All new Registrations are manually reviewed and approved, so a short delay after registration may occur before your account becomes active.
Hostbill is Unprofessional
I've created an account and sent them an email asking if I can get a trial to test one of their modules to see if it fits my needs. Added, if they can't offer a trial, I asked if they do a refund if the product does not fit my needs.
I've waited a few hours, no reply.
Then tried to login to their portal to see the ticket status. I couldn't login, got this error: "E-mail and/or password is incorrect".
I then went to password recovery page and typed my email address, hit submit, got this: "That email is not in our database - please make sure it is correct."
I've then clicked the ticket url sent to the email to see if I can access it without logging in:
http://hostbillapp.com/clientarea/?cmd=tickets&action=view&num=829736&hash=94mesx
Says "ticket not found"
So, all I did was asking them a question, got no reply and got my account deleted.
Very unprofessional Hostbill.
I've especially wanted to test it myself after seeing this many bug reports for the last days:
Comments
Have you tried contacting via email or other means? Maybe it's a bug or glitch in the system, it does happen you know?
Well it looks like they use HostBill themselves, what would it be like if this happened to your customers?
@Victor, they have no public email listed on their website. It basically sends you to the ticket creation page. The ticket was there, I've seen it after I've created it. They read it and then deleted my account and the ticket.
I dont agree with it but I can only assume once this question has been asked for the 400,000'th time they get sick and act all "Human"
Also on the order page this question is already answered so that may have something to do with it:
"30 Day Money Back Guarantee
Turned out that HostBill wont suit your business model? Don't worry - within 30 days of purchase you can contact us and receive full refund of your license.
Money Back Guarantee applies to new clients and license cost only."
@AnthonySmith,
Only positive thing is their client area looks better than WHMCS. I think this does not worth it.
--
I've missed it somehow. But that does not give them right to treat someone like this. Deleting their ticket and account without any notification is just unprofessional.
I won't touch their software with a 10 feet pole.
@serverian
I'm inclined to say that WHMCS can be modified to the hearts content with their lovely .tpl files, enough work done to it and it could look so much better than hostbills'.
They possibly deleted your ticket since the answer is sitting on their website, but still, unprofessional to act the way they have.
WHMCS through & through, modules readily available, $500 for a license is silly.
I'd love to modify WHMCS at its core and actually fix it, but they still insist on closing it off.
@serverian
You are correct it is just rude but that is how they choose to do business, I guess they only want to work with people that pay attention or try to find the answers themselves.
The price is irrelevant to this thread, you obviously already knew the price and have the money or would not be considering it to begin with.
The demo/trial is covered by the 30 day money back, and you already knew about the bugs and the 30 day money back covers you for that too if you find the same one.
Sorry I know I probably sound like I am being a dick for the sake of it but I am not, it just seems like you are already well aware of the issues to begin with and now you found they they don't deal with people that ask for trials either, I don't know why people don't just move on.
@mrandroid damn shame
@AnthonySmith, I was aware of the bugs, yes. That was the reason I wanted to test it risk-free.
I missed that text telling there is a 30 day money back guarantee. And even I didn't, I would still prefer to ask them and get a written response to show them just to be safe since I've seen many money back guarantees that fall behind some silly excuses.
Oh, don't worry, I've moved on.
I've just wanted to share my sickening experience with them so it'll stay as a reference for people who wants to do business with these people.
I won't call this an experience... You didn't even try the product and you don't know this for sure. Most people like you have a history in that way that they don't like you...
It's an experience with them not with their software.
Maybe someone deleted it accidentally? Or it's a bug? Or they know their software is crap (never tried it so I wouldn't know) and they know it will end up with refund so no point in answering? Or they somehow flagged you as fraud? Or you sent it to technical support instead of presales (if they have something like that)?
Either way, going from
to
over one missing ticket? They look unprofessional, you look butthurt.
They probably just didn't see you as a potential client, they have no obligation to answer your presales questions. I'm sure they are getting a lot of "can I get it for free? can I try before I buy? what's your final price? if you give me a discount I'll put a link to your site on my blog. how much? will you sponsor my project? we are school we need your product for school product but we have no money. my mother is sick ..." tickets and they put you in the same category.
That's no reason for them to delete the ticket without any response.
Why not? After years of working in sales and 0.1% of those ticket converting to sale, you'd delete them too.
@vedran, Call it whatever you want, it's not a good practice.
It's not just over a missing ticket. I had many doubts about the product but I still wanted it to work for me. This was the last drop.
The biggest mistake that they could make would be to delete that ticket asking for a refund after you decide you might not want to keep the software.
And blame their own software for the error
The responses in this thread are hilarious.
Hostbill uses Smarty templates as well.
@Kairus, which ones?
I have contacted hostbill in the past and they did delete my ticket without responding. When i asked about it in their forum they said they didn't have time to answer a question that was on their website.
Those saying that it's okay for Hostbill to treat potential customers like this. Who would want to deal with a company that cares so little about its customers? Especially when your product is $400+
Such a behaviour is unacceptable. Even if the ticket is inadequate, useless or even though it's case has been discussed 100 times in different places or client shouldn't even ask about something in ticket; that should not take place to close the ticket without any response.
Even if ticket is simply 'wrong' and gives 100% chance for no sales nor business opportunity, it still should be answered. Even like this: 'Hi,The answer to your question with an additional information can be found here: link.' And that's it.
In my opinion serious business requires professionalism. And professionalism commands to treat all your customers with respect.
And by the way, you never know if that 'tiring' customer won't say a good or bad word for 10 other people who might be interested in your services.
True. But he wasn't a customer and he even said he never really wanted to become one.
Even if you open a ticket asking what's the capital of Guinea-Bissau? That's cool, once you find a business like that please let me know, I'll use them to google for me.
Where did I say that?
Ok, you never really said that but this answer implies you weren't really interested since "it's just not the missing ticket" and the end result is "I won't touch their software with a 10 feet pole". I apologize for saying you actually said that.
Vedran, in answering tickets you should by leaded by your common sense. I am not talking about absurd questions and you know well that it is not my point. Maybe I should have added that the questions which are related to your company or business should be always answered. But that's my opinion of course.
I was ready to give it a try even after seeing that many bugs. I was totally interested in their product but had doubts.