NexusBytes/SmallWeb Email Closure

jarland · July 2023

I expect that not all NexusBytes/SmallWeb email service users signed up with legitimate email addresses, especially after reviewing them. However, a hefty portion of them view this forum. So I wanted to post my email to those users here, in case any of them missed it.

Hey friend,

I am writing this to you as the owner/operator of MXroute LLC. NexusBytes (who acquired SmallWeb in 2021) has silently ceased operation. NexusBytes sold email services that were part of a reseller agreement with MXroute. Their invoices have only been paid by account credit we extended them to protect your service while we tried to negotiate with them to keep your service. All attempts to reach its owner have been silent for several months. We don't know your account details with them other than that their billing software included your email address when provisioning your service on our servers. We felt that someone owed you more than to discard your service silently. If no one else takes on that job, we'll do it.

On December 1st of 2023, all resold services from NexusBytes (and their acquisition, SmallWeb), will be terminated. We would love to have you as customers of MXroute but we will not be making any promotional offers for this, nor will we provide any migration assistance. We wanted to notify you of the coming events and give you time to work out your situation.

I am very sorry that we couldn't negotiate a transition, or anything for that matter, with the owner of NexusBytes. I hope your service will have been extended for more time than you paid for, but whether or not that is true is outside of my knowledge or ability to influence.

Kind Regards,
Jarland Donnell
MXroute Administrator

yoursunny · July 2023

The family has been extinguished by the angry landlord.

root · July 2023

Jarland did great in offering such a long time for customers. In my opinion there was no other legal way. Besides, before 1st of December, we will have a Black Friday.

lapua · July 2023

is nexusbytes now finalized or what is the current state of affairs here? hasn't a user taken over the administration of nexusbytes? is nexusbytes now finalized?

root · July 2023

@lapua said:
is nexusbytes now finalized or what is the current state of affairs here? hasn't a user taken over the administration of nexusbytes? is nexusbytes now finalized?

NexusBytes is dead, finished, kaput, done. All services are gone, except the ones from MXRoute which are still kept as courtesy towards customers by @jarland - until 1st of December.

Jab · July 2023

Fuck that guy

not jarland

cybertech · July 2023

@root said:

@lapua said:
is nexusbytes now finalized or what is the current state of affairs here? hasn't a user taken over the administration of nexusbytes? is nexusbytes now finalized?

NexusBytes is dead, finished, kaput, done. All services are gone, except the ones from MXRoute which are still kept as courtesy towards customers by @jarland - until 1st of December.

im sure @yoursunny can argue otherwise.

Abdullah · July 2023

@cybertech said:

@root said:

@lapua said:
is nexusbytes now finalized or what is the current state of affairs here? hasn't a user taken over the administration of nexusbytes? is nexusbytes now finalized?

NexusBytes is dead, finished, kaput, done. All services are gone, except the ones from MXRoute which are still kept as courtesy towards customers by @jarland - until 1st of December.

im sure @yoursunny can argue otherwise.

https://heartbeat.nexusbytes.com/

iandk · July 2023

By default, instatus will not detect any downtimes by itself.
You have to setup monitoring integration like uptime robot or similar.

A native downtime detections seems to be in beta however

root · July 2023

@Abdullah said:
https://heartbeat.nexusbytes.com/

MichaelCee · July 2023

OnePoundEmail will happily provide refugee offers and migration assistance. OnePoundEmail will also happily provide migration assistance between NexusBytes/SmallWeb directly to MXroute free of charge for up to 25GB of data. Please contact support.

MichaelCee · July 2023

On a separate note, big love to @jarland for everything he has done and tried to do for those customers affected.

Asim · July 2023

Thank you @jarland, this sets the bar pretty high in terms of keeping the end customers informed/prepared

deank · July 2023

You know what?

I think some of us, if not all, saw this coming sadly.

