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Charging structure changes


nabil

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23 hours ago, Kelly said:

Honestly this just puts them in a bad light. I could understand if they're innovating and adding features that the community wants this would be fine. But it took how many years to allow users to belong to/access multiple accounts? The features that are prioritized and worked on are revenue generators for WHMCS. One of the things that kills me every time there's an update is finding small bugs in things that I would think would be thoroughly tested before release.

If that email came out saying here's how they're innovating, improving, what to expect for new features in the next 6 months, and this is why we can't continue this pricing model it would be different but it didn't.

After getting the email, I was fine with the $39.95/month for unlimited users but today I visited the page and saw that the pricing is now tier priced starting at $44.95 for 500-1000 clients and goes up from there. I'm am now not happy as I was with my previous post.

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1 minute ago, Kelly said:

After getting the email, I was fine with the $39.95/month for unlimited users but today I visited the page and saw that the pricing is now tier priced starting at $44.95 for 500-1000 clients and goes up from there. I'm am now not happy as I was with my previous post.

It certainly stops companies who are at the tipping point from trying to attain more custom to cover increased costs- If they doubled prices we would have swallowed it in all honesty! even triple, quadrupled- we'd just look to attract more customers but in this model we're penalised even further by doing so! I won't replace an employee to afford multiple whmcs instances 😂 I'm hoping when enough people leave they will reflect upon this - Customer service staff trying to word how they encouraged users to get shafted as they fill in a job application! 

The bigger companies will remain,  but supporting 1000 big companies (Who have their in-house staff) is easy, lots of smaller companies will remain - those who don't want to leave due to terrible business practices and the ones happy until the next increase! The claimed 40k users will shrink considerably - staff won't be needed in such great volume - even with their claims of priority support (extra fee) or live chat (They tell you to open a ticket and wait)  and let's face it - most will move or use nulled with the latter being a security risk for end-users (Much the same as leaving owned licenses to not be updated - the critical updates never fix all issues) 

https://www.trustpilot.com/review/whmcs.com - They ask for reviews, definitely offer your thoughts in a place they can't edit out when the dust settles! 

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It is unreasonable to discontinue 6/12 month support purchases for Owned licenses immediately (management decision and is final) on this notice.  Yet the price increases come about on July 1st 2021. 
 

That's a very calculated move. A sure way to have WHMCS owned licenses choose between three options. 
 

- Run a legacy version (current licence) 

- Switch to a monthly fee (Chris' suggestion that this spreads the annual cost out is just laughable. A $99 annual fee doesn't equate to $20 per month for 12 months)

-Find an alternative product. WHMCS don't want the smaller clients anymore, that's quite clear. 


If these changes are in the interests of WHMCS customers then I'd find it more reasonable and equitable for owned licensed holders to be able to purchase one more annual support extension.  That way the opportunity to get current software remains whilst adjusting. 
 

As an owned license holder the moment I switch to the monthly plan, apart from the steep price hike, I can no longer go back to my owned license (even though technically I can continue to use it) because the data set will no longer be compatible.  Owned licenses effectively become moot. 

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40 minutes ago, Damo said:

A $99 annual fee doesn't equate to $20 per month for 12 months

Was everyone paying differing amounts? I read earlier someone that said they were paying $75 twice a year, and here it's $99 for a year? 
When we last bought, it was $59.95 for 6 months.

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After cPanel price hike am not that surprised with these announcement and I doubt EIG playing game behind all these big changes. Even cPanel lost too many loyal customers and WHMCS going to loose the same + companies like @WHMCS Aaron and some other Module developers will switch their operations with some other solution providers like Blesta or HostBillManager.

For myself we started working on our own custom solution with 2 other Hosting companies mutually, instead of paying $1299/mo for unlimited clients its better pay $700/mo salary experienced Developer for inhouse solution.

 

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1 hour ago, bear said:

Was everyone paying differing amounts? I read earlier someone that said they were paying $75 twice a year, and here it's $99 for a year? 
When we last bought, it was $59.95 for 6 months.

We've paid $99.95 USD for the last 4 annual "Support and Updates" addon. e.g. 2018, 2019, 2020 and this year.

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I've stated my opinions on twitter and via email to their sales department and may as well add it here.

The manner in which this was handled is unacceptable and they've put a gun to our heads. I understand that price increases are required, but this is pure greed.

WHMCS John can say what he likes about how they are listening to peoples remarks but clearly they arent, and we know they wont any time soon.

Its a money grab pure and simple. Who ever made and approved this decision deserves to rot

What a shame is all I can say. I wont immediately move from whmcs to a competitor but will have to within the next year.

 

Thats two businesses that they have lost

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Quote

After getting the email, I was fine with the $39.95/month for unlimited users but today I visited the page and saw that the pricing is now tier priced starting at $44.95 for 500-1000 clients and goes up from there. I'm am now not happy as I was with my previous post.

Unbelievable. You don't make an announcement with prices hikes then alter the pricing yet again raising it even more after everyone looks at it. Time to move on.

Edited by danami
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On 4/7/2021 at 12:05 PM, brian! said:

I would suspect it's a query of clients with active services, as opposed to just active clients.

Any thoughts on 'one time' order still keeping accounts marked as active (with an active service even though they're not cleints any more) or is just that just another way to take money?

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1 hour ago, nabil said:

Any thoughts on 'one time' order still keeping accounts marked as active (with an active service even though they're not clients any more) or is just that just another way to take money?

have you got the client status update enabled in the automation settings?

if the updater is enabled., you could probably mark these one-term services as completed rather than active and that might reduce your active client count after the next cron run.

if the updater is not enabled, you could manually change any client to inactive if you wanted to.

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On 4/7/2021 at 1:10 PM, bear said:

Until such time as the version is far enough out of EOL, at which time it will no longer receive even those. This is what only just happened with the most recent security issue regarding attachments. The patches were not provided for any version below 7.7. We were told to upgrade to get them.
That's what I believe will happen here as well, that we would reach that point, there'd be a security patch that will become needed, and then the bad news. Again. 
"We can't support old versions forever, upgrade or risk it all".

Exactly !!!!

You took the words right out of my mouth, i could not have said it better.

 

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On 8/04/2021 at 7:28 AM, Jade D said:

I've stated my opinions on twitter and via email to their sales department and may as well add it here.

The manner in which this was handled is unacceptable and they've put a gun to our heads. I understand that price increases are required, but this is pure greed.

WHMCS John can say what he likes about how they are listening to peoples remarks but clearly they arent, and we know they wont any time soon.

Its a money grab pure and simple. Who ever made and approved this decision deserves to rot

What a shame is all I can say. I wont immediately move from whmcs to a competitor but will have to within the next year.

 

Thats two businesses that they have lost

Yes, They listen but sadly until webpros move their hand these puppets are lifeless and incapable! I don't know if they agree morally or not - I'd have walked out on hearing that decision personally! I can't imagine ever working for an employer that wanted me to treat customers so poorly! That would effectively make me and my colleagues scumbags in my eyes and I hold myself in higher regard! 

I would rather stack shelves and maintain some form of integrity - but alas it doesn't appear to be the whmcs way! I will find a new eco-system and make myself at home! 

At least we can all have a laugh @ https://www.trustpilot.com/review/whmcs.com 

  I may also start sending many FOI requests just for clarity on some subjects! 😂

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3 hours ago, chrisb2012 said:

I don't know if they agree morally or not - I'd have walked out on hearing that decision personally! I can't imagine ever working for an employer that wanted me to treat customers so poorly! That would effectively make me and my colleagues scumbags in my eyes and I hold myself in higher regard! 

for the record, I would have absolutely done the same - I would have walked and not hesitated in doing so....

it's always worth remembering that posts from new users have often taken upto 3 weeks to get published over the last year or two - i've had situations where new users have posted and PM'd me at the same time... and their posts haven't appeared publicly here until weeks later... if that's not another sign of the utter contempt the staff have for those that pay their wages, i'm not sure what is!

3 hours ago, chrisb2012 said:

At least we can all have a laugh @ https://www.trustpilot.com/review/whmcs.com 

down to 2.5 now! 📉

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Just now, brian! said:

for the record, I would have absolutely done the same - I would have walked and not hesitated in doing so....

it's always worth remembering that posts from new users have often taken upto 3 weeks to get published over the last year or two - i've had situations where new users have posted and PM'd me at the same time... and their posts haven't appeared publicly here until weeks later... if that's not another sign of the utter contempt the staff have for those that pay their wages, i'm not sure what is!

down to 2.5 now! 📉

I'm not usually a bitter person, I can take my own inconvenience on the chin and walk away - I do feel they have betrayed many and don't even show an inkling for a genuine conversation! They're more interested in sending people to a 1:1 chat where they copy/paste a "Computer says no" response! I wish nothing but an abundance of stubbed toes and bacterial growth in the coffee machine for the WHMCS team's office!  

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51 minutes ago, chrisb2012 said:

I wish nothing but an abundance of stubbed toes and bacterial growth in the coffee machine for the WHMCS team's office!  

I don't think they've been in an office together for over a year.... they're all in their own bedrooms doing their own thing linked by Zoom.... maybe some of their screens have frozen and they haven't heard about the changes yet! 🙉

E7yXEPS.png

one other interesting titbit... if you take a look at the list of top members of this place, and ignore the staff on there, most of us are moving on.... in six months time, there's not going to be much of a community left to manage, or deputy manage lol.

