PubNub Review - Scam
PUBNUB REVIEW
I am the owner of dubtrack.fm, a social entertainment streaming website that previously used pubnub. I would like to share our experience we had with Pubnub for any companies/startups looking to use them. This is our PubNub Review.
Let me start off by saying that you DO NOT want to use pubnub. We started using them based on their reputation and everything was fine at first, but as our website started to grow and grow and we started seeing success, pubnub completely took advantage of that. They told us that we need to be bumped up a tier because of our growth, which is all fine and dandy, but what they actually did was bump us up 4 tiers without even letting us know about the lesser tiers. We are talking about a $2500 increase in our monthly bill. We weren't even using HALF of the resources given in that tier!! If they had bumped us up 1 tier, that would have made perfect sense, but to bump us up 4 tiers when our usage wasn't even close to what that tier provided is unreal. Why would they not offer us the lower tiers? For months this went on until I finally looked over everything and told them, we would be switching to a different company, Ably, because they would be offering us so much more at a much more reasonably price. It is then and only then, where pubnub finally mentioned their lower tiers to us... of course to try to keep us as customers. SO it takes us telling them that we will be switching to an honest company, for them to... become honest? RIDICULOUS! I gave them a chance and told them if they were to give us credit for the 6 months of charging us $2500 extra each month ($15,000), then we would stay with them, but nope they wouldn't do that. They also charged us $2500 for the next month (We had canceled the previous month) and made it sound like it was a 'deal' because they charged us $2500 for the month instead of the $4500. Pubnub only cares about their own monetary gain and nothing else. I highly recommend looking elsewhere for your real time needs. There are many other companies out there that are honest and will give you much more bang for your buck.
Summary:
- Pubnub told us we needed to be put on a higher tier, but instead of simply moving us to the next tier up, they raised us 4 tiers.. Costing an extra $2500 a month. ( We only used slightly over our initial tier. Why they bumped us up 4 tiers instead of just 1 tier is beyond me )
- Only when we mentioned to them that we would be canceling our plan with them and move to a different service, did they finally tell us about the lower tiers that we SHOULD have been on.
- They billed us $2500 for the month of July ( we canceled before the month began and used 0 data from them ) and told us they were giving us a 'deal' by charging us $2500 instead of $4500
Stay away from PubNub. Their business practice is the WORST I've dealt with in my 10 years of working online and they really care for no one, but themselves. In my heart, they are scammers. Don't fall for this PubNub Scam.