"Lewis Perin" wrote in message

While it is certainly normal for different products to be priced
differently in different countries by the companies that have
presence there (prices for real estate, warehousing, taxes,
employee salaries, etc), online trade is geographically blind
(with exception to shipping charges).

Weird conception of business...
In market economy (and it's market economy in China), the market fixes the
price. Regardless of costs of productions of the service/product.

Therefore if you see a tea
sold by a Chinese company online without listed price (we will
send you the pricelist) that means that they have at least two
pricelists

Why wouldn't they ? They probably don't live only on occasional internet
retail sales into the US, it's logical they favor their main customers that
allow them to pay their rent and food.

I have 3 price lists, and I have to change them often. I have not 3 grades
of stupidity among customers, but 3 very different levels of services.
Anybody doing a business of anything has a unique pricelist ? If yes, you're
lucky.

There is no
other logic behind not having their prices posted online.

Sasha reading in minds !

While you could be quite right in your assessment, there are any
number of reasons why a company might not post prices on the
internet.

Trying to think of some, I keep coming up empty. Can you help,
Michael (or anyone else?)

3 reasons I've seen in companies I've worked for :

-Prices fluctuate daily (that's the case for wholesellers of products that
are perishable and with a changing market).
-They list many products, but they don't keep all of them in stock, so if
you order, they call their supplier to check the current prices and
availability.
-Customers want to know prices in their currency, and the change rate
fluctuates. It's a loss of time to calculate in advance for products you
don't sell often to a given country.

One reason for my own business (I try to remedy...) :

-They have not the means (knowledge,time, quick connection..etc) to update a
webpage more than once in a blue moon. So it's easier to send the prices on
request by mail or even to send a catalogue.

One reason certain persons I know have, but that's more unlikely for tea :

-They don't want competitors to know easily all their price list, so they
give to customers only
the prices of the few articles/services they are interested in. Even if they
publish a price-list, it is "decorative" and you rarely get the announced
price. Many hotels do that as they are *fighting* for the big deals with
travel agencies and congresses.

I don't order much online or by the phone, unless it's standardized products
like ink for my printer, etc.
Puer and vintage teas are a special case, but for other teas, I find it a
bit *weird* that so many on-line retailers advertise teas at constant price
all year. I mean I don't mind if it's Lipton Yellow tea bags. But tea
leaves can be fresher or older, no ? So I tend to think that the good
on-line tea sellers are the more "flexible" about pricing.
You can shop around to check the market prices if you think they are
cheating on you.

Kuri