1 post tagged “dreamhost”

update: at 6:18 p.m. i received my "accidental multiple billings!" email from dreamhost. it took them all day to contact customers. i first noticed the error in the wee hours of the morning, 6 a.m.-ish.

Ack. Through a COMPLETE bumbling on our part, we've accidentally attempted
to charge you for the ENTIRE year of 2008 (and probably 2009!) ALREADY
(it was all due to a fat finger)!

when i went to dreamhost status this morning, the replies to the post on the error were at 198. when the u.s. customers woke up, the comments exploded. people went apesh*t. there are over 1,000 comments now (1,106 at this second).  crazy domain insane! once again, i'm SO glad my card on file is expired and that my main site isn't hosted my dreamhost. but i've recommended them to a few folks. i'm on the fence on if i'll keep recommending them as compared to some other companies, at least they made the corrections within 24 hours. i've had erroneous billings that actually charged my cards from at&t and comcast and those were nightmares to deal with. comcast took MONTHS to straighten out and with at&t, i had to file a fraudulent charge report with my bank for being invoiced out of the freakin' blue for a service i had cancelled many months prior. i actually had to cancel my debit card and get a new one issued to keep them from continuing to charge me on a monthly basis.

original post: i woke up this morning to an email from dreamhost.com that i owed them $381.60 even though i've paid for my webhosting for TWO years and don't have a bill due until 2009.

This is just a notice that your DreamHost Account ######
("#####'s Account") has a balance of $381.60 (including any charges not
due until 2009-01-20), with $381.60 due (since 2008-12-20) [my note: have we traveled to the future?].

You also have $381.60 past due (owed since 2008-11-20), and if
by 2009-01-20 you do not pay at least the $381.60 part, your
account will be automatically suspended until payment is received.

apparently, this is happening to thousands of their customers. and for those who had auto-payment, they were charged erroneous fees in the range of hundreds of dollars each. thank goodness my debit or credit cards on file for dreamhost were expired. some folks are dealing with overdraft fees or over-the-credit-limit nightmares right now. overseas folks are reeling and 'soon and very soon' the wrath of the u.s. market will be unleashed. even if dreamhost reverses the charges right away, they need to cover overdraft fees. what a freakin' nightmare! dreamhost, you got some 'splainin' to do and please don't do it in the same faux-cutesy, adolescent tone you use for your monthly newsletters. that would make me drop you today. i haven't received an email apologizing for this error and apparently when it first started happening, dreamhost classified the problem as medium. later they upgraded it to severe. when people's checks start bouncing and credit cards get maxed out, i think medium is an understatement, no?

i went into the support section of my dreamhost control panel and i saw this.

also see: http://www.dreamhoststatus.com/2008/01/15/billing-issues/

lord have mercy, this almost made me forget jobsnote is today. will we seen an airbook/macbook air (ultra-thin macbook)?