:@Spider
To a point, I don't disagree, but there has to be a limit on what is acceptable and the question is, where's that line. Some will find almost anything acceptable, others have a very moral and righteous perspective. You could say funeral directors are making a profit out of a dead person.........
I guess it depends a bit on how obviously it's done. Because this was highly obvious and done by a company that's already hated, it's got a certain response. The equivalent would be a funeral director talking to you about your dead relative and then saying the price in the brochure has gone up by 20% because it's your mum etc.
Sony have a proven history of being morally bankrupt in just about every way, treating their customers like dirt and generally doing anything for money. This is just another potential example. To all of those saying this was automatic, I don't believe it. They knew what they were doing and their statement actually supports that. If it were an automated process, they would have said so in their statement as this is far more justifiable and defencible than what they actually said. They would have said, 'An automated process mistakenly adjusted the price. We've now corrected that and refunded the difference for anybody who purchased it at the wrong price'.
That would have been great PR for Sony and would have shown an entirely different face. Their failure to take the obvious and defencible position very strongly suggests automation wasn't involved.
There has to be some sort of morality brought back into business, as otherwise, things will just continue to get worse and worse in the rampant drive towards profit. Yes, make a profit, but a sensible and reasonable one within reasonable moral grounds. If energy companies are making huge profits (and they are!!) out of gas and electricity, are they not at least a little culpable for the poor pensioners freezing to death for lack of money to pay for it? There has to be a moral compass somewhere.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
