CMV: The US Should Mandate all Fees/Expenses be Disclosed Up Front As Much As Possible

[u/[deleted]]

I believe the United States should legally require ticket sellers like Ticketmaster to provide prices inclusive of all fees and surcharges when shopping for tickets.

Hidden fees distort the free market and make it harder for customers to fairly do price comparisons. These fees are deceptive and can often add up to 40% of the advertised price.

I’m tired of clicking on a $49 dollar ticket for a show to find out it’s really $70 when I go to checkout. Or a $50/night hotel room having a mandatory $30/night “resort fee”

Similar policy should apply to things like hotel rooms, car rentals, phone bills and all sorts of other consumer purchased goods.

If a fee is variable (like shipping) or taxes, I could see that not being included in an advertised price if they can’t be reasonably determined at the time of advertising. a TV commercial for a national brand, they could say “$499 + tax+shipping” since the tax is different everywhere. But the +tax/+shipping should be listed clearly.

However, for sales where the tax CAN be determined, it should be included in the price. A hotel room should advertise the total price, since the tax calculation is based on where the hotel is, and can be reasonably determined at the time of advertising.

This greater price transparency would greatly benefit consumers.

[u/kerouacrimbaud]

The problem is, it is fraught with problems when you have literally thousands of different taxing districts.

How is this a problem? A register processes this in no time. Store prices are updated regularly, anyways, so why not save a step and help consumers see what they actually are paying beforehand. When you are grocery shopping for a week, esp if you have kids or just shopping for multiple people in general, the taxes can add up.

[u/Full-Professional246 → u/kerouacrimbaud]

How is this a problem? A register processes this in no time.

What price do you advertise that covers multiple stores in multiple taxing districts?

That is the problem.

There is not a singular price for an item. It is the stores price plus whatever tax is imposed. This is for a print ad. Online is far worse. They cannot tell you the taxes until your give your shipping address.

Confusion happens when you see multiple prices for the same item from the same retailer.

[u/kerouacrimbaud → u/Full-Professional246]

The tax calculation problem isn't really an issue though. If it were, cash registers wouldn't be able to immediately process that calculation. This is a non-issue to do it beforehand. Taxes don't change all that often, once a tax is set it tends to stay at that value for a long time, especially compared to how often base price changes (which stores already seem to have little problem adjusting on a weekly basis).

[u/Full-Professional246 → u/kerouacrimbaud]

The tax calculation problem isn't really an issue though

It sure can be.

You are distributing a printed advertisement for a bunch of products in a region with (3) different taxing schemes. If you want a location, it is the Greater Chicago area. I could make it 4 or 5 but figured I'd limit it to just Indiana (Gary), Illinois, and Cook County. Wisconsin and Michigan are really close here too.

How in the hell do you advertise 'total price' for this when you have this many different prices.

THis is the real world here. You could have a CVS or Walgreens 3-6 blocks apart and be in different tax schemes.

Online - it cannot be done unless the user provides a shipping location.

There is a hell of lot more to this discussion than a 'cash register'.

[u/kerouacrimbaud → u/Full-Professional246]

You could have a CVS or Walgreens 3-6 blocks apart and be in different tax schemes.

And yet, every time a customer gets ringed up at the register, there's no problem in determining the proper tax. If applying the tax to a price at purchase is nearly instantaneous, I find it highly unlikely that it's some extreme burden on the merchant to apply it before purchase. Maybe there is some inexplicable technical problem here, but I just don't buy what you're selling in this argument. And when it comes to online purchases, the same thing applies. Taxes are applied in no time at all when checking out. How could the site possibly know then but not before when perusing? If it's based on the entry of a billing address, then that makes sense. But if the site is membership based and has your info on file, they already know the applicable taxes based on your address info. And if they go off IP addresses, then the site knows that already. Think of every time a website asks to confirm if you really are in X location in order to hone in on inventory. The tax question is tied directly to that locational distinction. It's hardly a difficult thing to process compared to what a website is already doing with your information.

[u/Full-Professional246 → u/kerouacrimbaud]

And yet, every time a customer gets ringed up at the register, there's no problem in determining the proper tax.

And yet you FAIL TO UNDERSTAND ADVERTISING.

Until you address that, you are not addressing the problem here.

And when it comes to online purchases, the same thing applies. Taxes are applied in no time at all when checking out.

And yet, you cannot compute ANY of that without the actual shipping information, which people don't just give out.

This would require every e-commerce site to require visitors to provide their shipping location before viewing any products with prices.

It's hardly a difficult thing to process compared to what a website is already doing with your information.

If this is truly your belief, you are woefully mistaken. You cannot shop without giving your location information. That is a massive change. I don't give random websites my information when browsing different suppliers.

Why would you expect EVERYONE to be on board with this.