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Comments
@VmlIT - CU actually asked everyone to PLEASE give them a chance to process refunds and to not chargeback as it would kill the chances of the rest. People just wanted their cash now and didn't care about anyone else.
I mentioned on WHT that people should be just happy they got 72 hours to pull their data and that a refund should be a secondary kinda thing.
Francisco
@Francisco - Am not saying CU is the bad Guy here no am trying to prove them wrong. But believe me anyone asking for 45 to 60 Days to process refunds will look like they are running away specially after they closed doors.
Indeed everyone that cares about their Data should be actually very happy they got their data but once you give them one they want all...
Cheers
I'm not trying to make either side right/wrong in this all
CU screwed up and asked everyone to please hold tight on refunds. Users were wanting theirs back which is justified.
Though, if the users filed a 'didnt receive' chargeback, would it actually cost them fee's? been ages since we've had a chargeback so like hell I can actually remember :S
Francisco
It actually depends where they chargeback. If at the CC company yeah they do cost but if at Paypal cost nothing except the money goes back to buyer.
I am still yet to understand how they got $12,000 as chargeback fees. I would love to be enlightened on this.
Hmmm, very good point on the CC/bank chargeback! They were using a direct merchant which wouldn't affect their paypal funds, though, only their own bank accounts (yikes)
That's some serious fees if it is true.
Francisco
I was under the impression they were most Paypal transacs. Anyway only CU can confirm that.
One thing that I did not approve and still do not approve is their website. Gone off the web.
In this case, they should have had a little decency and kept the web up at least a simple HTML stating they were working on refunds and bla bla..
^ Isn't that another reason for Charging Back!!!
@VmlIT: If the average fee is $25 you need only 480 transactions to be disputed and $12,000 is gone.
@Francisco: I guess SoftLayer will be collecting money too, not only direct merchant.
i'm assuming SL likely has some agreement with them to get money over a period of time since they did allow the servers to get back online for a while (maybe they did a pro-rate for the 3 days and CU paid just that time?)
Either way, only CU knows and i'm assuming they're NDA'd out the ass right now :P
Doesn't really make though.... $4000 was the amount to be refunded.
@VmlIT: Looks like their customers issued few buck chargebacks or direct merchant imposed higher fees.
@Francisco: I feel bad for Matt. It seems he is going to lose about $100,000. We will have more details next year when NDA expires.
It's $35 per dispute with our merchant as the company was still less than two years old, resulting in higher monthly processing fees and dispute fees.
It only takes about 350 chargebacks to rack up $12k. We processed over 5,000 transactions per month between PayPal and Credit Card. About 50-60% of all transactions were processed via Credit Card, the rest via PayPal.
It's quite sad to see a pile of credit card dispute notices arrive each day.
It's also quite sad to see a business not be prepared for emergencies. I know we have at least one month's cash in the checking account. Pretty much a requirement today to be able to have a line of credit with most banks. That and a decent business plan.
Every Company should have that drmike and should also be prepared to face anything and everything. Happened to us, but you need to actually show the customer that you care about them.
In this case it is more the opposite.
There's a very large difference between not caring about your clients and simply not being able to support the company financially due to the fact that every time Minecraft is updated, it's hardware requirements nearly double.
In the end, it's not a matter of not caring, it's a matter of a long string of events that lead to the platform costing more money on a monthly basis than it was bringing in.
Club Uptime and it's VPS/Shared clients were tied at the hip to Brohoster. Had Brohoster been a 100% separate entity, Club Uptime never would have disappeared or had any financial issues.
I think that my working 18+ hours a day on most days and my hard work and dedication for the past six years speaks for itself. I fought for this company day in and day out for years to keep clients happy and to keep everything running smoothly. It was my mistake to take on a video game provider in a very volatile industry, and it's something I'm regretting.
Unfortunately, the clients got caught in the mix and it caused issues that can't be undone. But don't think for one minute that I didn't care about the clients: I've personally put hundreds of thousands of dollars into the company over the past six years to get it to a point where it could just hold itself up and grow, which is what it was doing steadily until Brohoster came around and I trusted Jacob to run it smoothly.
How exactly was Brohoster "tied at the hip" with CU? Why couldn't you simply turn off Brohoster like you did your OpenVZ LEBs (I think I'm remembering that correctly)? If the options were to die and be left with nothing or to cut off a infected limb and be left with something I would think the choice would have been simple.
Lastly, I do think it is noble of you to use your own money to repay clients because as an LLC, you could have easily walked away from your obligations (assuming you setup your LLC, finances, and paperwork correctly).
i'm still waiting for brohoster to come back online.
~2150 day necro, well done.
Yeah but it's kind of funny...he's still waiting...
The more important question: Who the fuck calls himself "lowendlube"?
i'm still waiting for brohoster to come back online.
That corpse is well rotted like this thread. It is never coming back.
Ha, ClubUptime... "Golden" Memories. That was my very first experience with a host who told me on Monday that "we are stable and here to stay" and went out of business on Tuesday.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewrosenblatt/
Seems like Matt is doing photography now. And I guess nobody ever receive any refund from them, even though they promised.
But maybe...just maybe...if you really believe deep in your heart...