Advertising Price Increase

[Stirlings]

Just renewed an advert
Old Trade price £20.40
New price £30
Almost a 50% increase

no notification of a price increase and no one at Pistonheads / haymarket to answer the phone

[V8mate]

It's to compensate for the 50% drop in traffc.

[Terminator X]

Would it be rude to bask in the glory of my free ads?

TX.

[markmullen]

Mark, we got a cheery email from PH on the 5th December wishing us Happy Christmas and mentioning in passing the price increase.

cheery email said:

Dear Mark Mullen,

Firstly, a big thanks for your business in 2013.

PistonHeads are coming to the end of a big year and we're really excited about rolling out significant developments for 2014.

We're experiencing major audience growth with monthly unique visitors now at almost 5 million.

We've worked extremely hard to gain a deep understanding of the PistonHeads audience and we attract a unique mix of car buyers, from affluent professionals to car enthusiasts.

PistonHeads are investing heavily in our offerings. We've just launched a new mobile website and improved our classified search design which is already delivering 20% more car buying leads across the board in November.

We're now carrying record volume of cars. In fact, we have more cars over £40,000 than any other used car platform, cementing our position as market leader for premium vehicles.

2014 will also see the launch of our PistonHeads Response Portal. Enabling you to view and track your leads as well as offering real-time feed management and reporting.

From 1st January 2014 your monthly investment in PistonHeads will increase by £50 per month.

PistonHeads are committed to continuing to grow our audience and drive more views to your vehicles to ensure the sales you achieve and your return on investment with PistonHeads is significant.

Through our expanded Account Management team, we'll be regularly updating you on new product features and site developments that will help you sell more cars.

We look forward to driving more response and more sales for you in 2014.

Best regards,

Louise Johnson

Happy Christmas to you and the team at Stirlings from us all at Malton.

[V8mate]

'Pistonheads are...'


>teethitching<

[The Moose]

It's. A shame the new (mobile at least) classifieds are ste!

They don't work properly. There's lots of bugs etc.

Not ideal.

[TonyRPH]

markmullen said:

Mark, we got a cheery email from PH on the 5th December wishing us Happy Christmas and mentioning in passing the price increase.

cheery email said:

<snip>
From 1st January 2014 your monthly investment in PistonHeads will increase by £50 per month.

<snip>

Happy Christmas to you and the team at Stirlings from us all at Malton.

Of course I have no idea what your monthly 'investment' in PH is, but a £50 per month price hike seems a lot?

[V8mate]

Isn't language a funny thing?

PH calls 'charges', 'investments'.

I wonder what they call the hundreds of thousands they've pissed up the wall invested in the Classifieds over the last couple of years?

[mrmr96]

TonyRPH said:

markmullen said:

Mark, we got a cheery email from PH on the 5th December wishing us Happy Christmas and mentioning in passing the price increase.

cheery email said:

<snip>
From 1st January 2014 your monthly investment in PistonHeads will increase by £50 per month.

<snip>

Happy Christmas to you and the team at Stirlings from us all at Malton.

Of course I have no idea what your monthly 'investment' in PH is, but a £50 per month price hike seems a lot?

Could be 0.5%, could be 1%, could be 50%. No basis to comment really.

[elms]

The increase of £50pcm works out to be approx a 35% increase.

I was told the increase was to spend on investing in getting the classifieds working.

Haymarket / Pistonheads is a joke, paying advertisers such as myself have been paying for getting on over a year now for a system that hasn't worked. They seem to not quite grasp the concept of getting a product working and THEN justifying a fee increase.

I wont be paying the increase and urge others to do the same, Autotrader / Classic Driver etc are now much better alternatives and at least work,

[gbperformancecar]

Stirlings said:

Just renewed an advert
Old Trade price £20.40
New price £30
Almost a 50% increase

no notification of a price increase and no one at Pistonheads / haymarket to answer the phone

I have just noticed this too. I think they did not notify us due to being a pay-as-you-go trade customer, rather than a monthly account holder.

I do feel frustrated as the first time that I noticed the price increase was when I tried to renew an advert. Not much we can do really but I think the least Pistonheads could have done was to notify us so we had time to look at other advertising sources before the new year.

[elms]

gbperformancecar said:

I have just noticed this too. I think they did not notify us due to being a pay-as-you-go trade customer, rather than a monthly account holder.

I do feel frustrated as the first time that I noticed the price increase was when I tried to renew an advert. Not much we can do really but I think the least Pistonheads could have done was to notify us so we had time to look at other advertising sources before the new year.

Until they get the classifieds up and running properly why on earth should you pay an increase in fees? In my opinion it isn't even worth old price anymore.

[elms]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Agree, trouble is that you report them and they get removed. The next day they are put back up again.

[Podie]

elms said:

Until they get the classifieds up and running properly why on earth should you pay an increase in fees? In my opinion it isn't even worth old price anymore.

If they are not running, they are not advertising your car(s). Surely if you have paid that is breach of contract on their part?

[elms]

Podie said:

If they are not running, they are not advertising your car(s). Surely if you have paid that is breach of contract on their part?

Im sure it is, but refuse to pay and Haymarkets 'Debt Collection' department spring into action much faster than their complaints dept. Then the letters threatening Court Action appear. For me to sit down and spend time dealing with it isn't worth it when busy.

They also come back with BS such as "they are working today" so they count that as enough to justfy the bill.

[gbperformancecar]

elms said:

Until they get the classifieds up and running properly why on earth should you pay an increase in fees? In my opinion it isn't even worth old price anymore.

As far as I can see the classifieds are working fine. Unfortunately for the type of cars that I sell Pistonheads is the main place where potential customers look for cars, as well of Auto Trader of course.

There are some major flaws in the classifieds. I advertised a Ford Fiesta ST which has its own advert category, currently there are 262 adverts in the category, but only 54 are actually ST models!

I think I am going to have to limit my adverts to just specific cars that suit Pistonheads (hot hatches .etc.) rather than put all my stock on