I Love Bloggers

Ted / 17.Jan.2008

I have been a Dreamhost customer for a few years now. Uncov isn't hosted there, but a few other domains of mine are (MediaWiki fuck yeah). The other day it seems they had some billing fail and bilked $7,500,000 out of unsuspecting customers.

Upgrayedd Gonna Find A Way To Come Get His Money

I only knew this happened when I got the e-mail from them that said they were refunding my $119.40. I got my money back? I don't have to do anything? Yeah, then what the flying shit do I care?

The rest of the world, it seems, had a bit more time on its hands. Dreamhost made a post on their website about how it was all due to a fatfigering error, and they were really sorry. Bloggers, predictably, started the standard issue ball ache about Dreamhost's unprofessional handling of the situation.

This, really, is why I love my blogging brethren. As soon as we see something that's remotely nitpickable, we think I'm gonna post about this on my blog. Once this hits Digg, those guys will know not to mess with me!!

Akismet Is Still Flagging Me As Spam On TechCrunch.com

I'm sure the poor dumb bastard who made the error got in a bit of trouble at work, but I think he deserves to be rewarded. Nothing is more satisfying than setting off a tidal wave of anal pain through the blogosphere.

And now people are even bitching to Valleywag about Dreamhost's fuckup maxing out their credit cards. I've got news for you: if a $100 charge maxes out your credit card, it's not Dreamhost who has failed.

I feel bad enough for Dreamhost having to deal with David Heinemeier Hansson's bullshit (protip: DHH, fuck, man, you are last year's news. We're all tired of you. Consider suicide.). Overbilling? Who cares? They owned up to it and fixed the problem. Movin' on.

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44 Comments

persai

persai / 17.Jan.2008 at 10:51am

IN AFTER PERSAI, BITCHES.

samir nagheenanajar / 17.Jan.2008 at 11:03am

Finally. I didn't really see the big deal. All the webmasters and bloggers are just jealous that they couldn't make a 7.5m mistake themselves.

vib / 17.Jan.2008 at 11:08am

Bitches don't know about my persai.

noah slater / 17.Jan.2008 at 11:38am

Anyone care to explain the "in after persai" and "in before persai" comments in every comments thread?

paul / 17.Jan.2008 at 11:44am

IN AFTER PAUL, BITCHES.

samir nagheenanajar / 17.Jan.2008 at 11:58am

that's no paul. I'm paul. I'll make a gravatar to prove it

paul / 17.Jan.2008 at 12:16pm

I AM THE ONE TRUE PAUL

paul / 17.Jan.2008 at 12:26pm

Hey all you "if you can't survive a $100 overdraft, you've failed" fools... I have a fair amount of money. I don't keep it in my fucking checking account earning 0.035% interest. When there are bills coming, I move enough cash from the real accounts to the checking account from which bills are paid, and all is well, plus a little more cash that i can fetch from the ATM to buy drugs with. So smarties, not everyone who was pushed into an overdraft (i have two idiot friends who were -- they are only idiots for staying with Dreamhost after other screwups this year) is a broke loser... think before you type.

notmyname / 17.Jan.2008 at 12:28pm

wtf this fucking gravatar shit doesn't work

FAIL

also "notmyname" if you don't keep a few hundred extra bucks in the checking account for just such a mixup you're either a retard or a jew

...or a broke loser, you broke loser

paul / 17.Jan.2008 at 12:31pm

uh, to me, Paul is Dead. I've seen reports of people who were billed over $1K and no, i don't keep an extra 1K in case some stoner sk8r forgets what year it is, then forgets again and then once more, on an account that costs some small fraction of that per month. Nope. That's why I HAVE money, fool.

notmyname / 17.Jan.2008 at 12:33pm

@notmyname: you are a fucking idiot for using debit cards. Why would you use a debit card when you could use a credit card? Everybody knows that credit cards give you better rewards AND you can gain interest during the grace period. Think before you type douche bag

debit cards are for idiots / 17.Jan.2008 at 12:41pm

they could have just sent out individual letters and left out the "$7.5M oops" and everyone would have thought it was just them that got charged, and then - no story. I saw someone on TC comments bitching that the response/refund took SIX HOURS! Whoa - I've sat on hold with AT&T for longer than that for a fifty dollar mistake.

mike not arrington / 17.Jan.2008 at 12:43pm

oh, and before you go assuming shit, no I do not carry a balance on my credit cards. I pay my bills in full, bitch.

