Dear vBulletin Forum Community - vBSEO is Suspending Operations

UPDATE: Andres starting some activity:
http://admin-talk.com/threads/update-andres-resumes-posting-at-vbseo-com.43699/

 

You may be unaware of this, Ilia, but Andres was in a bad car accident recently requiring surgery, and then a short while later followup surgery because the first one did not go well. Despite this, he has been one of only two vBSEO support people who have been making attempts to actually reassure people in the support forums (the other being Marco Mamdouh serving only some non-English customers).

While I understand your displeasure with your brother's absence, I don't think it's fair to blame Andres for not single-handedly clearing up what is obviously a huge backlog, especially given his own medical struggles. Blame Juan if you want for not providing more backup for Andres and Marco.

 

Hi DJ,

Andres started posting today, after my discussions with him.

He has been absent from the forums, but stated that he was very busy with tickets. Since customers report tickets being non-addressed, I take that as an inaccurate statement.

I feel bad that he was injured and required surgery, particularly that Juan did not give any updates about him or his absence.

I appreciate Marco's efforts a great deal. He's always been a great team member, and works as an affiliate for us for Arabic orders. He also didn't show up here to be disrespectful to me, because we had an excellent relationship, and he is aware of my history with my company.

Unless you are speaking of his posts today, I have not seen very much from Andres that I would consider very forthcoming or reassuring to customers. I know that he at one point referenced a lack of resources.

He is free and welcome to communicate with me. I don't want him working without getting paid, and I don't want him to feel like he has to make excuses for management.

 

Andres has been posting at the support forums for some time, when he is able to - that's my point. I make no excuses for Juan but Andres has done what he could when he could. I would recommend you aim your displeasure at those who deserve it and Andres is not one of them.

What do you expect him to do in between surgeries? Spend his time debating with trolls or people who can't be bothered to read directions or search the support forums? Or spend his time on the backlog of support tickets? I think the latter, which is why a few of us have been trying to convert the forums to peer support.

 

DJ, I didn't ask Andres to inject himself into this discussion. He chose to do so himself.

If Andres was online and processing a huge amount of tickets, then I absolutely expect that he had enough time to make an appearance in the public threads.

Leaving the forum unattended, and letting trolling dominate, damages the company. At least some of his time should have been directed there.

He can't state that he was well enough to post private responses in tickets, but not tell enough to post public responses.

However, a lack of leadership allowed for questionable judgement to go uncorrected.

When you ban a troll, you no longer have to deal with them. This is a forum filled with forum admins, and I'm not about to accept those types of excuses.

We support all of our customers at vBSEO (when we're there and doing our job). We don't discriminate against those who ask questions because they haven't carefully "read directions" or "search[ed] the support forums".

The forums have not been corrected to a "peer support" group to date, unfortunately. While I appreciate anyone who helps out someone else with information or assistance, most of what I've seen there is very hostile interactions what would have never been allowed under my management.

I also appreciate your good intentions and encouragement, but I don't share your enthusiasm for the state of the vbseo.com forums if Andres was in fact available at any time during the last month, in particular.

 

I'm not taking sides here, but it's not really Andres job to be honest posting on the public forum trying to re-assure people all is OK. That's a job your brother should be doing as company owner. What I don't get here, if your brother isn't showing on vBSEO doing it, why on earth is Andres still even bothering for? It's like he's the lone person left there?

So you have to actually credit the guy for sticking at his job trying to offer support, when frankly he should probably be saying stuff this and walk away from it all. I even read you ask him before, when was he last paid from your brother for doing his job?

 

No, Andres job is certainly not to make decisions about when to make major announcements for the company, nor should he be the one to post them when they are made. I don't expect that from him.

If he's aware of the status of the company and not permitted to say anything, that's also horrible. As the lone English support team on the site, he does take the focus of most direct criticism about support, and the company standing is definitely not his fault.

As a support rep, he does still have to address all parts of the forum, including the public vbseo.com forums. He also needs to deal with trolls in the usual way. I'm not opposed to banning users who continually abuse others or incessantly troll others.

I don't know why Andres would bother either. I wouldn't fault him if he left. That's why I asked if he was being paid. We've had issues with payroll and timely affiliate payments in the past. Under the current circumstances, it certainly seems like that could be a possibility. I don't expect him to work for free.

If Andre is really answering tickets, then I absolutely give him credit and thank him for doing so. There is a thread dedicated to posting missed support tickets, perhaps as a strategy for him to catch up. However, there are a lot of complaints about critical issues such as orders not getting fulfilled. So, without accessing the systems, I can't assess how often tickets are getting updated. I only observe evidence that there are a great deal of complaints about them not being answered.

