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HostBill's latest Brain Fart... lol
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HostBill's latest Brain Fart... lol

marcmmarcm Member
edited May 2013 in General

I don't want to repeat what I have already said here: http://sqz.io/hbroad2perdition

However I checked their pricing again today, still hoping that they will get off their bipolar bender and catch a glimpse of sanity before they utterly and completely alienate what's left of their customer base, never mind getting new ones. In my opinion they are getting desperate. I am certain of one thing: whatever they will do from now on, they have damaged their credibility at this point beyond repair. If they will come back with saner pricing and better support options, I still wouldn't consider buying HostBill without them posting written and signed agreement guaranteeing that they won't pull this crap ever again. What do you guys think that their next move will be?

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Comments

  • pylodepylode Member

    As Jack said.. LOL

  • LOL!

  • t3stert3ster Member

    But their renewal price is still the same as new purchase.
    Seems like this also needs a raise.

  • pylodepylode Member
    edited May 2013

    Maybe someone accidentally added an extra 9?.. or more likely they forgot to add another 99 to $999.95.

  • PacketVMPacketVM Member, Host Rep

    9999.95 tomorrow!

  • shunnyshunny Member

    what the hell is that pricing. They aren't Microsoft. lol

  • pylodepylode Member
    edited May 2013

    @dominicl no. 999,99995 tomorrow! @shunny you're right, Windows is cheaper...

    For that price though, i'd expect un-encoded source code and the right to do whatever i want with it.

  • jarjar Patron Provider, Top Host, Veteran
    edited May 2013

    My understanding is that people were not buying it enough at the lower prices to justify the volume of support requests or hire additional staff. You've got to remember this isn't WHMCS. They didn't have the volume of sales necessary when people didn't find their pricing ridiculous. Best options are to lower expectations and raise the price of entry or sell the product off and quit.

    I don't think anyone who gives them a hard time over it would find themselves in any better position were they in their shoes.

  • marcmmarcm Member

    We could open a pool and place bets on their next price increase, I think that it will be fun.

    @jarland said: My understanding is that people were not buying it enough [...]

    @jarland - Then they should make the right moves and stimulate growth, create an ecosystem around their product, etc. I think that I've invested around $400 in 3rd WHMCS modules and addons and don't regret it. We still have a few left to implement, but I'm sure that our customers will like the end result. However when we started we used plain Jane WHMCS without any addons.

  • t3stert3ster Member
    edited May 2013

    @jarland said: My understanding is that people were not buying it enough at the lower prices to justify the volume of support requests or hire additional staff.

    .

    Each new license purchase receives 30-days tech support. After 30 days period you can purchase additional tech-tickets at $75/ticket. Guaranteed response time: 18h .

  • jarjar Patron Provider, Top Host, Veteran

    @marm It's not like this is where they started. If people don't bite, that's that. They obviously like their product but they have lost interest in spending their days responding to support tickets for a low sales volume that doesn't justify the time spent.

    @t3ster It wasn't always that way, obviously.

  • MaouniqueMaounique Host Rep, Veteran

    I wonder what is going to happen with the old customers, we are one of those...

  • jarjar Patron Provider, Top Host, Veteran
    edited May 2013

    Last time we talked to them they said our license was purchased under the terms of that period and they would honor it and not charge for any support tickets.

  • As a client I love Iperweb's integration of Hostbill. All in one place, everything clean and sorted. Way better than the standard WHMCS & Solus bridge solution.
    However, it seems like Hostbill is run by a crew of monkeys that is capable of 'some' programming..?

  • ChrisKChrisK Member
    edited May 2013

    I think the price is fine for their target audience, its not aimed towards VPS hosts selling $12/YR VM's.
    Its aimed towards colo/dedi providers, similar to Ubersmith
    Kris and his team have come a long way, and I think the price increase is completely justified.

  • marcmmarcm Member

    @ChrisK - I think that it's one thing to pay $1000 for an owned license and then a fair price for yearly updates and support. What they are selling right now can't be called an owned license because you are basically paying for it over and over again. If it were a quality product that was well maintained and came with proper support then I wouldn't mind paying $1000 for an owned license and then a fair price for updates. But this isn't the case.

    @ChrisK said: Kris and his team have come a long way [...]

    I'm really wondering about the team part sometimes.

    I liked HostBill when I tried it, but I couldn't justify the effort that it would have taken us to move all the customers over. It wasn't that good. I have posted this, and my last writeup hoping that they might see it and, I don't know, maybe come back to their senses.

    As a last resort I will write Kris and make a few suggestions about how they could improve their sales and make more money. I would really hate it to see this product go away on account of management ineptitude and lack of proper marketing and business skills.

  • IntcsIntcs Member
    edited May 2013

    I agree that the one who did it must have a so poor business and marketing skills, that even someone who doesn't run a company -like myself-, would see that he is sinking them ;)

  • PatrickPatrick Member

    @Intcs said: so poor business and marketing skills,

    Maybe positive marketing didn't work so they're getting publicity through negativity :3

    If they're trying to compete with Ubersmith they would need to improve support vastly

  • MaouniqueMaounique Host Rep, Veteran
    edited May 2013

    Well, even if they are honouring the old licenses and agreements, I dont know how long will they stay in business, so the question remains.
    If they go, there will be no security updates, hopefully, will open source it before and someone else will take it over from where they left it, but I highly doubt that...

  • jarjar Patron Provider, Top Host, Veteran

    Offer to buy them out. I bet they only need the right offer.

  • shovenoseshovenose Member, Host Rep

    Hahaha... I'll buy them out for the price of a license ;)

  • Its lifetime... Not bad *scratches chin

    No just joking, theyre greedy

  • marcmmarcm Member

    @Simple3x said: No just joking, theyre greedy

    @Simple3x - No, more like desperate and there isn't no one on their staff with any business know how so they will f**ck this one up pretty badly.

    Pepsi and Coke didn't get rich over night, neither did they make money by overcharging. They just managed to get their products in every corner of the world.

    Moving on to WHMCS: they made it affordable for everyone and managed to get allot of hosting companies and small businesses to use their product. Reaching out and creating market-share and a following brings in money and propels business.

    So HostBill, wtf. are you waiting for?

  • jarjar Patron Provider, Top Host, Veteran

    Pepsi and coke didn't have an online support ticket expectation...

  • @marcm more like hostbill, go home your drunk

  • marcmmarcm Member

    Beating a dead horse here?

  • MaouniqueMaounique Host Rep, Veteran
    edited May 2013

    @marcm said: a dead horse

    I hope it is not the case, however, this does seem to be a very ill horse, if not already in a coma.
    I hope they know what they are doing and they do have customers paying that, but I doubt, this smells like desperation.

  • I'm one of hostbill user. I have found a critical bug and have informed them. It's been around a month still have no news from them
    Their support team seems need a lot of improvement.

  • marcmmarcm Member

    @Wira_Soenaryo said: Their support team seems need a lot of improvement.

    @Wira_Soenaryo - To me it sounds allot like a one man operation. Maybe I'm wrong. My guess is that some of the code work is subcontracted to 3rd party developers.

  • NoermanNoerman Member

    @marcm said: My guess is that some of the code work is subcontracted to 3rd party developers.

    That explain the high cost.

This discussion has been closed.