Correct. Every mattress store sells brand name mattresses with model numbers exclusive to them with highly inflated retail prices with each piece selling for $179.99.
Must be a slow news day 
The fact that they changed the way the presented their email offers suggests they were advised it was a bit dodgy.
I just found all their emails tiresome and unsubscribed in any case.
Jon Newman isn’t Kermit Lynch, and I don’t particularly want a steady stream of his special selections in the inbox.
Department stores have “White Sale” pricing on bedding 364 days a year, and one day at regular price. Flatware, especially silver, is another product sold that way.
They rarely get taken to task.
P Hickner
I always Google what they sell just to see comparisons.
If what they’re accused of is true (and the details make me think it is), WTSO engaged in some pretty scummy behavior: using outright lies to sell product. I don’t know why anyone is okay with that.
Ever shop on Amazon? For anything? Anyone here notice that almost everything on Amazon has a “list price” noted? A “list price” that no one in their right mind would actually buy the product for? And yes I buy from WTSO and Amazon.
I have, and those prices seem like standard retail prices. It’s not a lie. A heck of a lot of consumers must not be “in their right mind”, because I guarantee many of those products actually sell for those prices in brick and mortar retail locations. That is completely different from having an exclusive product and making up a price so high that even if it were available elsewhere, it would never be sold for that price. Even if Amazon does have exclusivity on some of those products, they seem to be giving an idea of what a standard markup would be, compared to the thin margins they work with. Your comparison is not at all relevant.
Random product check, Amazon, regular price $35.99, selling for $18.88, claiming you save 48%:
However, if you go to the company website, this product sells regularly for $21.99, not $35.99:
https://www.etekcity.com/product/100083
So who you suing now? 
I don’t know about the list pricing legitimacy, but I’ve bought a lot from them the last 4 years. Their prices are lowest I’ve found. I’m pissed they lost their right to ship to Texas. I asked them if they were working on it, they replied their execs were absolutely looking for a way back into Texas. It it was going to be a while.
You must write copy for Faux news. Learn how to read. I asked who cares if people were mislead about whether it was really the last bottle WTSO had.
This:
and this:
In the abstract I’m equally supportive of consumer protection and dubious of the class-action bar (allll those people hurt because both the last 4 digits of your credit card AND the expiration date were on the receipt…), but at a personal level this is, as they said in 1L year, mere puffery.
One question is whether or not the wine is worth whatever you paid for it.
If it is, do you like it less because although you paid the $20 it was worth, you only bought it because the seller said it was supposed to be a $40?
Does a $20 wine that was supposed to cost $40 taste better than that same wine if it was originally to be a $20 wine?
I would certainly spend a few years of my life chasing down someone who cheated me out of $20 even though I couldn’t tell exactly how.
If the bottler had a MSRP of $40, would that matter even if the wine was never actually offered for that price?
Anyway, this is classic:
The complaint also alleges that WTSO used inflated prices for well-known brands such as Mer Soleil Chardonnay to make their discounted prices appear to be even more of a bargain.
Mer Soleil itself is the real offense here.
Chalk up Amazon right there with Breitbart “News” as your go-to source for noformation.
Yup…no doubt about it…WTSO are absolute scumbags for using such deceptive/outrageous marketing tactics and should be thrown in jail.
OTOH, when I go out and buy a new car…I am perfectly fine…nay…happy…to pay the MSRP sticker price!!! ![[snort.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/b/bdc3944606213c4dca6c1169cf0a166c8bc4f8c9.gif "snort.gif"){kind=small}
And if the salesman is wearing a bright plaid sport coat…so much the better. I’m a smart buyer…I am!!
Tom
Almost every single wine at every supermarket chain in my area has all wines marked down by at least $10, even though you wouldn’t expect to pay $25 for Kung Fu Girl Reisling at a restaurant. Why is nobody suing them? Yesterday, WTSO offered Ernest Meurgey-Perron Pouilly-Fuisse 2014 at $20 with a suggested retail of $50. I’ve never seen Pouilly-Fuisse priced at $50 before, but I’ve also not seen a single bottle in Ohio selling for less than $30, and those were probably marked down from $39.99. I can’t see how anyone was injured by WTSO’s pricing strategy*, or how one would even quantify damages if one were to disagree with the first part.
*Besides the State of Ohio, who won’t get to tack on 7.5% to the sale price, but screw them and their publicly funded hockey stadium.
From 39.99 to 20.00, seems like the damages are 19.99 for that one bottle they bought. Seems like a good award and everybody walks away satisfied except the taxpayer who paid for the judicial system.
Tom - when it comes to car sales, the dealer always does the market research for you and presents you with all of the information you need regarding the competitors. And they don’t try to sell you pricey add-ons.
With wine it’s completely different. There is no way to find out how much a bottle is worth unless you ask a bona-fide expert. And near as I can tell, there are only two of them in the world these days. So every purchase of wine is stressful and has to be followed by a trip to your safe space.
I think the other thing they should throw into the lawsuit is WTSO’s practice of using reviews from critics who aren’t really well-known. They use scores that are VERY misleading because sometimes they say a wine is 93 points but if you look up the Parker score, it’s only 91.
Given that this item is “Sold by Etekcity and Fulfilled by Amazon,” it seems more likely that the seller – not Amazon – provided the inflated reference price.
I have bought from WTSO five times over the years. Here are the wines, the per bottle price, and the purchase date. My biggest regret is that I only bought one bottle of the Rare. Blind against Comtes, Cuvee Louise and Pol Roger Cuvee de Reserve of the same vintage in 20165, it kicked ass. I do not regret any of the purchases and I think I got good deals on wines I like. You may not like the wines, but that is a different issue. PS- The Frazier is Pobega’s fault. He told me to buy it.
Clarendon Hills ‘Astralis’ Syrah 2007 $119.99 09/21/15
Brut Champagne ‘Rare’ Piper-Heidsieck 2002 $119.99 11/06/14
Fattoria Viticcio Chianti Classico Riserva 2007 $23.09 11/09/11
Two Hands Wines Charlie’s Patch 2008 $39.49 08/31/11
Frazier Estate Cabernet 2005 $25.49 07/14/10
Hahaha, fair enough. Obviously I was wrong. I do shop for a pretty narrow range of products on Amazon, so this might be happening there more than I’m aware. To be fair, I did look up a couple of random products before posting my response and didn’t find this type of situation. Anyway, I’m not suing anyone over any of this and wouldn’t, but I still think it’s scummy, even on Amazon’s part.
Using highly questionable “usual”, “suggested”, and “regular” prices for wine is hardly limited to WSTO.
Today Last Bottle has 2014 Clos de Luz Carmenere Massal 1945 for sale at $16, with a regular price stated as $32, and "best on web at $24. Winesearcher give the average price as $18, and no shops listed in the US at all. The only shop worldwide that shows up in in Chile, price $22.38. I won’t go into Rimmerman’s Mystery Wine shenanigans here, but most of you know what I’m talking about.
I think the lawsuit accurately goes after WTSO for fictitious prices on wines that are custom bottled for them exclusively.
It seems they have already backed off on the way they now say “comparable”. Now they just need to openly disclose the conflict of interest with using Johnathan Newman for ratings.
P Hickner