[Leaping Gnome]

The whole "price is set by the publisher" is a bunch of crap I think. If the publisher sets the prices then bookstores would all sell at the same prices. You think Amazon lets publishers control their prices? No, they buy copies at wholesale for price X and resell at price Y, all the publisher/wholesaler controls is price X. I can't believe it's not the same at Sony. You think Sony allows the publisher to control their profits? That the publisher walks into Sony and says I'll sell you a book for price X and you're only allowed to resell it for price Y? I can't see how that would work, Sony would agree to buy it for price X and resell it for whatever price they wanted. It's up to Sony to insure their profits, I can't see them handing that control over to a publisher.

I think the whole pricing thing especially where they try to charge hardback prices for books in paperback, simply goes back to technical competence. I don't think they have a way to easily, automatically update book prices. Looks at the UI for the store, look at the problems many of us have had with the books themselves from the store with graphics, prices different in the cart than displayed, scan problems, etc... I think the general level of competence that has been displayed in the client software and the store probably permeates through the backend systems as well. It will get you by, but it's by no means great with plenty of room for improvement. I don't think they are maliciously intentionally trying to overcharge $10+ for some books, I just don't think they know better or their systems aren't setup in such a way as to make it better. That's the only explanation I see.