Hello Santa

17 points by jordanlyall 11 years ago | 17 comments

HorizonXP 11 years ago |

I'd love to use this, but I agree, I need to know the pricing up front. Also, can we see what a video message might look like? I'd like to evaluate the quality of the message before I send it to my friends kids.

Edit: never mind, you do have some edited samples. It's the same Santa throughout (which makes sense) so we have to take your word that the message we get will be of the same calibre. But that's the risk we take I suppose.

hoopism 11 years ago | |

My deceptive senses were tingling... but for 20 and 10 bucks... it's a pretty nice service.

I can see why they wait on the price... probably converts better by getting people little pregnant. Maybe HN crowd is too sensitive to the practice.

Jeremy1026 11 years ago |

I don't like that you capture all my data before even mentioning pricing. I get that you want to build your email list, but it is a bit backhanded to hide pricing that far in.

jordanlyall 11 years ago | |

Thanks for giving us a shot. We've found that by having parents make micro-commitments then hitting them with the price we convert better.

Did you really think it would be free? How can we better present the value of delivering high-quality theatrical performance on demand?

ewindisch 11 years ago | | |

This is a sleezy and deceptive practice which is unexcused by "it makes us more money". Besides that, you're practically abusing HackerNews by using a title that is no less hyperbolic than upworthy.com or the Huffington Post. I've never before wished so much that I could downvote.

27182818284 11 years ago | | |

For me also, this makes me nervous. I didn't expect it to be free, however, I just went from "About to post this to the private circle of adults I know" to "Maybe I shouldn't post because I don't want to look like an idiot if it is really expensive after everyone enters their info :( "

cgallello 11 years ago | | |

Honestly, yes. I thought that it was some happy ad campaign for Jib Jab and that you were actually giving out free Santa calls. I was just about to share this with so many people, then I got hit with the price. It's not even expensive, but it felt sneaky. And you captured my data. :(

balls187 11 years ago | | |

> We've found that by having parents make micro-commitments then hitting them with the price we convert better.

Seems like an interesting topic for a blog post.

deckar01 11 years ago | | |

Santa call center in India?

hoopism 11 years ago |

Anyone go through the hurdles to get price? Not interested in the product... but am interested in what they charge.

Show HN seems misleading... says it's from the jib jab guys... isn't that a fairly established entity?

jordanlyall 11 years ago | |

We're charging $19.99 for a live video chat with Santa plus a recording of your call. We've also introduced $9.99 for a video message from Santa.

Last season was our first year. This year we teamed up with JibJab to help bring HelloSanta to the masses.

pietro 11 years ago | | |

Put it on the front page. Not mentioning the price up front is creepy.

hoopism 11 years ago | |

9.99 prerecorded 19.99 live call

<EDIT>

Provided above. That is a pretty great price. Why not be upfront on the price? Seems reasonable for the service.

airjrdn 11 years ago |

Can I do more than one child at a time? I'm not trying to be cheap, but it would be odd to have one leave the room for 5 minutes, then switch them.

The information you ask for obviously assumes one child.

airjrdn 11 years ago | |

I'm replying as a follow-up after having used the service.

I ended up having to reschedule due to my internet connection going down an hour before my first scheduled call. It ended up coming back up (Comcast was working in the area) in time, but I didn't know if it would and decided to be safe rather than sorry. The reschedule process was flawless.

My boys are 7 and 8 and still "mostly" believe. They were the ones I did this for. My girls; 11 & 12 don't, so I didn't involve them.

The "Facetime" style live video option was, without a shred of doubt, worth every penny. The boys absolutely loved it. Santa was awesome, and him knowing their teacher's names was a convincing little tidbit of information. There were a couple of odd-placed "dings" during the call that I'm still not sure about (what they meant), but other than that, it was flawless. My older son was so excited he could barely sit still. He did throw Santa a curve ball at the end asking if Santa had anything for his sisters, but Santa was able to think on his feet and get through it without a hitch.

The only suggestion I can come up with is possibly providing some method of testing the live video feed 24-48 hours before the call. I had no issues on an iMac which has a good built-in webcam, but as a primary Windows user, I would have wanted to test things before the call to make sure it would work if I were using a Windows box.

Overall - great service, thank you for posting it, and if they still believe, I'll be doing it again next year!

planetjones 11 years ago |

What does a highly personalized video message mean ? Some of these things I've seen just follow a script and add names of the children and family members in. For $10 will your santa read a full script ?