False choices that work

from Seth's Blog by Seth Godin

Just finished buying some checks online. Got to the page with the ridiculous charges for shipping and handling. They were:

Slow...$14 (Expected delivery, December 15th)
Fast...$18 (Expected delivery, December 10th)
Expedited...$18 (Expected delivery, December 5th)

"Wow!" I said to myself, "I'll show them... I'll get the expedited shipping without paying a penny more than fast."

Perhaps I'm the only customer who had the insight, intelligence and flair to both realize it and take advantage of it. Perhaps some employee is quaking in his boots, fearful for his job because of the millions in losses his employers are going to take because he mispriced expedited shipping.

Or perhaps, perhaps, everybody chooses Expedited.

Nine times out of ten, especially online, people focus on comparisons, not absolutes.