debit cards are for idiots / 17.Jan.2008 at 12:44pm

Ummmm i don't use a debit card and in fact sent notes to most of my family and friends explaining why they shouldn't, either. Read before you type. Then think. Then for your own well being and ours, just turn off the computer and go back out to the playground. Some of those who were fucked by Creamhost had allowed direct debits from their checking accounts. I don't approve of this practice and never allow it against my own accounts, but I also disapprove of a company that, having been given that kind of privilege, allows a fuck-up of this magnitude and then pops a double-stack with a swig of cheap Valley champagne and giggles all excitedly about the damage they've done.

notmyname / 17.Jan.2008 at 12:46pm

okay you win, btw u r rly k3wl for keeping "a little more cash that i can fetch from the ATM to buy drugs with"

debit cards are for idiots / 17.Jan.2008 at 12:49pm

I was billed $180, then it was returned. It wasn't a problem because I'm a grownup.

michael / 17.Jan.2008 at 12:52pm

IN AFTER A CRAPTON OF BORING CRAP ABOUT DEBIT CARDS AND CREDIT CARDS AND NOTMYNAME'S CHECKING ACCOUNT AND DRUG HABITS, BITCHES.

samir nagheenanajar / 17.Jan.2008 at 01:06pm

in after failed gravatar. Protip: steal drugs.

nin-mofo / 17.Jan.2008 at 01:18pm

@notmyname If you don't have overdraft protection , you are retarded. My debit card automatically deducts from my savings account (@5% intrest) to pay bills. If that fails, it tries my money market account. Not enough liquidity to cover a $100 oopsie is RETARDED.

ozymandias2 / 17.Jan.2008 at 01:19pm

Uncov comments section is gettin almost as good as the posts, keep it up, it is probably just one clowny doosh making multi-identities, but who cares... ...and debit cards give rewards you fucking numbskull, ever heard of Wachovia? Yes their does.

nhkc / 17.Jan.2008 at 01:22pm

@ozzyisakidsname: agreed. So is laughing at fucking people over. So is laughing at people who had a card near the credit limit. I have pretty high limits on my cards. Even though they are paid off to $0 every month, sometimes they are near that limit. Y'all sound like a bunch of pricks for trying to flatten out every person's circumstances to that magical ideal world that you apparently live in. You're imagining yourself as being more clever than you are, and aren't particularly interesting. I can see how a thousand bucks out of nowhere could blow up on an innocent victim, and the dooshes at Dreamhost still have time to laugh about it. That's cool and web 2.0 and all that shit, but it's STILL not interesting outside the valley circle jerk

notmyname / 17.Jan.2008 at 01:23pm

"Ummmm i don't use a debit card and in fact sent notes to most of my family and friends explaining why they shouldn't, either. "

I bet you're a blast at parties, you lonely faggot

paul / 17.Jan.2008 at 01:24pm

i'm not sure how warning people about the same dangers you mocked people for ignoring here, is a bad thing when done privately and with good intentions. ?

notmyname / 17.Jan.2008 at 01:29pm

@notmyname, first glad to see you missed the reference that is my name. Second: All I was doing is pointing out that YOU with your high and mighty attitude, acting like you are Mr. Financial Sense that your "Don't have any liquidity in your accounts" is not only a stupid idea, but based on stupid, misguided logic. If you are going to act like you are competent enough with financial matters to be qualified to tell people to not use debit cards (whether you are using bad information, like this case, or actually had good reasons) you ought to act fairly mature when someone points out you are flat out wrong.

ozymandias2 / 17.Jan.2008 at 01:47pm

Ted, you are a sassy motherfucker. That's why I like you. The rest of you haters all be up on Jews and gays can fuck off. Fuck your liquidity, you racist, homophobic douchedrinkers!

mithel / 17.Jan.2008 at 02:07pm

Gravatars work fine, Paul. Fail.

aaronontheweb / 17.Jan.2008 at 02:26pm

... and for all who say things are super duper, it seems many people are saying they have not yet received their money back. In the case of credit card charges this is particularly concerning as a transaction reversal makes the transaction completely evaporate -- it should never post against the card. There's a pretty lengthy window of opportunity for a merchant to reverse a transaction... but only if the merchant has back office procedures that are worth a damn. Clearly, Dreamhost doesn't. In the case of bank debits against cards or accounts, I'm amused that Dreamhost could take the money in a flash, but can't put it back. It's absolutely an impressive performance on all counts. http://www.dreamhoststatus.com/2008/01/15/billing-issues/comment-page-27/#comments Note to ozy: There is a difference between "missing the reference that is (your) name" and ignoring it.

