Hacker News Reader

Comment by shared_frog | Hacker News Reader

I appreciate your DIY instructions, but I really dislike how your website goes through the effort of hiding what you actually sell and also how much it costs. I don't want to "contact you" to get that information. We've been long enough in the 21st century that it has become an adult, and still I keep running into this archaic nonsense.

For example, you mention your "sensor package" in the FAQ and that's it. Your DIY instructions mention the "AirGradient PCB", _but there is no place where I can buy it_. For the love of god, put a 'buy' button on your website.

View on HN

The PCB is not sold by them, they have the Gerber files for download, and you can upload them here [0] to have it made and shipped to you.

It seems what they are selling are consulting services with possible parts depending on the results, if you don’t want to do everything yourself.

[0]: https://jlcpcb.com

Usually this means the company does not sell to consumers and is b2b only, similar to how you just can't buy something anonymously online from a wholesale distributor.

Usually, but you have three buttons on the first screen of their homepage: for schools, for offices, for homes. I don't think they're only b2b.

That could still be targeting manufacturers of products for those three categories.

Volume sales “for homes”means apartments (or condos). “For Homeowners” is a different market. Usually there will be a different website for that market. It will need to mitigate “the customer is always right” attitude prevalent among consumers.

I would be willing to go together to have a set of PCBs if you are interested. Usually there is volume pricing.

It might not be worth it to organize a big order nowadays, PCB fabrication is already super cheap. JLCPCB (and others, but I have the most experience with them) will do 5 boards for $2 + shipping and the first order gets free shipping. I've used this service for prototyping many times and had great experiences.

I had been planning to build almost the exact same thing as what the parent posted but had been putting it off because I didn't want to draw up a PCB, so this is perfect.

They want to change what they charge from time to time so putting a price up front will force them to leave money on the table. Not gonna happen. Contact them instead.

Instead of contacting them, I will spend a little time investigating whether there's someone else I can buy from, who doesn't consider being "forced to leave money on the table" makes this a reasonable way t treat potential customers, and will choose to spend money at a less customer hostile business - or possibly do without the product.

Contacting some random "enterprise sales" team? Not gonna happen.

What if they put an upfront price of $100 dollars but cheaper prices available if you contact them?

Increasing friction is increasing friction. The GP wants to reduce friction, and your proposal likely doesn’t do that for the majority of potential customers.

That said, too many people (myself included) are so used to being courted as a customer (or really, user to try and upsell to or datamine from) that we’ve forgotten that not everyone wants our business and custom.

Splashing some cold water on your face and reminding yourself that you’re not the centre of the universe from time to time isn’t a bad habit to reduce behaving like entitled children. I still struggle with this, but baby steps... (pun not intended)

Change prices? Update the website.

Per customer.

When you can get quotes for satellite launches[0] without calling anybody, it feels like unnecessary friction at best.

[0] https://www.spacex.com/rideshare/

That’s mostly for PR.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com