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Normally, I don’t put up a post on Sunday evenings. But this online service has pissed me off and I want my readers to know about it. My apologies for recommending this service in a previous post.

Up til today, I have used Wrike for planning and project management. This stops today.

I had reason to go to Wrike and look on their forums: I wanted to see if I could find a way to change the interface color from green to something else. I browsed a few posts, and came upon a post from a user that was expressing dismay over a feature that had been released that had been excluded to the highest price point subscription, which is 3x the price of the Pro version and almost double the Premium version. Many companies bring out new features and restrict them to a price point in one way or another, and that is there prerogative to do so. However, when a customer expresses sincere heartfelt concern over this, I feel it’s the company’s responsibility to address that concern and be caring about it – not nonchalant and cavalier.

Well, Wrike’s owner and founder, "andrew", has failed miserably on this one. Below is the entire conversation between "andrew",  another user and myself. I think it’s pretty self explanatory.

jlboone asks:

I would like to express my extreme dismay that the new dask dependency feature is only available by upgrading to the "enterprise" version. This version is TRIPLE the cost per user. Are we to assume that all new features are only going to be implemented in the enterprise version? I convinced my company of 10 people to adopt Wrike partially based on the features that were being worked on for the future. Wrike HAD a cost and features advantage over other solutions. I might have made a wrong assumption, but I feel duped. Am I the only one that feels this way?

andrew from Wrike responds:

We never promised to release this or any other feature for free. Let me start with a simple example. Let’s say that you are driving a 3rd series BMW and BMW promises to build a convertible. When they do release the convertible version, do you expect them to grant you a trade-in? Why not? R&D investment that they put into convertible divided by their revenue is much smaller than the same ratio for task dependencies investment compared with Wrike’s revenue.
A simpler and not such hyperbolic example would be Microsoft Project. Does $559 per user upgrade (http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/prod … lid=680416) sound free? That’s an industry standard. There’s a big difference between Microsoft and Wrike, though. We reinvest all our revenues back into product and operations. As a company we strive to build the best project management software, so we don’t take any profits now. It sounds contradictory, but now the more our customers pay us, the bigger is the value that they get from the product today and tomorrow.
The on-demand project management service with a good support for multi-project environment, interactive Gantt chart and task dependencies usually cost around $50 per user per month. We would certainly love you to stay with us and save $35 per user per month on your subscription. And the bigger is our revenue, the better is the product.
Some of users subscribed to Wrike when it didn’t have RSS, iCal, Excel integration and many other features. All of those features were granted to those existing customers free of charge. More to say, we are releasing minor features every 1-2 week. Just recently, most of the users got a new revised revision history interface.
As of pricing for new customers and new major releases, that should be up to us how we are calling the plans, what is included in the plans, and how those plans are priced. We make our judgment in the best interests of Wrike as a company and our user base as a whole. Granting everything to everybody for free all the time would jeopardize product growth and operational excellence. Our mission is not to build a free service, it is to build the best product on the market and to provide excellent customer service for that product. It all requires money. We invest a lot, but revenue is also an important source for our operational and R&D budgets.
Thanks for understanding.

jlboone responds:

Andrew-
I appreciate the replies. I completely understand that upgrades should not be free. My strong reactions are based on the magnitude of the increase (3x)- especially with only one feature (albeit a good one) added. My post about removed features was based on the new pricing structure posted on the webpage. Being that our particular plan is month by month, I can’t imagine that Wrike would let us continue forever at the 4.95 per user per month rate and get the same features as the 2nd tier plan at 2x the cost. If we did have to double our cost to keep these features, it would seem quite unfair.
As a business owner I understand and respect your right to price your services however you wish, but you have to also understand how this appears to your customers. Wrike is an outstanding service, but there are other services and stand alone software packages available that have similar feature sets. The cost advantage with Wrike for a business our size was an important factor in adopting your product. My point is simply that the magnitude and abruptness of this price increase could be a deal breaker for many businesses. It also raises the question of what can we expect in the future.
Also, in response to your examples, there is a big difference between a one time purchase and a subscription. The industry standard for CAD software is now moving to a subscription plan. Guess what- as part of that ongoing payment I expect and receive future upgrades as part of that payment. If I were leasing that BMW, I would expect them to let me trade it in. Perhaps I would be willing to pay slightly more for the improved product, but certainly not triple the price. I understand that prices will go up- but this is a little extreme in my opinion.

