That is an overly simplistic world view plus the original charge is
false. That company has lots of prices on items on their website and
those items can be added to a shopping cart for checkout with an
automated shipping calculator. Very heavy and bulky items, like these
bumpers, often require different shipping methods under different
circumstances and/or disclaimers about small chips and scratches that
are likely to occur. Some items are built to order or in small batches
and prices can depend on what current raw materials prices are and be
affected by options that may be part of a conflicting matrix of
offerings. Instead of cluttering up the website with a lots of fine
print to cover all the contingencies for very low volume products the
seller may decide it is better to explain things in a live format that
allows for a back and forth discussion. Instead of some underhanded
trick the seller may be attempting to have fully informed and satisfied
customers for products that their prior experiences have shown to be
problematic.

Mark

Dave Mcneely wrote:
> On Sat, Oct 3, 2009 at 1:58 PM, Allan Streib wrote:
>
>> I like the looks -- but not the "call for pricing."  Why do people
>> still
>> not want to put prices on web sites?
>>
>> Allan
>
> Same reasons folks avoid listing prices in newspaper ads on occasion.
> (1)  They don't want the high price to turn away potential buyers before
> they get a hook in them, or (2) they want to give the impression that
> the price is so low that if they publish it they will be overwhelmed
> with more buyers than they can handle (a situation that they desperately
> seek).  Some advertisers even overtly make the latter claim ("Price so
> low we cannot publish it for fear of the response!!")  Yeah, right, fact
> is, they are trying to provoke the response they claim to fear.
>
> Dave Mc
>