The review saying good work but very expensive is the hardest to answer, because there is nothing to apologise for. Here is how to tell price complaints from expectation failures, and why discounting in public costs more than the review did.
The three-star review that says "good work but very expensive" is the one owners find hardest to answer, because unlike a complaint about lateness or rudeness there is nothing to apologise for. You charged your price. The work was fine. The customer simply thinks it cost too much.
Most businesses respond badly to these, either by getting defensive or by apologising in a way that quietly admits the price was wrong. Both cost you more than the review did.
This guide covers responding to price complaints in reviews: what they actually signal, how to answer without discounting, and when a pattern of them means something needs to change.
Distinguish between price complaints and value complaints, because they look identical and require completely different responses.
Almost every price review is really one of three things.
The three types:
The second is the one to worry about. A customer surprised by the bill is describing a communication failure on your side, and that is fixable and worth fixing.
🛠️ Action Step: For every price complaint, ask whether the customer knew the cost in advance. If they did not, the review is about your quoting process rather than your prices.
Respond by explaining what the price includes rather than apologising for it, because an apology tells every future reader that your pricing is negotiable.
Your reply is written for the next customer, not the one complaining.
What a good reply does:
A worked example:
"Thanks for the kind words about the work. Our pricing reflects fully qualified engineers, parts guaranteed for two years and no call-out charge, which is not the cheapest approach but is the one we stand behind. Happy to talk through the breakdown any time."
Never offer money back in a public reply to a price complaint, because it tells every reader that complaining publicly produces a discount.
Why this matters commercially:
Take it private if a refund is warranted. There are cases where a goodwill gesture is right, and every one of them belongs in a phone call rather than a public thread.
⚠️ Common Mistake: Replying with an offer to make it right on a review that never asked for money. You have just advertised that your prices bend under public pressure.
Where reviews mention unexpected costs, treat it as a quoting problem rather than a pricing one.
Common causes of bill surprise:
Written confirmation before starting solves most of it. A customer who agreed to a number in writing rarely writes a review about the number.
Publish price ranges or starting prices, because most price complaints come from customers who were the wrong fit and would have self-selected out.
What helps:
💡 Pro Tip: Publishing a starting price loses you the enquiries that were never going to convert and prevents most of the reviews you are trying to avoid. The filtering is the benefit.
Treat one price complaint as noise and a pattern as data, because repeated complaints mean something structural rather than one mismatched customer.
What a pattern might mean:
📊 Flento Data: Across service categories, price mentions clustering around a single service line more often reflect a quoting or communication gap than genuine market misalignment.
🔥 Quick Win: Search your own reviews for the words expensive, pricey and cost. If they cluster around one service, the problem is that service's quoting process rather than your prices.
Ensure price complaints sit among plenty of positive reviews, because context determines how a reader interprets them.
Why volume matters here: an expensive comment among forty reviews praising the work reads as a quality business. The same comment among six reviews reads as a warning.
A repeatable process is in how to build a review management system, and response patterns for genuinely negative reviews are in how to respond to negative reviews.
Flento keeps price feedback visible and keeps the surrounding profile strong enough to absorb it.
Google Review Management Software alerts you to new reviews so price complaints get a considered reply rather than a defensive one.
Google Business Profile Optimizer keeps services and descriptions aligned with what you actually charge for.
Local Keyword Rank Tracker shows whether review sentiment is affecting local visibility.
✅ Done? Get alerted to price feedback before it sits unanswered. Get started free
Q: How should you respond to a review saying you are too expensive? A: Thank them for the feedback on the work, explain concretely what the price includes, and do not apologise for it. The reply is written for future readers rather than the reviewer.
Q: Should you offer a refund in a public reply? A: No. It signals that complaining publicly produces discounts, undermines your pricing for every reader, and attracts customers who intend to negotiate after the work.
Q: What if the customer was genuinely surprised by the bill? A: That is a quoting problem, not a pricing one. Confirm quotes in writing before starting and disclose call-out, materials and disposal charges upfront.
Q: Does publishing prices reduce price complaints? A: Yes, substantially. Most complaints come from customers who were never the right fit, and a published starting price lets them self-select out before enquiring.
Q: When should repeated price complaints change something? A: When they cluster around one service or one phrase. That usually indicates a quoting or communication gap in that service rather than a market pricing problem.
Q: Does review volume affect how price complaints read? A: Considerably. An expensive comment among forty positive reviews reads as a quality signal. The same comment among six reviews reads as a warning.
A price complaint is usually not about your price. It is about a number the customer did not expect, and that is something you control at the quoting stage rather than in the reply.
Answer publicly by explaining what the money buys, never by apologising and never by discounting, because the person you are actually writing to has not hired you yet.
Then search your own reviews for the word expensive. If it clusters, you have found a quoting problem worth an afternoon. Try Flento free.
