Comment by primigenus | Hacker News Reader

Comment by primigenus | Hacker News Reader

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Last year here on HN, Nathaniel said this:

"The ridiculously huge mistake I think Chargify made here was something I thought was just a given these days: they should've unilaterally grandfathered all of their existing clients, and quietly given the grandfathered plan to anyone who was already integrating but not yet launched as well." (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1781104)

It's one thing to trash your competitor publically. It's another to then do the exact same thing you were complaining about one year later.

This isn't about the numbers - $30 is jack squat. This is about principles. With this decision, Spreedly shows that they can say one thing and then do the exact opposite. And that's troubling.

One learns a lot in a year. I said some things then that I wish I'd had more experience to back up; if I had, I probably would have tempered them more. That said, I also said this:

"Even if you absolutely have to raise prices across the board, I think three months of warning is the absolute minimum amount of time to give a customer base before you hit them with the increase."

We're doing that, with a unilateral offer to grandfather customers for 90 days.

In general, I still think grandfathering is best when possible, but when you realize your business isn't growable (and barely sustainable) at current prices then something's gotta give. We've put this price raise off too long, hoping to soften it with new features, etc., but it's a chicken and egg problem. We can't do what needs to be done without the resources to do it. So prices have gone up, and it's the next day and we're in a better spot to help all our (remaining) customers rock.

To be fair, grandfathering doesn't mean putting off a price raise for a limited amount of time, it means not changing the terms/policies/pricing for the duration of the account because they signed up with those and should keep them. You're simply giving them 90 days notice.

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