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.

When and where

I’m sure the reason why people aren’t seeing their money yet is that most refunds take a few days to process (depending on your bank). Even at retail chains (Target, Best Buy, etc..) a refund will take a few days to process.

Basketball game, huh? I would love to watch that ;D

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.

:D

@ JeremyK

Dreamhost have been silent all day and NONE of us are seeing our money or ANY response from DH and you are busy representing Dreamhost in a basketball challenge?

COME ON PEOPLE WAKE UP!!!!!!!

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”.

Sincerely,
The Foolish DreamHost Billing Team!

They should be more embarrassed about this email. When does the joking stop?

Just tell us when/where and we’ll be there in FORCE.

:D

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,