

7 days to leave Hiveage - ValentineC
http://dabase.com/blog/7_days_to_leave_Hiveage/

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glimmung
I'm astonished that their response to this was to boot him off because this is
"becoming a PR issue", and mystified as to why only 7 days notice was given.

On the PR issue side, this would seem to have generated quite a bit of
negative press, more than one person's intemperately worded blog possibly
could have. I see that some other commenters have taken exception to his tone,
but there is another way of looking at that, which is to discount his opinion
/because/ it is intemperately worded. The over-reaction on Hiveage's part, the
short notice, and the issues with export are objective facts that are hard to
ignore and surely carry more weight than the original opinions expressed.

On the notice side, seven days is too short, and all that has done is shone a
light on their export issues, which will scare many people away now.

Hiveage claim 45,000+ businesses use their service - can this really be the
first time they have had to deal with a grumpy so-and-so, and have they really
never heard of the wisdom of not feeding trolls (not calling the guy a troll,
just trying to see it as they evidently do), and the lesson of the Steisand
effect?

Did they have a right to boot him off? Sure. Was it sensible? Not so much...

~~~
kr-throwaway
The PR issue they talk about is nothing new. I met OP at a Gopher meetup in
Singapore last year, along with an ex-Hiveage guy. Even there he was
complaining about Hiveage and how they had asked him to leave. I don’t want to
go all ad hominem here but six months is a pretty long time to put up with a
pita customer. The fact that I received emails asking to comment here
supporting him probably says more about what’s going on than that blog post.
It’s probably the final scene of a drawn out drama.

I’m not a Hiveage user and don’t know much about them, but I am involved with
a B2C startup. This is the kind of nightmare I want to stay the hell away
from.

P.S. Throwaway, for obvious reasons.

------
soroso
I side with the Startup. If the customers is not a good one for them, they
have the same right to kick him off as much as the customer has the right to
seek for another better service provider.

And his condescending tone it pretty obvious to me, in
[http://s.natalian.org/2015-06-17/7days.pdf](http://s.natalian.org/2015-06-17/7days.pdf)
(but maybe these are just cultural differences ;])

~~~
jglauche
But boot the customers when they try to give constructive feedback on what
they are missing on their blog?

That link
[http://dabase.com/blog/Hiveage_grievances/](http://dabase.com/blog/Hiveage_grievances/)
is not bad publicity, the reaction to it is.

~~~
tracker1
Not only that, but on a cursory glance, only the custom invoice templates per
customer, and a contacts api seem to be the only issues much more than
relatively quick wins...

One thing is obvious, their export functionality would definitely keep me from
using their service...

~~~
casperb
Also 'quick wins' require effort, need documentation, needs testing, needs
attention. It is not that is a feature request is simple or quick it should be
added.

There are to less business that say NO to customers, when what they are asking
for is not in the vision of the company.

------
yomism
Maybe Hiveage's response could be better but it seems like the OP is a serial
complainer. Just check his Twitter timeline:
[https://twitter.com/kaihendry](https://twitter.com/kaihendry)

~~~
Grue3
Sounds like a great guy to have as a customer. Too many people put up with
broken UI without saying anything and as a result many web apps have horrible
usability (and looks like Hiveage is one of them).

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BillinghamJ
I think Hiveage's approach to this was unbelievably unprofessional and
unjustified. Even if a customer is demanding, kicking them off your platform
is not the answer.

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gotofritz
That Kai Hendry looks like a right pain in the neck... [adds email address to
blacklist of potential future startup]

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tracker1
Through all of this, I do understand where hiveage is coming from... just the
same, one thing I do see from this, is that given their pretty poor export
functionality, I'd probably avoid the service for that reason alone.

Note: I'm not a customer of hiveage or any of their competitors...

------
chanux
Previously:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9730573](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9730573)

(Not much of a discussion)

------
nikanj
Could you imagine writing a blog post complaining about the quality of your
phone, and having Apple show up and demanding you stop using their phones?