MGarbis · July 2023

What is wrong with Jay? Unbelievable he didn't answer to jarland. Where is Jay? What happened to him?
Anyway thanks to jarland letting people still use the service.

cybertech · July 2023

@MGarbis said:
What is wrong with Jay? Unbelievable he didn't answer to jarland. Where is Jay? What happened to him?
Anyway thanks to jarland letting people still use the service.

he took the money and disappeared. he showed us how family betrayal is like.

pupilcc · July 2023

I have been using MXroute for a while and it is a great service. I would like to express my gratitude to Jarland for allowing people to continue using this service.

Flying_Chinaman · July 2023

Sigh, mom and pop biz would face an inevitable end which sometimes is rather unexpected,

May Bob R.I.P, amen

rcy026 · July 2023

I really think no one can question that @jarland has gone above and beyond his duty in this matter, credit where credit is due. Simply clicking the "thanks" on his post doesn't really feel like enough so for whatever it's worth, thank you @jarland!
And while we are expressing feelings, fuck you Jay and Nexusbytes. Shit happens to us all but how you chose to deal with it says a lot, and this dumpster fire of a mess was not handled well at all.

MichaelCee · July 2023

@cybertech said: he took the money and disappeared. he showed us how family betrayal is like.

I don't know about taking the money and running. I don't know how much money was involved, but I can't imagine it would be enough to justify these actions. I have lots of thoughts about the entire situation that I'm keeping out of the public eye, because at the end of the day it won't make anything better. Things that make it better is stuff like Jarland's outstanding professionalism and help towards affected clients, and everything he has done thus far.

root · July 2023

@MichaelCee said:

@cybertech said: he took the money and disappeared. he showed us how family betrayal is like.

I don't know about taking the money and running.

He took the money and ran. No signal for many months. No message. No public regrets. Nothing.

I don't know how much money was involved

This is irrelevant. He took it. He took it all; while customers and providers were left hanging.

but I can't imagine it would be enough to justify these actions.

Amount is irrelevant. Integrity and respect can never be quantified or measured in money. Actions and facts which are right in front of us speak for themselves about the character behind the mask.

MichaelCee · July 2023

@root said:

@MichaelCee said:

@cybertech said: he took the money and disappeared. he showed us how family betrayal is like.

I don't know about taking the money and running.

He took the money and ran. No signal for many months. No message. No public regrets. Nothing.

I don't know how much money was involved

This is irrelevant. He took it. He took it all; while customers and providers were left hanging.

but I can't imagine it would be enough to justify these actions.

Amount is irrelevant. Integrity and respect can never be quantified or measured in money. Actions and facts which are right in front of us speak for themselves about the character behind the mask.

Fair enough! Can't argue with that

jarland · July 2023

I appreciate all of the kind words and I hope it adds a level of confidence in resellers on our platform. If I'm aware that a reseller is going under, I'm going to do everything I can to make it painless for the customers. So customers should be happy to sign up for a reseller, but of course always try to pick one you trust. Like @MichaelCee here, perfect example.

I'm rather upset that what I could do here was limited to what it was, mostly because I no longer want to try to predict what actions an irrational person may take in reaction to my assumptions about what their reactions might be. For example, protecting a friend's customers may create some potential liability, but it's a risk I would take were that friend predictable enough that the liability would remain theoretical. But when the friend is no longer acting rationally, I'll want to shield myself in all possible ways. I'm rather upset at the friend for not acting rationally.

Ympker · July 2023

@jarland said:
I appreciate all of the kind words and I hope it adds a level of confidence in resellers on our platform. If I'm aware that a reseller is going under, I'm going to do everything I can to make it painless for the customers. So customers should be happy to sign up for a reseller, but of course always try to pick one you trust. Like @MichaelCee here, perfect example.

I'm rather upset that what I could do here was limited to what it was, mostly because I no longer want to try to predict what actions an irrational person may take in reaction to my assumptions about what their reactions might be. For example, protecting a friend's customers may create some potential liability, but it's a risk I would take were that friend predictable enough that the liability would remain theoretical. But when the friend is no longer acting rationally, I'll want to shield myself in all possible ways. I'm rather upset at the friend for not acting rationally.

Perhaps, it could be an option that when signing up with a reseller, clients could opt to have their data transferred to you in case of emergency (some tick box during the order process), but then again that sort of would kill the "white-label" aspect which some of your resellers might rely upon? Maybe enforce new resellers to have this option implemented during order process.

