Yeah, industrial companies are even worse
Many of them still seem to think their pricing should be a big secret. Well, as more and more engineers use the Internet for product selection, it's not going to help them at all. I don't really care about exact pricing, but ball park figures; for example, if I'm looking at omnidirectional barcode readers (which I will be if one project comes through), I don't care if it's $1800 or $1850, but I do care if it's $10,000 -- that's way over the budget.
The industrial companies that best "get" the internet seem to be the semiconductor companies and distributors; for example, I can search Arrow or Avnet Marshall and not only come up with prices, but also quantities in stock and sometimes other info such as lead times.
Realtors are another bad group -- they never want to give out price or location; that's why the on-line databases are so great (and still so depressing in the Bay Area).
Another pet peeve of mine is companies that are so caught up with marketing and "branding" and the latest special deal that they never clearly explain what they have to offer, and what it costs (AT&T is especially bad about this; every time I try to check out their services, e.g. web access or long distance -- I can't find out what they're really offering).
Tony
