Tiered pricing is EVERYWHERE now. In supermarkets, if you don’t have their app/loyalty card you have to pay higher prices. They frame it as a “discount” or “savings” for having the app, but clearly it’s just a punishment for not giving them your info and allowing them to track/advertise at you.
In restaurants/fast food places, you get “discounts” (i.e. regular prices) via the app/email list, and if you don’t have the app or give them your email address you don’t get the discount (read: you have to pay higher prices). And of course they can “tailor” personalised “deals” directly at you based on your past behaviour to optimise how much money they get out of you.
I just looked at a hotel and they’re advertising a “discount” if you give them your email address (read: a higher price if you don’t allow them to advertise at you).
I absolutely hate this behaviour. I know exactly why it’s there: some people are willing to pay more for convenience/no ads, and some are willing to go to more effort / put up with ads for a lower price. Either way they get more money out of you: the logical conclusion of capitalism and chasing higher profits.
It feels like this should be illegal. It feels like a cousin of price gouging, which is already illegal. Ofc it never will be outlawed in america - idk how much this happens across the pond though - but I hope one day this could be outlawed in europe.
Nah… just make privacy laws instead.
If it’s illegal to collect all of this data on people, there won’t be loyalty cards or anything like that anymore, since there’s no data they could sell. They won’t be jamming targeted ads into every goddamn thing either since there’s no way to target anyone. Of course the social media algorithms also would be able to make targeting recommendations, but I don’t think it would be a bad thing if we had the same shit recommended to us and we’d have to actually search for things or have things recommended by other people instead of algorithms.
And we wouldn’t have creepy marketing people crunching personal data to figure out how to manipulate people into buying shit they don’t need.
comcast was the master at this, before new ISPs came into the market. they were changing what was tiered, every few months.
I’m currently in a non-Western country. Tiered pricing is the norm. They just aren’t interested in exploiting your data or tracking your behavior.
The obvious answer is a temporary email. So far, none of the services require access to it after registration. Worst case scenario is you make a new one when they force you to use it again.
I think there should be protected categories, for example, you can’t give a lower price in exchange for selling your usage data.
Some things should just be illegal, like requiring a customer/emploee to waive their rights to a trial.
This thing skyrocketed in German Supermarkets the last couple of months. I ignore it, but its dafuq situation.
What’s even shittier about this is that one major supermarket chain (LIDL) was sued by our consumer protection agency (“Verbraucherzentrale”) but the case was dismissed by the courts.
They have at least allowed a revision, so this will go to a higher court now which has to decide about it. I really hope all of those app discounts will be stopped.
This is called price discrimination, and yes, it’s unlawful already.
Apparently if you put a computer between you and a crime it doesn’t count.
Strange loophole, sure, but my point still stands.
Well, then I think you missed the point.
I had to do it. You set yourself up for that one.
agree. i make a point of saying that i hate it everytime they ask me for those details. its small but something i guess.
Not with weed, man. Love my top shelf but also need to budget sometimes.
Don’t worry capitalism will insure it sucks every last bit of enjoyment out for you
Well who shit in your cereal?
Yes. It should all be cost accounted, not “feelings” of value or, “whatever the rube will pay”. I want to buy something for a dollar that costs a dollar. I don’t want to pay two dollars for a one dollar item and then have fake “points” thrown at me. Whenever things get too complicated you know people are scamming.
I have a burner email precisely for this crap. An obviously fake name, the only time I even log in to it is when one of these fucking things wants me to click the link they sent me. It’s so heavily bloated with spam in the year I’ve been using it that I’m about to need a new one.
I mean honestly just give it to them at this point. If you don’t think your name email address and phone number are out there for everybody to use and everybody to see then you’re crazy. I mean hell they’re not going to be able to do much with it besides send you some advertisements. Most of which you’re probably going to want to have and use anyways because they’re usually coupons to things. But beyond that you can always opt out of any emails or anything like that. It’s a small price to pay to get a discount off of their stuff which means they are actually earning less money. And if you do it at a place like Kroger or something like that that you get loyalty points towards discounts on gasoline then you save even more. For example I was just down in California this weekend and because I use Kroger points no matter where I’m at I was able to get 30 cents off a gallon which meant that I paid just over $3 a gallon whereas most people were paying near four.
