Crackdown on vbulletin.com

This is why you take anything they say over there and here with a pinch of salt. If the staff are looking after number 1 and treading on the people who been loyal to them then they'll get a hard time in getting this trust back. If at all.

Liars are ten to a dozen. They'll manipulate anything and everything it was a good thing I seen this many years ago. It's the reason me and a a jelsoft employee had a little argument on here a few months ago because no matter how much they dress them selves up there are a select few who can shift through the bullshit ad take advanced warnings from this.

Anyway. pricing isn't the most terrible thing that they enforced. Look hard enough and you'll see their are bigger problems (for the customer) In the long term.

 

NOTHING would rectify it for me now. Nothing. They are now an untrustworthy company, and one that I only do business with because I have no choice in the matter.

 

I think it's fair to let IB know how you feel. I have.

But I fail to see why the same people need to carry on with the same thing, over and over and over again. Once the 'customer feedback' reaches that level, all is lost. Present your case in a respectful manner and then get on with life. Play the part of a thorn under someone's saddle and you should know how you're going to be viewed. And you know who you are, no need for me to point fingers or name names.

I feel sorry for Wayne and Steve, as they've had to put up with a lot of sewage from some pretty infantile individuals. The final decisions are not being made by either of them, but people are taking their frustrations out on them, as if they were.

I think some of you need to rethink your 'years of loyalty' comments. Maybe you've been a Jelsoft customer for a lot of years, but remember IB is the new kid on the block for most of us. Which means we are just as short-term to them. They obviously have a new business mission and business model, with which many of the original Jelsoft customers do not mesh well.

I'm small change so far as IB is concerned. I only hold four licenses. So as I begin to migrate my sites onto other platforms, they'll never notice I'm away. <shrug> What difference does that really make? I've made this comment elsewhere and I will say it again - I'm willing to wager that fewer than 20% of all the foot-stomping, teeth-gnashing customers that have 'had it up to here with IB', who are going to 'leave and never come back' will actually do as they claim.

A few of us will leave, but the new up-sell sales technique (which I prefer to call bait-n-switch) is going to cover up our losses. Look at the math. If two of us had licenses expiring and renewed, a total of $80 is earned. If I decide to take my business elsewhere and you upgrade to the suite for $130, that amounts to an additional $50 of cash flow, even though the customer base shrunk by one. They will still be dollars ahead if they lose half of their customer base. How vital are you suddenly feeling toward IB, Mr. and Mrs. Loyal Customers for Years?

The comment has been made the suite is the direction IB is taking the platform and not the forum package. They are obviously looking to enter a different market and when a business does that, they prepare themselves for the loss of customers. And no amount of griping, whining, pi**ing, bit**ing and moaning is going to change that.

Am I upset with the way things have landed on the table? Damn betcha! Am I going to change someone's mind at IB? No hope. So, that means it's time for Mike to eat the loss of the vB licenses and move on to something that will work better for me. I was looking for a better forum package when I found vB, so nothing has really changed. Sure, I pi**ed away the money I spent on the vB licenses, but in the grand scheme of things, it isn't that much money.

The moral of the story? Life goes on. It's only money. I've officiated dozens of funerals and I'm yet to see a Brink's truck in any of them. So spend it whilst you are able.

 

I don't. There's a reason that others left, they could just as easily do the same. By standing by IB here, they endorse what the company is doing, which, by your own definition is bait and switch (ie: illegal)

Who cares whether they're a "new kid on the block" or not. They purchased vB, they purchased the customers. Without those customers, vB would be nowhere, and they're going to soon find that out.

Maybe, but that's no excuse to just leave those "original Jelsoft customers" hanging there. Again, IB bought a company, they have an obligation to honor the deals made by that company. Are they doing so? Not so much.

Without us "original Jelsoft customers", IB wouldn't have bought anything at all but a piece of software. Without people like me who've been recommending vB for years (in some cases to clients who turn around and buy 10+ licenses at a time), vB would be nothing.

How does IB reward those clients? They don't. They take their money and demand more, without actually crediting them anything at all. That's what you call theft, nothing more.

The problem is that IB doesn't want to hear the truth, neither do the employees of IB. If they did, they wouldn't be standing by this company and it's horrific policies.

 

Well a good example of what I'm talking about it THIS thread where I put forward a very constructive suggestion over the beta process. Many will know that I have since May held out that I refuse to ASK to be part of the beta process because I do not wish to give them the satisfaction of refusal.

