Have you noticed all of the bowling discount websites that you find on the internet today? We have seen so many bowling websites that are offering discount bowling products to the public that you could throw a gutter ball. When you first look at them you get the impression that you really have a lot of options to choose from when looking for bowling products.
Annoying website design
As shoppers we were a bit put off by several website annoyances that made shopping for discount bowling products frustrating. The typical bowling product website throws a confusing page at you with over a hundred links on the page hoping that you can figure out what to click on to find what you’re looking for (looks to us like if you can’t dazzle ’em, then baffle ’em). Then there is the bowling product website that thinks someone out there likes pop-ups, the consensus among website visitors today is that pop-ups are rude (just note the proliferation of pop-up blocker software), the bowling product website is being rude to you (their customer). These were website design annoyances that you could grudgingly be willing to deal with, but then as we checked more closely we noticed things that really stood out as being almost deceptive in practice, the MSRP scam, the shipping scam, and the hidden charges scam.
The MSRP scam
The MSRP (manufacturers suggested retail price) scam surfaced as we were checking out different discount bowling product websites and noticed that they were claiming a different “retail price” for the exact same item. How is this possible that the exact same item has so many different retail prices? Here’s the scam, a ball on one website has a 10% discount and the same ball on another website has a 15% discount, the website with the 15% discount is offering you a better deal right? Not necessarily! When their discount percentage is not what they perceive is big enough to make you buy, they just jack up the “retail price” and viola instantly you have a bigger discount percentage. You just think that you are getting a better deal with this borderline practice. The Bowling discounter gets away with this because the truth is that (almost) NO bowling products have a list price (we checked when we discovered the scam)! This selling game we call the MSRP scam.
The shipping scam
The shipping scam was discovered while investigating discount bowling product websites and noticed that it was very difficult to figure out what it was really going to cost for that bowling product. You see a very attractive price on a product and are lead to believe this is what you will pay. The truth is that the real price of a product is what your credit card is actually billed (including shipping and hidden charges, see below), not the low item price with the big discount percentage (see above). You think that you are getting some absurdly discounted price on an item and when it comes time to check out there is a nasty surprise lurking in the form of a shipping charge. Bowling discounters justify this by having a teeny tiny link on a page somewhere that tries to explain what the shipping charges are. Some bowling product discounters list a flat price for the product that you are purchasing (much easier for the shopper), but some have this strange table of locations and numbers and you have to try to add the weight of the item, where you are shipping to and guess at what they will be tacking on for the surprise shipping fee (Wouldn’t it be nice if a discount bowling products website had the guts to tell the truth, when a price is listed, that’s the real price, period.). The price listed on the website is rather deceptive, the real price is what you actually get charged. This selling game we call the shipping scam.
The Hidden charges scam
The hidden charges scam was discovered after we thought we had actually found honest bowling discounters. The bowling product pricing was attractive, the shipping appeared to be included, we cheered that we had finally found honesty. The party ended rather abruptly when we checked very closely and found this mysterious handling or order charge. It was justified by stating that “other websites do it, and so do we”, one vendor was so bold as to publish a lie about how another major website does the exact same thing. This is supposed to make the customer feel better about this sneaky, deceptive tactic. We also found other mysterious charges on some bowling product websites, like drilling insurance for example. The implication is that if a driller makes a mistake you are out of luck, not true. This is like saying that if the guy who works on my car breaks the windshield he (she) is not responsible, baloney. Don’t ever patronize a dishonest driller that tries to pull that on you. Drilling insurance also stated that if the ball was defective and broke while drilling that you were out of luck, not true. Ball manufacturers warrant their products against defects. This selling game we call the hidden charges scam.
With so much deception amongst bowling product websites is there any hope. Certainly, now that you know about some of the practices these less than up front websites are up to you can be prepared and know what to look for. We also would like to invite you to compare bowling2u’s HONEST PRICING model where the price listed is the price that you pay, period! We don’t use the MSRP scam, shipping scam, or the hidden charges scam, and would like you to consider us as your preferred bowling products vendor. Most importantly, Bowling2u wants to empower our website visitors with knowledge and what to look for in a website offering discount bowling products.
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