cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/50434194
Proton VPN’s pricing page exposed an ab-test identifier linked to two VPN Plus prices: €2.99/month (70% off) and €3.49/month (65% off). Repeated testing produced B → A → B → A → B, with the variant matching the rendered price each time. €12 difference over 24 months.
TL;DR Proton ran an A/B test for their mid-tier vpn pricing.
Introductory pricing specifically, not their regular pricing.
Way back when, the observed ABAB sequence could be explained by one server using outdated data and another having the new data and visitors being round-robined to each in turn. I have investigated issues like this and this has happened. Not sure how many companies still use a setup like this, though. It’s been K8s clusters everywhere I’ve worked for many years now. This does indeed look like a proper AB test, the HTML already looks pretty clear.
Yeah and what’s worse is Proton denying AB testing and instead claiming that it was a promo pricing
denying the undeniable, they think we are tech illiterate fools. disgusting. is that why they left their fediverse accounts with anger? that users were pointing out lies?
deleted by creator
oh they came back in February. they were inactive before that for a year, shortly after the republican drama
Yet again Lemmy shows that much of the userbase is young and has little general knowledge. A/B testing is quite standard, and there is nothing shady about testing different prices to see what consumers will purchase more.
A couple of times I’ve been walking in a mall (dating this anecdote back a couple of decades or so. heh) and got asked to participate in product testing where I was shown - in the case I remember better - two cans of soda with different designs. Strawberry soda - one pink can, one red can - which one I was more likely to purchase.
A/B testing is quite common as companies figure out how to sell you more. Assuming it’s randomized, it’s completely ethical.
Can someone articulate what is wrong with this? It intrinsically feels wrong to me, but when I think about it I dont really have any good reasoning why this would be bad.
We expect a standard price and it feels bad when we find out someone else got it cheaper.
But the consumer should be operating the same, they review the deal and if its a price they are willing to pay they go through with it.
It’s because despite what economists believe, prices are not determined fairly by the market but are dictated supply-side. So this kind of “testing” is one of the more blatant ways in which consumer trust is violated in the name of maximizing profits. It makes it obvious that you’re not paying a fair price for a service or product, but a price that was dictated for someone else’s convenience without taking your interests into account at all, violating the social contract.
IF the testing was purely random assignment of price points to gauge the markets ability to support a higher price, I think that is capitalism operating normally.
Now, on the other side, if the pricing changes were based on using the customers own data and spending habits to determine what a specific customer could be squeezed for, it is unacceptable and should be boycotted.
This article could have been several times shorter.
Put a Tl;dr at the top for me, and you can be as autistically thorough as you want to be.
I have cookies blocked, and have uBlock Origin on, there are no prices at all when I go to the Proton page. What a sketchy company.
I’ve always said Proton feels like they just can’t wait to be Google. I don’t trust them at all.
