What we charge?

[Roy Ulrich]

Oh I think someone's being a little too paranoid:  The whole purpose of the
Sherman Act (from whence the antitrust law(s) originated), was to preclude
competitors from agreeing to and setting prices so as to prohibit
competition and deny the public their choices in a free market.

It is not illegal for partners in a business to agree to and set prices. It
IS illegal for COMPETITORS to agree to set prices. If YOU live in Timbucktu,
and I live in Timbuckthree, chances are we're not competitors, and therefore
would have no reason to "set" prices.

In the global community of the Internet, and in any given profession, it IS
NOT illegal to discuss prices. You charge this, I charge that, here's an
average of the industry...sorry folks, that falls way, way, short of
"agreement" on "setting prices"; it's merely a discussion.

Look at it this way - watch the gas prices when you fill up your car. Isn't
it funny how when one station goes to $1.399 ALL the rest of the gas
stations (within seconds it seems) are at the same price? If THAT isn't
price fixing, well, but at any rate it's been the case for as long as (I'll
bet) ANY of us can remember, and the government in my area recently looked
into the situation as a result of public protest. Verdict? Nothing they
could do. Yet some of you are under the impression that if you merely
DISCUSS prices on-line, your seemingly in danger of losing your home. Nuts!

I suggest that posting some average prices would really help those newbies
who have no resource from which to establish some kind of basis on which to
run a business. Yes, if you chose to get together and say something to the
effect of "we all hereby agree that we will do no tunings for less than
$80.00." That would clearly be price fixing as defined in the Sherman Act.
But to simply compare notes? Nonsense.

Roy F. Ulrich
Pike Piano, Inc.
Virginia, MN
(Yes, I voted for him, but am becoming disillusioned)

-----Original Message-----
From: Wimblees@AOL.COM <Wimblees@AOL.COM>
To: pianotech@ptg.org <pianotech@ptg.org>
Date: January 26, 2000 3:16 PM
Subject: Re: What we charge?


>In a message dated 1/26/00 6:54:41 PM !!!First Boot!!!,
btrout@desupernet.net
>writes:
>
><< My point is, I charge what I charge, irrespective of what you charge.
My
> prices are not a secret.  This idea that we can't discuss what we believe
> are fair prices in our markets doesn't make any sense to me, especially
> considering the geography between us.  >>
>
>
>In general, because there are some doubts as to what is considered price
>fixing, and what is not, it has been advised that we not discuss prices.
In
>particular, it is against the law for us all to come to an agreement on how
>much we charge for our services.  Obviously you have to disclose your fees
to
>your customers.  But for us as a group to disclose our fees might be
>construed as "price fixing," which is against the law.
>
>Wim