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Slack has raised our charges by $195k per year

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Re: Slack has raised our charges by $195k per year

#911

Post by flare_blitz »

dakial1 wrote: post #862
seamanrob wrote: post #756

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, I'm Rob, the CPO at Slack (for real tho, this is my 3rd time posting this so please don't flag :pray:). This was a mistake. We're fixing it. We appreciate you, Hack Club, along with all of you that are Slack users following along :heart:.

Great you are owning the mistake and fixing it. May I suggest a public post mortem so that the doubters can see that you went after the root cause? Might be interesting for HN as well as big companies have mistakes in policy, teams and automated collections...

There is about as much ownership here as a squatter in a two-bedroom apartment. They are apologizing because they got caught, not because they genuinely believe they messed up.

Re: Slack has raised our charges by $195k per year

#912

Post by ribautista »

Barbing wrote: post #891
casq wrote: post #888

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi, update here (this is Christina, Hack Club cofounder): looks like Hack Club is staying on Slack. Thanks to all of you for the appreciation and support for Hack Club, and for listening to what we were going through. The support has been amazing. Hack Club has so many cool teenagers coding awesome projects, making friends and solving problems together, and it's great to see so many people championing them. We are gl…

Thanks for keeping us posted, Christina! Definitely like to judge folks based on how they fix (systemically!) problems. That said, did any kids in the club voice concerns about staying with an organization which had such a [potentially] severe incident?

I'm a Hack Clubber! Alot of teenagers did voice concerns as this incident destroyed the trust in Slack and was honestly a wake up call

Re: Slack has raised our charges by $195k per year

#913

Post by Mawr »

> However, two days ago, Slack reached out to us and said that if we don’t agree to pay an extra $50k this week and $200k a year, they’ll deactivate our Slack workspace and delete all of our message history.

Oh, 7 days to cough up $50k, cool. Slack enters my list of companies I will never do business with and actively dissuade everyone else from doing so.

Re: Slack has raised our charges by $195k per year

#914

Post by AdieuToLogic »

seamanrob wrote: post #756
casq wrote: post #176

Hi, I’m Christina, cofounder of Hack Club. We just announced this news to our community, and this post is from one of the teenagers in Hack Club. It’s an accurate description of what’s happened, and we’re grateful to them for posting. Slack changed the terms of a special deal we were given last year to charge us for staff and volunteers (not for every teenager coding), and we built programs around that special rate.…

Hey, I'm Rob, the CPO at Slack (for real tho, this is my 3rd time posting this so please don't flag :pray:). This was a mistake. We're fixing it. We appreciate you, Hack Club, along with all of you that are Slack users following along :heart:.

>> Then, suddenly, they called us 2 days ago and said they are going to de-activate the Hack Club Slack, including all message history from 11 years, unless we pay them $50,000 USD this week and $200,000 USD/year moving forward (plus additional annual fees for new accounts, including inactive ones)

> This was a mistake.

Calling a customer and extorting them for $50k USD this week and $200k USD per year going forward is not "a mistake."

It is a business decision which your organization made and did not expect to be held accountable for same.

> We appreciate you, Hack Club ...

You have a very different definition of "appreciate", unless you are using it in the accounting sense[0].

0 - https://accountinginsights.org/what-is-appreciation-in-accou...

Re: Slack has raised our charges by $195k per year

#915

Post by AdieuToLogic »

dhdresser wrote: post #838
casq wrote: post #176

Hi, I’m Christina, cofounder of Hack Club. We just announced this news to our community, and this post is from one of the teenagers in Hack Club. It’s an accurate description of what’s happened, and we’re grateful to them for posting. Slack changed the terms of a special deal we were given last year to charge us for staff and volunteers (not for every teenager coding), and we built programs around that special rate.…

Hi everyone — Denise Dresser here, CEO of Slack. As Rob shared, this was our mistake. An oversight in our billing process caused the issue, and I’m truly sorry for the concern it created. As soon as our team learned about it, we corrected it and restored Hack Club’s nonprofit pricing. Christina - we have reached out directly and are committed to working with Hack Club to ensure your workspace remains fully accessible…

> Hi everyone — Denise Dresser here, CEO of Slack. As Rob shared, this was our mistake. An oversight in our billing process caused the issue ...

