Volume Pricing Chaos

A real-life pricing fail - when pricing communication only leaves question marks?

There are many types of prices out there. Single prices, scale prices, bundle prices, promotional prices etc. And unfortunately, far too often we see prices that simply defy common sense and logic!

...Think of a subscription service where you pay per user. The more users you can sign up, the lower the cost per user should be. - And do you get frustrated every time you don't have enough employees or colleagues to take advantage of the next scale price?! Because I do! #GiveMeMoreForMyMoney

Using scaled prices seems like a great way to save money. The more you buy, the less each unit costs you. Yet, although this seems very intuitive, the very opposite happened in the example below.

And certainly, we couldn't resist the urge to ask whether this price setting was on purpose (after all, we love having fun with pricing!).

The responses, or rather the speed with which they came, suggested that this wasn’t a known fact, but the customer service representatives did try their best. They really worked hard to articulate and justify the logic behind their pricing strategy and clear the confusion. And we waited patiently. But the master of the pricing disaster was apparently not in the office anymore! #Disappeared

For a “commercial user” this is unacceptable, and the frustration is greater when the customer does not receive a satisfactory answer. If you can’t explain it, I might as well go to the competition.

Sadly, logic and price consistence, seem to reduce in importance when internal pressure is applied. Combined with poorly trained customer service staff, it can be a recipe for disaster! #EpicFail

What would you say? Do we feel well advised and start the new business acquaintance with joyful anticipation? Or do we take a closer look at the billing after all?

English version below: