Well on the Hostnine resellers page, there was a box right under whmcs offering modernbill free. I thought I'd try it out with host nine, who at the time were good.
Well today has changed my opinion on the company dramatically.

I ordered last night, paid and this morning had my emails with my RC account information.

So I opened a ticket asking for Modernbill v5 and I get the response:

Hi,

We now offer WHMCS instead of Modernbill now. You can request your free WHMCS license by going to http://hostnine.com/whmcs

Regards,
Dan
HostNine Technical Support

*********Important Links************
Helpdesk: http://support.hostnine.com/
Blog: http://www.hostnine.com/blog/
Forums: http://forums.hostnine.com/
**********************************

Ok, so I replied saying I wanted Modernbill as I'm sure they wouldn't cut their partnerships just like that.

And the reply I got this time was funny:

Hi,

We currently only offer WHMCS, we stopped offering ModernBill a few months ago and changed the website to reflect that.

Regards,
Dan
HostNine Technical Support

*********Important Links************
Helpdesk: http://support.hostnine.com/
Blog: http://www.hostnine.com/blog/
Forums: http://forums.hostnine.com/
**********************************

http://209.85.129.104/search?q=cache:ba9UjuL2TP4J:www.hostnine.com/reseller-hosting/+host+nine&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2 is a Cache page from google for the 5th of feb showing the box offerring modernbill on the site still!

http://i26.tinypic.com/10mlm3o.png is the picture I took for a backup before all they said no.

prakash: http://www.hostnine.com/billing-software/
prakash: "Get FREE ModernBill when you order any Reseller Hosting or Dedicated Server package from HostNine!"
Mike: That page is out of date and is no longer linked to on our website
prakash: Yes, it's linked on the resellers page. That's how I got to it.
prakash: Under the WHMCS box, there is the modernbill box
prakash: press more information
Mike: On the reseller page I currently see cPanel under WHMCS
Mike: I just checked and it makes no mention of Modernbill


Hmm, looks like they've removed it just now? http://www.hostnine.com/billing-software/ is still there.

I think host nine are terrible for customer service. Everything before a sale is great, but after it's a whole new story. The staff are liars, blatantly.

Sounds like someone forgot to update the site. I don't see the reason why they would willingly advertise something they can no longer provide. You should be able to get a refund on these grounds though. Any decent host would oblige.

If what you say is true, then it appears this is the second time they have made sudden changes so late. On another thread, I remember seeing that it was claimed they also changed their TOS so they were able to suspend a customer.

It could have been just a minor mistake that they forgot to update the site. But not great business practice nevertheless.

Sounds like someone forgot to update the site. I don't see the reason why they would willingly advertise something they can no longer provide. You should be able to get a refund on these grounds though. Any decent host would oblige.
Yeh, there giving me a refund.

I don't mind their products themselves, the quality of the hosting is 'good'.

The support / sales staff are just dishonest, and not really with it.

I think if they had this escalated to the appropriate people such as a high up manager who can offer free service etc, this if it was another customer would have went well.

The fact that they change their site like that though, disgusts me.

Yeh, there giving me a refund.



Good to hear that at least a resolution was made :)

http://www.hostnine.com/customer-feedback/
http://support.hostnine.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=145&nav=0,23

What can I see there? :P

Well I'm glad you got 'sorted'

Obviously this should not have happened, but:
I do feel a little for H9 re. the billing software situation/ bigger picture.

It seems to me, they found themselves, wanting to get away from MB, because of the ongoing real or percieved issues there.
They wanted to go WHMCS route, which needed to be 'modified' to accomodate H9's Reseller Central system(there USP).
The orig., mods seemed to not fully work, so a further revision of WHMCS was needed, before it seemed to work fully.

So it seems they quite rightly wanted to loose MB, at the right time., they quite rightly wanted to replace it with WHMCS once it was working with there RC system.

I would guess they did the best timing wise they could, but did not keep ontop of there website, which is realy not to good.

So, not trying to excuse anyone, just maybe 'expand' on my thoughts of the situation.

Of course the 'Support' handling of this, is at best, well below the expectations of any customer.

http://www.hostnine.com/customer-feedback/
http://support.hostnine.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=145&nav=0,23

What can I see there? :P

I expect the same as me, but for how long ? ;)

I would have thought stopping the modernbill adwords campaign would have ranked as somewhat of a priority.

Get Free ModernBill
$19.95 Reseller Pkg, 24/7 Support
Unlimited Domains, Free SiteBuilder
www.hostnine.com

We actually haven't stopped offering Modernbill we've just been pushing WHMCS more due to the fact that it's feature rich and our resellers seem to enjoy using it. Modernbill 4.x does not work on PHP5 and ModernBill 5.x has been in development for a very long time now and our customers found it very confusing and hard to use.

I apologize that you were given the wrong information about the MB licenses but I will be sure to clear that up in a quick news email to the staff today.

We actually haven't stopped offering Modernbill we've just been pushing WHMCS more due to the fact that it's feature rich and our resellers seem to enjoy using it. Modernbill 4.x does not work on PHP5 and ModernBill 5.x has been in development for a very long time now and our customers found it very confusing and hard to use.

I apologize that you were given the wrong information about the MB licenses but I will be sure to clear that up in a quick news email to the staff today.
In regards to your PM (inbox full):

Yes, I'd like that actually.

I'll ask a mod to close the thread.

See, why couldn't a rep of said that in the first place?



Also, if the issues were escalated properly, I would have never made a thread like this.

My shared hosting experience with Hostnine is actually positive, with no problems at all.

It has to be said,
it's not only a shame the 'support' staff were not fully aware of the situation,
but the initial 'you are wrong' attitude towards the customer of the first instance of support, is also very poor.

Sounds like HostNine just had a typographical error on their website. Don't let one tiny error shape your entire opinion of a web host.

Sounds like HostNine just had a typographical error on their website. Don't let one tiny error shape your entire opinion of a web host.
Don't mean to be rude, but did you read this thread before posting that ?

Sounds like HostNine just had a typographical error on their website. Don't let one tiny error shape your entire opinion of a web host.
Just a little error on the site, staff attitude, escalation process. Nothing much though, ey?