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If you have to fight for a 50$ book, you‘re probably just at the wrong place. That being said, some developers wanted to test Notion internally, so they got an

If you have to fight for a 50$ book, you‘re probably just at the wrong place. That being said, some developers wanted to test Notion internally, so they got an informal account with a credit card. Turns out they built an important overview in it and send the link around, so everyone who wanted to take a look at it (half the company) implicitly created an account and our CFO got hit by a 10k bill next month. And that‘s how devs having no purchase authority stories usually start...

rightbyte 2y ago
This is just an example of predatory pricing models and dark patterns. There is reason many SaaS companies usually have no prepaid or fixed cost roof pay options. They are scammers.
VS1999 2y ago
How does anything think setting up a system where you can get billed for clicking a link is a good idea? Along with no sensible monthly limit on the credit card. The whole setup is beyond ridiculous, and it's hard to believe this is how "devs having no purchase authority stories usually start".
- isbvhodnvemrwvn 2y ago
  Billing by active users is quite common.
- maccard 2y ago
  I work in a small company and we use a few services that bill for active users, and sync with g suite. It reduces the overhead of admin for me significantly as it means I know we're only paying for people who use the service that month. > Along with no sensible monthly limit on the credit card. A £1000 limit doesn't stop you from generating a £10000 invoice. It just means you need to go higher with your tail between your legs to pay the bill.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - ultrasaurus 2y ago
    A $10,000 invoice also means that procurement gets involved on the buyer side and sales on the seller side. Notion doesn't want 1 month of credit card spend tricked out of someone without purchasing authority, they want a site-wide deployment on an annual contract. The invoice is just a tool to ferret out who has authority to have the discussion; nobody expects it'll get paid as presented -- it's just the opening bid. Procurement's opening bid might be a chargeback and a org-wide ban on Notion -- and then you do sales dance.
    - maccard 2y ago
      After the fact. That doesn't change thr E fact that a card with a $500 limit can generate a $10k invoice, which you need to go to your manager to tell them about.
- Ekaros 2y ago
  Aren't this sort of dark patterns exactly what are expected from growth hacking and getting numbers look good? Whole sub-set of companies are incentivised to use these tactics...
sverhagen 2y ago
Developers (or anyone) buying tools can often also be a sort of local optimization, at the expense of the larger organization. For instance fragmentation, so that you can't find things through a single search anymore, or need to log into different teams' tools separately. Not to mention the compliance nightmare if you want to be SOC compliant while teams are all managing their own tools full of company IP. Buying books and other learning resources is great, though.

rightbyte 2y ago

This is just an example of predatory pricing models and dark patterns. There is reason many SaaS companies usually have no prepaid or fixed cost roof pay options. They are scammers.

VS1999 2y ago

How does anything think setting up a system where you can get billed for clicking a link is a good idea? Along with no sensible monthly limit on the credit card. The whole setup is beyond ridiculous, and it's hard to believe this is how "devs having no purchase authority stories usually start".

isbvhodnvemrwvn 2y ago
Billing by active users is quite common.
maccard 2y ago
I work in a small company and we use a few services that bill for active users, and sync with g suite. It reduces the overhead of admin for me significantly as it means I know we're only paying for people who use the service that month. > Along with no sensible monthly limit on the credit card. A £1000 limit doesn't stop you from generating a £10000 invoice. It just means you need to go higher with your tail between your legs to pay the bill.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- ultrasaurus 2y ago
  A $10,000 invoice also means that procurement gets involved on the buyer side and sales on the seller side. Notion doesn't want 1 month of credit card spend tricked out of someone without purchasing authority, they want a site-wide deployment on an annual contract. The invoice is just a tool to ferret out who has authority to have the discussion; nobody expects it'll get paid as presented -- it's just the opening bid. Procurement's opening bid might be a chargeback and a org-wide ban on Notion -- and then you do sales dance.
  - maccard 2y ago
    After the fact. That doesn't change thr E fact that a card with a $500 limit can generate a $10k invoice, which you need to go to your manager to tell them about.
Ekaros 2y ago
Aren't this sort of dark patterns exactly what are expected from growth hacking and getting numbers look good? Whole sub-set of companies are incentivised to use these tactics...

sverhagen 2y ago

Developers (or anyone) buying tools can often also be a sort of local optimization, at the expense of the larger organization. For instance fragmentation, so that you can't find things through a single search anymore, or need to log into different teams' tools separately. Not to mention the compliance nightmare if you want to be SOC compliant while teams are all managing their own tools full of company IP. Buying books and other learning resources is great, though.