
Ask HN: Should I charge the military more to use my SAAS? - hoodoof
I&#x27;m thinking of having a price list that charges the military more than other buyers.<p>Perhaps free for personal use, $amount for business users and $amount X 2 for military.<p>Any thoughts on this?  Good idea, not good idea?
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greenyoda
U.S. Government agencies (of which the military is one) may insist on a "Most
Favored Customer" contract, in which they get the best available price. See,
for example:

[http://www.fedmarket.com/contractors/GSA-and-Most-Favored-
Cu...](http://www.fedmarket.com/contractors/GSA-and-Most-Favored-Customer-
Pricing)

If you deliberately charge the military more than everyone else without having
a valid business-related reason to do so, they may just refuse to do business
with you.

------
poof131
I encourage you not to do this. If you want to make a statement, do it through
your vote or by volunteering. By charging extra to the military, you actually
join the camp with all the corrupt defense contractors who overcharge for
everything. Clearly by your statements this isn’t who you want to be aligning
yourself with. As a veteran, I hate defense contractors and believe the system
is broken. When mercenaries get up-armored humvees before our soldiers do we
have a problem, not to mention the fact we are using mercenaries. Don’t join
this group through what seems to be good intentions.

------
eitally
I don't think you should do this. If you're doing it for moral/ethical
reasons, you're just screwing all the taxpayers. If you want to take a stand,
just refuse to sell to .gov & .mil domains.

------
NameNickHN
I sympathize with you and I think you should do it. But you should come up
with a "real" reason other than "because I can". For example, I imagine the
military requires a different service level agreement than the average
company. That would be your price differentiation right there.

------
akg_67
It is a bad idea if you are advertising pricing on your site. Unless, it cost
more to service or offers more value to or offer different feature set to
government customers or a particular group, you shouldn't charge different
pricing.

It is routine for enterprise vendors to charge more to government because of
the more involved process in selling and managing product for government and
associated costs. But the way it works is enterprise vendors have a list price
at which anyone including competitors can buy the product. Then vendor can
decide how much discount from list price to offer to different customers.

I think there are laws that you will run afoul of when discriminating against
a group of customers without any business justification.

~~~
hoodoof
>> Unless, it cost more to service or offers more value to or offer different
feature set to government customers or a particular group, you shouldn't
charge different pricing.

Why not? I'm free to charge differently if I want to aren't I?

>>I think there are laws that you will run afoul of when discriminating
against a group of customers without any business justification.

Hmmm, doesn't sound right to me. Can you be more specific about which laws you
mean?

~~~
akg_67
Just a little bit of google-fu for laws on pricing gives these sources.

Price Discrimination: Robinson-Patman Violations [https://www.ftc.gov/tips-
advice/competition-guidance/guide-a...](https://www.ftc.gov/tips-
advice/competition-guidance/guide-antitrust-laws/price-discrimination-
robinson-patman)

Price Fixing [https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/competition-
guidance/guide-a...](https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/competition-
guidance/guide-antitrust-laws/dealings-competitors/price-fixing)

A Guide to Retail Pricing Laws and Regulations
[http://www.nist.gov/pml/wmd/laws/pricing-
laws.cfm](http://www.nist.gov/pml/wmd/laws/pricing-laws.cfm)

Consumer Protection Laws and Your Business [http://www.nolo.com/legal-
encyclopedia/consumer-protection-l...](http://www.nolo.com/legal-
encyclopedia/consumer-protection-laws-business-29641.html)

~~~
hoodoof
Is there anything in there to support your assertion that it would be against
the law?

I'm interested less in getting a pile of links but more hearing why you think
it would be against the law.

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saluki
Most businesses give the military discounts . . . and I expect most citizens
would dislike seeing you charge .mil/.gov 2x just because of who they are. So
I wouldn't list it like that on your pricing page.

What I would do . . . if you have existing military users, I would look at
their usage patterns, number of users, data, etc . . . and change your tiers
to charge them more based on their typical use of your SaaS.

That would be the best way to do it, create a tier pricing that would apply to
them but doesn't spell it out in the pricing page.

Good luck landing a potentially large user for your SaaS.

------
notahacker
What makes you think the military want your SaaS?

The standard approach is to advise that they will need to purchase the
enhanced security version which will be $whatever, which is also how SaaS
vendors deal with large companies and other clients whose custom they're only
willing to consider because of their deep pockets

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gesman
Large companies selling stuff to enterprises use "Contact us for pricing"
forms.

What follows is a sales dance with "confidential" pricing discussions.

This may or may not work for buyers.

I personally staying away from vendors who are using this tactics unless there
is no other choice.

------
brudgers
Keep it simple, just double your price.

[http://jacquesmattheij.com/double-your-price-and-no-im-
not-k...](http://jacquesmattheij.com/double-your-price-and-no-im-not-kidding)

------
bmmayer1
It depends on what your product is. Are military customers receiving 2x the
value from your product? Are they 2x more expensive to serve?

~~~
hoodoof
No, but if they want the product then I want them to pay more.

~~~
elthran
OK - but /why/?

