673 Responses to “Um, Whoops.”

1. jason Says:
   January 15th, 2008 at 10:08 am

   Thanks for the explanation. Might I suggest, if you’re reading this, Josh, that users like me whose accounts were disabled for nonpayment be re-enabled? I’ve got clients screaming at me because they can’t get their e-mail!

2. Me Says:
   January 15th, 2008 at 10:10 am

   just checked one of my webids and it is back to normal…something must be working.

3. PROOFREAD! Says:
   January 15th, 2008 at 10:11 am

   Quote: “THOSE SHOULD HAVE BEEN 2007!!”

   and

   “The moral of this story is that “flexibility” is rarely desired in programming!”

   Nope…

   ‘The moral of this story’ is that you guys need a proofreading or double-checking system before you do anything, since using 2008 instead of 2007 is EXACTLY the type of thing that would get caught by someone else double checking your work.

   You can be sure that once the web panel is up, I’m going to make a ’suggestion’ that you guys implement exactly this sort of thing, and lets see how many Dreamhosters vote for it.

   Also, since you link to the DH Status page, you’ve no doubt read some of the comments, a great many of which requested that you NOT reply to this in a flippant manner….which is pretty much what you’ve done here.

4. Shivian Balaris Says:
   January 15th, 2008 at 10:12 am

   your honesty makes me so happy, you guys rule

5. Jeremy Says:
   January 15th, 2008 at 10:13 am

   Josh – it is time you realized when the light jokey style in which you run this business is NOT the appropriate tone. Any of us involved in running a business knows when you approach your customers with a serious tone. Your customers are taking that tone with you; Time to step up and be serious and act like your company depends on it. I think it does.

6. PROOFREAD! Says:
   January 15th, 2008 at 10:18 am

   Quote: “THOSE SHOULD HAVE BEEN 2007!!”

   and

   “The moral of this story is that “flexibility” is rarely desired in programming!”

   Nope…

   ‘The moral of this story’ is that you guys need a proofreading or double-checking system before you do anything, since using 2008 instead of 2007 is EXACTLY the type of thing that would get caught by someone else double checking your work.

   You can be sure that once the web panel is up, I’m going to make a ’suggestion’ that you guys implement exactly this sort of thing, and lets see how many Dreamhosters vote for it.

   Also, since you link to the DH Status page, you’ve no doubt read some of the comments, a great many of which requested that you NOT reply to this in a flippant manner….which is pretty much what you’ve done here.

   The ‘flippant’ thing would be cool if you didn’t make simple errors on a semi regular basis, but since you DO make simple errors on a regular basis, it’s not so cool…

7. thanks for the jokes Says:
   January 15th, 2008 at 10:21 am

   Thanks for the jokes. I’m out of here.

8. Jayson Says:
   January 15th, 2008 at 10:22 am

   Sooo…. is the other moral of the story that I don’t have to pay the bills that I got this morning?

   Also, I like the light style… keep it up, forget the stick-in-the-muds.

9. Lady Says:
   January 15th, 2008 at 10:23 am

   That just made me laugh my ass off.

   I know you all have a lot to do in the next month, but at least you can always look back and laugh and tell your grandchildren, “Hey, when I worked in IT, we fucked up big time.”

   The 7.5 million dollar mistake… It should be a horror movie!

10. Tim Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 10:24 am

    Thank you very much for the immediate detailed explanation and the quick fix. Somehow, I don’t think any other hosting company would have been this forthcoming about an error of this magnitude.

11. Lady Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 10:24 am

    That just made me laugh my ass off.

    I know you all have a lot to do in the next month, but at least you can always look back and laugh and tell your grandchildren, “Hey, when I worked in IT, we fucked up big time.”

    The 7.5 million dollar mistake… It should be a horror movie!

    No one has the right to be pissed off at you for trying to put a positive spin on the whole situation, because if they know anything about the company that’s just how everyone is.

    Thanks for keeping your sense of humor. That’s the main reason I moved over here.

