Chapter 237: Those Who Are Favored Are Fearless (Seeking Monthly Votes)

One hour later, at Old Place Cafe, Fang Dazhuang and Zhou Xinran were already sitting across from Zhou Yi.

It was the classic coffee, and the classic black vinegar; after adding a little bit in, Fang Dazhuang drank it very happily.

By now, the three of them were already regular customers at the cafe, to the point that the table in the corner where they often sat would even be reserved for them.

Regarding today's matter, Zhou Yi didn't know how to put it; he had just wanted to "ask" Fang Dazhuang, but Fang Dazhuang had said directly, "Meet at the Old Place," so they had to meet.

After sitting down and finishing his coffee, Zhou Yi finally spoke: "Fang Dazhuang, what you said before, is this matter just Big Data Price Discrimination? I feel like this platform shouldn't be that stupid, right?"

Hearing this, Fang Dazhuang smiled and said: "Whether it is truly Big Data Price Discrimination, I cannot be entirely certain right now. I can only say that, from your description, it appears this should be Big Data Price Discrimination."

"Come to think of it, this matter of Big Data Price Discrimination has been discussed for two years now, but unfortunately, there are currently no relevant legal precedents."

"None? Fang Dazhuang, I heard this term a few years ago. Back in '18, this was the number one trending term on the internet; it seemed to even be called the 'First Year of Big Data Price Discrimination,' so how is it that there are still no legal precedents now?"

Of course, Zhou Yi had known this term before.

To be precise, a few years ago, Big Data was a hot term; no matter who it was, everyone had it on their lips, as if there were a feeling that Big Data could solve all problems.

But Zhou Yi actually wasn't interested back then, and now, he was even less interested.

Once you open any mobile app, there are all sorts of terms of consent and all sorts of privacy policies; if you don't agree, then you simply cannot use it.

And once you click confirm, then naturally, your various information will be collected, and then there will be corresponding algorithms to calculate and analyze your consumption patterns, consumption behavior habits, and so on.

Putting this kind of behavior in the market, it seems there is no problem, right?

You use our app, then you have to agree to our requirements; otherwise, don't use it.

It sounds like there is indeed no problem, but what people hate is not Big Data, but the "price discrimination"!

"From a long time ago, ever since the word 'trade' existed, there have been two ways of doing business: cheating strangers, and price discrimination against acquaintances. Even today, these two methods are still used by many people; it is very classic, extremely classic!"

"Cheating strangers is bullying you because you don't understand the situation, while price discrimination against acquaintances is using the 'acquaintance mode' to earn more money from you through the methods of an acquaintance."

"Our country is a society of acquaintances; using the trust between acquaintances to conduct fraudulent transactions is the most primitive form of price discrimination. Of course, the most classic price discrimination is naturally pyramid schemes."

"In addition, the sales pitches from years ago, and the WeChat businesses in friends' circles over the last two years, these are all high-incidence areas for price discrimination."

Fang Dazhuang's urge to talk had returned, and Zhou Yi hurriedly turned on the Sports Camera. These words from Fang Dazhuang could all be turned into videos, and the view counts were always consistently high.

Regarding Zhou Yi's behavior, Fang Dazhuang just smiled, and continued to say: "So, no matter how things change, the core remains the same. Those internet companies—you say they are high-tech, and they seem to be high-tech companies."

"It's the internet, after all; this was very fashionable many years ago."

"But if you say they are truly playing with high-tech? That's not necessarily the case. These methods passed down by our ancestors have already been used to the extreme by them. Using information advantages to conduct price discrimination is actually the same in essence."

"If you want to talk about the difference, I can only say that the 'acquaintance' here is the internet platform's one-sided familiarity with the user!"

Fang Dazhuang spoke in great detail, and Zhou Yi and Zhou Xinran listened very carefully on the side.

In any case, judging from the current situation, Fang Dazhuang's research into Big Data Price Discrimination was definitely not a matter of a day or two.

According to Fang Dazhuang, actually, the earliest behavior of Big Data Price Discrimination in the normal sense was not in the country, but from the e-commerce giant Amazon over in the US.

They once used dynamic pricing for the discs they sold, analyzing various personal data; if you were a new user, or a user with weak purchasing desire, then the price would be a bit lower.

And if you were an old user, or perhaps a user with a very strong purchasing desire, then the price would be a bit higher.

Then, unsurprisingly, they were criticized and had to cancel it immediately, but the method was learned.

Today, algorithms are already far more powerful than they were twenty years ago.

One could even say directly that you yourself don't understand you as well as the algorithms, as well as Big Data!

"Do you find it scary? Big Data Price Discrimination targets many: old users, active users, member users, and users who use more expensive operating devices."

"So, using a more expensive mobile phone will also make you a target!"

"Come to think of it, Zhou Yi, your case is the same as the one encountered by the first person who could be found to have exposed Big Data Price Discrimination. Both were after checking in, knowing the current room rate from the hotel, and then discovering the platform was overcharging them."

