# ChicagoVPS reaching new levels of desperation



## joepie91 (Jan 16, 2014)

Just got this e-mail from ChicagoVPS... we really want you back, just pre-pay for 3 years!



> Hi Sven,
> 
> 
> First and foremost, on behalf of the ChicagoVPS team we hope that your new year is off to a good start. 2013 was a year of tremendous growth for us, and we have a lot in store for an awesome 2014!
> ...


Wasn't 3-year prepayment informally considered the "deadpool mark" back in LEA days?


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## drmike (Jan 16, 2014)

2GB @ $1.67 a month. Hahahah!

The number creeps lower.

Why would I go with CVPS, with their multiple hacks and customer info disclosure? Why would I buy that when for $5/mo I can have far more resources, way more disk, way more bandwidth with GVH.

Always nice to see the folks in Buffalo cannibalizing themselves.  Gnom gnom gnom.

Where is the CC brand that *pays you* to host with them?


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## fizzyjoe908 (Jan 16, 2014)

drmike said:


> Where is the CC brand that *pays you* to host with them?





> ...and we have a lot in store for an awesome 2014!


Seems like that is coming this year.


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## drmike (Jan 16, 2014)

and... yes... 3 year plans are a big sign of FUNDRAISING.   

CVPS will say "Oh no worries, we've been here for 3 years already"... which I think is actually a lie.


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## maounique (Jan 16, 2014)

As I said elsewhere 2014 will be a bad year for many hosts. A lot of bubbles will burst but after this the IPs will make enough of a profit to sustain many spammers hosts, probably starting in 2015, IF things continue to go like this and there wont be any release from the locked /8s. 

I personally believe the transition will be smoother than many people think, IPv4 prices will not go that high, who is basing their business model on that will probably, if not lose out at least not make much of a profit.


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## DomainBop (Jan 16, 2014)

drmike said:


> and... yes... 3 year plans are a big sign of FUNDRAISING.
> 
> CVPS will say "Oh no worries, we've been here for 3 years already"... which I think is actually a lie.


3 years screams desperation, but 3 years is also a bad deal for consumers due to the pace of technological change.  $1.67/m may be cheap today but it probably won't be in 3 years.

For an example, I picked up a Q6700 for 18 euros (8GB RAM, 2x1TB  drives) this month fom Kimsufi (to be used for a web analytics server, we're dumping google analytics).  3 years ago that same configuration would have cost $250+ at LSN

.


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## MannDude (Jan 16, 2014)

They've got to be hurting some.

No longer a popular brand on LET, replaced by many others using the same network as them who aren't as arrogant and dickish in their public communication. Tried to game SlickDeals with other CC brands by getting featured there several times. Most the members there are atleast aware of their past and are reluctant to do business with them now. At the end of the day, there are just so many other *better* options. Even if you _WANT_ a VPS in a CC location you have many options to choose from, most of which are ran by friendly people who haven't had their client's info leaked several times and are not repetitive liars.

I think their last LEB offer was a 3 year one too.


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## nunim (Jan 16, 2014)

Too bad their unsubscribe link doesn't work.


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## mikho (Jan 17, 2014)

MannDude said:


> I think their last LEB offer was a 3 year one too.


It was, guess it didn't sell as well as hoped for.


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## HalfEatenPie (Jan 17, 2014)

nunim said:


> Too bad their unsubscribe link doesn't work.


Yep.

 Been trying to get out of the emails for a while now.  

Although maybe it finally worked?  I didn't receive the e-mail joepie posted.


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## MannDude (Jan 17, 2014)

HalfEatenPie said:


> Yep.
> 
> Been trying to get out of the emails for a while now.
> 
> Although maybe it finally worked?  I didn't receive the e-mail joepie posted.


Just change your email address to [email protected] and let the auto-responders go back and forth creating tickets to each other.


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## HalfEatenPie (Jan 17, 2014)

MannDude said:


> Just change your email address to [email protected] and let the auto-responders go back and forth creating tickets to each other.


That is evil...

... and pure genius.

Although unfortunately I believe they don't allow e-mail changes


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## joepie91 (Jan 17, 2014)

HalfEatenPie said:


> Yep.
> 
> Been trying to get out of the emails for a while now.
> 
> Although maybe it finally worked?  I didn't receive the e-mail joepie posted.


They seem to be sent out slowly, some people were reporting receiving it over an hour after I got it.


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## vRozenSch00n (Jan 17, 2014)

Just got it a few minutes ago


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## peterw (Jan 17, 2014)

2048MB (2GB) RAM
2000GB Monthly Bandwidth
2x IPv4 Addresses
Discounted Price: ONLY $1.67 per month! ($60 per 3 years).

They are kidding. Did they not have enough ips? Or are all of their new subnets allready blacklisted?


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## Aldryic C'boas (Jan 17, 2014)

nunim said:


> Too bad their unsubscribe link doesn't work.


That's what Spamhaus is for.


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## nunim (Jan 17, 2014)

MannDude said:


> Just change your email address to [email protected] and let the auto-responders go back and forth creating tickets to each other.


Someone on IRC came up with this idea, I've changed my email to [email protected] as they don't own the .com anymore, it redirects here.  Hopefully I don't have to worry about further spam.


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## Francisco (Jan 17, 2014)

peterw said:


> 2048MB (2GB) RAM
> 2000GB Monthly Bandwidth
> 2x IPv4 Addresses
> Discounted Price: ONLY $1.67 per month! ($60 per 3 years).
> They are kidding. Did they not have enough ips? Or are all of their new subnets allready blacklisted?


