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Comment by tw04 | Hacker News Reader

Seriously, you should consider making that somehow part of the "contact us" link. Because even as someone not using the service, anytime I see "contact us" I get the same disgusting feeling in the pit of my stomach that you want me to contact you because you want to up-sell me.

At the very least, make it a link to "show pricing" and then on the next page give an explanation of like - if you need X, it should cost approximately X. Because we're still figuring things out, we may need to give you custom pricing (from the geeks, not a sales guy, we promise!). "Contact Us" has unfortunately become synonymous with shitty used-car negotiations.

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If you don't trust their salespeople, why on earth would you trust them claiming that they aren't sales people? Judge based on the available facts, not superficial prejudices.

As stated above, I think it's not so much a lack of trust but a lack of confidence in a company that can't give you a straight-up pricing structure on their web page.

It screams "we'll charge you as much as we think you can afford", kinda like those domain squatters. Oh you're a big company and want this random domain name? $40,000 please.

Most have set prices, but contact us for pricing is often because a company is well aware the sticker shock on the price is going to drive most customers off. Being on the phone when you share that price gives them more of a chance to ease you into the number and try to justify it.

But in the case of Sandstorm devs, it's just that those features/that product is still in development.

Yeah, but vendors should realize that users can see-through the facade. Seeing "contact sales" makes me think of the sticker shock, and me being a cynic I often expect the pricing offered to be much higher then it ultimately ends up being.

Ehh... I think you're being too cynical and that you're projecting. I also think you're forgetting that this is a two-way street.

When Walmart calls your sales department, they aren't going to be suckered into a high price. On the contrary, they have a procurement department whose job is to negotiate the price down. They also probably have custom requirements that they want met, so a self-service option wouldn't even work for them.

Typically -- especially among "scalable" startups -- the "contact sales" option is meant specifically for these big fish to utilize, while the smaller fish get a self-service option with standardized pricing. This is what Sandstorm will have in the future.

I would say that I think there needs to be a more upfront accounting of ballpark figures for 'contact sales' moments. Working as a SysAdmin, I've come across points where you call, they want to set up a trial, you ask them how much it's going to cost, and they keep saying 'well, depends on which options you get and this and that, so it's hard to say'.

And I just wanna know if it's a four, five, or six digit figure for God's sakes.

I agree, and I think Sandstorm is not a great center piece to have the "contact sales" discussions round. I think it's just a note that the start up community in general could up its 'sales experience' game, ranging from pricing, to support, to onboarding/offboarding. Let's face it half the time the developers will also be in charge of sales, and speaking for myself I sometimes do not provide the best sales experience to customers.

Also I think Sandstorm is really cool. Feel like I should mention that.

We draw the best inferences we can based on the limited facts available.

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