re:FTC bans hidden junk fees in hotel, event ticket prices by dchichkov on Wednesday December 18, 2024 @01:26PM (#42453301)

At the expense of other people's time.

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Re:FTC bans hidden junk fees in hotel, event ticket prices by wlesieutre on Wednesday December 18, 2024 @04:36PM (#42455608)

And feature phones (aka dumbphones) have been seeing a sales uptick. I wouldn't say they're popular, but there are people without smartphones who are excluded from these types of coupons.

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Re:FTC bans hidden junk fees in hotel, event ticket prices by Liquix on Tuesday December 17, 2024 @05:40PM (#42446213)

those tags are working as intended - some people don't read the "online only" part, grab the item, assume the discount is applied at checkout, and end up paying full price. other people will download (and probably never uninstall) the spyware app and start feeding a juicy profitable data stream back to HQ.

because how are you ever going to stay in business doing something as niche as selling groceries without leaning hard into surveillance capitalism

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Re:FTC bans hidden junk fees in hotel, event ticket prices by dchichkov on Tuesday December 17, 2024 @05:44PM (#42446262)

Whoever invented this is evil and is destroying happiness.

[ Parent | on HN ]