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Major Dreamhost Billing screwup.

dreamhoststatus.com

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Re: Major Dreamhost Billing screwup.

#13

Post by daltonlp »

This is a pretty sterling example of Paul Graham's "dignity is deadly" quote:

> When you evolve out of start-up mode and start

> worrying about being professional and dignified,

> you only lose capabilities. You don't add

> anything... you only take away. Dignity is deadly."

I'm a Dreamhost client, and I've been pretty happy with their overall service. This isn't the first time they've admitted doing something stupid.

Before Dreamhost, I was a client of Westhost. They were fine too, until they instituted a major migration to virtual servers.

It was a disaster.

Site response time slowed to a crawl, and their forums were saturated with angry customers. Trouble ticket response time went from hours to days.

Westhost handled the situation "professionally". By this, I mean they did not acknowledge the problem for several days. They eventually posted apologies and explanations that contained no information about the root cause - just empty words.

"Professional" can mean a lot of things. It usually means "Cover your ass".

The problems persisted for weeks. I'm sure Westhost has since resolved the technical problems with the virtual domains (since they are still in business). But their "professional" communication with customers made me leave.

The deal with Dreamhost is:

1) When they do something stupid, they admit it immediately and take their lumps.

2) They come across as a bunch of clowns sometimes.

I don't think you can have (1) without (2). Maybe it can be done, but Dreamhost won't be the company to do it. Their company DNA is pretty well fixed.

Re: Major Dreamhost Billing screwup.

#14

Post by nfriedly »

apgwoz wrote: post #7

I didn't read all 900+ comments, but I wonder how many were affected like the first commenter (overdrawn bank account). Dreamhost isn't likely to refund the cost of the overdraft fee, which unfortunately, can get expensive depending on your bank. It'll be interesting to see what transpires in the coming days.

"If, because of this billing mistake, you somehow incurred some fees from your bank or credit card company, please let us know after tomorrow (today we are just replying to all 10,000+ billing messages with a generic explanation) and we'll do our best to make it right for you."

http://blog.dreamhost.com/2008/01/15/um-whoops/

Re: Major Dreamhost Billing screwup.

#15

Post by nfriedly »

LOL, one of the comments on http://blog.dreamhost.com/2008/01/15/um-whoops/ reads:

#20 Tiara Says: January 15th, 2008 at 10:31 am

Well if you guys need a place to go after fleeing from this billing crisis, you should definietly head over to Lunarpages:

"For all DH webmasters looking for an escape, Lunarpages has created a coupon code just for you! Use code DHRefugees to receive $40 off hosting with Lunarpages and we will also buy out the remainder of your contract with DreamHost! (Up to 9 months!) If you have several months left on your contract with DH, sign up for Lunarpages and email us your billing receipt (not the triple billing ones.. lol) and we will add that extra time to your account with us!"

Re: Major Dreamhost Billing screwup.

#16

Post by BrandonM »

jkush wrote: post #4
palish wrote: post #2

It's impressive how well they've handled it. They posted an immediate, transparent blog post, and gave regular updates.

I think the light-hearted (whoops! we screwed up!) tone is the absolute wrong one to take. Have you seen some of the comments? The over billing mess caused a lot of damage to their reputation. It wouldn't be a big deal, but refunds from an overcharge can take several weeks. If they charged someone's checking account, that's bad news. http://blog.dreamhost.com/2008/01/15/um-whoops/

It's kind of funny when you scan through the replies to that post. Some people say the post is too light-hearted, a few say they're leaving, and another large group appreciated and enjoyed the post. It's hard to tell whether the result is a net gain or loss of business, but I certainly wouldn't be quick to say that it is definitely a bad thing.

Re: Major Dreamhost Billing screwup.

#18

Post by shiro »

nickb wrote: post #10

I used Dreamhost at one point and regretted it the month after. They're just plain awful. Not even their shared hosting plan is what they claim it is... they shut down mine after ONE blog post became popular and started receiving a lot of hits. Just stay away.

I've been using DH for almost 10 years (I've switched to dedicated servers years ago so I haven't been affected by those shared hosting issues, though their recent main switch / nameserver failure did.)

I don't know anybody inside DH personally, but I initially liked about them having atmosphere of a company run by a bunch of geeks. It's been inspiring to watch how they handle various issues as they grow, and yet try to keep the atmosphere. Sure they've made some basic mistakes which can be criticized as "unprofessional", but any company can do so. As the number of customers grow, you need to hire more staff and I think it gets difficult to keep the high standard.

When you start up a company, probably it consists of only smart people. As you grow and you have to hire more staff, some junior, and it'd be getting difficult to for you to track what everyone is doing... how will you handle the situation?

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