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Ask HN: Is “contact us for pricing” a dark pattern?

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Re: Ask HN: Is “contact us for pricing” a dark pattern?

#81
post #58
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's more about charging prices based on what customers are willing to pay rather than a fixed price. In B2B sales you can swing much higher prices from bigger clients for the same thing, but that's harder if they know what you charge smaller businesses.

People talk. I'm in a specific industry and on a lot of industry specific mailing lists. When companies charge some of us extra, everyone quickly learns about it and that ends up making the vendor look bad and makes everyone in the industry seek alternatives.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Is “contact us for pricing” a dark pattern?

#82
post #58
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's more about charging prices based on what customers are willing to pay rather than a fixed price. In B2B sales you can swing much higher prices from bigger clients for the same thing, but that's harder if they know what you charge smaller businesses.

People talk. I'm in a specific industry and on a lot of industry specific mailing lists. When companies charge some of us extra, everyone quickly learns about it and that ends up making the vendor look bad and makes everyone in the industry seek alternatives.

It's not that companies are charging arbitrarily different amounts. They package features and levels of service or support differently for bespoke contracts, and that makes some of them cost more.

Any email list that failed to observe this would not be useful other than for the small companies looking for the feature/price floor.

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