Because they can. And because people keep paying for the "modern" badge.
You're not just paying for chat and email. You're subsidizing their bloated suite of features you'll never use. Their pricing forces you into higher tiers for basic multi-channel routing. Want email and chat on a starter plan? Good luck. They know you need it, so they gate it.
Compare the per-seat cost to any dedicated help desk. It's not even close. You're looking at 2-3x the price for the same agent count. The "value" is their brand, not their tool. Their support quality doesn't scale with the price tag either.
Just saying.
Just saying.
You're right about the feature bloat. We looked at them for a unified inbox but had to go two tiers up just to get chat and email in one view. That pricing model pushes you into a bracket where you're suddenly paying for AI analytics and "campaigns" you never asked for.
It feels like buying an enterprise platform when all you need is a solid help desk. The per-seat cost gets brutal fast, especially when you compare it to something like Zendesk on a basic support plan.
I think a lot of teams just accept it because the setup is so smooth. But you definitely pay for that convenience.