Online Price Steering: Experiences and Tactics

[RegGuheert]

For reference, here is a recent article regarding online price discrimination.

 

When I first heard about this, I did a few tests on Amazon to see if I could get different prices by browsing from an expensive iPad versus an old laptop, but I was not successful in seeing any change in prices.

 

Have you been able to notice any price steering in your online shopping?  If so, at which sites did you see it?  How could you tell there was price steering going on?

 

What are some strategies that can be used to get the lowest price even in the presence of price steering?

 

I don't know the answer, but here are some ideas I have:

- Compare prices on multiple sites and purchase wherever the price is the cheapest.

- Keep an old computer around for shopping.  (No problem: this one was made in 2009.)

- Live in a less-expensive area. (Check.)

 

Frankly, I am skeptical about the article's suggestion that you use a VPN to hide your location.  What if the IP address of the VPN is in a MORE EXPENSIVE area than where you live?  Wouldn't that make the prices higher?  And perhaps they just jack up the prices for those coming in through a VPN.

 

I also wonder if this is not a big issue today but that it will gradually get more prevalent over time.

 

I'm interested to hear others' thoughts on this topic.  TIA!

[TranquilMind]

I noticed I got lower prices when I used my old Internet Explorer. It no longer works with my operating system so now I had to switch. 

[Lanny]

I've read about this, but it was years ago. And yes, I believe it was about people with Apple products being shown higher prices than people with a Windows PC.  Whether or not that actually happens, today, I don't know, but I suspect that it might.  It is incredibly easy for any web site one is browsing on to know the type of Web Browser and Machine, etc.   Regarding  a VPN, I have a tiny VPS in NJ that is set up to run OpenVPN.  I believe that if someone were using one of the Commercial VPN providers, probably s large technically knowledgeable web site (Amazon, etc.) could compile a list of their known IP addresses, if they wanted to.  I suspect that when I use OpenVPN and I have an IP address in NJ, there are probably ways that a technically knowledgeable company could, easily learn that I am in Colombia, if they wanted to know that.   I suspect that if there are price differences, for the same product or service, they are very minimal, but that if a company has tons of transactions, the differential would add up to a nice piece of Pie after awhile and be added to their Bottom Line.  

[maize]

If you want the best price on Amazon you can set up a price watch through camelcamel.

[RegGuheert]

If you want the best price on Amazon you can set up a price watch through camelcamel.

 

I like CamelCamelCamel a lot to check historical pricing  That said, my recent experiences with them indicate that they have lag of as much as one day on price changes.  Specifically, I recently found an excellent price on a product at Amazon and I went to CamelCamelCamel to see if it was historically low (it was), but they were showing the current price as what had been in place the previous day.  They did eventually show the price that I paid, but it was not until after the low price was gone.  Do I have to pay a fee to get current pricing on CamelCamelCamel?

[Arcadia]

We had fun with clearing cache and setting locations off. In our house we have Android, Windows, Apple and Amazon phones and tablets. The price differences are interesting. My discontinued iPhone often shows a lower price for the same item on the same site than my hubby's phone (Nokia Lumia and BLU) maybe because I don't purchase using my phone so I look like a cheapskate to online sites.

 

For Amazon, make sure you are not login and you clear cache. If you are silly like us, do a screen capture before logging into your Amazon account. It may not change but if it went higher, you can use the screen capture to bring the price down.

[TranquilMind]

We had fun with clearing cache and setting locations off. In our house we have Android, Windows, Apple and Amazon phones and tablets. The price differences are interesting. My discontinued iPhone often shows a lower price for the same item on the same site than my hubby's phone (Nokia Lumia and BLU) maybe because I don't purchase using my phone so I look like a cheapskate to online sites.

 

For Amazon, make sure you are not login and you clear cache. If you are silly like us, do a screen capture before logging into your Amazon account. It may not change but if it went higher, you can use the screen capture to bring the price down.

 

Wow.  I'm usually logged in. I'm going to try this on Amazon. 

