LiquidPlanner, Inc.

LiquidPlanner offers three pricing plans, each with a minimum purchase requirementSmall Team is priced by user per month, for usersProfessional and Enterprise plans have user minimumsWe provide a day, no obligation, free trial period so people can determine whether the software,
pricing, and packaging meets their needs

Complaint: ***
I am rejecting this response because: Nice try but your pricing is most definitely misleadingThe other two pricing tiers, professional and enterprise, each say "user minimum"This sets a precedent of a user minimum, that because your small team pricing tier only says "users only" seems different and something other than a minimumusers only could easily read users maximum, as in, you'll only give the lower rate to small teamsClick "learn more" and the giant message in huge font is $per user per monthStill nowhere doe it say minimum - which you've very clearly established the other plans have a minimum - so the fact that you've gone out of your way to NOT say there is a user minimum with this plan is clearly meant to differentiate this plan from the other plans - presumably to lead the customer to believe it's differentOnly upon actually clicking through to checkout does a customer discover that there is a user minimum. Me, having spent many hours manually uploading my entire task management system into your platform, I could not afford to invest more time in another platformMy time is too valuable to sink into this process a second timeBut I wouldn't have wasted my time if you had been clear from the beginningYour strange resistance to even acknowledging that your pricing could be interpreted as deceptive, when it'd be easy enough to admit a mistake and change the public pricing to transparently disclose the required user minimum, makes me believe you are holding onto this pricing strategy precise because it is more effective at luring people in when they can't see the much larger required price tagI certainly feel duped by the way you've laid out your pricing information, and I don't accept your inadequate response.
Sincerely,
*** ***

We’re sorry you feel misled by the pricing information on our website and that we fell short of your expectations. We regret the inconvenience you experienced as a result of the time invested in our product.   The Revdex.com asked that we provide clarification about the price advertised online since it was a source of confusion and the reason for your complaint.   The pricing page on our website states, "Small Team, $9.99 user/month (5-users only. Billed Annually.)" There’s a link to “learn more,” and on that page it says, “$9.99 per user/ per month (billed annually for 5 users)."   The main pricing page also has a section dedicated to Small Teams in the FAQ:   Can I purchase fewer than 5 seats in Small Team edition? LiquidPlanner is based on the Dynamic Project Management methodology, which is a participatory style of project management. We recommend that every member of a team that uses LiquidPlanner has access to the tool. For this reason, we offer LiquidPlanner Small Team edition for 5 seats only.   The 14 day trial period enables potential customers to test the product to its fullest extent without making a purchase. Purchase and licensing requirements are accessible within the application via Settings on the User Menu, or the "Buy Now" button at the top of every tab in the workspace. This information can be viewed at any point during the trial. We do not collect credit card information when the trial starts; we do not automatically bill at the end of the trial. Our staff is available on weekdays to answer pricing and product questions.   The free trial account was established on Friday, January 27, 2017. Staff responded to inquiries from you via phone and email on the following Monday. We were advised of this complaint by the Revdex.com later that same morning, January 30, 2017. No purchase had been made as of that date.   You purchased our product on February 9 and in doing so agreed to our Terms of Service which outlines fees and payment terms as follows: (a) all Fees are based on your Subscription Plan and the number of seats you purchase and not on actual usage; (b) your payment obligations and Subscription Plan are non-cancelable; (c) all Fees paid are non-refundable; and (d) you may not downgrade your Subscription Plan or decrease the number of seats purchased during the term of your Subscription Plan.   We are not able to provide the desired settlement of a billing adjustment because we do not offer single seat license purchases. Seat licenses are sold in packages of 5 for Small Team, or a minimum 10 seat licenses for Professional and Enterprise tiers. If the purchase made on February 9 was an error, we could make an exception on your behalf to reverse the charges and close your account.     Anne S[redacted] Customer Success Team [redacted]@liquidplanner.com

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:* They're reiterating a policy that is not clear from the deceptive public pricing. * Even though there is a trial - it is very deceptively easy to only discover the actual expensive pricing until the trial ends if/when you decide convert to a paid account.* Because switching from one software to another is a very costly experience, I'd already lost so much time in my task by task manual data transfer, that once the company reveals that the real pricing is 5x what it appears to be at checkout, I'm screwed. Either I pay 5x more than I ever thought I'd have to, or I lose the many hours of set-up I'd have never gone through if I'd known the real price from the beginning. Reiterating what you think your policy is without addressing how you deceptively market it, by offering me the advertised price and updating your deceptive public pricing information so no future customers are tricked, is not sufficient.