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Crunchbits to Discontinue Yearly/Promotional VPS plans
Today crunchbits informed that they are discontinuing Yearly/Promotional VPS plans due to abuse and increased support over time and asked whether to apply for Pro-rated refund or continue to till of plan term.
Now a days many good providers are discontinuing promotional plans.
So next black friday deals coming with many providers soon, which are promotional or discounted plans, can we assure their lifetime renewability?
Comments
Yes we can assure everything but not necessarily in this real world. Business is business.
Honestly I might call off the organised BF Megathread Flash Sale this year due to disappointment and the amount of uncertainties even for a host I trust the most. But I better not make any decision at midnight and I will think a bit more when I wake up tomorrow.
I would try to avoid vendors who boost sales for these with many prizes to buy, but one year later revoke renewal. Other agendas may have been at play.
RackNerd has been good but no one is omnipotent. My chickens will idle there this black Friday. Host-c has good storage plan... if you have the agility to order in time.
Hoping someone to create CB chicken refugee contract for people in the same vessel.
That's disappointing, I was hoping to get something nice at crunchbits this BF. Can't really blame them if the promos aren't worth the hassle though.
Last year was so hopeful. Thank you for your service to the community, and possibly stopping others from causing pain this year.
To not ruin everyone's day, is it possible to keep the sale, but disallow vendors who have shown ulterior motives, or disagree to renew the contract they setup?
It's understandable to either eye, but I have now 2 chickens who need a new home due to this. One was Ransomwared by Junglerec at another past favorite host,, and then I bought two nearly dead birds at Massive Grid. This is bad.
so now I am thinking bare metal OVH Kimsufi, but no energy to get the well priced goods if KS-A doesn't arrive.
This is adding so much burden to the thread organizer though.
Maybe it's right best to cancel this years then, FAT32 has given us amazing deals and I feel after last years sale and energy, he should not have to encompass more.
This VPS has been idling great - sad to see it go
Could someone please post the email? A group of customers have not received any email announcements from Crunchbits since well before the server migration from Allentown PA to "Valley Forge/Norristown/King of Prussia".
wouldnt blame you at all.
we should make a kickstarter for him to afford a fat all you can eat mcdonnalds
Sad to see this, sincerely. On the topic of abuse, it happens, and not many realize the cost associated to running a department like this alone. Whether it's a direct customer, a direct customer's end user, and/or compromised systems, etc, the chain is real and the staff required to manage this does cost money and resources. Having processes in place, well-defined SOP's, and making sure the entire team is on the same page are extremely important as well.
Additionally, being selective about onboarding and screening orders is extremely important as well to mitigate risk, i.e. having a dedicated, full-time billing staff member at the very minimum is important in the hosting business. You can't leave everything up to automation. Just like every aspect of the business, even for smaller hosts, something like fraud can kill a business overnight.
Diversification is another key factor in building resilience. Having multiple product lines for the business and diversifying revenue streams, which will help keep the flow going and ensure uninterrupted service to customers.
We’ve been fortunate to scale rapidly with minimal growing pains, but that has only been possible with years of industry experience and a proactive approach to handling challenges like these. I'm sure @crunchbits will weather this storm and continue to thrive.
In the very least. Didn't the vendor who pulled out of renewal have him tagged like thousand time to keep the goods flowing?
I feel bad for the helpful volunteer who now has this on their hands and BF in one week with everyone wanting replacement and fresh chickens.
If you want to talk about this, as usual, you know where ✌️
I always thought 'recurring' meant something would last for the lifetime of the customer or the company - not that the company could terminate any specific 'product line' at will, which could encompass everything, and just move on...
I'm wondering what kind of binding commitment the term 'recurring' really implies.
The price recurs until the service is no longer available. They aren't jacking your prices nor cutting your paid for months.
You're getting everything you paid for, just they aren't allowing anyone to renew these products.
Pretty straight forward to me.
Francisco
BuyVM cutting 1GB when?
There are still plenty of customers using 512MB...
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For us the 512's were the gateway to heavy abuse. The 1G's still get abused, but it's enough of a pay bump that it scares most of them off.
The other big one was moving away from pro-rate. the $2/m plans were like $0.50 at some points of the month due to prorate, so kids loved them as burner boxes.
Francisco
No!! Please don't, I need that thread!
As for crunchbits, I can't blame him for this but I'll say no more to avoid offending anyone.
Ain't droppin' it anytime soon. Prem BuyVM
@Francisco, we can't overlook that the 'recurring' label was major selling point that attracted customers who expected to keep the product at the same price - many wouldn’t have purchased otherwise. This was a key part of the promotional strategy, and retracting that promise feels misleading, especially when we're talking about rare promos offered in very limited quantities, which are now being categorized as just another 'product line'.
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Cause why I'm start sell from 10$+
I got a 12 year old to pull this for me from Discord. Maybe not using Discord as a primary info distribution method might reduce the number of abusive customers?
Don't lie to yourself my friend.
Francisco
I really don't. You know how painful and time consuming it is to migrate a VPS to another provider. Anyway contracts has two sides, what to do?
Oh, I absolutely would not have purchased it if it didn't renew and renew at the same price.
And, to be clear, for that extension to December 1st, they're sending out the notice on November 20th. That translates into a "we will give you up to ten whole days extra" before your service is ended.
For everyone that bought around last Black Friday, it's now a scramble to find a fix.
I got that via email over an hour ago.
Sad to see that so many providers become not trustworthy. It's sad to hope for a great BF deal and expect it to be revoked or discontinued.
The feeling that you can't trust someone to keep their word, as a provider, it's just sad.