We had guilders. Now we have euros. The exchange rate is 2.20317 guilders for a euro. What used to be 9.99, now is 4.99. It is all so obvious, and irritating indeed. I always make an effort to translate it to the whole number. Fatigues me quite a lot. If I were president of the Lowlands, then I would forbid such prices for sure!

>I agree, and I guess I am not the only one to think that companies which use 'strategic' pricing like 9.99 in stead of 10.00, in my head in reality say 'Hey suckers, look here, we think you are not smart enough to understand that we want to fool you!'
>
>>>>The msdn page referred to the site http://www.foxtoolbox.com where vfp9 can be pre-ordered.
>>>>
>>>>On that site you find advertised that vfp9 is given for free if you buy it bundled with eReports, Foxy Classes, Web Connection and VisualRep. However, according to me it is not given for free, because if you buy the mere product (not bundled) then you pay farr less.
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>>>>I'm not saying that the bundles are not worth it, but vfp9 for free? No.
>>>
>>>That's the old practice... "To anyone who sends me $20, I'll send {product name here} for free!".
>>>
>>>In American advertising you'll often find words "free gift"... which makes no sense, it's redundant to the point of imbecility, or suspicion. If you're getting something for free, it's a gift; if it's a gift, it excludes payment by definition. But, since customers like both words, the advertisers just put them together.
>>>
>>>In the above case, maybe "we're throwing this one in for free" sounds better than "if you add this all up and compare prices, this bundle is cheaper by the price of VFP9 than if you bought them all separately"... um, too long, not a sound bite, you already lost the customer's attention. It's supposed that anyone targeted by an advertisement has attention span of about two seconds (rapidly progressing to one), so you just have to make it as short as possible. Logic be damned :).
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>>Whenever I initially read 'free' and when reading on find out that it's not free at all, then I immediately feel cheated, imprint the name of the company together with the words 'not trustworthy' and abandon the advertisement or website. Well, if that's what the 'marketeer' intended to happen, then he can be satisfied. (Yes, 'he', because for some reason I think that a woman is not capable of thinking out such a construction.)