andrew’s calloused reply:

Magnitude of increase:
There is no magnitude of increase, because there is no increase. Your price did not change a bit.
Pricing of Enterprise version:
The typical price for on-demand project management service with a support for interactive gantt-chart and good multi-project capabilities is around $50 per user per month. Taking that in mind, $15 per user per month is a good price and a good saving for our customers. We are always glad to hear about competitors at support@team.wrike.com.
Metaphors:
I’m not familiar with CAD vendors, their plans, pricing and upgrade policies. If you are trading in a leased 3rd series BMW for a new 6 series, expect to pay a lot of money, much more than 10 users upgrade in Wrike. And 6 series won’t make you commute faster, the difference with 3rd series will be very marginal. The difference between a gantt chart with dependencies and the one without is pretty significant. I’m pretty sure CAD market has comparable examples, because CAD packages were always quite expensive. A poster child for on-demand CRM, salesforce.com , has a big difference in price between different versions. Everybody does. There’s a good economic explanation for that, as it works better in open market for both vendors and customers, but I won’t dive into ecnonomics now.
Regards,
Andrew.

My first comment:

Andrew,
Recently I put a post on my blog recommending your service, but now I question that recommendation.
What this user has brought to your attention is a serious matter for him, as well it may be for others. This forum has very little traffic, so I doubt that if your users are having issues about your features vs. pricing structure, you you will see it here. Have you searched social media to find out what users are saying about your product?
While it certainly is your prerogative to price items as you see fit, you may want to take into account what this user is telling you. You may also want to consider a pricing structure for new users vs veteran users, when it comes to upgrades. To treat those that already support you the same as new customers will be a detriment to your continued life.
The point jlboone makes about CAD subscriptions is completely correct, as I am a CAD manager at my company. When you are on a subscription service, all future upgrades are free, as long as the subscription is maintained. While you may want to have different pricing structure on different tools, you may also want to contact your users to find out where the greatest needs are for that feature, so that you can market it by what your users need, not by what you think it should be priced.
I’m a bit taken aback by the nonchalant manner in which this users concerns were addressed. I’ll be searching social media to see that the consensus is on your pricing when it comes to adding new features.

andrew’s reply:

Kris,
I wrote a long answer to your post, but then changed it to a much shorter one:
Dear users (including Kris and jlboone),
Please, do not continue this thread, as both points of views are already outlined, and there’s no benefit (for either side) in repeating the same arguments. If you have a reason to negotiate pricing (big volume; supported us through referrals, blog posts, or any other means; non-profit application) contact our sales team at sales@team.wrike.com. This forum exists to discuss new feature requests and priorities.

My translation:

I find it interesting that customers are not a "priority".
Basically, you’ve summed it up as………
"This is what we are going to do, we care not to hear from our customers because you won’t change our mind anyway".
and there’s no benefit (for either side)
Just because users voice their opinions it does not mean that they wish to receive benefit from it. It means they want you to listen!
If you have a reason to negotiate pricing (big volume; supported us through referrals, blog posts, or any other means; non-profit application) contact our sales team at sales@team.wrike.com.
Translation: If you have some way to make us money or get the word out to new users so we can make some more money, let us know. Otherwise, thanks but no thanks.
I can assure you that I am no longer going to be a customer of Wrike – and I will tell people about my negative experiences here.

I think this calloused and cavalier attitude speaks volumes. I will find another service to which I’ll give my business…..it will no longer be at Wrike. I do not have a paid account, I have an account based on an invitation from someone else. I won’t be using it anymore. It is quite apparent to me that they do not value nor wish to listen to their customers. Wrike does not deserve your money or business. Find someone who does.

I purposely have not link to their site here, however if you doubt the validity of the conversation, I’ve printed a PDF of the webpage. You can also find it at their forums if you so desire. ‘andrew" may remove this post altogether: I don’t know.

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