DreamHost = extreme lose
So I wake up this morning (Tuesday) and see an odd e-mail from DreamHost billing where I've just been charged for all of 2008. Naturally I was kind of peeved, as I can't afford a whole year right now, which can really take a toll on me for the month. I send an e-mail out to them notifying them of the mistake and then check my account which isn't in the negative though I'm still skeptical since I don't see the last bill I just paid listed. i have enough available for the week though so I went to the ATM on the way to work, hoping to see an e-mail when I get home. I get that e-mail and it's very apologetic about the issue, which seems to be widespread judging by the tone and the link to the site blog. I then get to see this post (the most current on the blog at the time of typing), which I read all of as well as all near 400 comments.
First off, I can't say I agree with how they handled this. Normally I'd head to the main site myself to see what was up, but I didn't have time to do that on my way out, and since I always check my mail first, the e-mail I got was the first thing I saw. I liked that it was apologetic and told me that my money had already been refunded and might take a day or two to show up. Fine, but being like anyone else I'd like to know why this giant mistake happened. And the e-mail says I can check the blog for details with a link right there. So I click it to see the most unprofessional written passage ever of such a serious issue in that post. I am all for using humor to help ease tension and whatnot, but there's times when it is just completely out of place, and messing with so many people's money is one of those times. He goes on multiple times to say how so well coded this billing system is where there's never a problem and then one small mistake caused a huge one. Then the page is littered with so many pop culture images like it's not a big deal and will pass shortly. Well, it IS a big deal, and it will not pass so quickly for them. I am aware that people no matter who they are or their position will make mistakes. I am happy that Josh of DH has admitted to this mistake and has been working to rectify it. However I am NOT happy to see him pass it off as a big fucking joke. For all I know right now, more work was done making that post than actually solving the problem, which I'm getting from 85% of it being an explanation of what happened, and 15% about what's being done and reflection.
And this comes not long after not so stellar performance for the services I pay for. The sites I host from there are sometimes quite slow, especially those that are database intensive. The past couple of weeks, I haven't been able to access phpMyAdmin at all so I haven't been able to see the table of users waiting to have their accounts activated. Granted, I realize that part of this is my fault not coding my own system for this yet, but using phpMyAdmin until I get around to doing that has been great since I can still accomplish what I need to. Granted, I only pay $9.95 a month, so I can't complain much, and haven't at all to be honest. The only thing that has merited a complaint from me is the lack of phpMyAdmin at the moment. And even that I've waited a couple weeks to do so (was going to send a ticket out for it later this week before this new issue). I've been happy with the services I've gotten and don't expect absolute perfection. However issues have been crawling up lately with them, and then they charge me for a year of service that I haven't agreed to. And reading the comments, it seems they've had a bunch of issues in the past year which leaves me feeling mixed.
Reading what some of these people say really angers me. There's the DH fanclub that defends their every move, saying that it's no big deal since at least they're being open about what happened and really appreciate the whole light-heartedness of the post as it makes them feel like the people at DH are real people and buddy-buddy and shit. My problem with these people? They have no sense of personal vs. professionalism. As I said above, there is and isn't a time for that kind of shit that was posted in the blog. While it's nice to have a bit of a personal touch between businesspeople and clients, the end goal is to provide the service that a client has paid for. For example, at GameStop I love being able to connect with many of my customers, however the goal for each visit is for me to make the sale, and for the consumer to leave and enjoy the product purchased. That is what both sides want when dealing with a business. Now when mistakes happen, I don't expect my customers to be all happy just because I admitted that it happened nor does this ever really happen. When a mistake happens, it is up to the business to fix it and make the customer happy. A lot of the time this happens without a hitch, other times you have to deal with my next topic.
People who take the complaining to far. They want everything to be handed to them because of it. In this case, there is already a group of people putting together a class action lawsuit or other sorts of legal action. It is too early for that kind of shit. If a week or so goes by with nothing getting done, then by all means I'll join y'all. However they stated what they're going to do, and have openly said to contact them if your refund hasn't showed up after a couple days so they can help you. You people who jump to this kind of shit so quickly are contributing to the downfall of society. No one wants to hear what you have to say, STFU.
Among those who are "cool" with the mistake so to speak, are those who are obviously well off who have to give their opinions on how everyone else should manage their finances because they either didn't have enough extra money as a safety net, have auto-pay enabled, etc. These people need to realize that everyone does their finances different, and that not everyone has the ability to have a safety net. A lot of people live check to check because that is what their current situation requires, and therefore plan their money around those checks. No one plans for a company to slip up with a huge overcharge, and it would be idiotic to expect such a thing. I don't care if you're not affected by the $1,000+ that was accidentally charged because you know it's coming back, I'm affected by the $200 that was taken from me because that can mean overage charges, food, and gas for me. Yeah the money taken back and charges made because of it might be on the way, but what the fuck am I supposed to do for the day or two that I'm in the red? No one wants to hear your smugness, and I hope that each of you has a Trading Spaces period of time in your life. You people are probably one of the reasons why the people in the above paragraph exist. Unlike them, no one wants to hear you unless you're asked for advice first, and even then, you'd likely be avoided because you have to be stuck up, so STFU.
Thankfully there were a bunch of comments that used logic explaining why they were disappointed and were likely to leave, or in some cases, stay. Reading what these people had to say was actually helpful to me forming my opinion on the whole ordeal. And really, I haven't decided what I'm going to do, if I'm going to stay with DH or find somewhere else. From the looks of things, I'll likely move all the domains elsewhere. My money hasn't been used properly recently, this huge mistake takes away a lot of my confidence in them, and then they play off the $7.5 million mistake as a joke. And really, what would I get if I stay? With the amount of people leaving, in the short term it could mean less bandwidth being taken up so users have better speeds and whatnot, but in the long term, I really don't see DH lasting much longer as a company. A decent percentage of people will have left them by the end of the week, while others probably will by the end of the month, which will greatly reduce their income. With this reduced income, they are going to have to deal with vastly increased expenses. Overage charges aren't cheap, and even if only a small percentage of people need to be reimbursed for them, it can easily cost them in the hundred thousands. And that doesn't even factor in the possible legal fees if legal action were to be taken on them. Sure they will likely win any case as long as they follow the words they have posted up, but that doesn't mean lawyers do those cases for free. And losing a case could be abysmal with the position they're in. And on top of that, amidst what should be considered a crisis, they try to just joke around such an important issue. One of toe co-founders nonetheless. Keeping all that in mind, if I stay, how do I know that they will still be around later on?
The answer is I don't. I'm going to wait until the end of the week to see what happens before I take any action, but I don't see what they can do to convince me to stay. If they take such a huge mistake as a joke and have had constant problems throughout last year, the future looks pretty bleak for DH. There's a chance I could be wrong and they could eventually flourish, but right now that's not likely.
Where will I move stuff to I have no idea. Idealistically, I'd like to live in a place of my own with FIOS internet and redo everything to be served from phobos. I'd be able to have absolute control again and wouldn't have an additional server fee. But I'm not on my own, there's no FIOS here in my basement, and time has proven that having phobos host sites with my current ISP doesn't work that well. This really sucks because I've been happy with how things have been Internet-wise, and have been getting ready to go back to a couple projects. Now between this shit and apparently GJ won't be up for much longer (a whole different can of worms, but for another time, however not nearly as long or important as this), it looks like I have to shift everything I've been happy for years with over to different places. Blah.