Consumer columnist and West Hartford resident Harlan Levy has more than 20 years of experience writing stories about everyday experiences that anyone could encounter.

Harlan Levy. Courtesy photo

By Harlan Levy

I’ve got a surprising dispatch from the Federal Trade Commission, information about how the prices you pay ordering items online are not necessarily the same as what other folks pay. My immediate reaction: Are you kidding???

But first, an unexpected consumer story:

We were looking at Facebook reels, which are often informative or hilarious, and found one explaining how a new mouthguard can stop snoring by making your bottom jaw jut out a little while keeping your mouth open. Sounded interesting, especially since I have  sleep apnea and use a noisy CPAP machine every night. So we decided to give it a try, and my wife ordered the $55 device from the maker, QuietLab.com. It was late at night after an exhausting day, so we failed to do what a consumer reporter should always do – read the reviews. So we looked at many, some praised the device. Some said it was a scam and that returning it to its Chinese manufacturer cost $20, with some consumers never getting the promised refund.

Uh oh. We figured we were stuck. But my wife figured, what the hell, let’s write QuietLab asking to cancel our order made a half hour before.

We were almost shocked to get an immediate reply:

“Hi Patricia, Thank you for reaching out! I understand you’re considering cancelling your order, and I wanted to offer a little suggestion before you make your decision. We truly believe in the quality and effectiveness of our product, and we would love you to give it a try. … But if it doesn’t work we’ll make the return process as easy and smooth as possible. We can refund you 100%. Please let us know how you’d like to proceed. Warm regards, Jerry, Customer Support Specialist Quiet Lab.”

Well, we were skeptical, since I’d have to follow complicated instructions for fitting the device to my teeth and then trying it. We wanted to simply cancel and avoid the possible hassle. So my wife wrote back asking for the refund now. We didn’t expect a quick response, but Jerry surprised us and gave the refund to my wife’s PayPal account. Good customer service! Maybe it isn’t a scam.

Meanwhile, I looked for a similar item I could get and return if I wanted. Walgreens has the $55 Dentemp SleepTight mouthpiece, which ”gently holds the jaw forward to open airways and reduce snoring.” Actually, I want this mouthpiece to stop grinding my jaw at night more than a snoring control. So I got it, followed the fitting instructions, and ended up with a large, cumbersome mouthpiece – creating a “buck tooth” Mortimer Snerd look – that was uncomfortable while wearing my CPAP paraphernalia. I’m just not going to use it. At least I tried. I’m now awaiting arrival of a new supposedly superior much less noisy nose and mouth facemask to go with my CPAP rig, the AirFit F-40, from ResMed. My wife is hopeful … that she’ll no longer be awakened every night by the sound of air escaping my apparatus.

The SleepTight anti-snoring mouthpiece— after boiling it, molding it to my teeth, and cooling it. It’s a big presence in my mouth and cumbersome. Photo credit: Harlan Levy

Variable pricing

So you buy an item, let’s say a garden hose. Then your neighbor buys the same hose. Think you both pay the same price? Not necessarily, according to a Jan. 21 report from the Federal Trade Commission, which conducted a nationwide surveillance pricing market study. The study revealed that details like a person’s precise location or browser history can be frequently used to target individual consumers with different prices for the same goods and services. Indeed, there’s a “shadowy market that third-party intermediaries use to set individualized prices for products and services based on consumers’ characteristics and behaviors, like location, demographics, browsing patterns and shopping history,” the FTC said.

FTC staff found that consumer behaviors ranging from mouse movements on a webpage to the type of products that consumers leave unpurchased in an online shopping cart can be tracked and used by retailers to tailor consumer pricing.

“Initial staff findings show that retailers frequently use people’s personal information to set targeted, tailored prices for goods and services – from a person’s location and demographics, down to their mouse movements,” said FTC past Chair Lina Khan.

The FTC’s study focuses on intermediary firms, the middlemen hired by retailers that can algorithmically tweak and target their prices. Instead of a price or promotion being a static feature of a product, the same product could have a different price or promotion based on a variety of inputs – including consumer-related data and their behaviors and preferences, the location, time, and channels by which a consumer buys the product, according to the report.

Examples include a cosmetics company targeting promotions to specific skin types and skin tones. Also, a consumer profiled as a new parent may intentionally be shown higher priced baby thermometers on the first page of their search results.

The FTC staff found that the intermediaries worked with at least 250 clients that sell goods or services ranging from grocery stores to apparel retailers. The FTC found that “widespread adoption of this practice may fundamentally upend how consumers buy products and how companies compete.”

“The FTC should continue to investigate surveillance pricing practices because Americans deserve to know how their private data is being used to set the prices they pay and whether firms are charging different people different prices for the same good or service.”

Now you know.

NOTE: If you have a consumer problem, contact me at [email protected] (“Consumer” in subject line), and, with the power of the press, maybe I can help.

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