Or, if you want to keep up the white-label way, ask resellers to sign some sort of agreement that you can take clients over in case of emergency (which would only apply if a company goes under; e.g. after 90 days of no response..).

Just some thoughts, really.

bikegremlin · July 2023

@Ympker said:

@jarland said:
I appreciate all of the kind words and I hope it adds a level of confidence in resellers on our platform. If I'm aware that a reseller is going under, I'm going to do everything I can to make it painless for the customers. So customers should be happy to sign up for a reseller, but of course always try to pick one you trust. Like @MichaelCee here, perfect example.

I'm rather upset that what I could do here was limited to what it was, mostly because I no longer want to try to predict what actions an irrational person may take in reaction to my assumptions about what their reactions might be. For example, protecting a friend's customers may create some potential liability, but it's a risk I would take were that friend predictable enough that the liability would remain theoretical. But when the friend is no longer acting rationally, I'll want to shield myself in all possible ways. I'm rather upset at the friend for not acting rationally.

Perhaps, it could be an option that when signing up with a reseller, clients could opt to have their data transferred to you in case of emergency (some tick box during the order process), but then again that sort of would kill the "white-label" aspect which some of your resellers might rely upon? Maybe enforce new resellers to have this option implemented during order process.

Or, if you want to keep up the white-label way, ask resellers to sign some sort of agreement that you can take clients over in case of emergency (which would only apply if a company goes under; e.g. after 90 days of no response..).

Just some thoughts, really.

I always state that stuff upfront, and would be delighted to know my provider will take care of the clients when a distracted driver runs me over.

alento · July 2023

@Ympker said: Or, if you want to keep up the white-label way, ask resellers to sign some sort of agreement that you can take clients over in case of emergency (which would only apply if a company goes under; e.g. after 90 days of no response..).

This is very much what I think would be an appropriate policy to implement. Then the reseller knows ahead of time what happens if they go silent.

rcy026 · July 2023

@Ympker said:

>

Or, if you want to keep up the white-label way, ask resellers to sign some sort of agreement that you can take clients over in case of emergency (which would only apply if a company goes under; e.g. after 90 days of no response..).

Just some thoughts, really.

This might actually not be a terrible idea. I might not word it as "take clients", but a clause that says that in the case of insolvency, emergency or whatever, the reseller holds the right to make all clients an offer to move their services over without interruption.

angstrom · July 2023

I may be going against the grain here (!), but as far as I'm aware, it's not at all conventional for a seller to have this clause/condition with their resellers

And frankly, I don't think that it would be in @jarland 's interest to have this clause/condition with his resellers

At the end of the day, there are advantages and disadvantages in buying from a reseller. A disadvantage is that a reseller may be more likely to disappear than the seller. (An advantage is that customer service may be better with a reseller)

Nonetheless, let's bear in mind that the case of the disappearance of NexusBytes is about as extreme as it gets. In ordinary cases, if a reseller decides to close shop, they give some advance notice so that their customers have time to migrate elsewhere. In such cases, once such a notice is given, the seller and/or other resellers are free to post promotions in order to try to attract these potential customers. This also allows other resellers to compete with the seller in offering such promotions, which is a good thing

I think that @jarland 's decision to extend service to the customers of NexusBytes for a few months was very generous (but also that it shouldn't have been more generous than this!)

treesmokah · July 2023

Thanks for keeping them up for so long.
Highly appreciated. It shows that you care about people, not only the money.

rcy026 · July 2023

@angstrom said:
I may be going against the grain here (!), but as far as I'm aware, it's not at all conventional for a seller to have this clause/condition with their resellers

And frankly, I don't think that it would be in @jarland 's interest to have this clause/condition with his resellers

At the end of the day, there are advantages and disadvantages in buying from a reseller. A disadvantage is that a reseller may be more likely to disappear than the seller. (An advantage is that customer service may be better with a reseller)

