SneakyDave.com

UPDATE 1/19: Internet Brands has allowed me a partial refund, minus a $35 “processing fee”, whatever that is, I can’t find it documented anywhere on their site. Oh well, I’ll feel better knowing I’m not locked into vBulletin anymore. The company’s last reponse is at the bottom. Notice how they still refuse to acknowledge that their software is buggy or that customers are complaining about it.

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I too was suckered into taking Internet Brands approach of “taking a risk” (their words) of purchasing their new vBullletin 4.0 Publishing Suite. A purchase Internet Brands encouraged licensed owners to buy prior to seeing anything about vBulletin 4.0.

Well, I got a hold of it, tried to install it to a test server, and after a few database problems, which I don’t know were vB related, or had to do with my version of MySQL or the existing database, I got it almost running.

Almost, meaning the CMS didn’t work as described, which didn’t mean a lot to me, as I’m not too interested in the CMS at the moment.

But then I got a lot of problems with search results. I can’t even figure out why search is only working half assed. It seems vBulletin is indexing only random posts, even after rebuilding the search indexes. This is a known problem even on vBulletin.com forums. Just try searching for something on the vBulletin site itself.  The search speed seemed to be longer also, even getting one PHP timeout, but I need to do more tests on that to see if it’s really vBulletin choking on that.

The other problems I noticed, and confirmed by other people, was various issues the hybrid/threaded modes of the forum. Not many people use this feature, but I do, and some people insist on it, and it was a working feature in vBulletin 3.8. Sometimes the hybrid mode works, other times it doesn’t, and it doesn’t seem to matter what browser I’m using.

The other problems with vBulletin seem to be css related or template issues with other products or customizations, just from the limited experience I’ve had with it.  Note that I haven’t tried to add any modifications or templates to my test base, which is barely functional for a production environment. I’m glad I didn’t try to do a full converstion from 3.8 to 4.0

The Licensed Customer Feedback forum of vBulletin is full of complaints from licensed customers, wondering when the bugs will be worked out. Internet Brands has been trying to release a 4.01 version, but it’s been pushed back.

There isn’t any word about what 4.01 is supposed to include, but hopefully around 100 of the most severe bugs are fixed, resolved, or at least addressed.

All this heartache made we ask vBulletin for a refund for the Publishing Suite which I purchased. Some people had received refunds so I thought I’d give it a try. I was denied a refund by Internet Brands because they thought my reasons for a refund weren’t justified.

So I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau (you should too if you’re denied a refund). Here was my complaint:

“The company enticed customers to pay $160 for software the wasn’t ready, and branded it “GOLD” status, which means “ready for production”. The software, particularly the CMS, is nowhere near complete, is buggy, and has been rushed out to customers before the end of 2009 before it was thoughorly tested. Due to the bugs in the software, the fact that the company used unethical selling practices to get customers to pay for the product before it could be tested, and the fact that the software still has dozens of bug, although released as “production ready”, leads me to request a refund in the amount of $160, the purchase price of the software license.”

Here was Internet Brands reply:

“The Company previously addressed Mr. Dotson’s petition for a refund in a support ticket he submitted to the customer service section of its website. We provided Mr. Dotson with some options for curing the problems he suggested he was experiencing, including an exchange for a different product. However, he refused to consider the options provided and pressed again for a full refund. His assertions that the software is “buggy” and not “ready for production” are both vague and not supported by the experience of hundreds of other customers who have successfully implemented and used the new software product. And his claims that the Company engaged in “unethical selling practices” are baseless and without merit.

Initial Response Summary His assertions that the software has bugs is vague and not supported by the experience of hundreds of other customers who have successfully implemented and used it.No Refunds.”

That is about the craziest response I’ve heard from a company. Why would they say “No refunds”, when they’ve admitted that they’ve given other customers refunds?

Anyway, I’ll keep this post up to date with any more outlandish behavior from Internet Brands.

On the other hand, if you’re one of the “hundreds” of satisfied customers of Internet Brands and the new vBulletin, please share your story.

Updated 1/19:

Company’s Final Response
The Company rejects Mr. Dotson’s claim that there are “hundreds of high severity bugs” and once again points to the successful implementation of the 4.0 software products by its many customers. Mr. Dotson’s knowingly purchased the software in a pre-sale period, which occurred before the product was launched and before a beta version was made available. His suggestion that the Company purposely withheld information is therefore completely without merit. However, as a matter of good faith and in its sole discretion, the Company will refund the purchase price ($160) less the standard $25 processing fee to Mr. Dotson (a total of $135).