Speaking of this, Fang Dazhuang smiled again: "Really, I can't say it's the same; I can only say it's exactly the same."

"That brother used his own phone to book a hotel for 380 yuan a day. He learned from the hotel that it was the tourist off-season, the hotel price was 300 yuan, and then he used his friend's phone to search for the hotel room, and it was 300 yuan, but searching on his own phone, it was 380 yuan."

"So actually, you can change your phone, or let your friend search as well, to see how much that hotel room really costs."

What the hell, there was actually a precedent for his own situation?

Zhou Yi gritted his teeth and looked at Zhou Xinran: "Zhou Cai... Xinran, let me use your phone for a second."

The Goddess Zhou opposite raised her head, looking indifferent: "Don't use mine, I'm a Black Diamond Member."

Good heavens, just how much money was spent on that...

Then, the two looked at each other, and immediately looked at Fang Dazhuang in unison.

Fang Dazhuang: "(￣△￣；)"

"Then use mine..."

Fang Dazhuang took out his phone, opened the same app, and started searching for the Lihua Hotel where Zhou Yi had stayed before; very quickly, it was displayed.

247 yuan, exactly the same as the quote the hotel gave at the time.

Then, searching with his own phone, the price that came out was still over 300, just a little bit less, becoming 340 yuan.

"Damn it, this is clearly acting, right? They don't even treat me like a human being?"

As soon as he finished cursing, he saw Zhou Xinran on the side turn her phone screen over; it displayed a glaring number: 400 yuan.

It was just that there was a discount, and after the discount, it was 320 yuan.

Suddenly, Zhou Mouren felt much better.

"Alright, now it can be proven that Big Data Price Discrimination behavior does indeed exist. You can now take this evidence to their customer service, and the reply that brother received at the time was that it might be a mobile phone cache issue..."

"And then, they immediately refunded the room fee for that day."

Hearing this, Zhou Yi looked at Fang Dazhuang and said: "Fang Dazhuang, what do you think I should do now? File a Lawsuit?"

A rare trace of hesitation appeared on Fang Dazhuang's face: "Do you remember what I just told you about the fact that there are still no legal precedents for Big Data Price Discrimination?"

"Actually, there were two cases, but both lost. Because of what? Room prices, food delivery prices, delivery fees, and so on—according to the platform's claims, they all fluctuate."

"Then the question arises: how do you prove that the delivery fee in the food you ordered, or the hotel you booked, involved Big Data Price Discrimination? Is it just because it doesn't match the hotel's actual price?"

"Or is it because the price searched on my phone is lower?"

"These pieces of evidence are not enough."

"Furthermore, Zhou Yi, the issues within Big Data Price Discrimination are not just about price discrimination; there is also the excessive collection of personal information, unfair competition, and even monopolistic behaviors such as the abuse of market dominance..."

Zhou Yi fell into deep thought; in the past, he had never realized there were so many twists and turns within Big Data Price Discrimination.

That remark from Fang Dazhuang—that you might not even understand yourself as well as Big Data does—sounded truly frightening.

"Alright, today was just a casual chat. It's getting late, let's head back first. You can talk to their customer service again and see if they will refund your room fee."

Fang Dazhuang did not say much more, nor did he even mention how to collect evidence.

Zhou Yi did not ask, either.

Walking out of the coffee shop, the three parted ways. Zhou Yi went all the way back home and immediately dialed the customer service number for the platform again.

"Yes, that's right, I'm the one who contacted you this morning regarding Lihua Hotel room 603, mobile number ending in 9527, surname Zhou. Yes, this morning you said it was a corresponding price adjustment based on room shortages."

"Well then, today I used my friend's phone to search for that hotel, and the price displayed was the same as the hotel's actual price. When I search with my phone, it's still the previous price. How do you explain that?"

The customer service representative on the other end hurriedly said, "Please hold for a moment, I need to ask my colleague."

The line went silent. After about a few minutes, the representative spoke again: "Hello sir, are you still there? I just asked my colleague. It might be a system issue, or perhaps your phone's cache hasn't been cleared, so it's still showing yesterday's price..."

"As for yesterday's price, after investigating just now, we found it was indeed due to our system, so we can now issue you a thirty-yuan cash red envelope, which can be used for any product purchase on the platform."

"Do you find this acceptable? Please, I really hope you can understand."

It was another thing similar to a coupon; all the major platforms were like this now.

Once you file a complaint and a problem arises, they generally don't talk about compensation; they just give you vouchers.

These vouchers aren't real cash; you can only use them on their platform.

That means you have to make another purchase before you can actually use that cash red envelope.

No matter what, the platform never loses.

"I do not accept. I still hold to my request from this morning. You have already committed consumer fraud, so I believe the 'Return One Compensate Three' policy should apply, not just a cash red envelope."

