Caveat Venditor

In Daniel Pink's new book To Sell is Human, he makes the statement that we have moved from a world of caveat emptor to caveat venditor.  He means that in the internet-connected world, the seller has so much good information, he's one step ahead of any seller who tries to make a fraudulent sale.  It seems to me that the problem is that the buyer has TOO MUCH information and the role of the seller has changed to one who sorts through the information and makes sense of it as it relates to the buyer.  That certainly is true in the world of travel.  Travel advertising makes a point of obscuring the truth.  One example is the airlines code share agreements which obscure, if not hide, the actual service provider.  Another is promotions offering "up to $2000 in savings" when to get the $2000 in savings you have to buy the top tier product, and savings on the regular product is more on the order of $200.  How about the hotels who have now started adding daily "resort fees" of up to $20-$30 a day to your bill for providing things that were previously free?  Those fees often aren't revealed until you get there...gotcha!  What about the information collected on the ubiquitous public review forums?  Do you really trust John Doe from Podunk USA to tell you where you ought to stay in Istanbul?  Having information is one thing...making sense of it is another.  And I won't even mention how much time the buyer must invest in collecting all of this suspect information.  The buyer must still decide whom to trust.  Trust someone with expertise; trust your travel agent; trust me!

BTW, I purchased a fake Rolex watch in Ephesus.  By the time we reached the port city of Kusadasi, it had stopped running so I took it into a watch shop.  The young proprietor told me the problem was that I had bought a fake Rolex instead of a GENUINE fake Rolex (from him, of course).  Anyone need a Rolex?  I have one I'll sell you.