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Max Exodus At vBulletin?

Dan

Well-known member
Valued Member
With all the recent announcements of key vBulletin employees moving on, (Steve Machol, and Adrian specifically), what could possibly be going on over there? Fire Sale? Is vBulletin trying to move forward or liquidating? You be the judge.

 
by the looks of XenForo.com, most vB staff are already looking at jumping ship...they certainly are helping the XF product along (conflict of interests?) with help etc., which is great; especially Jake Bunce, who is a super chap! Sadly, I've negative thoughts about Steve Machol and the way he treated me last week...in fact, last Friday, when he suddenly retired...it would be wrong for me to divulge what happened here, but I was upset by his arrogance, and I'm glad he's gone!

It was the vBulletin Coders and Devs., that made vBulletin vB3xxx series a success, but it was IB who's greed and cheating ways got in the way, and destroyed what was a healthy customer base, and as a result, vB4 is a flop; without the Coder's and Dev's, it is on a downward spiral!

 
WenM, you're not alone. I'm going to share my story here:

@xenforo: "Sure, his customer service might be considered good by others, but behind the moderators' panel, I suggest him to stay far away from them. Forsaken thinks that I am letting personal experiences with him cloud my judgement on him. That's wrong.

Steve's moderation has been hailed by Kier as "fair" but I disagree with that. Because when I was in a discussion with another person about something, someone else came into that thread and tried to destroy my name (and my company) in public, and it's not the first time he's done it. Instead, he didn't get warned. I did. Steve read the report and speed'ed to my account and warned me without even looking at other posts.

At my own forums, I do my research before making a moderator's decision. If that person has made a spam post before, he's banned. If a person posts more than one clan thread in hopes of getting more traffic to his site, it's closed. No ifs, no buts. If that person does it over and over again despite warnings from me, he's gone.

Don't get me wrong. I used to respect him, but he's been on a downward spiral since late-vB3 into the buyout by iB.

His warnings felt more than just "doing his job" it felt so personal. I mean, several months ago, I got warned over an old, and I mean, an old post. 4 or 5 months old. One would think that a warning like that is useless. If not, then you might as well ban 50% of vBulletin. A lot of people have done worse than me, yet I am the one that got the boot so quickly that I'm not vBulletin's favorite customer.

Save your "you deserved it" speech. No, I didn't deserve them."

@adminbb: "Okay, so vBulletin 4 has been working for quite a while until the latest update, in which I applied the 4.1.4 update... Then all of a sudden, the instance got real buggy fast. So, at that time, I was frustrated, I didn't need it at that point. I was at vBulletin forums trying to find solutions. Meanwhile, I was speaking to one of the "Staff" that recently got hired, but before he has berated me - and he still did it during his tenure as Staff. Someone else defended him and tried to tarnish my name, and my reputation. I then got into a heated battle with him, then Steve got into it and warned me immediately without paying attention to the previous posts.

I went over this with Steve because he's been warning me over small things, such as being warned for a post in which I got into heated battle with other members - T'was an old post. 4 months old. I fought with the higher-ups above Steve, but they were on his side. So when this new warning came on, I decided to fight against Steve, directly. He warned me again, this time, he quickly banned me. I sent a support ticket, lo and behold; the senior operations manager was on his side.

I was given an opportunity to be refunded - I was surprised, and I was skeptical about it, so I was sarcastic about it. :) Few days later, Voila!

I used it to pay for some xenforo licenses, and so CODForums moved to xenForo!

Everything is intact... All that I need to do is tweak the site here and there, then it's back in business! :) "

 
Although I appreciate everyone's opinion regarding who is leaving vBulletin, this thread was initially opened to speculate why everyone is leaving.

 
Hi Carlos, sorry to learn of your issue's with Steve Machol! :( My hubby could have punched him after he read the Support ticket as he began telling lies to get out of ONE BIG mistake he made...for just an apology, it would have been over with, but he was too proud, and his attitude was not professional at all. I asked Steve Machol to ask his boss to look into the issue I now found myself in with Steve's shocking comments, and when Adrian Harris did interject, he failed to say anything about Steve Machol's arrogant comments to me...shocking really from such 'Professionals' that should know more about Public Relations! To this day, it hasn't been resolved!

I just feel Steve Machol's Professionally 'acclaimed' Support was waning for some months due to vB's issues and Customer complaints, and I got the bad end of that, and strangely enough, all this broke out last Friday afternoon shortly before he resigned!

It's quite clear why Steve Machol resigned, he'd had enough of us vB customer's, and Adrian Harris, no doubt, too!

 
I'm sorry, Dan. I just wanted to relate to Wen's post. :(
No worries at all. I am just more intrigued with the why's

It's quite clear why Steve Machol resigned, he'd had enough of us vB customer's, and Adrian Harris, no doubt, too!
They were put in tough spots at times. No doubt this has played into the decisions.

 
My hubby could have punched him after he read the Support ticket as he began telling lies to get out of ONE BIG mistake he made...for just an apology, it would have been over with, but he was too proud, and his attitude was not professional at all. I asked Steve Machol to ask his boss to look into the issue I now found myself in with Steve's shocking comments, and when Adrian Harris did interject, he failed to say anything about Steve Machol's arrogant comments to me...shocking really from such 'Professionals' that should know more about Public Relations! To this day, it hasn't been resolved!
I had the same problem, I implied that Steve should apologize, and because he was too proud, he didn't. When I talked to his boss, Adrian... I got interjected the same way. He tried to have this smart@$$ aleck, he told me "this is the rules." Bull$#!^! You know it, and I know it! Getting warned for a 4, 5 months old post, what are you KIDDING me!? So, when this next warning came on, I was on. I went all out. I got a profit of 70 dollars more than I should be getting. I originally upgraded my licenses at $250 a pop. I had a third one, but that was sold commercially through second-hand sale.

The only thing I am stuck with is the 3 vBSEO licenses - which I bet there is no market for. I've heard that vBulletin customers has left in droves... So now I am stuck with 300 dollars burned out of my pocket. I was going to use this money towards the upcoming Call of Duty XP event this weekend. #@^& you vBulletin! Now, I am going to miss another Call of Duty event. Great.

I just feel Steve Machol's Professionally 'acclaimed' Support was waning for some months due to vB's issues and Customer complaints, and I got the bad end of that, and strangely enough, all this broke out last Friday afternoon shortly before he resigned!
The last 6 months have been a tipping point for him, so his reputation as this "legendary" customer service guy has been taking a deep fall. His reputation by this point should have been diminished thanks to his recent customer service, but despite that, xenforo posters and customers remained optimistic about him.

The thing that surprises me is that they don't care about Steve's waning ability to bring this "acclaimed" service to a company. It's like... nothing can deter them from customers' negative experiences with him.

It's quite clear why Steve Machol resigned, he'd had enough of us vB customer's, and Adrian Harris, no doubt, too!
Yeap. But to me, that's no excuse to be giving customers all this attitude... As a leader you're supposed to know how to deal with the ups and downs of a company.

 
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