Apoc
10-23-2008, 11:22 AM
While I am by far not the first person to complain about Hybodus and the company/companies responsible for it, I felt the need to share this anyway.
Hybodus was a network monitoring solution, which was started around 5 years ago, something like that. The software itself is far from perfect, but it works. It is coded quite poorly, resulting in very slow loading times once you add some servers to the monitoring system, but so be it.
We (and quite a few other people, apparently) bought a lifetime license, with lifetime support. However, around 2 years ago, the Hybodus project was discontinued. Not because it wasn't running well, not because they went backrupt, but solely for the reason that they weren't able to deal with ANY criticizm whatsoever. At this point, they promised all their clients they would make the software open-source. First it would take a few months, then they said it would maybe take a few months, and in the end it just never happened. The licenses that were sold before they discontinued, are still valid, but that's it. No support, no product updates, no documentation, nothing.
When you sell a product with a lifetime license, lifetime support and lifetime product updates, you can't just simply discontinue unless your company goes down (bankrupt) altogether, which is not the case here.
Now for the past two months, the product stopped working. I am not sure whether this has to do with the fact that their domainname expired (the license might need to connect to that - although I'm not sure about that), or it could just be a configuration issue. All documentation for the product used to be available on their website, but now that the website vanished too, documentation is unavailable. All files are encoded, so that doesn't help either, and I'm not really the kind of guy who would null a commercial script. So I submitted a ticket two months ago, requesting just the manual to see whether anything is wrong. This ticket was submitted both to WebHostFreaks and ServerPowered (the companies that are responsible/authors for Hybodus). No reply whatsoever. A week ago, the same thing.
So I just initiated a chat session with them on their website. Their staff (including the owner) has always been very rude. If you are the least bit sceptical or express any kind of criticism, they just disappear and stop talking to you. It was like this years ago, but I had my hopes up that this might have changed in the meantime. Well clearly it hasn't:
info: Please wait for a site operator to respond.
info: You are now chatting with 'NickF'
NickF: Hello, how can I help you?
Andre: Hi there
Andre: I have a question about hybodus
Andre: we've been running this for years and so far it worked fine
Andre: but a while ago it stopped working
Andre: and I can't seem to find any trace of a cronjob for it anymore, so I think that's missing, but it could be something completely different as I don't know exactly how Hybodus initiates the SNMP checks and such
NickF: Hybodus was discontinued to my knowledge.
Andre: well I paid for a lifetime license
NickF: If you have questions about it, it is preferrable submit a support ticket to the people who know more about it.
Andre: well I just need something urgently, maybe you can ask your collegues
NickF: That would be the admins located in the Help Desk.
Andre: just need the manual
NickF: There is none to ask.
NickF: My department is seperate and we don't take Hybodus questions through here.
NickF: That is why I don't know too much about it.
Andre: I understand but you must be in contact with them somehow
Andre: the thing is, I already submitted 2 tickets about this
Andre: and no response whatsoever
NickF: I don't have the means to produce your answers.
NickF: If I could I would.
Andre: your collegues do, and I am not able to reach them myself
NickF: If you submitted a support ticket it will be answered, make sure you submitted it to the technical support desk.
Andre: I submitted it two months ago and a week ago, both of which were never responded to
NickF: I'm sorry, I wish I could help you but I simply can't.
Andre: well you work for the company that's responsible for this
NickF: This department doesn't work with Hybodus nor do we have information on it.
Andre: I paid for a lifetime product with lifetime support, and I'm not getting it
Andre: yeah I understand, so how do I reach them?
NickF: I can understand your frustrated, but if you have any grievances please submit a ticket to our technical support department.
Andre: I DID..
Andre: they are not responding
Andre: so now what?
NickF: Exactly what I told you, please submit a ticket.
Andre: I don't think you are listening
Andre: I did submit a ticket
Andre: twice
Andre: and I am not getting answers at all
NickF: I am, but I don't htink yo uare listening to me.
