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You should also write to the cheaper company. Or was the lesson supposed to be that writing meaningless platitudes like 'race to the bottom' is good marketing?

You should also write to the cheaper company. Or was the lesson supposed to be that writing meaningless platitudes like 'race to the bottom' is good marketing? Perhaps it is, but personally, I would feel insulted. There's no worse assumption that cheaper product is worse, especially when it comes to SaaS. What if FooCorp has automated much more than Acme, and even with lower prices actually has both better profits per sale and better functionality? Sure, FooCorp should work on their marketing, but that's in their interest, not yours. A perfect company from the customer's PoV is one that is almost unknown, provides the best value per money unit, and has just enough customers to be alive. Then you have a competitive advantage over competition using popular and expensive solutions.

miahi 12y ago
Yes, you can get great service from such companies. But you also take the risk of the company shutting down because they lost 2 customers and it cannot afford to be alive anymore - and then you have the added costs of switching to another (more popular and expensive) solution.
kubiiii 12y ago
Right. The striking thing is that op's decision to choose the more expensive solution is now both confirmed by the fact that the solution was better because more expensive and by the fact that it works. An email from the cheaper company explaining why they were cheaper could have had the exact same effect.
FooBarWidget 12y ago
"Just enough customers to be alive"? Would you really trust a SaaS that is about to lose money and go bankrupt at any time? Furthermore, if the company has just enough customers to be alive then there's a pretty big chance that their founders or employees are working over time in order to keep costs low. They might get sick any time, making the company fall over. Not a sustainable situation. Would you really trust your data with that?
- duckingtest 12y ago
  >Would you really trust a SaaS that is about to lose money and go bankrupt at any time? I meant a company that has just a bit more profit and revenue than that. Perhaps I should have written that in some other way.

miahi 12y ago

Yes, you can get great service from such companies. But you also take the risk of the company shutting down because they lost 2 customers and it cannot afford to be alive anymore - and then you have the added costs of switching to another (more popular and expensive) solution.

kubiiii 12y ago

Right. The striking thing is that op's decision to choose the more expensive solution is now both confirmed by the fact that the solution was better because more expensive and by the fact that it works. An email from the cheaper company explaining why they were cheaper could have had the exact same effect.

FooBarWidget 12y ago

"Just enough customers to be alive"? Would you really trust a SaaS that is about to lose money and go bankrupt at any time? Furthermore, if the company has just enough customers to be alive then there's a pretty big chance that their founders or employees are working over time in order to keep costs low. They might get sick any time, making the company fall over. Not a sustainable situation. Would you really trust your data with that?

duckingtest 12y ago
>Would you really trust a SaaS that is about to lose money and go bankrupt at any time? I meant a company that has just a bit more profit and revenue than that. Perhaps I should have written that in some other way.