Would you have agreed if it were a discount instead of an added charge? i.e. Yes is -$3?

Are you saying I either have to pay $3 to opt out or save $3 to opt in?

Or are you saying the base price remains the same if I opt out, but I would get a $3 discount if I opt in?

I would find scenario #2 a more suitable option. Meaning I'd happily pay the standard price in exchange for opting out, but people who choose to opt in receive a small discount in exchange for their willingness to be used as marketing collateral.

Explicitly charging people to opt out just leaves a bad taste in mouth. And it just makes me thing you are going to nickel and dime me every chance you get.

To be honest, if all the standard painting prices were increased by $3 to roll in the opt out cost, I probably wouldn't care. It's the explicit charging for opting out that rubs me the wrong way and I don't think I've ever encountered it before on any other online transaction I've completed.

Q. Price $120. Can we use this as a sample? (Yes: -$3)

A. Happy to pay the full price!

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Q. Price $117. Can we use this as a sample? (No: +$3)

A. No fucking way I'm paying $3 NOT appear in your gallery of samples!

Q. Big Mac meal $6.99. Can we put a picture of you eating it in our next commercial? (No: +$3)

A. Keep the Big Mac. I'm going to get a Whopper from Burger King.

Q. Big Mac meal $9.99. Can we snap a picture of you smiling for our Instagram? (Yes: -$3)

(Burger King costs $9.99 with no offer.)

And now you buy the Big Mac without making a scene.

I get why it seems distasteful, but I personally thought it was pretty clever. This site thrives on good, real world examples in the home page, so it would make sense to incentivize people to agree to let the site use their examples. If it were a larger company I would probably not like it either, but I'm willing to give a pass to a very small business.

I'm surprised he didn't use the second, less-offensive wording though, it does feel weird as is.

Maybe there is a lot of value in having lots of samples. People are more likely to give permission to get out of the fee than to get a discount.

Personally I'd increase the discount to around 10% (raising the base price to compensate) and have "Allow us to use this as a sample" checked by default; but I wonder what % of people have a strong reaction like the OP here.

This is good feedback. Just because it's equivalent in pure financial terms doesn't mean buyers will see it that way.

What if he offered a discount of $3 if you agreed to appear as a sample instead?