I honestly don't think these forums will be here in a year or two - who's going to be left to reply to the questions?? if it's going to be staff, then you will definitely have those paying for their licenses funding staff to answer questions from those that aren't paying for the software... it's already been going on for years - i've got plenty of screenshots of threads where staff have replied to nulled users... they literally don't care - don't ask, don't tell.

to that end, Kian has now virtually resigned as a GearHead in this place - be interesting to see if the Kipper punishes him the same as he laughably did with me when I resigned from that pathetic rank in 2019 (e.g a smaller mailbox and a crippled search ROFL)... welcome to WHMCS inconsistency! (for the record, I don't care either way about changes to Kian's account/rank... and to be fair to Davide, he probably doesn't care about that either!)  😎😎

https://github.com/Katamaze/WHMCS-Action-Hook-Factory/blob/master/hooks/InactiveIsTheNewActive.php

Quote
In the middle of the COVID-19 crisis WHMCS increased prices up to 3154%
Some companies will start paying 15.599 $ per year instead of 479 $
 
I stopped supporting WHMCS a long time ago due to the following reasons:
https://katamaze.com/blog/41/whmcs-cons
 
I'm no longer in the mood to help this company with my money, efforts and skills
I stopped wasting my time with their untested releases full of bugs and features no one asked for
I also stopped adding new features to my modules and I no longer participate to whmcs.community
 
They don't deserve it
 
I moved to another market leaving WHMCS

 

that blog post of his is worth a read as he makes a lot of valid points.

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3 minutes ago, brian! said:

I don't think they've been in an office together for over a year.... they're all in their own bedrooms doing their own thing linked by Zoom.... maybe some of their screens have frozen and they haven't heard about the changes yet! 🙉

E7yXEPS.png

one other interesting titbit... if you take a look at the list of top members of this place, and ignore the staff on there, most of us are moving on.... in six months time, there's not going to be much of a community left to manage, or deputy manage lol.

I honestly don't think these forums will be here in a year or two - who's going to be left to reply to the questions?? if it's going to be staff, then you will definitely have those paying for their licenses funding staff to answer questions from those that aren't paying for the software... it's already been going on for years - i've got plenty of screenshots of threads where staff have replied to nulled users... they literally don't care - don't ask, don't tell.

to that end, Kian has now virtually resigned as a GearHead in this place - be interesting to see if the Kipper punishes him the same as he laughably did with me when I resigned from that pathetic rank in 2019 (e.g a smaller mailbox and a crippled search ROFL)... welcome to WHMCS inconsistency! (for the record, I don't care either way about changes to Kian's account/rank... and to be fair to Davide, he probably doesn't care about that either!)  😎😎

https://github.com/Katamaze/WHMCS-Action-Hook-Factory/blob/master/hooks/InactiveIsTheNewActive.php

that blog post of his is worth a read as he makes a lot of valid points.

Interestingly, I was looking at his work when the infamous email came in! The hook is handy!! If we don't migrate any sites in time I shall make use of it!

Yeah, probably just sat working from home awaiting the WebproBs hand to puppeteer them! The level of disdain I have for them at this point remains! I genuinely hope WebproBs cuts budgets soon after the inevitable large egress of users! That and forces the remaining staff to support users more to stem the flow of clients away to competition! I'm very fortunate, I had an honest conversation with my customers (Take notes WHMCS) I explained the shady practices were not fitting with my beliefs and vales as a business and that anyone who was willing to move from cPanel/Plesk - I'd double what they paid in service credit/time for DA or an alt! 

I got such an overwhelming response saying they were fully supportive of the decision, one client even offered to help us financially if we got stuck..... (We refused that of course, it's certainly not about the money)

It cost me a fortune, but oh so satisfying that in 3 weeks the cPanel/Plesk servers will be gone! Within 3 months we'll be mostly WebproBs free! We have 7 customers who wanted to remain with cPanel in total and I've offered to demo all the alternatives to them in the coming months with the hope of them taking up the swap! 

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5 minutes ago, chrisb2012 said:

I got such an overwhelming response saying they were fully supportive of the decision, one client even offered to help us financially if we got stuck.....

I used to find the same - when you explain a situation to client(s) and they understand your position, they're nearly always understanding and appreciative of the honesty.

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1 minute ago, brian! said:

I used to find the same - when you explain a situation to client(s) and they understand your position, they're nearly always understanding and appreciative of the honesty.

Fortunately these things are few and far between for me! I tend to minimise what I deem unprofessional and outrageously annoying situations although maybe we're just doing it wrong 🤷‍♂️ 

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35 minutes ago, brian! said:

in six months time, there's not going to be much of a community left to manage, or deputy manage lol.

