[Random-bits] LINDA ROSENCRANCE: Amazon charging different prices on some DVDs

[James Love]

http://www.computerworld.com/cwi/story/0,1199,NAV47_STO49569,00.html

       Amazon charging different prices on some DVDs

     BY LINDA ROSENCRANCE 
   (September 05, 2000) Consumers who shop for the DVD Planet of the
Apes -- The Evolution on Amazon.com Inc.'s Web site today could be
charged as much as $10 more than other customers purchasing the same
product at approximately the same time -- a practice the company
described as a periodic test that it runs on the prices of certain
items. 

   For example, at 2:40 p.m. today, a search for the Planet of the Apes
DVD on the Amazon site that Computerworld conducted using a Netscape Web
browser turned up a quoted price of $64.99 -- 35% off the original price
of $99.98, according to the online retailer. But several seconds later,
a similar search performed with Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer
browser resulted in a price of $74.99 for the same product. 

    And that's not the only DVD that has different prices at different
times. On Sunday, online shoppers logged on to the DVD Talk Forum, a
chat room dedicated to discussions about DVDs, and noted that Amazon's
price for a limited-edition copy of the Men in Black DVD could differ
depending on a number of factors. Included among the determining
factors, they said, was which browser was being used, whether a consumer
was a repeat or first-time customer and which Internet service provider
address a customer was using. 

      Computerworld also checked the price of the Men in Black DVD today
and discovered that on Netscape the quoted price was $25.97, while it
cost $23.97 on Internet Explorer. After completely clearing the cache
and cookie files of the PC being used, the price remained $25.97 using
the Netscape browser but had risen to $27.97 with Internet Explorer. 

   [snip]

-- 
James Love, Consumer Project on Technology
v. 1.202.387.8030, fax 1.202.234.5176
love@cptech.org, http://www.cptech.org