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MiniVPS price increase
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MiniVPS price increase

SpiritSpirit Member
edited November 2012 in General

Just got:

 Well, we have been working hard to find a way of reducing the impact these increased costs will have on miniVPS. We have looked at all possible options to ensure we have minimum disruption to customers on our EU servers and as little cost impact as possible. Unfortunately, no matter how we play with the figures, we can't come up with any solution that makes our EU location viable at our current pricing levels. With this in mind, we have come up with a few ideas to ensure our customers remain happy and we can all ride this wave.
 
What are the costs?
 
OVH will be charging us £1 per IP address per month for every IP address in every block we have with them. With over 1000 IP addresses in use (not counting additional IP's assigned), you can see this will have a large impact on our current EU costs.
 
So, what are your ideas?
 
We've come up with a few ideas to resolve this:
 
- 1) Every EU plan has a price increase of £1 per month. This is us passing on the cost to the customer with no monetary gain.
- 2) We give customers the option of dropping their IPv4 address and using only IPv6. This means no change in your current pricing.
- 3) We move your VPS to our UK location. You would be moved on to one of our UK plans that best meets your current EU plan however your pricing would change to that of the new UK plan.
 
We have tried to come up with the best answers to a difficult problem and feel the above options are best suited to the majority of our customers. While we fully understand that no-one likes a price increase, I'm sure you can all appreciate this is out-with our control and not a position we would chose to be in, or place our customers in.
 
OVH will be introducing these new charges on 6th December, 2012. At this point, we will be required to pay for all IP address in use. With this in mind, we will be introducing the new prices for all EU based VPS's this month for renewals and new orders on the 15th November. Customers on annual billing cycles will receive a pro-rata invoice for any IPv4 addresses in use.
 
If you have any questions, comments or concerns about this, please do get in touch and let us know. We have created a new HelpDesk department specifically for this issue called 'EU IPv4 Issues'. You can submit a ticket here: https://www.minivps.co.uk/submitticket.php. You can use this HelpDesk to request a change to your current plan to the options above.
 
Additionally, if you'd like to get in touch with me directly, you can email me on [email protected].
 
I'd like to take this opportunity to reassure all of our customers that while these changes are difficult, we are still a strong business with no intention of going anywhere! I would like to personally thank you all for your understanding and continued custom and support during this stormy weather.
 
Kind Regards,
 
Martin Diver
Managing Director
Xavvo Ltd / miniVPS

My main questions raised are:

1. We move your VPS to our UK location. You would be moved on to one of our UK plans that best meets your current EU plan however your pricing would change to that of the new UK plan.

Isn't this something what you always wanted anyway? UK plans are more expensive and we can order them anytime however shouldn't proper solution sound "We move your VPS to our UK location. You would keep same plan with same pricing" instead upselling?"

2. Customers on annual billing cycles will receive a pro-rata invoice for any IPv4 addresses in use.

I know that price increase isn't easiest thing for anyone however shuldn't pre-paid customers keep same pricing atleast till the end of the billing term?

«1345

Comments

  • @Spirit said: I know that price increase isn't easiest thing for anyone however shuldn't pre-paid customers keep same pricing atleast till the end of the billing term?

    I don't think anyone is on contract here, yearly or not - so I do believe that while odd they can send yearly customers ipv4 invoices.

  • joepie91joepie91 Member, Patron Provider

    @Corey said: I don't think anyone is on contract here, yearly or not

    Huh?

  • SpiritSpirit Member
    edited November 2012

    @Corey there was a plan VPS 1 (most likely their most popular plan) able to order and pay only yearly. We're locked to this payment term.

  • I would think that by law they have to honor the contracts that they made with their customers who already paid yearly.

    MiniVPS should eat the cost of the IPs.

  • jarjar Patron Provider, Top Host, Veteran

    @JoeMerit said: MiniVPS should eat the cost of the IPs.

    Ideally but man that could be rough. Feel for them in this position.

  • @jarland said: Ideally but man that could be rough. Feel for them in this position.

    Doesn't matter if its rough or not, they sold these VPSs on a yearly basis, they made an agreement they have to live up to.

  • As much as I am not in favour of mid term price rises it would cost to for them not to IMO, if the £10/year in France was renewed recently and with the OVH rises coming next month it would cost them £1 to provide the service not taking into account the server costs etc

  • SpiritSpirit Member
    edited November 2012

    @jarland said: Feel for them in this position.

    And now feel for PREPAID clients which are FORCED to pay increase price of their plans for around 100% and with their suggested solutions they can't do much about. Most of them will most likely just abandon yearly pre-paid vps (let it to expire earlier).

  • jarjar Patron Provider, Top Host, Veteran

    @JoeMerit said: Doesn't matter if its rough or not, they sold these VPSs on a yearly basis, they made an agreement they have to live up to.

    Perhaps they could allow the clients the option to but not make it mandatory. If you like your provider enough and know that they run on low profit margins, you might be willing to help them out. If not, definitely shouldn't be forced.