Hi @brian!

I can understand that everyone is looking for different options or developers leaving or choosing other solutions or markets, but this community developed not because WHCS created it for all to be a part of it BUT due to the members who actively participated to help each other. Can we create a new community so that  people who want to keep in touch can connect and share ideas, thoughts and new solutions that they develop etc.

Once I integrated BOXBILLING for a reseller long back for their billing needs and it looked good for only $5 a month, I heard that now it's opensource, can't everyone join hands to get this going . URL - https://github.com/boxbilling/boxbilling

This may help so many  small and medium hosts / resellers  run their hosting business successfully during COVID-19 circumstances and support themselves and their family, why not do something which WHMCS people have not thought about exactly similar to the case where they just dropped a price BOMB. 

#DOGOOD

#WHMCSCOMMUNITYMEMBERS-ROCK

 

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1 hour ago, ManagedCloud-Hosting said:

Can we create a new community so that  people who want to keep in touch can connect and share ideas, thoughts and new solutions that they develop etc.

i'm more than happy to stay in touch with anyone i've helped here - those i've done work for will likely already have my email address... but i'm unlikely to be using any relevant hosting billing software in the future... i'll play with WiseCP at some point, and i've been messing with the open source, unlimited client version of Invoice Ninja for the last few months... but the only reason that I can answer customisation questions on WHMCS is because I used it for so many years - i'm not going to have such knowledge on any option billing software and i'm not interested in learning.

I would expect to still be around for the next couple of months - still waiting for my second jab and the end of the UK lockdown.

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Everyone have benefited using this community but WHMCS has demeaned everyone here and that's unacceptable...It's similar we now have few cPanel clients and most of our clients have now migrated to DirectAdmin.  

 

49 minutes ago, brian! said:

open source, unlimited client version of Invoice Ninja

We have installed it and testing it but it lacks features, We are also testing NEO BILLING a basic Billing and CRM though we use the CRM (FreedCamp). NEO BILLINGis developed using Laravel. As I don't have coding knowledge we have to depend on support though.

https://codecanyon.net/item/neo-billing-accounting-invoicing-and-crm-software/20896547?s_rank=4

 

I will also be happy to keep in touch...you have helped everyone proactively and the best possible ways. Thanks again @brian!

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Not Cool...You want to raise prices on your clients who have supported you for decades and you do this kind of bait and switch crap?  Total BS!

 

Quote

 

Hello,

We are writing to you to let you know about important changes to owned licenses. Today we are discontinuing owned license support. What this means for you and your existing owned license is as follows:

  • Your WHMCS owned license will continue to function as it does today. You may continue to run your WHMCS installation using the owned license for as long as you would like.
  • You will not be able to purchase or renew support for your owned WHMCS license, effective immediately.
  • If you have an active support agreement with WHMCS for your owned license, we will continue to honor that support agreement until its expiration.

If you do not have support for your WHMCS owned license, and you require product support or you would like to upgrade to a current version, you will need to upgrade to our standard license model. You can obtain a standard license by logging into the WHMCS customer portal (https://www.whmcs.com/members).

Keep innovating, building, developing, designing, and hosting, and know that we continue to make investments to improve everyone's WHMCS experience.

If you require assistance with our standard license model and what license is best suited for you, we are here to help. You can contact Customer Service by opening a ticket at https://www.whmcs.com/submit-a-ticket

- The WHMCS Team

 

This type of unethical and corrupt business practice is disgusting!

https://hostingdonuts.com/whmcs-alternatives/

 

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1 hour ago, brian! said:

I would expect to still be around for the next couple of months

And I would expect that WHMCS realizes that having you here is a must for their software and getting this community what it is now. I guess WHMCS should introduce some kind of new line of licenses created designated  for developers perhaps with limit of clients, not unlimited, but not for any developer, but for those who are officially registered on marketplace with reliable review, and deliver more value to their software,  and those license could be emitted with certain criteria. So this mean most of owned license that are developer, will not be affected by end of life OWNED LISENCE.

And of course for Brian, no criteria, they should just emailed you your new license, and only asked total amount needed for testing v8 v7 v6 v5 etc.

 

 

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1 hour ago, zitu4life said:

for Brian, no criteria, they should just emailed you your new license

I'm not sure his notion of leaving is tied to lack of a license. Sounds more to me like he's decided they aren't deserving of his efforts any more with this latest stunt. We have plans in motion as well, and it's time to accept that the future is not with this software, unless you like the way things are going and how you've been treated. Not many seem to feel that way. 

To add, brian!, you've been a huge help to me, personally. Thank you. Don't know why you'd want to but if you want to stay in touch, just PM for my contact. I won't force that on you. 

Edited by bear
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