NickF: I can't help you so badgering me isn't going to help you get any farther.
Andre: you are asking me to submit another ticket while I already submitted a ticket twice without a response, so why would you expect me to do that again?
NickF: Please submit a ticket, I will see to it it gets to the right hands.
NickF: Because I can't confirm you submitted one.
Andre: well I can
Andre: but anyway, what's the best place to submit that ticket in this case/
NickF: Technical Support.
Andre: where are you forums by the way?
Andre: it is asking me "I have searched the Forums first."
Andre: but that link isn't workign
NickF: http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=559141
NickF: Ignore our forums and just submit the ticket please.
Andre: well quite frankly I'd just like to discuss this matter on your forums
Andre: I just submitted the ticket, can you see whether you got it?
NickF: Sir I am going to be frank with you at this point.
NickF: Submit a support ticket, someone will be in touch.
Andre: yeah, I heard that before
Andre: but like I said, I already did
NickF: Going around with me is fruitless.
Andre: so it seems, but to be very honest I haven't experienced anything different with your company all along
Andre: no offense, but your company isn't good with dealing with critizism
NickF: Thats nice, take care.
Chat session closed by operator
After this, all new chat sessions were blocked.
Since Hybodus was discontinued, we have started to use a customized Nagios-based solution for our clients which works perfectly. However, for some purposes, we'd still just like to use Hybodus. Afterall, we paid for a lifetime license.
In my opinion it would serve them right to take legal action against these kind of malicious business practices. You just can't sell a product with lifetime licenses and then just discontinue it when you get criticized, it just doesn't work that way. However, we paid $400 for the license, so from a financial point of view, taking legal action isn't really worthwhile, unless other "victims" would team up or something like that.
For me, I really don't care about that $400, but I do care about the principles. If you want to run a business, do it right, or otherwise just don't do it.
I am not intending to make this a Hybodus bashing thread or anything like that, I am just stating the facts to warn potential customers of WebHostFreaks/ServerPowered about these malicious business practices.
Hybodus was a network monitoring solution, which was started around 5 years ago, something like that. The software itself is far from perfect, but it works. It is coded quite poorly, resulting in very slow loading times once you add some servers to the monitoring system, but so be it.
We (and quite a few other people, apparently) bought a lifetime license, with lifetime support. However, around 2 years ago, the Hybodus project was discontinued. Not because it wasn't running well, not because they went backrupt, but solely for the reason that they weren't able to deal with ANY criticizm whatsoever. At this point, they promised all their clients they would make the software open-source. First it would take a few months, then they said it would maybe take a few months, and in the end it just never happened. The licenses that were sold before they discontinued, are still valid, but that's it. No support, no product updates, no documentation, nothing.
When you sell a product with a lifetime license, lifetime support and lifetime product updates, you can't just simply discontinue unless your company goes down (bankrupt) altogether, which is not the case here.
Now for the past two months, the product stopped working. I am not sure whether this has to do with the fact that their domainname expired (the license might need to connect to that - although I'm not sure about that), or it could just be a configuration issue. All documentation for the product used to be available on their website, but now that the website vanished too, documentation is unavailable. All files are encoded, so that doesn't help either, and I'm not really the kind of guy who would null a commercial script. So I submitted a ticket two months ago, requesting just the manual to see whether anything is wrong. This ticket was submitted both to WebHostFreaks and ServerPowered (the companies that are responsible/authors for Hybodus). No reply whatsoever. A week ago, the same thing.
So I just initiated a chat session with them on their website. Their staff (including the owner) has always been very rude. If you are the least bit sceptical or express any kind of criticism, they just disappear and stop talking to you. It was like this years ago, but I had my hopes up that this might have changed in the meantime. Well clearly it hasn't:
info: Please wait for a site operator to respond.
info: You are now chatting with 'NickF'
NickF: Hello, how can I help you?
