How to Document Different Prices Online

How to Document Different Prices Online

When two people see different online prices, capture the same item, seller, store, time, account conditions, promotion, cart, and total before the interface changes. Keep the original files and describe only what the evidence shows.

Two screenshots can document a difference. They usually cannot explain why it happened.

1. Pause both sessions

Do not refresh one screen while the other shopper keeps browsing. Record the local time and time zone on both devices. If possible, start the comparison at the same minute.

Confirm that both sessions use the same website or app, seller, store location, delivery or pickup method, and destination area. A marketplace may route two addresses to different physical stores even when the retailer name looks the same.

2. Match the exact item

Open the same product through a shared URL or product identifier. Record the brand, full name, package size, count, flavor or variant, quantity, and seller.

For groceries, distinguish a fixed package from an item sold by weight. A one-pound estimate and a final in-store weight are not the same price event.

The FTC's online shopping guidance recommends using manufacturer or model identifiers, size, and total cost when comparing products. The same discipline applies to a price-variation record.

3. Record the account conditions

Note whether each shopper is logged in, using a guest session, or browsing privately. Record the membership, loyalty account, clipped coupon, promo code, first-order offer, subscription benefit, and payment-specific discount.

Do not publish account numbers or loyalty identifiers. The record needs to say that a benefit existed, not expose the credential that enabled it.

Device type and app version may matter as interface conditions even when they do not explain the price. Record them without claiming that the device caused the difference.

4. Capture the product page

Take a full-page screenshot that includes the product, size, seller or store, displayed price, reference price, discount, quantity, and visible terms. Capture the address bar or app screen title when safe.

If the page has an information panel for the pricing policy, promotion, or loyalty terms, capture that separately. On Instacart, the current item-pricing page explains where to find each retailer's marketplace pricing policy.

Do not crop the original. Make a redacted copy later if the evidence is shared.

5. Add the item to both carts

The product tile may not show every part of the transaction. Add the same quantity to each cart and capture the item subtotal, discounts, fees, taxes, delivery terms, tip treatment, and final total before purchase.

Do not buy something merely to complete the test. If a purchase was already intended, preserve the confirmation and receipt as a separate record.

FTC guidance advises shoppers to keep the seller, website, item, date, amount, policy, and communications. Those fields make a complaint easier to examine.

6. Save a compact evidence record

Use one row per shopper and one observation ID per session.

The observation sentence should remain plain: "Account A showed $4.29 and Account B showed $4.79 for the recorded item at 8:31 p.m." Do not add "because the platform profiled Account B" unless separate evidence supports that cause.

7. Preserve originals and redact copies

Keep the original screenshots, screen recordings, receipts, and messages in a private folder. Do not overwrite them with annotations.

Create separate sharing copies. Remove names, exact addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, order numbers, payment details, loyalty identifiers, account photos, and any unrelated items in the cart.

Record what was redacted. A reporter or regulator may later ask to inspect an original through a secure channel.

8. Repeat the comparison once

Repeat the matched session after a short, recorded interval if the offer is still available. Then repeat with the account order reversed or through a clean session if doing so does not violate the service's terms.

A repeat result helps distinguish a persistent difference from a refresh, cache, inventory update, or expired promotion. It still does not reveal the assignment rule.

Do not create many accounts, automate scraping, bypass access controls, or interfere with the service. A useful consumer record does not require an adversarial test.

9. Ask the company a precise question

Contact the seller or platform with the observation IDs, redacted images, exact item, store, time, and arithmetic. Ask which pricing policy or promotion explains the difference and which party controlled it.

On Instacart, the help page says a shopper can report incorrect information from the item detail view. The general Help Center provides current order and account support routes.

Save the question, response, case number, and date. A company answer may identify a coupon, store mismatch, retailer markup, error, or test. It may also leave the cause unresolved.

10. Escalate through the appropriate route

USAGov's current online-purchase complaint guide recommends contacting the seller or website first. If that does not resolve the issue, it points consumers to state consumer-protection offices, state attorneys general, the FTC for scams and suspicious communications, and econsumer.gov for international purchases.

Choose the route that matches the conduct and jurisdiction. A regulator may collect the report without resolving an individual price difference. A complaint portal does not guarantee access to a platform's proprietary assignment logic.

If the claim involves discrimination, a material financial loss, a contractual dispute, or a specific law, obtain qualified legal advice before making a legal accusation.

What the packet proves

flowchart LR
    A["Matched screenshots"] --> B["Different offers documented"]
    B --> C["Repeated comparison"]
    C --> D["Pattern worth investigating"]
    D --> E["Company or system records needed for cause"]

A clean packet can establish that two recorded sessions differed. It can rule out several ordinary explanations. It can give a company, reporter, or regulator enough detail to reproduce the comparison.

It cannot, by itself, prove that the platform used income, age, disability, location, shopping history, willingness to pay, or another personal trait. That claim requires evidence connecting an input to the outcome.

[[How to Audit an Online Pricing Study]] provides the full review method. For the case that prompted E095, read [[What Consumer Reports Found in Its Instacart Pricing Test]]. For an ordinary household comparison across retailers, use E099's [[How to Compare Grocery Prices Across Stores]].

This guide was developed from FTC and USAGov consumer guidance, current Instacart support materials, experimental-design principles, and the E095 investigation record. It is consumer education, not legal advice. AI assistance was used for research organization, drafting, and validation. Publication remains unauthorized.