Andres is not the focus of my attention. If he's getting paid, I would like him to ensure that public threads at vbseo.com are being addressed like he has started doing today. If not, it's unfair, and we have no right to expect him to continue his duties for free.

Though I think his post here to me was disrespectful, at least he had the courage to drop in and voice his opinion. The CEO hasn't made an appearance yet. Andres deserves credit for that as well.

 

Exactly, GTB.

Ilia, Andres is as much a casualty as anyone else dealing with vBSEO.

I don't know if you are just missing the point but you are way off mark here and every additional slight or criticism against Andres is hurting your cause. You have not been there. I have. And I have seen the evidence of his hard work. Apparently you have not.

Every additional post like this just damages your cause. Moreover, it distracts from the stated purpose of your cause. Your beef is with your brother: Let it stop there. Stop attacking people who have done their best to help vBSEO customers. Aim your venom and displeasure at your brother for failing to provide them with the resources they need to do their jobs effectively.

 

DJ, I've stated my thoughts clearly. I'm done unless you have further questions about my expectations for Andres.

 

@ ILIA-VBSEO. Thank you for posting openly and trying to assist your customers. Naturally there is some disappointment and (bitterness ) if I may use that word. with the way things have unfolded, this is to be expected.

When one starts to expose the bad actions of others and make them public, then there usually is a re-action from those who simply do not want to acknowledge the truth as it does not fit in with their pre-conceived ideas.

You can post the facts and truth until you are blue in the face and they will stubbornly stick to what is obviously false opinions, declaring the other party as a stand up guy or a legit guy who would never lie. Blithely ignoring solid evidence posted to back up the validity of what you say.

You have posted in public what you consider to be the facts, yet your opponent has not come on here and posted any rebuttal nor any explanation of what things have occurred. I find that when someone refuses to debate things then he is probably trying to hide from the truth.

Of course it is up to him as to whether he decides to post or hide. But banning people for telling the truth as he and others have done is a sign they are afraid of the truth.

 

Thank you, Al. I knew I had to put on my grown up girl pants before I arrived here.

I think overall, even those who have been critical here, have been good and created a good discussion. I expect them to be upset with all of this too, a bit confused at first with what's going on. Nothing about this is ideal.

I don't mind answering the hard questions, and I won't make my position wishy washy in order to please anyone.

I would love for Juan to drop in and provide a response for everyone. I have everything I need to back up what I say, including emails directly from him. If he simply agrees to act in the best interest of the company and cooperate, we don't have to go any further into "he said" "she said" that requires me to start posting our communications.

By this point, we should already have come to an agreement and posted a join statement at vbseo.com about what we've decided.

Honestly, if he says the company is over, I'm not sure why he's so reluctant to turn over the passwords and account access to his co-founder. What is left to keep to himself other than a mess?

 

I agree.

 

So we are still in the mess where Juan has nothing to say even though he has been invited. Ilia provide me with his vBSEO email and his other contact information, I will short out an email to him and post here the contents for all to see that I'm not being a jackass to him nor am I demanding anything other than a response.

 

I'll PM you his Gmail and Crawlability Inc. address. Thank you for your support.

 

Anytime Ilia, as I have said before I'm behind you and your efforts 100%.

 

Here is the screenshot of my email to Juan.

My account on their site has been active since 2012 as I could not remember my original account name so had to register a new one.

 

Update on my absent mind, I have gained access to my original account again, I was off by a year, been a member since 2006. http://www.vbseo.com/members/steve-m/

 

Seriously Paul, I don't bring IB into every thread I post in. Only the ones, where it makes sense and this one does. vBSEO surely didn't go down the tubes completely on their own. IB's mismanagement of vBulletin definitely had a part to play in it. I know that for a fact, because I was in the same position. I saw our business drop constantly ever since vB4 was released.

It is a simple fact of a vB 3rd party ISV's life. If there isn't a growing or even steady vBulletin business, then your business as a 3rd party ISV won't go well either. The vB add-on and style industry IS an economical and business symbiosis and IB isn't living up to its end of keeping life in the organism called vBulletin. IB actually brought in quite a cancerous substance into the organism called vB5.

If your going to criticize my postings, when I mention the mismanagement of vBulletin, I'd rather hear some contrary arguments to mine based on some facts. It would be quite refreshing to hear someone, anyone, trying to even halfway defend vB properly. The problem with that is, you simply can't!

Scott

 

@ILIA-VBSEO - Ok, I understand your position better now and I wish you and vBSEO the best of luck, no matter what happens. I hope you can straighten things out with or without your brother and can make vBSEO's closing a bit more "elegant" (for a lack of a better word).

Scott