----- Original Message ----- From: "Mark Roberts"
Subject: Re: Message from Henry Posner, Part I
Good idea, but I'm not aware of any software that does so. And, by definition, it could only react *after* a spike existed. It would be tricky to implement, too, because most of the time a spike in sales is something you *want* to see. You'd need algorithms to differentiate between "good" sales spikes and "bad" ones. (And staff to deal with pissed off customers when the algorithm - eventually - made a mistake.)
What you'd need is an item tracker to find spikes and a person who's responsibility it is to track back to the website to see if the spike is caused by incorrect pricing. It would mean having someone with the ability to correct pricing errors manning a terminal 24/7, but considering that B&H and it's ilk has done a very effective job of killing B&M stores by not employing people, perhaps it would only be fair to ask them to hire a few people whose job is to keep them honest. At what point do these places have a right to practice breach of contract? Is it a 2 for 1 price mistake such as what this thread is about? What happens if it is a fifty dollar mistake on a five hundred dollar item? What happens when the price is believable but they decide that it is too low and so arbitraritly decide to raise it, cancelling good faith transactions at the same time? What happens when they arbitrarily cancel back orders because they decide that it is inconvenient to fullfill the order? What happens when a customer chooses B&H for the low price, eschewing another retailer who is slightly higher, only to have B&H dishonour the contract and then said customer finds that everone has raised their price and he is screwed because he tried to be a smart shopper when in reality if he had been smart, he would have bought from the somewhat higher priced seller whose pricing was correct at the time?
All this makes me very glad that I live in an area that has an honest camera store so that I generally don't have to deal with mail order shysters.
Tom, that was your invite, I'm done now. William Robb -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