Are you in marketing?
Nope. I understand how these things work though. The downvotes be damned, it’s true.
I would count it as abusive practice, yes. And in case of big players as market distortion.
I hate it, too. It’s not a total solution, but I keep a separate email just for things like this. Send all their spammy nonsense to a dead end email. It doesn’t work for text messages though. I’m not going to pay for a separate line for that.
I only wish I’d started the separate email earlier. I’m still inundated with spam email on my main account.
I use Proton and their “email alias” feature which is sort of like Apple’s “hide my email” - generates you a receive only email address that you can hand out and turn off whenever you want.
Of course, the trade off here is that if I ever wanted to leave Proton (or Apple if I were using Hide My Email) migrating each of these addresses one by one would be a bitch and a half.
Get your own domain name. You can have Apple or Gmail or Proton host it, but if you ever decide to leave them all your emails still work.
You may be able to get a Google Voice number. Or if you have a friend that doesn’t mind giving their info to stores, with their permission use their number. That has the bonus of polluting the data a bit.
Last time I tried to get a Google voice number they said all the numbers were taken and none were available. I tried every area code possible.
I forgot about the Google voice thing. I’ve never used it, so I don’t know how it works. Will it accept texts? They often want to verify a phone number before giving you what you want, and if the text can’t go through, and you can’t get your verification number, then you’re screwed.
You can send and receive texts, yes
Okay, got to look into that.
Then I have to unsubscribe from a LOT of stuff, like political spam. I gave $10 to Bernie years ago, and I’ve regretted it ever since. Numerous political solicitation texts, every day.
I gave $10 to Bernie years ago, and I’ve regretted it ever since. Numerous political solicitation texts, every day.
Dude, same. Getting shit from republicans since I did it as well. Dont use your real number donating, you will regret it.
I just give them my old landline number that’s been disconnected for years since I just use my cell phone now
they are satisfied that you identify yourself consistently with the same number.
they don’t want to call you, what they want is to track you
They do want to call me. I had a significant decrease in spam calls after I started doing this instead of my actual number, including calls from companies I’ve definitely never given my number to, as well as straight up scammers.
However, you have a good point about tracking.
Every single time I’ve tried the local area code plus 876-5309 has worked… Been using it since the days you’d enter a phone number to print coupons from a kiosk (I didn’t have a phone at the time). Now I enter it as second nature anytime a pin pad prompts me for a number.
Then what do you do when the next step requires “verifying the number”?
I generate a new email address for each vendor that forces me to specify one, but there’s not much I can do about phone numbers. I suppose it’s good from a security perspective that they want an additional authentication factor even if it’s only SMS, and good from a usability perspective to verify a path to resetting a password, but I can’t generate a new 🆕 hone number for every vendor
dude just use the store card like the rest of the town. number’s 8675309
Jenny?
Wait a minute…
The local Kroger’s senior citizen card # is (area code) 6345-789
I… cant tell if this is real. I feel like someone probably made an account with that phone number though
100% real. When I worked at a store that had “loyalty accounts” and someone didn’t want to sign up, I’d (quietly) tell them to use (local area code) 687-5309 so they’d still get a discount. Every time I’ve tried it somewhere, an account already existed.
The lucky person who owns this account is swimming in gas rewards, I bet.
totally real. just use it. if it’s one of those stores with gas benefits i bet you could try there too, but i bet those get drained fast
Whelp, im going to quickly find out how many accounts i can cancel
None? It doesn’t work that way. if you call up and tell them you want to close the 867-5309 account they’ll laugh at you because they themselves use it
If i have an account at a store with a loyalty and theyre using my data, and i can now use the Tommy Tutone code to get same loyalty rewards, i can cancel my account and stop giving them my data.
oh i have the stupid. i have been dealing with wannabe edgy teenagers all day and “hehehe i’ll go cancel all the 8675309s” is just the kind of stupid they infected me with.
