We all heard about geographic price differentiation (to maximize profits) and again we heard about customer centricity. Here comes my annoying experience with The Ecomonist.
I got a mail offering me a 50% reduction because I seem to be an «auld acquaintance». GPB 89.50 for the digital edition and I was willing to buy.
During the checkout the shop initiated a reservation on my credit card to find out the country I issued the card in. And then (obviously) the transaction was refused with the following message: «Select a payment method that matches your region». A cryptic hint to this was already visible in the process. A field in addition to the country (that would be sufficient) called «Shopping Region».
As soon as I «corrected» my «Shopping Region» the auld acquaintance was faced with approximately the double price for the identical product.
Aside my anger and a completely useless communication with their support (what browser are you using?) I am asking myself the following questions:
- In Switzerland prices indicated by the seller have to be honoured. No so in the UK? Since the low prices applies for the whole EU, I doubt that it is legal.
- Is it more important to care about long term customer relationships or to hunt for the «quick buck»? I thought in media it should be engagement score and lifetime value.
- Can digital products be differentiated in price at all? With some time, anybody finds a work around to get the lower price.
So what did The Economist do? They annoyed me, showed how bad their support chat is and made me organise an access for free. Bad for business.
