Gwen Ortmeyer's Article Fairness In Consumer Pricing

According to Patrick Kaufmann, Gwen Ortmeyer, and N.C. Smith, authors of the article “Fairness in Consumer Pricing," the enthusiasm of consumers when there are sales has historical background. Consumers who were “willing to wait and take the risk of unavailability could obtain exceptional value when retailers attempted to clear stocks at the end of selling seasons.” (124) However, as time has moved forward, this idea of jumping at the bit to get the cheapest price possible makes consumers exceptionably vulnerable to deceptive pricing ads. Deceptive pricing is correlated with fairness. Kaufman, Ortmeyer, and Smith define fairness as: “…just, honest, and impartial treatment of both parties to an exchange in the determination of the price governing …show more content…
This company Allstar was charged with “Billing consumers without their express informed consent; failing to make adequate disclosures about the total number and cost of products before billing consumers; violating the TSR by failing to disclose material information about the total cost of the products and that the purpose of the call is to sell goods or services; and during telemarketing, illegally billing consumers without first getting their consent.” According to the complaint, Allstar was selling as seen on TV products, like Snuggies, without disclosing the additional costs. Their promotions were often “buy-one-get-one-free” but they would add in processing and handling costs, which skyrocketed the price at least ten dollars over their stated promotion. Additionally, customers were roped into purchasing more than one product at a time through a confusing sales pitch that did not offer “a chance to indicate how many products they wanted to buy.” (Federal Trade Commission) Additionally, the customers were “not told the total number of items they’d ‘agreed’ to buy, or the total amount they would be billed.” (Federal Trade Commission) According to the complaint, those who hung up before completing the call would also be charged – though they never indented to complete a sale. In light of Allstar’s practices, the company was forced to pay 7.5 million …show more content…
The director of FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection stated that the marketing company “used the lure of a ‘free’ offer to open an illegal pipeline to consumers’ credit card and bank accounts.” (Federal Trade Commission). Additionally, the marketing company hid their required shipping and handling fees, gave no credible reason for consumers to believe they would be charged but charged them for their free trials, and made it impossible to cancel their free subscription that still charged them monthly. (Federal Trade Commission) This is a problem because in the director’s words “‘Free’ must really mean ‘free’ no matter where the offer is made.” This case is only one instance of a “free trial” being used to lure in customers and use their ignorance to charge