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Comment by com2kid | Hacker News Reader

I've been to presentations of marketing teams that said they know how much is left on your mortgage when you hit their website, and they use that data, and a lot more, to figure out what price tier of items show up on the landing page.

The level of tracking that happens that people aren't aware of is scary. What Facebook has been revealed to do is pretty low on the creepy scale compared to what is happening.

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Person X works hard to get that raise, promotion, bonus, whatever to build a better life for themselves and their family. Not so it can be siphoned away by person Y sneakily charging them more. All dynamic pricing of this kind should be forced to be transparent. Display the real price alongside the custom one they want to charge you.

Since before money was invented, salesmen would size you up and steer you towards what products you'd be most likely to buy, and would dynamically set the price based on sizing you up.

Walk into a car dealership, and you'll see this blatantly in action.

Told my sis to put on her most raggedy clothes you can still wear. I put on some threadbare shorts, some worn sandals, and a t-shirt with the collar fraying. Then we went car shopping. 3k off a used car's listed price for her, lol.

You can take that too far - they can think you're a bum and refuse to talk to you. (Happened to me!)

But yeah, it's very plain that how you are treated by a salesman and what they offer and at what price is very strongly connected with how you dress, are groomed, speak, what car you drove up in, etc.

Waste of time to go to dealer to negotiate. Do everything over the phone. Never relent their insistence to come in. Finalize price over phone. Done. Success.

I find the cars online, then just go into the area, and always remember I can walk out.

Years ago, I walked onto a car yard. I watched the guy look at my jeans and my t-shirt, and he tried to sell me a $2000 car. Exactly as you said.

But you can’t negotiate with a website, and it won’t tell you you’re seeing a custom price. It’s not like a store (or actually most car dealerships) where there is a price displayed in the open

I’m OK with being shown different products. But not with generic items being marked up.

Care to name products/companies? It would be fun to play around with a VPN and see what variations in pricing would really happen.

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