An "oversight in our billing process" does not explain why one of your representatives demanded of a long-term customer:

  However, two days ago, Slack reached out to us and said 
  that if we don’t agree to pay an extra $50k this week and 
  $200k a year, they’ll deactivate our Slack workspace and 
  delete all of our message history.
> As soon as our team learned about it, we corrected it and restored Hack Club’s nonprofit pricing.

The demand is reported as being made on 2025-09-16.

The post detailing same is dated 2025-09-18.

This HN submission is dated 2025-09-18.

Is it your position that "[as] soon as our team learned about it" is defined as when this HN submission was created and received so much attention?

Because it sure looks that way.

Re: Slack has raised our charges by $195k per year

#916

Post by lucasyvas »

seamanrob wrote: post #756
casq wrote: post #176

Hi, I’m Christina, cofounder of Hack Club. We just announced this news to our community, and this post is from one of the teenagers in Hack Club. It’s an accurate description of what’s happened, and we’re grateful to them for posting. Slack changed the terms of a special deal we were given last year to charge us for staff and volunteers (not for every teenager coding), and we built programs around that special rate.…

Hey, I'm Rob, the CPO at Slack (for real tho, this is my 3rd time posting this so please don't flag :pray:). This was a mistake. We're fixing it. We appreciate you, Hack Club, along with all of you that are Slack users following along :heart:.

We all work at companies and know how it works - you get away with what you can. You bet wrong and nobody will believe otherwise. If it was a mistake, it’s fireable.

Re: Slack has raised our charges by $195k per year

#917

Post by maximilianburke »

seamanrob wrote: post #756
casq wrote: post #176

Hi, I’m Christina, cofounder of Hack Club. We just announced this news to our community, and this post is from one of the teenagers in Hack Club. It’s an accurate description of what’s happened, and we’re grateful to them for posting. Slack changed the terms of a special deal we were given last year to charge us for staff and volunteers (not for every teenager coding), and we built programs around that special rate.…

Hey, I'm Rob, the CPO at Slack (for real tho, this is my 3rd time posting this so please don't flag :pray:). This was a mistake. We're fixing it. We appreciate you, Hack Club, along with all of you that are Slack users following along :heart:.

Will there be a publicly available post-mortem when the root cause has been identified?

Re: Slack has raised our charges by $195k per year

#918

Post by [deleted] »

casq wrote: post #176

Hi, I’m Christina, cofounder of Hack Club. We just announced this news to our community, and this post is from one of the teenagers in Hack Club. It’s an accurate description of what’s happened, and we’re grateful to them for posting. Slack changed the terms of a special deal we were given last year to charge us for staff and volunteers (not for every teenager coding), and we built programs around that special rate.…

[deleted]

Re: Slack has raised our charges by $195k per year

#919

Post by gblargg »

casq wrote: post #888
casq wrote: post #176

Hi, I’m Christina, cofounder of Hack Club. We just announced this news to our community, and this post is from one of the teenagers in Hack Club. It’s an accurate description of what’s happened, and we’re grateful to them for posting. Slack changed the terms of a special deal we were given last year to charge us for staff and volunteers (not for every teenager coding), and we built programs around that special rate.…

Hi, update here (this is Christina, Hack Club cofounder): looks like Hack Club is staying on Slack. Thanks to all of you for the appreciation and support for Hack Club, and for listening to what we were going through. The support has been amazing. Hack Club has so many cool teenagers coding awesome projects, making friends and solving problems together, and it's great to see so many people championing them. We are gl…

I'm surprised you aren't still going to move hosting. Now you have more time to do it carefully and not get burned again.

Re: Slack has raised our charges by $195k per year

#920

Post by atonse »

flare_blitz wrote: post #904
seamanrob wrote: post #756

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, I'm Rob, the CPO at Slack (for real tho, this is my 3rd time posting this so please don't flag :pray:). This was a mistake. We're fixing it. We appreciate you, Hack Club, along with all of you that are Slack users following along :heart:.

> This was a mistake. This looks extremely deliberate to me. Are you seriously suggesting that one of your sales reps accidentally demanded $250k from a bunch of teenagers?

No I’m pretty sure they’re suggesting that the account got somehow flagged as a for profit account, and they consider that a mistake and are fixing it.

I think you don’t have to find the least charitable interpretation for what they’re saying. There can be something in the middle.

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