@FrankZ said:
Leapswitch was Stromonic's upstream in Mumbai, they seem to be taking over Stromonic's client obligations. I expect this is not an acquisition of the company, just the clients, and Leapswitch is going to provide the services directly. We will probably find out more info by Monday or Tuesday.
It is interesting to see that when a low end provider fails, other providers like Leapswitch, or VirMach, and Hostaris, via refuge offers, see enough value in the client base to make clients reasonably whole service wise. This is probably one of the best safety nets for LE provider clients that is happening within the community currently.
This time it kind of bugs me a bit to be honest.
It is pretty obvious that Stromonics business plan did not work out. Their customers were not providing them enough revenue to be profitable. Leapswitch is a serious player, they are big and have been around for a long time. Why would they make the rookie mistake of taking over an unprofitable customer base? I'm sure Leapswitch is more automated and have a leaner organization, but I doubt that it is enough to turn Stromonics dumpsterfire of a userbase into profitable customers.
I can understand refugee offers, where other providers give users a way out. They most likely do not make a profit out of it but it's goodwill and hopefully you earn a couple of faithful customers in the long run. But simply taking over a complete userbase that you know is never gonna be profitable? It does not make sense, unless big price adjustments are coming soon.
@FrankZ said:
Leapswitch was Stromonic's upstream in Mumbai, they seem to be taking over Stromonic's client obligations. I expect this is not an acquisition of the company, just the clients, and Leapswitch is going to provide the services directly. We will probably find out more info by Monday or Tuesday.
It is interesting to see that when a low end provider fails, other providers like Leapswitch, or VirMach, and Hostaris, via refuge offers, see enough value in the client base to make clients reasonably whole service wise. This is probably one of the best safety nets for LE provider clients that is happening within the community currently.
This time it kind of bugs me a bit to be honest.
It is pretty obvious that Stromonics business plan did not work out. Their customers were not providing them enough revenue to be profitable. Leapswitch is a serious player, they are big and have been around for a long time. Why would they make the rookie mistake of taking over an unprofitable customer base? I'm sure Leapswitch is more automated and have a leaner organization, but I doubt that it is enough to turn Stromonics dumpsterfire of a userbase into profitable customers.
I can understand refugee offers, where other providers give users a way out. They most likely do not make a profit out of it but it's goodwill and hopefully you earn a couple of faithful customers in the long run. But simply taking over a complete userbase that you know is never gonna be profitable? It does not make sense, unless big price adjustments are coming soon.
I’m of this opinion too, but more so because of this thread rather than the customers being unprofitable.
@rcy026 said:
I can understand refugee offers, where other providers give users a way out. They most likely do not make a profit out of it but it's goodwill and hopefully you earn a couple of faithful customers in the long run. But simply taking over a complete userbase that you know is never gonna be profitable? It does not make sense, unless big price adjustments are coming soon.
Acquiring clients as refugees - yes it does increase the goodwill/giving back to the community. Also it ensures that the same clients will in future order more services or will spread the name of the host who acquired/saved the clients. So it does make sense, in fact a smart move to have a loss leader product to increase the potential client base.
I dunno. If those customers aren't opening tickets 24/7 because they don't know how to install WP on their unmanaged server, if other leapswitch resellers manage to make a profit, leapswitch themselves should also be able to. If it's basically keep the current deal until they cancel it, it should be fine to leave to run itself. Probably worth it for the goodwill, and those customers will know it was always running on leapswitch, which they might not have before, and so will probably be more likely to consider them when they need to upgrade.
@ralf said:
I dunno. If those customers aren't opening tickets 24/7 because they don't know how to install WP on their unmanaged server, if other leapswitch resellers manage to make a profit, leapswitch themselves should also be able to. If it's basically keep the current deal until they cancel it, it should be fine to leave to run itself. Probably worth it for the goodwill, and those customers will know it was always running on leapswitch, which they might not have before, and so will probably be more likely to consider them when they need to upgrade.
I'm not sure I agree. Other resellers probably charge more and cover their costs, Stromonic obviously did not.
Judging by the offers Stromonic used to run their customers are only interested in the absolutely lowest price and will jump to whatever host is cheapest when its time to upgrade. Keeping such deals running may not give a profit at all, and even if they just manage to cover the costs, they are occupying resources that could have made a profit elsewhere. Why sell 1G of ram for $1 if you could sell it for $3 elsewhere?
We are taking over the clients/services not just in India but also in other locations which are not under our control. We are not looking to make money off this immediately and it will be hard to do so in the near future.
However, we have been in this industry for 16+ years now, we have seen hundreds of hosts shutdown and we know how badly genuine customers are affected by them. When I started out as a 15 year old kid designing websites, I have experienced the same and ended up losing data. Personally, I do not want Stromonic or any other customers to go through that, regardless of how much they paid.
My team is working 24x7 to make sure all services continue to work as is and customers are smoothly migrated onto our billing/support systems. We have already the shared/reseller hosting customers migrated to our servers. We are reaching out to all customers with Active Services about the next steps.
There will be no changes - IP, location, price - for VPS and Dedicated server customers in the near future. We will migrate everyone to our systems and then decide on what to do in the future. All customers will get full access to our 24x7 support teams via Helpdesk, Chat and Phone. We welcome everyone to Leapswitch and hope you stay with us forever
Any generic questions regarding the acquisition, further steps or Leapswitch in general, I am here for you.