12. john lascurettes Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 10:26 am

    I’m assuming this doesn’t affect customers that have paid two years out? I checked my bank activity and I have seen nothing; neither in billing nor in refund. Then again, maybe my bank just hasn’t posted the updates yet

13. Dan Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 10:29 am

    I’m initiating a class action law suit because you made me laugh :(

14. Roy Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 10:29 am

    Thanks for the comprehensive explanation. We’re all only human and we all screw up every now and again, although this was pretty spectacular ;)

15. Randall Bennett Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 10:29 am

    Please, show some genuine concern for your customers. Sure, you screwed up, but I don’t see any sort of genuine concern other than the $7,500,000 in credit card debt you accidentally set off.

    The joking tone works for some errors, but how bout some actual concern for your customers instead.

    Here’s a sample.

    “Wow. Seriously, we made a gigantic mistake. Just to make it right, we’re going to…” and then somehow create a conciliatory tone. Otherwise, it just sounds like you’re mocking us.

16. spinn Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 10:30 am

    Guys, I know there are people that will bitch no matter what, but I will /always/ appreciate being informed when things go wrong. This is one of the main reasons I have been with Dreamhost for years. It’s not even about the joking style, but it’s a lot of background info that makes it all seem like a reasonable mistake. Other companies give a “billing error, fixing shortly” statement, and you wonder if it was just automatically generated by their trouble ticket system.

    Thanks. Love you guys.

17. Kimberly Chapman Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 10:30 am

    Jokes are NOT APPROPRIATE in this situation.

    Do you realize that for some credit cards, you have just pushed them over their max, meaning some people will pay fees, overage charges, higher rates PERMANENTLY, and their credit scores could be affected? Will you be reimbursing those charges?

    I don’t carry a balance on my card so it won’t be a problem for me in that regard, but we’re house-hunting, and if a an almost $600 charge came up on the day that I was having my credit checked for mortgage purposes, it might affect what rate I am offered. Will you be reimbursing people for those potential losses?

    This isn’t a joke. IT’S FRAUD, even if you fix it, because in the time that it takes you to fix it, people are losing money. I called my credit card and they said they couldn’t see the charge I got an email about, so it was either already gone or hadn’t gone through. If there isn’t some serious restitution and firings over this, I will call them back to red flag a potential fraud situation. Start taking this seriously or you will risk the credit card companies blocking you from making charges in the future.

18. thanks for the jokes Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 10:30 am

    Oh yeah, how about that mass email alerting customers to the problem?

19. Eric Ogilvie Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 10:30 am

    Hey, sorry your rent bounced, but here’s a picture of Homer Simpson and some lulzy hipster prose.

    Joking around might not be the best technique when you are messing with people’s money.

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!”

21. Michael Dulanson Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 10:32 am

    And this is why I switched to Westhost this morning…

    http://affiliates.westhost.com/z/14/CD970/

    Any word from Visa or Mastercard as to whether or not they are going to close down your mechant account for the sheer amount you managed to charge fraudulently this morning?

22. Mark W Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 10:32 am

    I have to echo the sentiment that your flippant tone isn’t appreciated, Josh. Sorry, it’s just not. There’s nothing funny about this. I appreciate trying to save face and inject some humor, but you screwed up, dude. Be a man about it.

    Your explanation doesn’t make sense, either. If the biller is SUPER ROBUST AND SAFE and you MERELY ran it for all of 2008 accidentally, why was I billed for 10 out of 12 months in 2008 TWICE? I have TWO charges for february, TWO charges for march, TWO for april, etc. Can you explain that? If you can’t, then I think you have more troubleshooting to do. I’m seriously hoping that I’m not only refunded one “set” of erroneous charges when there are TWO.

23. Foggy Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 10:33 am

    Eh… Well, as an old computer-nerd, i too know that these things might happend. But, i have to agree to that the information about this HUGE blunder, isnt very pleasing.
    Why, why why, didnt you send information-email to all, as soon as the error was noticed?? Your pages are almost impossible (guess very big pressure!) to get in to. And NO information at “standard” login, the webpanel? Bad… very bad.
    Took me 30 min… to get into ANY information-pages!!
    Let this be a lesson. 10 years witout big problems dont mean you can be lazy… Keep it up, this was first major error i seen, so you DO a good job, after all. :D

24. Andrew Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 10:35 am

    I just wanted to agree with Jayson and say that I appreciate the honesty. I personally like the light style too — it’s a bit refreshing in today’s world of closed-up, tight-lipped companies who don’t even say anything when these kind of things happen.

