{"id":1031,"date":"2009-10-20T09:05:15","date_gmt":"2009-10-20T07:05:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tsirigosorbit.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/?p=1031"},"modified":"2009-10-20T17:54:34","modified_gmt":"2009-10-20T15:54:34","slug":"a-fine-mess-caused-by-the-fine-print","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.tsirigosorbit.com\/blog\/?p=1031","title":{"rendered":"A Fine Mess Caused by the Fine Print"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\">&#8220;I was going to hire a company today to do something fairly simple that <img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-1037\" title=\"Blog - Fine Print\" src=\"http:\/\/www.tsirigosorbit.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/Blog-Fine-Print-150x128.jpg\" alt=\"Blog - Fine Print\" width=\"150\" height=\"128\" \/>would  have cost [an advertised] $45,&#8221; begins a post at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.serviceuntitled.com\/\"><span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Service Untitled<\/span> blog<\/a>. But there was a catch.  &#8220;I called them to schedule an appointment and was told there was [an] $85  minimum service charge. The fact that I was a first time customer didn&#8217;t matter. Essentially, I would  have to pay $85 for a $45 service.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Here are some things to consider before you implement minimum service  charges:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>They have the potential to scare off customers, in no small part because  they blatantly favor the interests of a vendor. &#8220;For the company,&#8221; says the  blog, &#8220;it&#8217;s upselling disguised as a policy.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>No one who plans to take action appreciates learning that information  contained in the fine print nearly doubles an advertised price. &#8220;If you&#8217;re going  to have a minimum service fee,&#8221; says <span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Service  Untitled,<\/span> &#8220;at least be forthcoming about it and tell your customers  exactly how much it is and what they can get for that amount in the very  beginning.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;\">The Po!nt:<\/span> Over  the relatively paltry sum of $40, this company lost twice: It sent a potential  customer running and earned negative word-of-mouth in the process. &#8220;The most  important thing to do,&#8221; says <span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Service  Untitled,<\/span> &#8220;is to think of the long-term value of your average  customer.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Source: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.marketingprofs.com\/short-articles\/1029\/a-fine-mess-caused-by-the-fine-print \">Marketing Profs<\/a><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;I was going to hire a company today to do something fairly simple that would have cost [an advertised] $45,&#8221; begins a post at the Service Untitled blog. But there was a catch. &#8220;I called them to schedule an appointment and was told there was [an] $85 minimum service charge. The fact that I was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[32,117,189],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tsirigosorbit.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1031"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tsirigosorbit.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tsirigosorbit.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tsirigosorbit.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tsirigosorbit.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1031"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/www.tsirigosorbit.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1044,"href":"http:\/\/www.tsirigosorbit.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1031\/revisions\/1044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tsirigosorbit.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tsirigosorbit.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tsirigosorbit.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}