"You will have 15 days to complete this KYC process. This process helps us verify your identity and maintain compliance with all relevant laws and regulations. You will receive a separate email with instructions on how to complete the KYC process, and we appreciate your cooperation in this matter."
@Neoon said:
"You will have 15 days to complete this KYC process. This process helps us verify your identity and maintain compliance with all relevant laws and regulations. You will receive a separate email with instructions on how to complete the KYC process, and we appreciate your cooperation in this matter."
Again?
Well you have to when you are buying Indian location from an Indian company.
Stromonic just wanted to get money and that's why they broke all laws and hide the kyc requirement from their clients since beginning.
On the other hand Leapswitch is a different entity and they are just following rule to avoid any issue in future.
They are well established and I'm sure all data will secure (I don't think they store any data after verification) so KYC is not a problem I think just like you have to do that will other established companies like hetzner OVH and even with Leaseweb etc.
@Neoon said:
"You will have 15 days to complete this KYC process. This process helps us verify your identity and maintain compliance with all relevant laws and regulations. You will receive a separate email with instructions on how to complete the KYC process, and we appreciate your cooperation in this matter."
Again?
Well you have to when you are buying Indian location from an Indian company.
Stromonic just wanted to get money and that's why they broke all laws and hide the kyc requirement from their clients since beginning.
On the other hand Leapswitch is a different entity and they are just following rule to avoid any issue in future.
They are well established and I'm sure all data will secure (I don't think they store any data after verification) so KYC is not a problem I think just like you have to do that will other established companies like hetzner OVH and even with Leaseweb etc.
I never had to do any KYC for a VPS, besides showing them my CC is real.
Given that Leapswitch said, they might not change the price yet but later, maybe, it might not even worth it bothering with KYC.
Comments
That last sentence is they key there lol
Chris on https://hostingforums.net/
I’m of this opinion too, but more so because of this thread rather than the customers being unprofitable.
MichaelCee
Acquiring clients as refugees - yes it does increase the goodwill/giving back to the community. Also it ensures that the same clients will in future order more services or will spread the name of the host who acquired/saved the clients. So it does make sense, in fact a smart move to have a loss leader product to increase the potential client base.
ExoticVM.com - Find VPS in exotic locations!
I dunno. If those customers aren't opening tickets 24/7 because they don't know how to install WP on their unmanaged server, if other leapswitch resellers manage to make a profit, leapswitch themselves should also be able to. If it's basically keep the current deal until they cancel it, it should be fine to leave to run itself. Probably worth it for the goodwill, and those customers will know it was always running on leapswitch, which they might not have before, and so will probably be more likely to consider them when they need to upgrade.
I'm not sure I agree. Other resellers probably charge more and cover their costs, Stromonic obviously did not.
Judging by the offers Stromonic used to run their customers are only interested in the absolutely lowest price and will jump to whatever host is cheapest when its time to upgrade. Keeping such deals running may not give a profit at all, and even if they just manage to cover the costs, they are occupying resources that could have made a profit elsewhere. Why sell 1G of ram for $1 if you could sell it for $3 elsewhere?
Interesting discussion and points everyone
We are taking over the clients/services not just in India but also in other locations which are not under our control. We are not looking to make money off this immediately and it will be hard to do so in the near future.
However, we have been in this industry for 16+ years now, we have seen hundreds of hosts shutdown and we know how badly genuine customers are affected by them. When I started out as a 15 year old kid designing websites, I have experienced the same and ended up losing data. Personally, I do not want Stromonic or any other customers to go through that, regardless of how much they paid.
My team is working 24x7 to make sure all services continue to work as is and customers are smoothly migrated onto our billing/support systems. We have already the shared/reseller hosting customers migrated to our servers. We are reaching out to all customers with Active Services about the next steps.
There will be no changes - IP, location, price - for VPS and Dedicated server customers in the near future. We will migrate everyone to our systems and then decide on what to do in the future. All customers will get full access to our 24x7 support teams via Helpdesk, Chat and Phone. We welcome everyone to Leapswitch and hope you stay with us forever
Any generic questions regarding the acquisition, further steps or Leapswitch in general, I am here for you.
Thanks!
Ishan
"You will have 15 days to complete this KYC process. This process helps us verify your identity and maintain compliance with all relevant laws and regulations. You will receive a separate email with instructions on how to complete the KYC process, and we appreciate your cooperation in this matter."
Again?
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Well you have to when you are buying Indian location from an Indian company.
Stromonic just wanted to get money and that's why they broke all laws and hide the kyc requirement from their clients since beginning.
On the other hand Leapswitch is a different entity and they are just following rule to avoid any issue in future.
They are well established and I'm sure all data will secure (I don't think they store any data after verification) so KYC is not a problem I think just like you have to do that will other established companies like hetzner OVH and even with Leaseweb etc.
I never had to do any KYC for a VPS, besides showing them my CC is real.
Given that Leapswitch said, they might not change the price yet but later, maybe, it might not even worth it bothering with KYC.
Free NAT KVM | Free NAT LXC