There’s a legitimate reason for this: the company is selling a product below the agreed on MSRP and likely have a stipulation with the company that they cannot advertise below that.
It’s not for engagement baiting, although I’m sure some company does that, but there’s a legit reason for it, usually.
People bitch about this constantly, and I get it, but a little google search would have an explanation for them why the price is hidden.
There's 2 big issue with that:
1. Not disclosing the price is also used by businesses that just use it as a way to use further sales tactics
2. People like those with ASD tend to despise with a passion "reaching out", and you just lose a bunch of good customers in the process of hiding the price, especially because they'll assume the risk of point 1 is too high 😵💫
Rainbow vacuums are a good example of #1. They don't advertise prices and won't even tell you the price until a salesperson has come to your house and demonstrated the product. This is because they are insanely expensive. It's a sunk cost thing. You're more willing to buy a $3000 vacuum cleaner if you've already spent so much of your time jumping through hoops.
Yeah, commercial software is a different beast, because nearly every business owner will ask for the product to be customized, making it impossible to give a price until after you have the requirements in writing.
Even if you have a standard package as a starting point, you don't want to give a price for it, because business owners will anchor to that and try to make you add things without increasing the price, because "it should be easy".
As a software developer, this is why I'll never work for an agency again. It's hard enough to handle the weird ideas from one marketing team. Implementing the insane and frequently self-destructive ideas from a hundred different companies is an absolute nightmare.
That's crazy to me. Inviting a salesperson over and having to deal with their slimy talk in your own home almost seems like a higher price than a few thousand dollars. I'm not sure if I would even want it for free if that's what it takes.
None of that negates what the person above says though. I worked retail for almost a decade and the "contact for price" thing was specifically because we had manufacturer agreements on certain products that prohibited us from showing the lower price online. The fact that scummy stores exist just means it's a good idea to research the place before calling in.
As far as the asd element, it's important to understand everything ain't for everybody. I worked for an online retailer. People who needed to physically touch the things they were buying or needed products set up a certain way because of certain mobility issues couldn't use us because those were limitations we couldn't work around. There were other options that could do those things if it was a non-negotiable for a customer. If someone wants the special pricing, calling in was literally the only way we could give it to you. If you can't call in, unfortunately it's maybe worth looking into other options
"People bitch about this constantly" => There are legitimate reasons to just avoid those businesses all together, it's unfair to just call that "bitching"
Cool. Then we're in agreement that if a store's policy don't work then you should just move on to a store that works better. I never called it bitching but I think it's important to understand that complaining on reddit doesn't move the needle. Feel how you feel, but know most businesses aren't really checking for that.
The call in thing works because the stuff gets sold pretty quickly. If the products just sat because the practice was as unpopular as this thread thinks it is, it'd already be gone. But the fact of the matter is that the pool of people who call in for pricing is large enough that the pool of people who don't want to call doesn't matter. Especially with potential legal ramifications on the table.
The issue of unfairness isn't really accurate here because it suggests that every business has to account for every potential personal obstacle a customer may experience. One store trying to account for every single variation and nuance a person with asd may experience is untenable. It'd be like saying an online store isn't considering customers with no internet access or a store that makes clothes for petite body types doesn't carry a 6X tshirt. There are alternatives in place for people who need those specific considerations for a reason
I don't know if that's a case of not reading or forgetting, but "People bitch about this constantly" was said by the person I initially responded to, so I'll ignore that part of your answer since it's irrelevant.
As for ASD and others, I never said every business should try to satisfy every single customers and that's creating something from nothing I've said. I said that being irritated at businesses that do that is entirely legitimate, and yes, as eve stated by OOP, a LOT of people just move on to other businesses.
As for the "the pool of people who call in for pricing is large enough that the pool of people who don't want to call doesn't matter", it's really hard to split businesses that survive through sheer sunk cost fallacy from those who survive through people just enjoying calling, so I don't want to stay longer on this point
What is reddit if not for bitching? I've never understood this response. You're the one who stopped to interact with a post in which someone is complaining. We're allowed to complain about businesses that do annoying things.
It's also not correct that most businesses aren't checking for that. Most of the businesses I've worked for and with pay close attention to what is said about them on social media because they realize it matters.
I'm not caping. I'm describing the level of apathy they have for stuff mentioned earlier in the thread. Some businesses may check social media for qualitative data, but it's rare that alone will cause them to make sweeping changes to a policy if the policy already makes money. They wouldn't even bother looking at online forums unless they were already losing money in a big way. Businesses are definitely reactionary, but they need more of a reason to pivot outside of a few people saying they don't like something on a platform that, as you mentioned, is kind of a hot bed for negative comments anyway.
"People bitch about this constantly" => There are legitimate reasons to just avoid those businesses all together, it's unfair to just call that "bitching"
Number 2 is me right now. Found some very nice belts, all of them are "contact me for pricing" and I'd rather learn to make them myself than do that lmao
If its custom shit then I'm cool with contract for price because customizations and cost of raw materials affect price obv. But for cookie cutter shit? Yeah they can fuck off.
"People bitch about this constantly" => There are legitimate reasons to just avoid those businesses all together, it's unfair to just call that "bitching"
Did you read the comment you replied to? They literally can’t advertise their prices. They know that it probably leads to less sales, they aren’t doing this to attract more customers.
"People bitch about this constantly". As I've stated im other comments, I was mainly reacting to that. Yes, I get it, they make a purpose choice, but being irritated by it doesn't automatically make it "bitching", there are legitimate reasons to avoid it like the plague, and that was it
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u/Radioactive24 5h ago
There’s a legitimate reason for this: the company is selling a product below the agreed on MSRP and likely have a stipulation with the company that they cannot advertise below that.
It’s not for engagement baiting, although I’m sure some company does that, but there’s a legit reason for it, usually.
People bitch about this constantly, and I get it, but a little google search would have an explanation for them why the price is hidden.