[duey]

Not in the long term obviously, but you can't make a product extremely difficult to buy and then complain that everyone is taking the easy route.

[danielweber]

Talking to someone on the phone is not "extremely difficult." Large companies buy stuff by talking to people on the phone all the time.

[thaumasiotes]

Perhaps a method used exclusively by very large companies is that way for a reason? Of course purchasing by talking to someone on the phone is extremely difficult. The only reason people sell that way is to make sure they can hassle you as much as possible during the sale.

[DanBC]

And it sucks as a method of buying something.

[the_ancient]

and I have a policy that if the company does not practice open pricing by publishing their prices online I will not do business with them..

Fuck that non-sense of pricing based on what ever they think they can scam me out of