A Review That Mentions a Price

Too expensive, says the review

A two-star review appears on your listing. The work was fine, the customer writes, but the price was far more than expected, and they mention the total.

You know the job. You know what the materials cost, how long it took, and that the quote said so. The first draft of a reply writes itself: the quote, the hours, the materials, each with its figure.

Leave that draft unposted. A public argument about money rarely ends with readers on the side of the business, however good its numbers are.

Why the numbers backfire in public

• Readers side with the customer by default, whatever the figures say.
• Every figure invites a dispute, one line at a time.
• Prices quoted in a reply go out of date and stay up.
• The customer's bill is their information, not yours to publish.
• A defensive tone is read as how you treat everyone.

The fourth turns a poor reply into a real problem. Posting the breakdown of a customer's bill, or details of their job they never mentioned, discloses information they did not choose to share, and every future customer notices.

What the reader is checking

Someone reading the review and the reply is not auditing the bill. They are checking three things.

Whether the price is in the range they expected, whether there are surprises after the quote, and how the business behaves when somebody is unhappy.

A short, calm reply answers the third directly and the first two in general terms. A long reply full of figures answers only the third, and badly.

Acknowledge before explaining

Start with what the customer felt rather than why they are wrong: sorry the total came as a surprise, or sorry the cost was more than you had planned for.

That is not an admission that the price was wrong. It acknowledges that the experience was disappointing, which is true whatever the price.

Thank them for saying so, too. A customer who tells you a price surprised them has said something most customers keep to themselves.

Avoid the word but straight afterwards. Thanks for your feedback, but, cancels everything before the comma.

What the price includes, in general terms

The useful part of the reply explains what goes into the price, without the customer's figures: the materials, the time, the guarantee, the cleanup, the travel.

For example, that the quote includes removing the old material and two coats where many quotes include one. Or that a course fee covers the instruction and equipment, while personal items are bought separately.

Keep it to two or three sentences. Its job is to help the next reader understand the price, not to win the argument with this one.

Take the detail private

End by inviting the customer to go through the bill with a named person, giving a direct number or email address and a time when someone will be there.

Then follow up privately as well, if you know who they are. A phone call settles more price disputes than any public exchange, partly because neither side is performing for an audience.

If the call changes anything, such as a partial refund or a corrected bill, the customer may update the review on their own. Never make that a condition.

A worked example

A scuba diving shop runs open water certification courses, with pool sessions in town and the open water dives at a site up the coast.

A review called the course overpriced, because after paying the course fee the student had to buy a mask, fins and boots, and pay separately for the boat trips.

The owner's first draft listed every price on the shop's website, line by line, and pointed out that the course page mentioned the extras.

The reply he posted said he was sorry the extra costs had come as a surprise.

It explained that the course fee covers instruction, pool sessions, rental equipment and certification, and that students buy their own mask, fins and boots because fit matters underwater.

It ended with his direct number, and the student called.

The real cause turned out to be the course page, which listed the extras at the bottom, under the booking button. They now sit beside the price, and the booking confirmation repeats them.

When the review gets the price wrong

Sometimes the figure in a review is simply mistaken: a deposit counted twice, a price from a different service, or a total that includes tax the customer took to be extra.

Correct it once, gently and in general terms, such as noting that the price shown on the website includes delivery, then offer to go through the bill together.

Do not accuse the reviewer of making it up. Readers cannot check either version, and they remember the tone long after the figures.

Fix what the review revealed

A price complaint is often a communication problem rather than a pricing one. Somewhere before the bill, the customer formed a different expectation.

Find where: the price page, the quote, the confirmation email, what was said on the phone. What is included and what costs extra should be in plain sight before anyone pays.

A quote that lists its inclusions, and a price page that names its extras, prevent more of these reviews than any reply.

The counter-case

Some price complaints are fair. If a price rose without warning, or a quote was exceeded without a conversation first, the honest reply is an apology and a fix, not an explanation.

Some reviews about price are abusive, or come from people who were never customers. Those are for reporting through the platform, not for debating.

And one price complaint among many satisfied reviews matters less than it feels, provided the reply is calm.

Otherwise the approach holds: acknowledge, explain in general terms, and take the numbers private.

When a price review arrives

1. Wait an hour before replying.
2. Acknowledge the surprise in the first sentence.
3. Explain what the price includes, without their figures.
4. Give a named person and a direct number.
5. Call the customer if you know who they are.
6. Find where the expectation was formed.
7. Fix that page or that quote.

Step six prevents the next one. The reply manages one review; finding where the expectation came from fixes the cause for everyone who has not booked yet.

A steady flow of reviews from every customer, which keeps one complaint in proportion, is covered in asking for reviews by email.

Frequently asked questions

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.