notmyname / 17.Jan.2008 at 02:44pm

@nhkc: "Everybody knows that credit cards give you better rewards" BETTER REWARDS YOU DUMB FUCK. CAN'T YOU READ DIPSHIT

debit cards are for idiots / 17.Jan.2008 at 02:47pm

Jesus, notmyname, is your full time job making pedantic comments on Uncov? Half the comments on this entry are you showing of your complete lack of social grace.

tobin / 17.Jan.2008 at 03:32pm

no that's not my full time job. Good use of the word "pedant" though it's not particularly applicable. I just think a measure of understanding for those who have been hurt by this vendor is in order, rather than all the arrogant strutting and posing. I have some friends who've got money tied up with those bozos and was surprised to see uncov come down on the side of a fuckup vendor.

notmyname / 17.Jan.2008 at 03:34pm

"if a $100 charge maxes out your credit card, it's not Dreamhost who has failed" Try a few thousand bucks -- that's the bill I got, and I just have a basic plan. Luckily I'm the kind of dumb fuck that keeps a pretty big average daily balance -- and to be fair to Dreamhost, they definitely handle failure gracefully. They just seem to catastrophically fail a little too often...

dean landolt / 17.Jan.2008 at 06:15pm

aaronontheweb: yeah the work after half an hour of gravatar beating its meat. or is it ted's failtastic custom blog software? almost as retarded as the useless tag pile he droppped in the footer

paul / 17.Jan.2008 at 06:17pm

They pay you for that one, Ted? Anyway, the problem here isn't the monumental billing fuckup, nor is it the "cheeky" tone of the apology email. No, friends, the problem is the length of that fucking email! Jesus! Given the average IQ of Dreamhost users, this was a most cruel and unusual punishment.

captain marc / 17.Jan.2008 at 08:44pm

Can't argue with a solid Idiocracy reference.

rob / 17.Jan.2008 at 10:01pm

And here I thought Ted was funny and intelligent. This post has proven you to be an ignorant ass. lol.

arik / 18.Jan.2008 at 01:31am

If anyone is surprised by this go fondle yourself. Hosting companies, no matter how good you think they might be are the cesspool of technology. Their margins are so thin they operated in extreme economies of scale to make a buck. I have known of quite a few hosts that if you sign up on the 31st of a month, you just might only get billed for on months with 31+ days in them. Yahtzee if you sign up on a leap year day! I got $5 on the fat finger being an update w/o a WHERE. The billing system is probably run off mysql and written in php, and ran out of cron nightly.

sean / 18.Jan.2008 at 02:18am

tidal wave of anal pain through the blogosphere

Funny you should mention this and akismet blocking you in the same paragraph. have a read why dontcha

donkey balls / 18.Jan.2008 at 07:47am

@debit cards are for idiots: Yeah I caught that later and meant to correct, but figured it would be fun getting flamed by you for it. And that is officially splitting hairs with your little "better" qualifier, so FAIL anyway.

nhkc / 18.Jan.2008 at 12:13pm

Eagle shit is the next peso. We will all starve to death except fatso.

asr / 18.Jan.2008 at 03:43pm

Been with Dreamhost for three years, if you are using it for anything other than storing your CP, you fail. This billing thing is pretty ham handed, but it's something I've come to expect from DH. Yes they fucked up, but we are all fucked up.

sagey mcsagerson / 18.Jan.2008 at 05:20pm

and here I thought Arik was a retarded fucking name....I was right

rick / 18.Jan.2008 at 08:26pm

lol, i've been a few k over my "limit" before, what kind of fly by night credit cards do these losers use? i guess if you don't really need credit banks fall over themselves to offer you more. suck my 30k limit bitches ;P oh, and learn to charge back, suckers. if you're a credit card merchant and you suddenly get hit by a few thousand charge backs, there's a world of pain heading your way from your financial institution.

nexusprime / 19.Jan.2008 at 12:02am

@nhkc right...but I put that qualifier in because I figured someone like you was going to say that his/her debit card offered rewards too...

debit cards are for idiots / 20.Jan.2008 at 05:22pm

Sorry, comments are closed for this article.

I Love Bloggers

Upgrayedd Gonna Find A Way To Come Get His Money

Akismet Is Still Flagging Me As Spam On TechCrunch.com

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