[dragonwriter]

> Seems like blatant false advertising to have "$99" in big text and nothing but an asterisk to indicate that this is a rate you're allowed to have exactly once ever.

All kinds of services advertise one-time introductory rates that way.

[lmm]

Not where I live they don't. Is this a US thing?

[soneil]

I'm in Europe, and every single ISP in my area advertises like this. Every single price on their website is the new-customer 3-month promo rate.

[mtourne]

I hate when people do this, also I think it doesn't work on anyone from my generation. That was part of my reason for choosing Sonic.net.

Which country do you live in ? I know nobody does ISP introductory prices in France.

[namdnay]

http://offres.numericable.fr/tripleplay

The prices in bold are only for the first 12 months

[IkmoIkmo]

For mobile phones there's a bit of regulatory backlash. iirc as of this year you can't market a phone as free anymore for example, and then combine it with a 2-year contract and advertise a 50% off 3-month rate.

So an $800 phone costing $60 a month for 2 years ($93 per month) gets advertised as 'free iPhone at just $30!'

Not sure if it works on our generation. On the one hand, obviously it does to some extent, else they wouldn't do it. I know I always made spreadsheets of monthly-average-costs (taking into account resell value of the phone) everytime I got into a 2-year contract. I know a few friends operate like that, too... In any case I think the fake advertised rate may not convince anyone in and of itself, but it does grab the attention, and that's such a key facet of marketing. For example here I'm sure plenty of people would be interested in paying $200 for the helicopter trip, but they probably wouldn't have immediately paid attention to it or had friends tell them about it or have it stuck in their minds if it wasn't priced $99.

[seanmcdirmid]

EasyJet exists in Europe you know...

You really have to read the fine print of their promotions.

[ubernostrum]

Ryanair, too. They will fly you to $MAJOR_CITY* for just €0.50†!

* Where we actually mean "a smaller airport 150km away from that city and you're on your own for getting to it"

† Plus €20 ticketing fee, €20 payment-processing fee, €20 boarding-pass issuance fee, €20 checked baggage fee, €20 carry-on baggage fee, €20 fee for no baggage, €20 plane-boarding fee, €20 airport use fee, €20 fee-handling fee and other additional fees as indicated in the terms and conditions

[lmm]

The far away airport is indeed buried in the fine print, but under current law (at least where I live) the advertised price has to be the final price; Ryanair skirt this by having one obscure credit card that they'll accept without a fee and a big fee for any other kind, but unavoidable fees on top of the advertised price are illegal.

[TheSpiceIsLife]

You forgot €20 choose a seat - it's €0 if you want a randomly assigned seat but somehow the website mislead me in to clicking it, it took me 20 minutes to get this far in the booking, I'm scared to press the browser back button and I'm so frustrated now I'm blind to the clear and easy method of modifying the my previous selection, if there even is one, because the page changed as soon as I clicked. Maybe the site has a bug, but who wouldn't know it's not like I'm going to call the airline for support on their website. But it's only €20 and this flight is now costing me €400 anyway so it's not even worth my time to sit here for another half hour trying to purchase a ticket- fee.

[pcl]

Don't they put the "no seat preference" option in a drop-down containing a list of city names or something crazy like that?

[namdnay]

Yes! In alphabetical order no less :)

[walterbell]

That's worthy of a "Dark Pattern" annual award.

[mikeash]

I decided I had to see this for myself. It looks like it's actually the travel insurance option, not the seat option, but close enough:

http://mikeash.com/tmp/screenshot_F1E1DACD-A595-455E-A5C1-E2...

And it wouldn't let me proceed until I chose something; leaving it at the default wasn't allowed. Very tricky.

[ZoFreX]

A combination of legal changes and consumer pressure has changed that a lot. I flew them recently (for the first and last time - but that wasn't related to obfuscated pricing) and there wasn't much in the way of hidden charges. Checked baggage was extra and there was a tiny card processing fee, other than that I paid the advertised price.

[IkmoIkmo]

And don't forget, if you close the page and come back a little later, the price will have gone up. And magically if you remove your cache and cookies and refresh, the price has dropped! Man I love airlines.

[ZoFreX]

With EasyJet I've always paid the advertised price, give or take a couple of £. As far as I'm aware they don't have any "first-time flyer" discount rates.

[mikeash]

Got an example? I've seen plenty where the introductory rate is bigger, but the fact that it's an introductory rate is still made adequately clear, as is the true price. I could be misremembering or oblivious, though. I'd happily call others blatant false advertising as well if so.

[chc]

It's really hard to find the non-introductory rate for a cable company in the US (any I've seen, at least).

[mikeash]

I checked out the site for Cox, my local cable company. For TV, they advertise $49.99, and above that in smaller letters it says "prices per month for 3 months, starting at." If I click "Find Out More" below the price, which it seems is required to get any details or sign up, it then gives me several plans whose prices are "for 12 months with 2-year service agreement." If I keep poking around I can finally view the terms of the offer which says "Bundle rate increases $15/month for months 13-24."

Certainly not great. But at least it's reasonably clear that the number they give you isn't the full story, even if finding the real one takes a bit of legwork. Not trying to defend them, but this helicopter thingy is a bit worse.

[matthewsimon]

... and how much does the price increase in month 25?

[mikeash]

That's beyond the contract, so the price is subject to change. I don't have a problem with that. There isn't much I can sign up for today where I know what the price will be two years out. My mortgage qualifies, and that's about it.

In my experience with these things (although I haven't tried with Cox), month 25 is usually when prices go back down, because that's when they might lose you to a competitor.