"Hot Prices"

[seqiro]

Is anyone else as annoyed as I am with some of the "fake" deals under "Hot Prices" at the top of Got|Apex?

For example, a lot of the prices are obviously impossibly low such as the one I'm looking at right now:

Canon PowerShot S400 Digital Camera
Low Price: $28

If you click on the link, you'll see that the offending price is from batteries.com and that the price isn't for the full unit, just for a battery.

I totally understand the reason for having ads and I do enjoy and make use of the deals on this site, but I think whatever engine is being used to come up with those deals above should be policed better and at least reflect realistic, honest "hot prices".

[Nija]

You mean like the Nikon 4300 coolpix digital camera won't be $32?

or the Fuji Finepix a303 3.34mp Digital camera won't be #30?


I'm shocked and awed at this...

[seqiro]

It's not that I'm being fooled by them, I just think that it removes a level a credibility from the entire ad. In my opinion, that defeats the purpose of the ad in the first place.

If the prices up there look more legit, I'd be more inclined to click on them.

But tactics like that are what really ruined pricewatch. When pricewatch first started out, you could find actual great deals. But now, when you search for a Radeon 9800 for example brings up descriptions like "NEW BUILT BY ATI Radeon 9600Pro 128MB DDR VGA, DVI, TV OUT 8X AGP - New ATI Radeon 9200 and 9800" with a price of $168.00.

Just because something is obviously not possible doesn't make an acceptable justification for it being listed like that. I would think Got|Apex would not want to be thought of in the same was as say an eBay scammer.

[Joshua]

You make a good point. I think if it was a B&M store, they'd be liable for False Advertising or Bait and Switch (the ad folks, not G|A).

[seqiro]

What I think makes it worse in this case is that these aren't your typical banner ads. They are underneath a header bar that looks like all the rest with text links and are tightly integrated with the Got|Apex? layout. They aren't your typical "punch the monkey" banner ads which you recognize easily as ads and tend to just ignore anyway. ;)