Robbing Your Customers?

To preface this, I don’t host all my sites with Dreamhost because they do have a large number of problems (or, at least, things I’d like to see done differently). I’ve been with them almost ten years (maybe it has been ten years now?) and they’re really not any better or worst than anyone else. I’ve been with other hosts who have had just as many problems. I can’t say anything about Lunar Pages because I haven’t tried them yet, but in my experience there is no perfection when dealing with people and technology. Mistakes happen. Servers go down. Things get screwed up. It happens with everybody. Dreamhost has nonetheless done right by every mishap they’ve been responsible for (and even some where they have not). They paid the overage charges for those that incurred them, in this situation. They did the right thing.

I’m not saying this to keep people at Dreamhost or defend their mistakes specifically, but in hopes people will realize that there is no panacea of a web hosting company. People tend to remember the blunders over the good service every other day. The reason I host my e-mail with Google rather than Dreamhost is because the every day e-mail service is not reliable enough for me. The reason I moved a few web sites over from Dreamhost to Media Temple, or another host, is either due to upload speeds slowing down (significantly) or the need to use another technology Dreamhost can’t/won’t provide (ColdFusion, in one case). These are reasons to switch. Well, these and the very clever offer Lunar Pages has put forth.

I would bet money, though, that Lunar Pages will have other kinds of “major” problems from time to time as well, just as Media Temple has. Amazon AWS went down last month. Limelight and Vitalstream, both major CDNs, have serious trouble from time to time (much more than Dreamhost or any of the shared hosts I’ve used). It’s technology and it happens. My feeling is to let it go. Of course, if you don’t have much to transfer and you’re looking to save some money, I can certainly understand Lunar Page’s deal being very attractive. I just hope that is (or several other every day problems are) the reason for switching from Dreamhost, or another host, and not a properly corrected though very significant billing issue. It’s just bound to be a set up for disappointment.

Mmm, caged basketball…

When and where

I feel very bad for the situation and customers of the dream host and wish them best to get money back soon.

I just signed up and I’m awaiting account activation so I can switch everything over.

I’ve always appreciated Dreamhost for being up front with customers about problems, even really nasty ones like this. But the consistent downtime and other issues were already taking their toll. This pushed me over the edge.

I know it was a mistake and I know they will do what they can to fix it. But if all of this is from one mistyped character, what other problems are there to look forward to?

I’m giving Lunarpages a chance to prove they’re more reliable.

F**k you Josh.

@JeremyK

I appreciate Josh’s excitement at the chance to sport some bruises from LP staff, But I really think you would be better off maybe posting some updates to your customers?

Ya think?

Hope things get worked out for you over there at DH.

P.S. We would really be all for meeting you guys in a parking lot with a hoop somewhere and calling it a “game”.

Give me unlimited Add-on Domains and I’d swap today! 10 just won’t cut it.

I’m a new dreamhost customer (maybe few months old) and I’m -quite-happy- with them (of course I had already my share of downtime), but that’s a thing that comes with share/cheap hosting. and…

BTW: I didn’t get ANY EXTRA BILLs, since I am using Google Checkout! (way to go bro’! :-))

I got 2 emails from DH saying that they will charge me, but to this day nothing reached my CC

Some advice (I have) for the-average-joe webmaster:

0. don’t EVER link you bank account with paypal (or other site for that matter)!
1. as soon as your yearly bill on shared hosting reaches $400, you should go dedicated hosting
2. if you go dedicated, maintain a small scale shared hosting (maybe under $140/y); you never know when your shinny new dedicated goes on hiding (especially if it’s in the cheap dedicated niche, or some smart-ass DDoS you or your provider); then you could still use the shared hosting to start new projects and as soon as they are mature move them to the dedicated server

*. USE Google CheckOut, don’t save your CC in every stupid website you run into
-. if Google CheckOut is not available, you can go and *hugh* paypal (or others)

Cheers,

@Ex DH Dude….

They will receive 0 interest. It takes several days for them to receive the funds from the credit card merchants.. They will have voided/credited all the charges before receiving the funds.

Wyatt

Actually it was 7.5 million in over bills and they are laughing about it. I agree with you Amy…

WOW

WOW

WOW

Wonder what kind of interest payments they earned on an extra 7.5 million overnight?

The worst part is their blog post. It’s just such a crappy thing to say “oh whoops we charged you money hahaha!”

Guess what Dreamhost, it’s NOT FUNNY. And seeing the way you treat us after a crappy deal like this is all the more reason to move to Lunarpages. STFU and grow up.

When I read the post on the DH blog about LP a few months back, what upset me the most was the vulgar customer comments about LP staff and the fact that DH executives allowed those comments to remain on their page.

I feel bad for DH but at the same time 7.5 million in credit card charges in error cannot be forgiven. I’m not a fickle person and I consider myself very loyal however in this case when my card is now overdrawn and I cannot afford the basic things my children need I am fuming mad not only because of this ‘error’ but because of the casual and inappropriate way Josh Jones responded to his customers like it was a joke to him.

Josh, its not always hilarious and the sooner you all start acting like businessmen rather than pubescent teenagers the sooner you will have some credibility in the web hosting world.

cant get thru to their support, cant contact them via email, cant post on their forums – wtf is going on??? thnx Lunerpages – im excited to try ur awesome plans out w $40 coupons :D

I was looking for a new host after I heard this happened today. Awesome deal and I’m going with you guys!

thank god I left when our accounts were hacked… too bad im already with you or else id use this coupon. wait, can you apply it to my account anyway? :P

They got me 4 times for over $500. Now I can’t pay my rent. I can’t get hold of them on the phone because they have NO PHONES. How can an established so called “progressive” company not offer phone support and make such an abysmal mistake like this???? LP you’ve got me, just as soon as I get a refund.

Oh gosh thank you SO SO SO much Lunarpages!!! You have no idea how much this helps!!

I’m glad I left this unprofessional company before this happened… With all the constant downtime they have, I’m glad I left. The last straw for me was when they had deleted all the DNS zones for my sites as well as thousands of other customers. Thanks LP for posting this, so that everyone else can see them for what they are! A very unprofessional and slacker ran hosting company.

I knew there was a reason I left that place for good. I have been with Lunarpages for a few months now and I can tell you it is like going from a trailer park to a mansion!

Lunarpages thank you! I will be taking you up on this kick @ss offer!