@GC: Hmmm... GC, if you're not gonna use www.SunshineRainbowEverythingInLifeIsWonderfulist.com, can I have it?

@tkozikow: This is a great way for them to turn away paying customers.

@jfischer: Definiately. And Harrah's in particular seems to like to grab hold and never let go. At some point, perhaps, I will give in to their never-ending stream of postcards & offers.

[www.macromedia.com]

CCleaner (FileHippo) will clean them out every time you start your computer.

@speedwell: I allow/deny on a per-cookie basis in FF and I agree that it seems like most sites are trying to place third-party cookies in addition to their own.

I tend to see the opposite happening in Amazon's shopping cart. For example, I as looking at a monophonic cartridge for a turntable--a pretty good deal at $25. I put it into my cart and went to a couple of other sites to check out some reviews of the cartridge. When I went back an hour or so later, the price had gone up to $90!

Granted, most of the increases aren't that dramatic, but on the whole, I'd say I see prices on my 'cart' items go up rather than down.

Absolutely its legal. Retailers are free to discriminate pricing by almost any classification. Only certain suspect classifications - race, gender, etc. - raise legal problems.

Even if you only blow $5.00 to $20.00 on a slot machine per trip as lark, hope springs eternal in the heart of the casino. During winter, I visit Harrah's in Atlantic
City on at least one sunny but cold day to enjoy their glass-domed solar heated pool area as a form of methadone to treat my Carribean beach addiction.
[www.harrahsresort.com]

They are a short drive from Manhattan, so it is a cheap trip, if one buys enough drinks from the bikini-clad pool servers to stay at the pool and avoid the casino itself.

Sometimes, loyalty is rewarded.

i just use privoxy which gets rid of most cookies

@ScottRose: yay for Opera.... F12-> disable cookies.....

or get www.kejut.com/operaportable for temporary uses if the site really needs cookies to load

@quail: From the Help Desk: Getting "locked out" means your login ID and password no longer work. You do not get "locked out" by deleting your cookies. You simply have to enter your user ID and password again. If you find that you can't use a work-related or other legit site because it has to use cookies to manage your session, adjust your browser settings to accept cookies automatically for JUST that site and to delete cookies that hang on longer than just for the session.

IE7Pro (free program for Internet Explorer 7) allows you to decide on a per-cookie basis which cookies to accept and which to reject. It's bloody amazing how many sites have links to Amazon and Yahoo.

Personally I am all in favor of frequent cookie-zapping. It's a good idea either to memorize your login info or keep it safely written down -- don't trust your cookies to remember that stuff.

@SkokieGuy:

I have ~60 items in my amazon cart - some in there for a few years. They are in there to either have on hand for when I need to round up to $25 or to wait until the price drops.

I check it almost every day to see what price changes have occurred (it tells you if items have increased or decreased since placing them in the cart) and have bought several items this way.

Now manipulating amazon gold box deals to get 5% off normally undiscounted merchandise....

Although it looks bad of them for doing so its all within their right. The same thing happens in every business. If you go into my business and ask me for a price just to leave to get it somewhere else don't expect me to let you know of any good deals in the future.

The next day, you come back and ask if the 10% discount is still available. The sales guy recognizes you and says no. He gambles that since you returned, you probably shopped around and realized you can't get a better deal elsewhere so he doesn't have to sweeten it any more.

But instead of buying, you leave again and send in your spouse to see if (s)he can get the sales guy to offer the 10% discount again.

Deleting cookies is the online shopping equivalent of sending your spouse into the store. All that deleting the cookie does is prevent the website from recognizing that you're a repeat visitor.

2005?

Hell, Amazon was ripping off repeat customers as far back as the dot-com bust.

[news.bbc.co.uk]

"Yet if a consumer finds an exploit to 'beat' the business (legitimate or otherwise) - it seems OK to not only do it, but to let everyone else know about it."

Isn't that how capitalism is supposed to work. Don't want me to "beat your deal"? then offer me a straight forward, no haggle price without add-ons, etc. Otherwise, loopholes are fair game.

@ideagirl:

No, it's just that your IE cookies aren't used in Opera.

I've encounteredthis many times with illuminations.com. The difference between clicking through to the site from an e-mail vs. a "rebate" site (ie. ebates.com) vs. an online ad can be quite big. It's also interesting that e-mail click-thrus will vary in discounts depending on which e-mail accunt is used. It makes me somewhat paranoid to always wonder if I am getting the best deal.

They're lying, cheating Rats. But they do have decent prices overall.

@emona: I think you can turn cookies off in IE, that would do it too.

@SkokieGuy: Various retailers do this with gift registries also. If you register and add items, they give you discounts on those items left in your registry after the wedding day/date of birth/whatever passes. I know Crate & Barrel, Target, and Macy's all send us 10-20% off coupons for anything we had left in our registry after my wife and I got married.

@Brian Aubry: Seems the same as if Comcast or Verizon offers cable at an introductory rate to new subscribers.

So really, even if it was illegal, there'd be virtually no way of enforcing it.

@NotChoinski: Easy scenario.

You're shopping for a flat screen TV. You go to a number of sites. Some of the sites offer an incentive price or other special offers, maybe free shipping.

You decide where you're going to buy and return to the site. Since it, via the cookie, knows you're not a 'new' visitor, it presents a higher price or less desirable offer.

Clearing cookies enables you to potentially receive the offer they have already made (and I think unfairly withdrew upon your non-cookie cleared return).

This is not cheating the merchant, this is removing the merchant's ability to cheat YOU, via electronic bait and switch.

It also works to register with the site to use their "wish list" feature and / or fill your shopping cart, then do not complete the sale.

I estimate about 60% of the time, I'll get an email within a week or less offering a discount.

Obviously if you are a 'almost' customer, you are the very hotest prospect and most sites will give you an incentive to return, before you have time to purchase elsewhere and their window of opportunity slams shut.

I've always been curious about this type of reporting on this site.

If a business finds ways to exploit or rip off a consumer, everyone is (righteously) all over it.

Yet if a consumer finds an exploit to 'beat' the business (legitimate or otherwise) - it seems OK to not only do it, but to let everyone else know about it.

Added advice might be similar to what ideagirl suggested: Keep a second browser around just for uses like this (e.g. switch from FireFox to IE when shopping online, and clear cookies on IE regularly).

@ionerox: Disabling cookies can ruin a site's functionality though..

Ummm, why wouldn't it be legal? You've never seen a new customer offer before? They're everywhere.

Or, if you have a fancy new browser- turn on "Private" browsing (it blocks cookies & doesn't track the visited sites in your browsing history).

Although, I am pretty sure they created the Private browsing feature with porn sites in mind.