Jaroslav

@SirBillybob, I understand your prose just fine and enjoy it. It’s nice to read something written by someone who clearly possesses a vocabulary larger than your quotidian troglodyte. 

Or you should accept reality and not impose some fantasy of your own concoction. If you insist on continuing in that fantasy, that, my friend, we call deluuuuuusional.

I'm not a fan of haggling.  I f I don't think the price is fair for that market I'll move on.  Fortunately I have a lot of choice in Toronto.
That being said, if a provider contacted me first I'm likely to tell them they are overcharging and 5hat I would only pay $x.

I didn’t initiate a dust-up with you and I’m shutting it down. Take it to another mat. It’s also completely tangential to the flow of the topic. Like I said, a minor blip was followed by a make-up kiss. If this is a visa application for any sense of accountability on my part, to you directly, it’s “in progress”. You are seething and I have better things to do. I’m not trying to pull off your wings for shits and giggles. You do you.

If said escort is late, I expect a cut rate without question. Or extended time. If that’s off the table for you, shut your sanctimonious mouth. I’ve had escorts take my money, expect my money for the full time and be hours late. It’s not about fairness and ethics here as you seem to naively and stupidly insist. I as the client don’t have any obligation to pay for time promised but not spent with me. You’re making me angry by myopically insisting that only clients seek to undercut here.
You’re also imposing British expectations on an American market. Also annoyingly blind to nuance and circumstances. 

I don’t think asking if a 30 minute rate is any different. And asking isn’t haggling. And if you ask a restaurant for a lunch menu, if they’re a decent place, they’re not going to insult your tastes. The point is, options exist. Asking for options is not the problem. How that’s handled is the issue at hand. I don’t see why that’s so difficult to understand.

But some restaurants offer smaller portions for smaller prices. Lots of folks ask for the lunch menu, which is just that. Which, coincidentally, is likely in part reduced because the clientele is fixed for time and have to eat and run.

It was levity. I don’t go there. So no. I can’t. Nor would I.
But…Show me the store where escorts sit in a booth with prices hanging off their dicks for me go browse and I’ll accept the one-for-one comparison between escorts and US big box stores…

I may not be an escort. But I am a client. An experienced client. And I’ve had escorts set up interactions that will lead to negotiations (test my limits) by asking what I’m offering in response to a simple inquiry about rate. That sets the table for negotiation. Likewise I’ve had escorts undercut me. Multiple escorts, so it’s not one off. Don’t shit on a plate and tell me it’s chocolate. Don’t insult my intelligence and gaslight by saying, “Well, that’s not really negotiating” or “The provider has a set price.” It’s simply not always true. 

It was levity. I don’t go there. So no. I can’t. Nor would I.
But…Show me the store where escorts sit in a booth with prices hanging off their dicks for me go browse and I’ll accept the one-for-one comparison between escorts and US big box stores…

There are several standards in negotiation theory, classes, books etc
One is you should always be negotiating whether for a hot dog or a multimillion dollar contract. As you need to always be on alert to see where there may be flexibility so you need this trait internalized.
Another is, don’t assume things aren’t negotiable as almost everything is.
I’ve paid “not published” prices for things at my corner shop (deli) many times 😊 It doesn’t make me an ass, since I’m not imposing the paid price and it’s with mutual ageeement which there wouldn’t be if it caused pain for either party. Im not bargaining every time I buy a can of Coke, but if I’m buying out his entire supply of coke for a dinner party (which I’ve done) there may be a conversation (and it’s rare he’s said “sorry I can’t do that”).
The owner gets my loyalty and maybe that makes him agreeable to sensible proposals since there are 5 other identical stores within walking distance of my residence. 

What only a really hot guy and experienced escort can maybe get away with, and this is a direct straight-faced quote, year 2004, (albeit translated to English) from a regular provider: “If you want my condomed dick in your mouth for a few minutes, that shifts us into the territory of muscle worship and the fee you’ve been paying goes from $300 to $900.”
Sure, it’s an extreme example but this, my first experience of repeat hiring, reflected that he is no less the face of sex trade dynamics than any other, and represented that negotiating is def on the table. It’s not solidly baked in; the dish isn’t done until that component is stirred in, two hands too spoons.
He taught me that … so don’t shoot me; shoot the representative. If escorts wish to distance from his playbook, fine. I myself have a fiduciary responsibility to fairly represent my own service field, so I can just as easily assert that the vicissitudes of negotiation are a ‘you problem, not a me problem’. 
Parenthetically, we locked in at $300 for a few subsequent years. He took his shot that I was obsessed and he openly admitted it. I would be more amenable to buying the ‘bad apple’ theory if there weren’t the degree of evidence that the homeostasis of ambiguity, the ambiguity that @Jaroslav referenced earlier, is supported by the profession. 

I don’t have it anymore figured out than anyone else who’s not an escort. But just because you say it’s so doesn’t make it so.
The whole point of this thread is honesty and clarity of communication.
But clarity removes the leverage providers have over clients (in escorting and in business in general) so of course there’s a desire to maintain ambiguity.

Well, drillings and fillings in my bazoo but sometimes wanna send back the dish. Desserts not all just. 