I don't think CVPS' move is to secure IP space. I think they're either planning a large scale upgrade (a positive for their customers) or are trying to buy themselves some time to build a new business plan. The resource race isn't working anymore and while they were the first, it's obvious that other inhouse brands are doing far more than they are for 'about' the same cost.

Francisco


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## drmike (Jan 17, 2014)

*"The resource race isn't working anymore and while they were the first, it's obvious that other inhouse brands are doing far more than they are for 'about' the same cost."*

The resource race sort of still works if you want to be highly risky, piss off your customers with outages, suspensions, etc. for using things and are willing to self-cannibalize (eat your own limbs).

What the segment is doing though, mainly, is rearranging deck chairs on the Titantic.  The market size I suspect as a whole is growing, but not in the lowend, and especially now on the Lowendshites.  New companies are undercutting weak slightly higher priced companies in the same / similar geo-locations.  Customer A now goes from Company 1 to Company 2.

Inevitably, this chaos is customer churn like crazy.

If I were buying lowend hosts (hey you never know) I'd be looking at month-to-month paying customers and retention numbers.   How many 6 month paying customers?  How many for a year?  And, I'd be raking over how many customers are purely from deep discount sales.   These new companies swapping customers are basically perma-sale companies.   Have everything for a few bucks a month and even less if you need committed for buying an annual.


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## Francisco (Jan 17, 2014)

I doubt you're seeing much in the way of cash deals for all the buyouts that are, and will, be happening.

When Rus used to "buy" brands, he never actually paid anything.

Users were paid out of the net profits for a certain period of months. This made sure that Rus never

actually stood a chance of losing money.

You sell him a brand and lose all your customers because you're a scumbag? No worries, he dusts his hands

and he's good. He buys you and you were a solid company? Great, everyone makes money and he migrated all users

to his datacenters of choice.

Francisco


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## drmike (Jan 17, 2014)

Mark my words:

2014. Lowend.  Mass consolidation.

Deals won't be done for even 6 months of revenue due to volatility (specific to low end hosts).

I don't think a single deal we've seen in low end in past year involved real money trading hands.  All of them felt like understaffed sole operators needing more round clock staff, more opportunities, etc.

Eventually, someone like Rus will come knocking again.  Oh wait, didn't RootLevel kind of do that with URPad --- at least the consolidate and migrate users to strange foreign locations.  (but I think they actually spent cash to acquire).

Brands that exist on price alone, will die by the quarter each downtick of a dime and nickel.


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## Francisco (Jan 17, 2014)

At first RLT gave off the feeling that it was going to be the new Rus in the market but I think things

kinda went tits up with some of the buy outs. Semoweb went smoothly from what I could tell but

the brands they took out of CC seemed to be messy.

Francisco


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## maounique (Jan 17, 2014)

The buyout of "hosts" in this market will not work. I mean there can be exceptions but when the host has mostly hoppers for the lowest price of a new IP, then it will definitely not work. 

There is an IP infusion now as people race to get as much as possible from last /8 before the restrictions come into place, no wonder we didnt have many spammers recently, they are busy elsewhere with offers like 5 IPs per VPS by default.

In my view it is not even possible to have a business relying heavily on the low end customers. This will probably change after ARIN goes to the last /8 and this influx of IPs will cease but I believe 2014 will be marked by it and the low-end market might not recover.


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## drmike (Jan 18, 2014)

^--- THIS.    

Glad to have you over here.


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## vRozenSch00n (Jan 18, 2014)

Francisco said:


> Semoweb went smoothly from what I could tell but
> 
> 
> the brands they took out of CC seemed to be messy.
> ...


Yeah, I'm still using Semoweb, not a superb box, but hey I was following Dustin C. 

A week a go I opened a ticket regarding SolusVM still pointing to the old IP, it was replied in 10 minutes and resolved in 5 minutes.


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## DomainBop (Jan 18, 2014)

peterw said:


> 2048MB (2GB) RAM
> 2000GB Monthly Bandwidth
> 2x IPv4 Addresses
> Discounted Price: ONLY $1.67 per month! ($60 per 3 years).
> ...


Someone say blacklisted?

*SBL210701* Botnet / Colocrossing

*SBL210655* ROKSO /Colocrossing

*SBL210648* ROKSO / BlueVM

*SBL210636* ROKSO / BlueVM

*SBL210635* ROKSO / ColoCrossing

*SBL210624* ROKSO / ColoCrossing

*SBL210623* ROKSO / HudsonValleyHost

*SBL210521* HudsonValleyHost

*SBL210356* Oktay

*SBL210271* *ChicagoVPS*

*SBL209750* Foroquimica (ComfortHost)

*SBL209010* ROKSO / ColoCrossing

*SBL208687* Robert Josephs

6 of the 7 ROKSO listings are for  "DomainClub" but they're spread across several brands that CC has a "relationship" with.


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## SkylarM (Jan 18, 2014)

We received a ROKSO listing yesterday, had the case resolved and closed in about 15 minutes. Suspend the user, tell them it's suspended, done.


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## Aldryic C'boas (Jan 18, 2014)

SkylarM said:


> We received a ROKSO listing yesterday, had the case resolved and closed in about 15 minutes. Suspend the user, tell them it's suspended, done.


Ditto.  Spamhaus is very easy to work with... quite often, one of the guys there will just call or email me directly, and let me take care of the issue instead of putting a listing.

They're pretty well aware of CC's intentional selling to spammers at this point


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## serverian (Jan 18, 2014)

DomainBop said:


> Someone say blacklisted?
> 
> *SBL210701* Botnet / Colocrossing
> 
> ...


That is a subnet of a dedicated customer.


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