<story><title>Consumers Are Becoming Wise to Your Nudge</title><url>https://behavioralscientist.org/consumers-are-becoming-wise-to-your-nudge/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>seieste</author><text>Yesterday I went to book a hotel and Priceline had a room for $129, which was $20 cheaper than Expedia or any other site.&lt;p&gt;Curious, I clicked on it and went to the Priceline site, and watched as a JavaScript animation “rolled” the price from $129 to $149 and alerted me that someone &lt;i&gt;just&lt;/i&gt; got the last room. Obviously the whole thing was fake. (Why would they implement such an animation, and how likely is it that someone got the room in those two seconds?)&lt;p&gt;At this point, it’s not even nudging or dark patterns but just straight out fraud.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>pjdemers</author><text>The fraud is the $129 room was gone hours, maybe days ago. It didn&amp;#x27;t just sell, the web site simply quoted a price they though was low enough to keep you from looking elsewhere, within reason. Once you looked serious about booking, they actually checked the hotel&amp;#x27;s inventory. You can really tell this happens when you try to book a room&amp;#x2F;flight&amp;#x2F;car that is sold out. They quote you a price, if you actually try to book, then, they tell you there is no space. Consolidator travel sites do not check the inventory of every room, flight, or car they quote you. They can&amp;#x27;t possibly do that. They are all estimates until they see your credit card number. One other thing about travel booking: I don&amp;#x27;t want the last or even second to last room at a hotel or seat on a plane. The chances of being bumped are too high. So telling me &amp;quot;only 1 seat left&amp;quot;, isn&amp;#x27;t going to close the deal.</text></comment>
<story><title>Consumers Are Becoming Wise to Your Nudge</title><url>https://behavioralscientist.org/consumers-are-becoming-wise-to-your-nudge/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>seieste</author><text>Yesterday I went to book a hotel and Priceline had a room for $129, which was $20 cheaper than Expedia or any other site.&lt;p&gt;Curious, I clicked on it and went to the Priceline site, and watched as a JavaScript animation “rolled” the price from $129 to $149 and alerted me that someone &lt;i&gt;just&lt;/i&gt; got the last room. Obviously the whole thing was fake. (Why would they implement such an animation, and how likely is it that someone got the room in those two seconds?)&lt;p&gt;At this point, it’s not even nudging or dark patterns but just straight out fraud.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>el_benhameen</author><text>Had the same thing happen with Priceline just a few weeks ago, except instead of $20, the price was double the advertised price and only changed when I entered my payment info and tried to pay. I finally called and booked over the phone after having three different rooms double in price when I hit the confirmation button. The person on the other end must have really wanted to make the sale at that price, because they booked me for a month later than my request as the advertised price for my days seems to have just straight up not existed.&lt;p&gt;It was a pretty hellish experience trying to get them to change the dates, but in the end, they knew that I had a confirmation with my dates and I had paid, so it really would be fraud to not give me the room. Priceline: only once.</text></comment>