Nonetheless, let's bear in mind that the case of the disappearance of NexusBytes is about as extreme as it gets. In ordinary cases, if a reseller decides to close shop, they give some advance notice so that their customers have time to migrate elsewhere. In such cases, once such a notice is given, the seller and/or other resellers are free to post promotions in order to try to attract these potential customers. This also allows other resellers to compete with the seller in offering such promotions, which is a good thing

Of course. Any seller is at any time allowed to make an offer to anybody they want, that's called free market. But that is not what we meant.
What I was referring to was more of a direct communication with the actual customers. As the provider probably has at least a way of direct communication with the customers, the provider can do a direct offer that external parties would not be able to.
Look at the case with Nexusbytes, for months after the deadpool customers still showed up here asking what was happening, completely unaware that Nexusbytes were long gone. Posting promotions and refugee offers on lowendtalk would have done absolutely nothing to help them. And these are just the very few that found lowendtalk, my guess is 90% of the customers did not and are still completely unaware of what happened. As a provider you could have given them a fair warning and notified them of what was going on, and offered them a way out or simply pointed them to other resellers or even other providers.

angstrom · July 2023

@rcy026 said:

@angstrom said:
I may be going against the grain here (!), but as far as I'm aware, it's not at all conventional for a seller to have this clause/condition with their resellers

And frankly, I don't think that it would be in @jarland 's interest to have this clause/condition with his resellers

At the end of the day, there are advantages and disadvantages in buying from a reseller. A disadvantage is that a reseller may be more likely to disappear than the seller. (An advantage is that customer service may be better with a reseller)

Nonetheless, let's bear in mind that the case of the disappearance of NexusBytes is about as extreme as it gets. In ordinary cases, if a reseller decides to close shop, they give some advance notice so that their customers have time to migrate elsewhere. In such cases, once such a notice is given, the seller and/or other resellers are free to post promotions in order to try to attract these potential customers. This also allows other resellers to compete with the seller in offering such promotions, which is a good thing

Of course. Any seller is at any time allowed to make an offer to anybody they want, that's called free market. But that is not what we meant.

To be clear, I was arguing against inserting a clause/condition of the kind suggested into a contract between seller and reseller

What I was referring to was more of a direct communication with the actual customers. As the provider probably has at least a way of direct communication with the customers, the provider can do a direct offer that external parties would not be able to.

But "the (actual) customers" are strictly speaking customers of the reseller, not of the seller

It's an artifact of the present example that @jarland has some (or most?) of the personal information of the customers of his resellers. As I understand it, this is because @jarland retains central control over catching spammers, and to do this, he needs to be able to identify those users who spam, whether those users are his customers or customers of his resellers

But this artifact of the present example doesn't generalize. NexusBytes also rented dedicated servers, on which he sold VPSes. The dedicated server providers had no idea about who NexusBytes sold VPSes to, because these users were NexusBytes's customers and not customers of the dedicated server providers

When NexusBytes stopped paying the bills, there were forum members (perhaps more on OGF than here) who felt that the dedicated server providers should keep the dedicated servers turned on for just a while longer so that NexusBytes's customers could save their data. If I recall well, there was one dedicated server provider who did (as a voluntary gesture) and another who didn't (perhaps more than one who didn't)

As you might guess, my view was/is that the dedicated server providers who turned off the servers when NexusBytes stopped paying the bills were beyond reproach

Look at the case with Nexusbytes, for months after the deadpool customers still showed up here asking what was happening, completely unaware that Nexusbytes were long gone. Posting promotions and refugee offers on lowendtalk would have done absolutely nothing to help them. And these are just the very few that found lowendtalk, my guess is 90% of the customers did not and are still completely unaware of what happened. As a provider you could have given them a fair warning and notified them of what was going on, and offered them a way out or simply pointed them to other resellers or even other providers.

My conclusion from this is merely that resellers may show a higher tendency to disappear than sellers show

As far as NexusBytes was concerned, yes, it was generally bad luck for his customers . Yes. Pech gehabt. These things can happen

But I'd still be against inserting a clause/condition of the kind suggested into a contract between seller and reseller

NexusBytes/SmallWeb Email Closure

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