Missing in Cyberspace
What is Omitted from Internet Price Quotes?

Dateline: 6/04/00

It's all so easy.

Click a few "continue" buttons, enter some dates, and your reservation is made.

My goal was to book a compact car for 15 July days in Miami. Some of the major car rental firms aren't set up for big discounts at MIA. They wanted $375 USD or more.

So it came down to a pair of companies with attractive pricing in the Big Orange. They came within four dollars of one another. The cheaper was Alamo, which quoted $221.97 and instructed me to click "continue."

On the next page, I learned another $51.97 would be added to the tab for various fees (see table).

To Alamo's credit, they gave me the bad news right away. The other company's final page advised "rates provided do not include sales tax or additional charges."

Is the second company guilty of deceptive cyber-advertising? My answer is no. They state clearly $225.97 is not their final total. The company also sends you several pages of fine print with your reservation. Dig through it, and you'll learn all about fascinating topics like battery disposal surcharges.

How many of us are doing the digging?

Failing to Find Fuel Charge

The U.S. Department of Transportation is investigating five websites that offer low airfares. DOT attorneys allege the sites were so quick to offer the lowest fares that they purposely omitted airline-imposed fuel surcharges. The difference is $20 per ticket -- perhaps enough to induce purchase over a competitor who follows the rules and adds the charge.

Donna Rosato reports in USA Today that a DOT attorney also fears the number of websites omitting the surcharge exceeds five. Unfortunately, he says his agency does not have the resources to investigate further.

The lesson here is that some Internet companies actually build consumer laziness into their marketing mixes. It is sometimes illegal, frequently unpunished and usually undetected until other opportunities are gone.
Next----> Avoiding Nasty Surprises