I had a call about a month ago for an account review, in which I was told my new package would be Sage 50 Finance, as I was a loyal customer. I stated I didn't need the added features, and was actually worse off since the Office integration was removed in v31. Also key was that the rep said I would see no price increase for the next 12 months.

Latest invoice arrived with a 21.8% increase. I e-mailed the rep and got no response. So I called. After around 45 minutes of being offered ever bigger discounts from the new price, with me responding to go back and listen to the recording where I was told there would be no price increase, the chap on the phone caved in. I was put back onto my old Sage 50 Accounts Pro, at the same price, for the year. That last step took maybe 2 minutes tops, the rest of the call was taken up with a dedicated sales patter saying that the discount being offered was amazing, with me asking to have the call escalated and to go and listen to the previous call.

I like sage, and the support is good. But this brush with the sales side was quite pushy. It wasn't a pleasant way to spend 45 minutes of my day.

We have just had the same issue and after coming off the phone with Sage, I came across this thread.

I took a call last week 28th April, from a lady at Sage dressed up as a courtesy call as we are up for renewal, 40 minutes of going through what it available, Satago, AI, and mentioned a CRM option which I said might be of use to our sales but I would need to speak with them. Processing the invoice today and the subscription has LEAPED from £236 to £264. Not only that, the description has changed to 'Sage 50; Sales Package +' ??? It was 'Sage 50: Finance Package'

Called Sage to complain and was told we have requested this, which we denied and explained the nature of the call and at no point were we told our package would change or the price would increase. The operator implied we must have misunderstood etc.  then said the price increase is the same even if we had not changed. We disputed that we always get notification when there is an increase to which he replied, Sage are not at liberty to do this and the increase in November was some commercial reason. We again disputed this and he then said, the email wasn't sent because the lady changed our package last week. However, historically we have had a months notice, not 2 days. Our last increase was notified 9th Oct 24 to commence 1st Nov.

Looking at above posts, it has become apparent that we too fell for the Sage 50: Finance Package rebrand as we were on Sage 50 Cloud Accounts professional October 2023 £165, which switched in Nov 23 to Finance package at £216, with an increase of £20 in Nov 24, and now 6 months later another increase of £28.

However, because of the misunderstanding, they have fixed it for 12 months at £238.00 which is great but why should we have had to? Now I wish I had realised they changed our package back in 2023 and asked them to put us back on Cloud Accounts Professional.

I have definitely lost trust in Sage and I will be open to looking into other options now.

Something tells me this thread will be disappearing soon.  Sage seem to be making the upsell at any cost at the moment, and being downright dishonest about it.

Something tells me this thread will be disappearing soon.  Sage seem to be making the upsell at any cost at the moment, and being downright dishonest about it.

Exported it as a PDF just in case :-)

It does show a worrying trend. There does seem to a lack of transparency around the various package names and billing. I don't think I've seen anyone give the same figure twice for their package.

Perhaps Sage would like to be a bit more open about the various packages, what is in them, and publish it to their customers actually know what they are getting?

It's a trend I've started to see a lot with software subscriptions recently, and that's a move over to "What price is the customer willing to pay" billing.  I.e. they will be charging what they can get away with for as long as the customer is willing to put up with it.

Hi Marky B,

Rest assured, we only ever remove posts that contravene our community guidelines. I'm looking to source an authoritative reply from the appropriate department as a matter of urgency.

Andy,
Sage UKI

I've just noticed that even after updating to v32, none of the AI stuff is showing up. I thought that was just part of 50 Professional?
I would try and see why, but the thought of delving into invoicing and what package I'm on doesn't appeal after the last brush with the sales people.

I believe that is an additional cost add-on !

I have just been told by Sage helpdesk that it won't cost extra, but that it is being rolled out gradually to customers. We shall see!

Interesting, I will keep an eye out for the icons appearing on the Sage50 taskbar.