Steve's now locked the thread with a rather sarcastic remark that treats my constructive suggestion as if it were me belatedly applying to be part of the beta process, which I made abundantly clear it wasn't. As the thread is locked I don't even get the right of response.

This vindicates entirely my original position, which was that I did not wish to give them that satisfaction. The very fact that they've seemingly taken some delight in trying to adopt that very position proves me right, and frankly I don't find it particularly funny. But I'm beyond caring, it's exactly what I expect of a company that has entirely lost all respect for its paying customers.

You never, ever, ever, ever mock your customers, but that's what's just been done to me. I wouldn't now beta test it EVEN IF they take up my suggestion and offer it to those who prepay. I will wait until it comes out - IF it comes out.

Screw them!

 

Bollocks. By remaining at IB they are providing for their families in a very ugly economic/job market. With unemployment numbers as high as they are, which one of us is going to walk away from a paying job?

Had you spent a bit more time reading my post, instead of trying to formulate an argument, you would have understood just how the majority of the IB customers are being viewed. All IB needs is for two customers to upgrade on the current sale and they've already generated more cash flow than if I had renewed my four licenses at the old rate. Now you go right ahead and try to explain to me how my leaving them behind starts them on the path to 'nowhere'.

The bottom line to all this is people are upset they are going to have to spend more money than they did a year ago. Surprise, surprise, IB raised their prices the same as the grocery store, the oils companies, the insurance companies, etc. Or maybe people are upset because they see how insignificant they truly are in IB's overall scheme of things?

If you were as angry as you indicate, you wouldn't be here complaining about what is already a done deal, you would be investigating your options. As it stands, you're really accomplishing nothing more than spinning your wheels. Who among us can rectify your present situation?

I suppose I should feel obligated to offer you an apology. I noticed you and others sharing your opinions in this thread and felt it was acceptable for me to do the same.

 

Tell that to the employees who left en masse. By remaining @ IB, those employees support the company's decisions. Can a new job be found? Certainly, and with the skills most of those individuals have (esp. Steve who does do a remarkable job at the CS side of things), they would have no problem finding work. Instead, the employees have chosen to remain, supportive of the policies set forth by the company.

Which they won't get. Silencing your customers doesn't mean you actually win them over, it just means you're silencing them, not allowing them to speak. If someone's dumb enough to pay $130 for something they haven't seen, then that's their fault. The rest of us , meanwhile, expect a little bit more than air for our money.

And who says I'm not? I have been evaluating my options for the past few months now. Unlike most of those on the IB kool-aid, I started doing so with the leaked information, and still am doing so. The options are really not that great, though.

There's nothing wrong with an opinion, we're all adults here. It's when the flaming starts that the problems come in. Unlike in vB forums, it is quite allright to speak opinions in here, negative or not.

 

You don't owe anyone an apology, and it is perfectly acceptable to offer your opinions here just as everyone else does.

People need to stop insulting another who posts an opinion contrary to theirs.
Really.

 

As far as I'm concerned, the vB support team are way too busy answering the vB4 support tickets and don't have time for this, and the vB dev team working on it. Do they need to be kicked in the balls for a product that will soon be outdated?

 

If that is the case, how come he continues to control it's content? Whether he wants to accept it or not, he is acting very unprofessional at this point in time. I am sorry that he can't handle that people are unhappy, but handing out lifetime ban's is not customer friendly. The guy is being an ass, and customers don't have any avenue to take when he does this to people. The only thing i can figure is going on with him is, he spends way to much time online and he is now taking things personal. When things get to where you take things personal, it is time to take a break, and not a 5 minute break, but 30 days or so to cool off. VB staff have no problem banning people to cool off, but they don't take time to cool off themselves.

As a young man, there was a saying "when you are pointing your finger at someone, There are usually 3 fingers pointing back." I would say right now, he has 3 fingers pointing back. So as michael jackson sang about, "man in the mirror":

But as usual, i am probably the one at fault and should not be unhappy with the way vb.com is headed and how dare i even say so. Just because i am a paying customer, doesn't give me any rights to say what is on my mind, in a licensed customer feedback forum.


So i call b.s. on this statement.......

 

[off topic]Actually Siedah Garret and Glen Ballard wrote that song for Michael Jackson.
Glen Ballard also wrote some good songs with/for Alanis Morissette. [/off topic]

 

Whoever wrote it, it's a great song, and is one of my favorite songs by MJ. Actually, it's one of my favorite songs, period.

 

Seeing as I run Germany's most active Michael Jackson fan forum you won't see me disagreeing.

 

You are right, i met sang, not wrote......my bad. And yes it is nick, an awesome song.