 

[Cinder]

Don't know if this is in the same category, but recently dh needed a rental car for a trip. He checked a few rental companies' websites and then tried to see what he could get at one of those sites where you name your price--I forget which one it was. After playing with that site for a bit he tried Hertz again and got a really reduced price from what he'd seen before he went on the name-your-price one. When he got to the rental agency he said the agent remarked that she'd never seen a price that low and asked how he got it. "Just lucky, I guess." But, having heard of people getting different prices for same items, we'd wondered if this was a similar scenario.

[Guest]

I have a feeling that when you keep checking airline prices from the same computer, they get ... inflexible.  I wonder if once they know you are looking *hard* at a specific destination, they "stabilize" the price.  I've started price-checking on one computer, and then once I have decided on the flight I want, going to another one to do the buy...and I have seen a price difference.  This is all over the period of a couple of days, so it's not the typical desperation sale prices issue.

 

Interesting.  Maybe I'll keep my old laptop around just for this purpose.

 

[JFSinIL]

I remember a couple years back coming to this board to share the nifty price I was seeing on an older model Kindle - $30!!  But as I recall not everyone saw that price - several folks here looked at it and got $60 at the same time others saw $30 like I did.  H'mmmm.

[Arcadia]

I have a feeling that when you keep checking airline prices from the same computer, they get ... inflexible. I wonder if once they know you are looking *hard* at a specific destination, they "stabilize" the price. I've started price-checking on one computer, and then once I have decided on the flight I want, going to another one to do the buy...and I have seen a price difference. This is all over the period of a couple of days, so it's not the typical desperation sale prices issue.

My hubby had that problem with Travelocity when he used it for airfare between 10pm and midnight for our vacation last month. I get cheaper prices using my iPad pro at the same time as him so it was funny. He was using his kindle.

[SparklyUnicorn]

I've noticed some very nutty price things with Amazon.  I once looked at a pair of shoes that I wanted to buy.  They were a good price, but I didn't buy them right away.  The next day I went and looked at them again and they had raised the price by $10.  So I decided I didn't want them anymore.  I looked again three days later and the price was back down $10.  What in heck. 

 

Another time I ordered a cat tower.  I went and looked at it later in the day to show my DH what I ordered.  They had dropped the price $20!!!  I contacted Amazon and they did drop my price $20.

 

I just don't know what to make of this stuff.  I notice they really jack up the prices as it gets closer towards xmas.  So if you are on the fence with something, order now because chances are they will raise the price.  I've had it happen several times.

 

 

[Lanny]

If you want the best price on Amazon you can set up a price watch through camelcamel.

 

I use CamelCamelCamel.com but their servers can probably only probe Amazon once or twice a day, and if there is something that is one of a kind, they may miss it for you.  Last year, I had them watching for a textbook that DD was going to need in a month or two and I had just about given up hope that there would be a "price war" among some of the Amazon Marketplace Sellers who had it listed, and that the price would drop.  One day, for some reason, I checked on Amazon, manually, for that textbook, about 5 or 6 times. To my total astonishment, then and as I write this, about 5 P.M. E.S.T. that day when I looked, BetterWorldBooks had come in and created a new listing, for one cent, plus $3.99 Shipping, in "Very Good" condition.  I told DD to keep her fingers crossed and prayed that we would get it and that they would not cancel our order or say it was a mistake or something. We saved about USD $25 or 30 as I recall.     

 

And then there is "Prime Day".  I signed up for a temporary Prime account last year, hoping Amazon would put the TI-84 Plus CE Graphing Calculator on that day at a very low price. I looked a number of times, but nothing on Prime Day for that item. A week or so later, I looked and Amazon had it at "the right price" and we bought it.   

 

Bottom Line is that if there is only one of an item, probably CamelCamelCamel isn't going to catch the lowest price for you, if there is anyone else looking for it. If it is something there is a large quantity of, then CamelCamelCamel is going to be a great asset.  It takes both CamelCamelCamel.com and manually checking (and Good Luck).