I think part of it is to blame on the fact that pretty much every shop out there advertises prices that are actually not the price they're willing to sell for and still make a decent profit. Instead they all want to be seen as being able to "do a special price for you", ie they put up the advertised price so that they can give you a "special" (lower) price and look good / get good reputation. Hence, you don't know what their price is until you ask them. Same thing with all the RRP rubbish; it doesn't reflect a "real" price given that pretty much no one charges RRP.
Where I'm from, prices are as shown on the price tags, and that's it, not much point in trying to get a better price really. Here in Australia it's quite different, and it took me some time to get used to because I felt rude or just wasn't used to it, but now I never pay what the price tag says without at least asking if they can do a better price. Nine out of ten times they can knock off 5-10% just like that, which leaves me thinking that paying advertised prices is probably not fair towards me.
So I too would ask for your prices, even if you display them on your site. It's just that I don't really know what your prices really are until we throw some numbers forth and back. At the same time I totally accept if you tell me that the prices are as advertised and that's it. Fair enough. Then I know. Most shops don't though, which means that's the norm here.
I totally agree with you that it's quite rude to ask you to spend a whole heap of time explaining things if they have no intention of buying from you. There's gotta be balance and fairness.
Anyway, I saw this thread as someone asking an innocent but, at least to him, important question to gauge what sort of prices people were getting, and told off a few posts later for seeking such information. That's all.
All the best


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