I wanted a quick bite for lunch, so I drove down the street to go through the drive through at the local Taco Bell. As I was waiting for my order to be taken, I noticed this "brilliant" piece of advertising and pricing.

Now, the quality isn’t very good because I only had my phone camera with me.

They have the traditional combo menu and now the "New, Why Pay More!" menu.

(I noticed it wasn’t a question - type-o or intentional?   
         That should have been my first clue there was something afoot.)

You can get a soft taco or a crunchy taco for $.89. Great.

You can get a large drink for $1.69. Sounds reasonable.

You can get a hard taco combo for $4.59 or a soft taco combo for $4.89.

I sat there puzzled for a moment. Why is the soft taco combo more money by $.10 per taco when you can buy them individually for the same price?

A little math and here is what you get.

Buy them separate and you get 3 tacos (soft or crunchy) + a large Pepsi

        $4.36.

So, you buy the combo and you pay an additional $.20 for crunchy tacos and an additional $.50 for soft tacos.

So, people pay more because of the stupid pricing structure… or because they just don’t pay attention to a business trying to take them for a ride.

How many people do you think actually take the time to note that if they buy the combo they are actually paying more? I bet it is the same people that buy the big can of soup because they think it is a better value when if they would just do the math, two smaller cans actually cost less.

Of course, I spent $2.23 in gas to get there and back, so what’s another $.50! (notice I didn’t use a question mark… Seinfeld would be proud!!)

I have chronic heart burn and I have to take medication for that heart burn. The best drug that works for me is Nexium. But, I don’t take that because my insurance co-pay is too expensive. If I did take that, I would only have to take one per day.

Because Nexium isn’t a preferred drug on the insurance policy, I have to take two per day of Priolsec (or its generic equivalent). So, instead of 30 pills per month, I take 60 pills per month. If I miss a pill, I have a horrible few hours until the next pill kicks in.

I thought I would do a little research on what the real cost is.  

The total cost per month for my prescription is $153.99. Because I have a reasonable insurance plan, my co pay for that drug is $10.00 and the pharmacy is proud to say that I “saved” $143.99.

I decided to look at Amazon.com for comparisons.

Here is what I found.

I can buy my drugs over the counter, with no prescription, - the brand name version Prilosec OTC for $38.96 per month. But, the insurance company doesn’t pay anything; I am responsible for the full price.

I can also buy a generic version of the drug for $28.56 per month.

Again, the insurance company is not willing to pay anything, so I have to pick up the full tab.

I choose, like most people do, to have the insurance company pick up the cost. I figure the economic choice is simple.

I can pay $10.00, $28.56 or $38.96 per month. I figure I pay $600 per month for my plan, I am going to use it to it’s fullest. Why should I pay 3 or 4 times the cost when I already am paying my insurance company so much to do that for me.

Which would you choose?

I find this fascinating because they are the exact same drug. Exact same dosage. Different package and different marketing route.

I think my head will explode if I hear one more politician say that we need health insurance for everyone. I am at the edge of dumping mine because of stupid pricing schemes like this one.

Hey, insurance company… I’ll give you a $30 co-pay for a six month supply if you let me buy the generic over the counter stuff…

I’ll save $60 per year and you’ll save $1,445.16.

Oh… they really didn’t save me $143.99… they saved me $18.56.

I was looking at some cell phone plans today. What is wrong with this?

I love the line that says, “Whether you have one employee or thousands, T-Mobile as plans that suit your business needs.”

Still don’t see the problem?

They only have three choices. What if I have an employee that only needs 100 minutes? What if I have an employee that needs 1000 minutes?

More than that, why wouldn’t I just just choose the unlimited individual plan for $99.99?

Here’s a clue… if you boast that you have a plan for any need, you better have more than three… you better be flexible in your offerings.

I flew into Honolulu last night on a much needed vacation… but the mind of a blogger never rests.

My wife and I were waiting at carousel D6 for our bags. After we had been waiting for about 15 minutes… marveling that so many bags go unclaimed while so many people stand and wait for their bags to appear, we heard an interesting announcement.

“For your convenience, passengers on flight 1865 can pick up their bags on either carousel D6 or D7.”

Did I get that right? Now, I am responsible to check two different carousels? How do I know which to check? How is that convenient for me?

So, I walked over to D6 and my wife stayed at D7.

Was it really for my convenience? I don’t think so. I think it was for the convenience of the baggage handlers. However, it doesn’t seem too customer friendly to say, “Sorry, we messed up. Now you’ll have to look in two places for your baggage.”

Corey Smith is the Chief Web Architect for Dealer Marketing Systems.

Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. Just the name is annoying. Have you seen this anywhere? Do you know what it is?

This is the stupid little box at the bottom of many forms that ask you to validate if you are human or not. Some are simple (like add 2 + 2 and input your answer). Some are obscured text to input.

Sometimes they are downright impossible to decipher. I had to try 4 times the other day before I could get my account set up on one site.

John points us to a list of the worst CAPTCHAs found on the web. If you find worse, let me know. Here they go:

Corey Smith
Co-founder of Resumango where you can build a better resume for free

How long does it take someone to go to your home page and understand what they are supposed to do?

When someone is using a search engine to do research for a product they would like to buy, they aren’t going to take time to go deep into your product offerings unless they have a compelling reason to do so. The presentation on your home page (or any other landing page, for that matter) is critical to get them to stay. It does you no good to attract people to your site then lose them because your presentation stinks.

Make your presentation simple and to the point. Don’t leave them with questions as what you are all about or where to go next on your site.

You already know that rambling in verbal communication is bad, so don’t let your marketing ramble either.

Corey Smith
Co-founder of Resumango where you can build a better resume for free

What is wrong with this pricing model? (look at two buttons on the right)

If I pay for three days, one day at a time, I pay only $27. If I want to get one three day pass, I pay an additional $13. Is that for the convenience? Or for the stupid?

$13… bad luck.

Thanks to John for the image.

Corey Smith
Co-founder of Resumango where you can build a better resume for free