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Ask HN: whither Billmonk?

37 points by kgrin ↗ HN
My roommates and I have been happily using Billmonk (http://www.billmonk.com) for years. Today, it appears to have vanished. I knew the service wasn't really being actively developed since the Obopay acquisition, but that's OK, it was perfect for us as it was! I don't recall seeing any "we're shutting down" message, and there's no status blog I could find - the company blog has been dormant for over a year.

So, with that:

1) Does anyone here know what's up with Billmonk - are they just having a nasty server problem that they're not motivated enough to fix, or has the plug been pulled sans announcement?

2) Anyone have contact info for the [former] Billmonks? (I believe they were a YC company? Not 100% sure.) My roommates and I have some valuable (to us, no one else) data in there... at a minimum, we'd like to have our final totals so we can settle up; ideally, we'd love to have our history.

29 comments

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novum
I was an active, very satisfied Billmonk user with 9 or 10 friends. It was aggravating when Billmonk started choking; worse still when the degradation made the app more or less unusable.

If you're in the same boat, we've since moved to http://www.splitmybill.ie -- a service that has more or less duplicated Billmonk's use cases. Very basic, but meets our needs.

usaar333
I'm glad my roommates switched to splitmybill.ie last month when it seemed billmonk was really beginning to die. I still prefer the billmonk interface, but splitmybill works.

The ability to get export history from billmonk would be great though.

alx
Thanks for splitmybill.ie link, I hope they'll release some export method, otherwise we've just long a year long debt list with my flatmates :/

Funny how this kind of website is really useful.

aberkowitz
They got bought by obopay.com in 2007, so you could try contacting Billmonk through them. Both their blog and twitter (@BillmonkFriends) are long dead.
foxywfu
Obopay's contact info:

Obopay, Inc. 350 Marine Parkway, Suite 100 Redwood City, CA 94065 Main Office - 650-264-2000 General inquiries: info@obopay.com Support: If you can't find the information you need, please contact us by calling our customer support hotline at 888-8-OBOPAY (888-862-6729) or 650-264-2100.

rumpelstiltzkin
I called the 650 number and spoke to customer support at Obopay. The lady told me that they are actively working on getting Billmonk up and running and that it should be up today (Monday Sept. 13th). I also recommended she let the concerned folks @ Obopay (no pun intended) know that there are rumours out on the internet that billmonk is down for good and that a lot of people, who maintain their accounts and have money owed to them, are getting antsy. Hopefully there will be official word from the guys @ Obopay very soon. HTH.
goberoi
Thanks for posting this question here kgrin. I'm one of the co-founders of BillMonk, and like you, am disappointed to see that the service is down without any warning or follow up information.

I haven't been at Obopay since late 2007, so don't have much knowledge about how BillMonk is being handled today. However I reached out the company and will be speaking with them this week. I can't promise that there will be any sort of resolution, but I will strongly encourage the company to (a) clearly communicate to users about what's happening with the service on the BillMonk blog (outage or shut down), and (b) if the plan is in fact to shut down BillMonk, to provide users with a way to export their data.

Please check the BillMonk blog (http://blog.billmonk.com) over the next week or two for updates - hopefully the company will post an update there. I'll also monitor this post to answer any follow up questions.

Shariff
Thanks Vivek and we will be waiting for the outcome of your discussions with Billmonk..kindly push them to bring the site back up.. if that requires any donation so be it..
mallyagirish
lol...He's Gaurav Oberoi, not Vivek.

Btw, even I am one of the (now bugged) users of Billmonk. Enough said.

swindsor
Sad! I worked for Obopay and on Billmonk with Chuck and Gaurav a few years ago. I hope to see the site back up and explanation on what happened.
tingiri
I was trying to download my data from billmonk last week and it didn't work. I tried to download all the data(accounts, libraries.. etc.) but none worked. I was getting redirected to a 'Oops! you found a bug.' I reported the bug too. Is it possible to fix this so that people can download their data?
rfugger
Hmmm... I actually just loaded billmonk.com last night after a couple of years of not checking on it and it loaded fine. Today, no dice.
ashish01
I am in the same boat. Though the site has been unstable for a while it totally died today. @goberoi please convince them to let users export all the transactions. Thanks
chrismsnz
Unfortunate...

I've noticed they've been more and more unrealiable over the last few months - i.e. random fatal errors, recurring bills going weeks without occurring.

I even recently started developing a clone for my flatmates and I to use in Django, shame it couldn't wait until it was ready :)

rottencupcakes
Thank god for the cache.

If you grep through your cache files for "layout.addDataset", that line of code is what draws the pie chart of what you're owed on your dash.

That page is likely to have your biggest debts and loans. Good Luck.

crazyg33k
I don't really care if billmonk comes back up or not, as long as I'm given back my data! There are umpteen number of sites out there which provide a similar (and now I can say, more reliable) service....
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foxywfu
It was up for a little while this morning and I was able to get a screenshot of the front page (so I know totals) but I couldn't download the actual transactions. Back down again.
mrduncan
Although it's not really under development anymore (due to lack of time), http://billpad.com is another alternative.

[Disclosure: I'm one of the founders of BillPad]

j3lunt
I just received word...

"We just received the latest word that BillMonk is targeted to be back up and operational by Monday (9/20/2010) afternoon. We have done some upgrades and modifications to the software that will make it better than before."

vecter
I would gladly pay to use this service. Maybe they should monetize it with a subscription service.