@SirBillybob, fascinating perspective, and one definitely worth considering more deeply.
I definitely love my job but I am also definitely underappreciated by those I work with. That’s the reality for many. I couldn’t imagine doing something else because in part, I’m not in it for the money. Although money is obviously important.
decency goes along way. Particularly in industries that want to style themselves “service.“ If you’re truly serving, then you’re going to come out on the short end of the stick. The nature of servanthood and service is to be diminutive. Anybody who works in any type of service needs to accept that going in. Does it mean that at times I don’t get cynical or even resentful? By no means. But it’s important to ground yourself in the choice that you made.
Is escorting a service profession? A service job? Is it closer to therapist or waiter? We sometimes compare it to dentistry. Sometimes to airlines. Which is it? Am I approaching a guy who does this largely for the pleasure of his clients or am I approaching a guy who sees clients as a sad-but-necessary burden?
A Facebook friend posted this, given his work around the Easter holiday as a musician: 
 
It seems that some work we’re A-okay saying, “You do XYZ uncompensated,” while others we say, “To expect any one minute dedicated to work without pay is unethical!” I call hypocrisy! I’ve found to be effective at my job I do a helluva lot more work than I’m fairly compensated for.
Hey! Maybe I should become an escort 🤣 

I think that potentiating internalized shame comes into play. Your illustration about work prompted me to think about overarching themes. 
I, too, overworked and overperformed, and that may be partly an elective compensatory trait geared to proving worth. Although rising to the high bar of a challenge can be edifying, no?
I have to watch that I don’t overcompensate for providers’ implicit meta-messaging about performative labour they are putting up with, or my own projection of that shame onto the dynamic. 
Similarly, in brothel settings watch that I don’t take the attitude: “You are better off accepting a less than ideal amount from me compared to scoring zilch waiting for a job offer.” 

Only absent negotiation!
Love the numerical classification. It may seem crass but the anal retentiveness some here have about being comped for every second or it’s a waste of time leads to such crass reductionism!
I get a salary. A salary way under the salaries of many in other fields with similar levels of education but a salary nonetheless. I also work 70-80 hours a week and am on call 24/7. My only real me time is if I declare to my workplace I’m incommunicado. So to hear that you need to be compensated for every second you dedicate to work does ruffle my feathers.
So, the question really comes down to if escorting is paying for an experience or paying for time. If it’s a rate per event or a rate per hour. Of course, we are going to say it’s both because sometimes it’s advantageous to negotiate an experiential price and sometimes it’s advantageous to negotiate a timely price. We – client and provider – want to maximize gain and minimize cost.
Unless of course you like throwing money around. Some do. I find gaudy shows of exorbitant profligacy tacky. 

You can save that wipe and spread your man milk all over your skin. It is highly nutritious. My youngish face is a testimony of it.
The economy is tough right now. 

My masturbation to internal fantasies rates 7.0/10 and costs the price of a wipe. To erotica 7.5/10 and the upcharge of a few minutes of bandwidth. Getting off with an escort 8.0/10, equivalent to a year’s supply of wipes and bandwidth. But it rates the best. Time is money. Much of life is oriented to conserving both. These attempts are visibly externalized. Let me know when the rules of engagement are set. The discussion thus far is zero-sum to infinity.

Partly because of successive rounds of layoffs in prior years 
And the economy aside that’s partly because of other business models (eg online, outsourcing) decimating theirs while they stubbornly ignored market trends and set their prices and made business models because they thought they could.
Market trends …ah yes, that factor in this topic discussion that several seem to ignore while growling at those referring to it for the escorting industry and pricing, 

Best Buy aka Amazon's showroom 
Like a Frequent Fucking Card? 9 fucks and the 10th is free!

I’ve been thinking on that too. For some reason, some clients here seem to enjoy paying exorbitant prices for escorts. That’s a function of so-called luxury goods. A Lexus, for example. For a Mercedes. Jewelry. People will brag about much they spent on these things for two reasons: 1) they have acquired the status of Lexus owner by buying a Lexus and 2) they have the means to purchase something at a crazy price without it impacting them negatively and that also puts them in a “tier.” This is all part of the experience. And it’s a class thing as well. “I don’t negotiate with escorts because I don’t have to. I can throw money around like a toddler splashing in the pool.” That’s the nature of luxury goods. And escorts, for some, fall into that category.
Now, some escorts want to think they’re a 2024 Mercedes GLE when in fact they’re a 1999 Ford Fiesta! 😆 

Absent a public list of what the going rates are for things, people are always going to wonder if they’re being traken advantage of. @DWnychits the nail on the head by pointing this out when he says that providers can communicate with one another more easily than clients. This forum is important for that, but it’s one of the only places I know of it happening, and both the kind of provider and kind of client is skewed in a particular direction here. This forum even doesn’t offer a good opportunity to have a clear picture of what the going rate is for particular times and activities. And I would surmise that having something here that did delineate that, while clearing up a lot of confusion and ridding a lot of headache, would be objected to by both clients and providers precisely because the secrecy of pricing allows for haggling to get the best deal on both sides. Open information would eliminate that satisfaction of having “made out.”

In fact, I suggest, if prices were publicly listed for a sundry activities, negotiation would greatly decrease. The very fact that price is so shrouded in secrecy makes negotiating more likely. A client is going to want to know he’s not overpaying for the same experience someone else got. If client A was quoted $2500 for a weekend, client B doesn’t want to pay $5000. But if “Weekend” isn’t listed publicly, and clients need to ask for a weekend rate, the door opens for negotiating. I would like it if prices were clearly listed so I didn’t have to ask. It really detracts from the experience for me.

That’s actually not true for every escort or every site or every country.