Price discrimiation?

[Zanshin]

Camaraderie - I got a "Sorry, the system is temporarily unavailable. Please contact NOAA" error - is it really a temporary glitch or a more permanent one?

[camaraderie]

Zan...just tried my link and it brought me to the correct page. Can't proceed further as I do not have a beacon to register. Did you not get to the NOAA page or did you have a provblem with the page taking your data?
If the former...it works right now. If the lattter...I can't help & suggest contacting NOAA.

[Zanshin]

Odd, I still can't get there. Perhaps because I'm coming from a European IP address. My new EPIRB is "in the mail" right now, so I should be able to register it within a week - If I can't connect from here I'll have a friend in the US enter all the details.

[camaraderie]

Zan...the page is HTTPS so maybe the login location does restrict access. Here's the standard lead in page to that one which might get you there...

http://www.beaconregistration.noaa.gov/

[Lurch]

Cam,
I had the same problem with the secure link that Zan had, and I'm in the U.S. After a bit of digging, this is what I found:

After going to the page via the non-secure portal, I bookmarked it then came back here. Both your link and my bookmark worked fine. I closed my browser, and restarted it, and neither the link or bookmark worked anymore. Checking cookies showed that noaa sets a session cookie for each page. If you clear them, you can't directly access the secure page. That's something on the noaa site, probably to combat some form of hijacking but who knows? My guess is that if the link keeps working for you, you probably don't have security on your browser set to dump cookies at the end of each session.

Not a big deal, just a little "gotcha" with secure links. Sorry to go off-topic, but I thought it might be of interest to people posting links. BTW, the above isn't true for all secure pages, some will link just fine. It seems to depend on the type of authentication the host server uses.

[Zanshin]

Lurch - thanks for that update - I can now get to the page as well by traversing the site. Once I get my beacon I'll see about filling in the information.

[camaraderie]

Thanks Lurch...good catch!

[yotphix]

On the topic of price discrimination, it is something that Canadians, sailors or otherwise are well familiar with. There are many reasons, packaging rules etc that things can cost more in Canada but one of the big ones is that Canadian retailers generally expect to get double what they paid for something and US retailers do not. Not such a big deal with things that cost 20.00 but makes a big difference on big ticket items. West Marine arriving in Canada shook things up a little bit and has somehwhat mitigated this, although even West raised prices shortly after arriving, when they realized that they could get more for certain items! (I worked there for a short time and saw the prices go up.)

[camaraderie]

Yot...I know that Canada has very high import taxes at least on electronics which really goose up the price. Additionally there are much higher labor costs since hiring/firing and lots of personnel benefits related stuff is mandated. The result is higher retail prices. My former co. considered opening north of the border and rejected it due to costs...not competition. Guess there's a price to be paid for the social welfare programs.

In the US...many retailers get double and more what they paid for an item. This is especially true in soft lines...clothing, apparel etc. but it is also true in any retail business where the items sold are not recognizable commodities and do not turn over on the shelf quickly...like marine hardware.
So I guess what I'm saying is don't blame your retailers...blame your system if you must...but remember that there's no free lunch. If you paid US retail prices like I do...you'd also be paying $6-10K per year for health insurance and $35K for college etc. etc. etc.

[hellosailor]

Yotphix-
That's nothing new or unique to Canada. Even the top management at WalMart will tell you, on some items they're going to demand FULL PRICE from the customers.
You may walk in looking at the $49.95 microwaves on the end islands, but if you walk over to buy a phone socket...you'll pay 30% more than you would in a hardware store. Buy a computer or printer? Cheap, sure, but you'll pay the same $40 for a $4 cable that the office supply stores charge.
That's either "sharp marketing" from their point of view, or a rip-off from some customer points of view. Welcome to the modern day and age, where "demand pricing" or "market pricing" is the new term for "make hay while the sun shines".

In the US, up into the late 1970s, it was normal for tv and electronics retailers to charge double their cost on things. Sony, Nikon, typically there was a 40% profit margin and they sold near list price. Then came Crazy Eddie and a whole market collapsed with $1000 TV's selling for $660 instead. In the 80's many merchants figured out they could deflect price shopping by offering special models that never had the exact same features or colors as the next store--a practive that goes on today. Not just private labelling, but brand names with private model numbers.

Marketing is a many splendored thing. I just wish outright extortion and violence was allowed for the customers as well. I mean, it's only fair if both sides get to play by the same rules, right?

"See, you agreed to sell it to me for five thousand dollars. But, read my fine print, I didn't say what kind of dollars. I'm paying you in this other kind today."

Turnabout is fair play, right?