[summarity]

Or even more important: pathological users.

Actually malicious users are rare. Pathological users have a bias to be the _most_ demanding users when actually paying _the least_ (or nothing). It's a drain on every step in the support funnel. But what drives the business are users that both have a large scale of use and still have growth potential.

the worst tend to be just above the free tier, on the lowest paid plan available. Raising the minimum is an effective way to reduce this pain.

[tomcam]

Analysis: true, based on 20+ years of owning successful online businesses and another 15 in the software business before that. I always gave my tech support teams full authority to fire customers like that.

The part that fascinated me most was that just reminding them they had that option seemed to make them much more tolerant than I expected, and out of say 2 million customers I'd guess fewer than a dozen were ejected. I guess it was a mental pressure valve.

[immibis]

It is interesting how receiving the greatest benefit for the lowest cost is considered pathological, yet also the entire basis for our economic system.

[tomcam]

    It is interesting how receiving the greatest benefit for the lowest cost is considered pathological, yet also the entire basis for our economic system.

What I read from GP's comment was not that this was the tradeoff, it was that people who pay less than market value tend to be the most troublesome customers. I can tell you that holds true in any market I've ever consulted for or have used myself. B2B transactions tend to be much smoother than a visit to Popeye's on the average.