Sorry Tom, A guy with a virtual gun stole all my virtual money. ;-) Regards, Bob S.
On Fri, Feb 5, 2010 at 11:23 AM, Tom C <[email protected]> wrote: > Bob, > > I'm a virtual store and will gladly accept your virtual money, in any > amount, denomination or currency. HAND IT OVER! > > :-) > > Tom C. > > On Fri, Feb 5, 2010 at 12:04 PM, Bob Sullivan <[email protected]> wrote: >> Thanks Mark for putting some sanity back into this thread. >> Bill wants to argue like this is some 2 dollar item picked off of the >> store shelf. >> I think the situation changes with the price of the item and in the >> virtual store. >> Regards, Bob S. >> >> On Fri, Feb 5, 2010 at 8:04 AM, Mark Roberts <[email protected]> wrote: >>> William Robb wrote: >>> >>>>I asked you once, I'll ask you again: If you walked into a store to buy a >>>>quart of milk and when you get to the counter you are told the price that is >>>>clearly marked on the bottle as pr quart is actually per pint, and therefore >>>>you will have to pay double, would you do so happily? >>>>If you'd care to, answer me this time. >>>> >>>>In essence, this is what B&H has done, and it is what you, Mark, Godfrey and >>>>(most unfortunately) Henry is defending. >>> >>> Bill, you're equating a physical store with a virtual store. There >>> seems to be a tacit assumption that online stores can or should >>> work just like physical stores. This is, in and of itself, untrue. >>> They don't. They can't. They shouldn't. >>> >>> Here's how a mis-priced item is handled in a physical store: You sell >>> the product to the customer for the price marked and eat the loss. >>> That's the right thing to do and it's also the law in many places (it >>> was in New York State when I lived there). Then you go back onto the >>> sales floor and correct the price. This isn't viable in an online >>> store because in the time it takes to ring up the sale and walk back >>> to the sales area of the physical store the customer in the virtual >>> store has announced his bargain through Twitter, Facebook, Woot, etc. >>> and the mis-priced product has been ordered by 100 other people. Or >>> 200. Or 800. B&H's servers can probably handle several hundred orders >>> a *minute*. Consider an expensive item that's not underpriced by a >>> mere 50% but with a mis-placed decimal point (it's been known to >>> happen) that effectively underprices it by 90%... and is ordered by >>> 1000 or so people before the mistake is discovered. Consider a web >>> site that's been hacked and products re-priced: If the law treated any >>> of these like a physical store, they'd be obliged to sell everything >>> at the marked price until they noticed and fixed each erroneous price >>> (good luck "proving" it was hackers who did it - or, if you're an >>> aggrieved customer, proving that hackers *didn't* do it when the >>> seller claims that was the case). >>> >>> Mark Cassino's web page was hacked not long ago - they were trying to >>> upload trojans to site visitors but they could just as easily have >>> re-priced everything he sells. >>> >>> Are there any online retailers who *do* guarantee that they'll sell >>> for the price that's advertised in their online store even if it's an >>> error? Find one. I haven't been able to. Look at the places that offer >>> to match competitors' prices (buy.com, for example): They specifically >>> state that they'll only match *correct* prices - they know *none* >>> of their competitors will actually sell at an erroneous price, and >>> they know pricing errors are a realistic possibility so they want to >>> be protected, too. >>> >>> The marking of a price on an item on the shelf of a physical store >>> carries with it a kind of contractual obligation between the store and >>> the customer. The advertised price in a virtual store, on the other >>> hand, is treated as "informational" like the price in a printed >>> advertisement; subject to change or retraction in the case of errors. >>> >>> Many practices that work in the physical world don't scale to the >>> speed, volume and security threats of the online environment. As far >>> as I can tell there are *no* online retailers who promise to sell for >>> the price advertised on the web site even if it's wrong. This is one >>> of the policies that simply isn't workable in the virtual world. >>> >>> >>> -- >>> 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. >>> >> >> -- >> 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. >> > > -- > 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. > -- 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.