Because of a previous travel incident, Zhou Mouren was now fixated on 'Return One Compensate Three'.

Although he didn't know if it was applicable.

"I am very sorry, sir, but we truly cannot provide that kind of compensation. We can't do anything about the system issues either, so I really hope you can understand."

"I cannot understand. So you really won't compensate, right? Then stop calling; it's a waste of phone charges, you know? If you can't solve it, I'll go to those who can—the Consumer Association, the Market Supervision Bureau, the Court. One of them will be able to solve it."

"Sir, please don't get emotional. We definitely need to negotiate to resolve this. It's really impossible to do 'Return One Compensate Three' here. Look..."

"Alright, that's enough!"

After saying this, Zhou Yi couldn't be bothered to listen to what the other side had to say and hung up the phone directly.

They won't compensate for anything, claim they can't do this or that, and then constantly ask you to "understand." So, when will you big enterprises ever understand us users?

In Modu, inside an office building, a bunch of customer service representatives were busy making and receiving calls.

It was the same situation as before; as for customer service, if it can be outsourced, it should be outsourced. Otherwise, keeping a bunch of customer service staff yourself is truly a nightmare.

Customer service representative Bai Xiaoying was stunned for a moment by the dial tone on the phone, but she quickly returned to normal.

This was just another difficult customer, but it didn't matter. What were they, as customer service, there for? They were specifically there to deal with these difficult customers.

Simple requests were resolved quickly and might even lead to positive publicity, but complex requests were just a matter of luck.

After a brief pause, a colleague next to her leaned over and said, "Hey Xiaobai, did you resolve that complaint?"

Bai Xiaoying shook her head and said, "Not yet. They said they wanted 'Return One Compensate Three'—how is that possible? Now they're saying they're going to complain, going to file a Lawsuit..."

Having said that, both representatives laughed. In their line of work, they heard too many threats.

Last time, someone even threatened that if the problem wasn't solved, they would go here or there to report them.

It made people want to laugh; when you have a dispute with an enterprise, what's the point of reporting it?

As for filing a complaint, that was somewhat reliable; many people really would go to file complaints.

But for the Market Supervision Department to impose penalties, they also need evidence, and many people's complaints lack key evidence.

As for filing a Lawsuit, that was simply impossible.

At least in the year Bai Xiaoying had worked here, she hadn't encountered a real Lawsuit yet.

How much money could this room fee be? Even if it really was 'Return One Compensate Three', at most it wouldn't even be a thousand yuan. And how much would it cost to go to court? No one would be that stupid.

However, according to procedure, when such threats of Lawsuits or complaints are received, they must be reported.

Soon, Bai Xiaoying reported the corresponding situation. The Company had a set of processing procedures for these things.

Later on, there might be higher-level customer service staff to communicate, but Bai Xiaoying knew that 'Return One Compensate Three' was absolutely impossible, or rather, no merchant facing 'Return One Compensate Three' would ever agree to it directly.

You can go sue, or you can go complain, but I will never agree to it directly.

If the Court rules against us, I'll accept it. Come to think of it, this bit of compensation is truly a drop in the bucket for such a large Company.

In his room, Zhou Yi felt inexplicably irritable.

Fang Dazhuang had said that to file a Lawsuit for this kind of matter, collecting evidence is extremely difficult.

Moreover, spending a bunch of money might result in a very unsatisfactory outcome.

That is why these internet giants are so emboldened. What that customer service representative said was all scripted. Of course, she was just a wage earner, and saying anything to her was useless.

However, it also reflected that the Company's top management didn't care about these things at all.

Look at the news again; these platforms had even jointly signed some kind of pledge saying they would absolutely not use Big Data Price Discrimination.

But in life, we never look at what people say, but rather at what they do!

So what should he do now?

…………

PS: All companies involved in this book belong to a fictional world and do not involve reality. Thank you.

An evening chapter to quench your thirst. Thanks to Book Friend 2018, Book Friend 2020, Changchangchangchangsheng, Another Newbie, Zhi Shi Yu Le, Feimaowuyu, jian, Book Friend 2019, and thanks to the few brothers for their tips.

Also, a previous chapter had some industry-related book friends who felt it wasn't quite right. I won't post a separate chapter to explain here, but let me put it this way: the book says there are no winning cases for Big Data Price Discrimination, but there is actually one. It's just that many experts believe it doesn't count as Big Data Price Discrimination. I combined that case with the first Big Data Price Discrimination case exposed in the country. These are all actual cases; it is indeed not something Jiu Jian is making up. Also, many brothers, don't be anxious. Since I've written about Big Data Price Discrimination, I certainly won't limit the problem to just hotels. Think carefully about that sentence Fang Dazhuang said—the problem is not just simple Big Data Price Discrimination.

There is one more point: some of the regulations and laws that appear in this book, which many people have never heard of, actually exist; everyone can find them by simply searching.

(End of chapter)