  • @JoeMerit said: Doesn't matter if its rough or not, they sold these VPSs on a yearly basis, they made an agreement they have to live up to.

    In more than just this thread now you seem to NOT care about the provider one bit.

    @joepie91 said: @Corey said: I don't think anyone is on contract here, yearly or not

    Huh?

    Does paying yearly put you on some imaginary contract?

    @Spirit said: @Corey there was a plan VPS 1 (most likely their most popular plan) able to order and pay only yearly. We're locked to this payment term.

    How are you locked?

  • AsadAsad Member
    edited November 2012

    Maybe someone should bother to tag @MartinD so that he can respond?

  • SpiritSpirit Member
    edited November 2012

    @jarland problem is that people already prepaid yearly for VPSs.

    @Corey said: How are you locked?

    I paid for whole year. I can't cancel it to get money back. So in order to keep what I paid I need to pay again.

  • Customers on annual billing cycles will receive a pro-rata invoice for any IPv4 addresses in use.

    Citing their own ToS:

    miniVPS agrees to provide the services stated for the price agreed at any given time.

  • @JoeMerit said: Doesn't matter if its rough or not, they sold these VPSs on a yearly basis, they made an agreement they have to live up to.

    Not taking either side but I see the writing on this wall, eat the cost and deadpool, pass it on and lose a huge chunk of clients, it's a no-win that MiniVPS created by making a very poor choice of provider to resell.

  • CoreyCorey Member
    edited November 2012

    @gsrdgrdghd said: Citing their own ToS:

    miniVPS agrees to provide the services stated for the price agreed at any given time.

    In that case they shouldn't be forcing ipv4 pmt on yearlys.

  • What about pro-rated refund instead forcing clients to pay what is already paid?

  • @miTgiB said: Not taking either side but I see the writing on this wall, eat the cost and deadpool, pass it on and lose a huge chunk of clients, it's a no-win that MiniVPS created by making a very poor choice of provider to resell.

    Hard to get out once you're in though :) Mistakes happen and minivps is going to suffer either way.

  • @Spirit said: OVH will be charging us £1 per IP address

    @Spirit said: Every EU plan has a price increase of £1 per month.

    It's means their IP price so far was 0? OVH gave them free IP's and now they started charging?

  • jarjar Patron Provider, Top Host, Veteran

    @miTgiB said: by making a very poor choice of provider to resell.

    I think my old signature was "Reselling kimsufi is not a business plan."

  • @vedran said: It's means their IP price so far was 0? OVH gave them free IP's and now they started charging?

    Lots of providers get screwed later with the promise of free ips at first :)

  • @vedran said: It's means their IP price so far was 0? OVH gave them free IP's and now they started charging?

    OVH used to charge one time registration fee for a RIPE assigned netblock, without monthly payments.

  • @Corey said: Mistakes happen

    Seems the race to the bottom creates more of them, rather than focusing on service and reasonable pricing.

  • @Spirit said: What about pro-rated refund instead forcing clients to pay what is already paid?

    I guess that is the case. If yearly customers do not agree to the IP free, they will have to provide a pro-rated refund to them.

  • @miTgiB said: Seems the race to the bottom creates more of them, rather than focusing on service and reasonable pricing.

    Race to the bottom is created by customer demand... but a lot of these newer businesses do not realize they don't have to have the bottom price to get business.

  • @gsrdgrdghd said: I guess that is the case. If yearly customers do not agree to the IP free, they will have to provide a pro-rated refund to them.

    I think it would be much wiser for them if they just eat the cost and keep providing the service to those who already prepaid, until their prepaid period expires. Refunding payment which happened more than 2 months ago is not easy.

  • joepie91joepie91 Member, Patron Provider

    @Corey said: Does paying yearly put you on some imaginary contract?

    I'm not a lawyer, but as far as I am aware, purchasing a service is entering into a contract.

  • @Spirit I can prepay my cable bill also, doesn't mean they can't raise my rates.

  • @joepie91 said: I'm not a lawyer, but as far as I am aware, purchasing a service is entering into a contract.

    But if they reserve the right to increase the price at any given time they should be OK right?

  • KuJoeKuJoe Member, Host Rep

    @miTgiB said: Not taking either side but I see the writing on this wall, eat the cost and deadpool, pass it on and lose a huge chunk of clients, it's a no-win that MiniVPS created by making a very poor choice of provider to resell.

    +1. It looks like the options are reduce clients by 50% or reduce clients by 100%.

  • jarjar Patron Provider, Top Host, Veteran
    edited November 2012

    @24khost said: I can prepay my cable bill also, doesn't mean they can't raise my rates.

    Because cable companies have no morals. My cable company makes up monthly costs and total billed amounts. Literally the price is different every time you call, and they'll bill you for $200 and then get pissed that you didn't pay $220. Can't afford a lawyer because I have the cable, can't drop the cable because then I pay outrageous 4G overages, then still can't hire a lawyer...

    /offtopic

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