Andre: Hi there
Andre: I have a question about hybodus
Andre: we've been running this for years and so far it worked fine
Andre: but a while ago it stopped working
Andre: and I can't seem to find any trace of a cronjob for it anymore, so I think that's missing, but it could be something completely different as I don't know exactly how Hybodus initiates the SNMP checks and such
NickF: Hybodus was discontinued to my knowledge.
Andre: well I paid for a lifetime license
NickF: If you have questions about it, it is preferrable submit a support ticket to the people who know more about it.
Andre: well I just need something urgently, maybe you can ask your collegues
NickF: That would be the admins located in the Help Desk.
Andre: just need the manual
NickF: There is none to ask.
NickF: My department is seperate and we don't take Hybodus questions through here.
NickF: That is why I don't know too much about it.
Andre: I understand but you must be in contact with them somehow
Andre: the thing is, I already submitted 2 tickets about this
Andre: and no response whatsoever
NickF: I don't have the means to produce your answers.
NickF: If I could I would.
Andre: your collegues do, and I am not able to reach them myself
NickF: If you submitted a support ticket it will be answered, make sure you submitted it to the technical support desk.
Andre: I submitted it two months ago and a week ago, both of which were never responded to
NickF: I'm sorry, I wish I could help you but I simply can't.
Andre: well you work for the company that's responsible for this
NickF: This department doesn't work with Hybodus nor do we have information on it.
Andre: I paid for a lifetime product with lifetime support, and I'm not getting it
Andre: yeah I understand, so how do I reach them?
NickF: I can understand your frustrated, but if you have any grievances please submit a ticket to our technical support department.
Andre: I DID..
Andre: they are not responding
Andre: so now what?
NickF: Exactly what I told you, please submit a ticket.
Andre: I don't think you are listening
Andre: I did submit a ticket
Andre: twice
Andre: and I am not getting answers at all
NickF: I am, but I don't htink yo uare listening to me.
NickF: I can't help you so badgering me isn't going to help you get any farther.
Andre: you are asking me to submit another ticket while I already submitted a ticket twice without a response, so why would you expect me to do that again?
NickF: Please submit a ticket, I will see to it it gets to the right hands.
NickF: Because I can't confirm you submitted one.
Andre: well I can
Andre: but anyway, what's the best place to submit that ticket in this case/
NickF: Technical Support.
Andre: where are you forums by the way?
Andre: it is asking me "I have searched the Forums first."
Andre: but that link isn't workign
NickF: http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=559141
NickF: Ignore our forums and just submit the ticket please.
Andre: well quite frankly I'd just like to discuss this matter on your forums
Andre: I just submitted the ticket, can you see whether you got it?
NickF: Sir I am going to be frank with you at this point.
NickF: Submit a support ticket, someone will be in touch.
Andre: yeah, I heard that before
Andre: but like I said, I already did
NickF: Going around with me is fruitless.
Andre: so it seems, but to be very honest I haven't experienced anything different with your company all along
Andre: no offense, but your company isn't good with dealing with critizism
NickF: Thats nice, take care.
Chat session closed by operator
After this, all new chat sessions were blocked.
Since Hybodus was discontinued, we have started to use a customized Nagios-based solution for our clients which works perfectly. However, for some purposes, we'd still just like to use Hybodus. Afterall, we paid for a lifetime license.
In my opinion it would serve them right to take legal action against these kind of malicious business practices. You just can't sell a product with lifetime licenses and then just discontinue it when you get criticized, it just doesn't work that way. However, we paid $400 for the license, so from a financial point of view, taking legal action isn't really worthwhile, unless other "victims" would team up or something like that.
For me, I really don't care about that $400, but I do care about the principles. If you want to run a business, do it right, or otherwise just don't do it.
I am not intending to make this a Hybodus bashing thread or anything like that, I am just stating the facts to warn potential customers of WebHostFreaks/ServerPowered about these malicious business practices.