    I know you’ll never say, but I’d love to know how much this cost you guys. At a 2% credit card discount rate (wayyy conservative), that’s $150k right there. That doesn’t include the average $.25 charge per transaction, nor does it include the charges you must be paying to refund all of that money. I hope you worked something out with the bank that actually does the charging…

25. LukeP Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 10:37 am

    Well I’m glad you take this seriously enough to write a funny blog post about it instead of working to refund the money with all available time/energy. I think we see more clearly where your priorities are.

26. don Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 10:37 am

    Another vote for the not-yet-sent mass email. I found out about the issue first from Digg, and then from my bank’s fraud department. Still not a single message from someone at DH.

27. Dee Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 10:37 am

    Thanks for keeping us posted.

    Also, congrats on being runner up for The Editor’s Choice of The Best Use of a Corporate Blog in 2007 in the Performancing Blog Awards.

    http://performancing.com/performancing-awards/performancing-blog-awards-2007-winners

28. Mark Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 10:37 am

    OH LOL WE FUCKED UP YOUR BANK ACCOUNT

29. spider Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 10:38 am

    This morning I received a mail from you in which you stated that my renew wouldn’t be possible because you weren’t be able to debt my credit card. Since I used a rechargeable credit card to make my subscription AND I remember I subscribed in november (but not which year), first of all I thought my credit card needed some recharge. So I put 200 euros on it and wrote an email telling you that I was not able to “make payement” from the control panel: if you wanted my money then take it.
    I made the same mistake as you: didn’t notice that my account was just one year old and I payed for two; didn’t notice the 2008-thing. And I trust you so deeply that I didn’t doubt for a second it was my fault.

    But now… well, fellow customers, let’s see the half-full glass: we currently own money we thought weren’t ours anymore, and it’s BIG money: 7.500.000 USD :-D

    (I really like your service and the style you run it, light and transparent)

30. Mark W Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 10:39 am

    >There are a lot of you these days!

    Somewhat fewer by Friday I imagine.

    Seriously though, guy, please explain why there are so many DUPLICATE 2008 charges for so many people. I appreciate you explaining even as much as you did when we really, in the long run, pay so little (until today) for the service, but your explanation doesn’t add up.

    It’s also pretty uncool to be adding so many people to the SPAM filter on the dreamhoststatus.com blog. People are (understandably and justifiably) pissed.

    I love Dreamhost as a company. I think you guys are great and have the right attitude, except for today. You really dropped the ball. You need to know when the joking and frivolity end and when “oh shit we’re SO sorry and here’s how we’re gonna make it up to you” begins.

31. Kristie L. Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 10:40 am

    That’s great, but in the meantime, my account has been suspended when I’m up to date on my billing. Yet more downtime from you guys. This past year has been horrible, especially compared to prior years where I saw practically no issues with my hosting.

    Yet I still pay you the same regardless. With all the issues and downtime we’ve seen, we should be seeing partial credit. As a senior support engineer for a software company, I know the appropriate way to handle customers, and you guys are screwing the pooch in that regard.

    I’d come work for you and help you fix it, but you’re down there in evil SoCal :P

32. CLASS ACTION LAW SUIT Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 10:40 am

    This is not a funny, lighthearted matter and is NOTHING TO JOKE ABOUT. Let me explain why:

    I now have hundreds of dollars in overdraft charges a result of this error. Is DH going to issue a credit to me for these third party charges that resulted from the error as well?

    I WILL BE CANCELING MY ACCOUNT AS SOON AS THIS ERROR IS CORRECTED – due to a complete lack of a professionalism in the midst of this HUGE mistake. I had to search the web for 2 hours before I was able to find the information on this error. Dreamhost being aware of the problem on their end should have been responsible enough to contact me directly and immediately letting me know the error was being fixed. They should have sent an email to every customer about this if they couldn’t determine which accounts were billed incorrectly. That would be professional…. whereas the staff making jokes, trying to make light of things with funny pictures, and other nonsense to your newsletters (where I actually found them enjoyable). WHEN YOU MAKE AN ALMOST 8 MILLION DOLLAR ERROR YOU SHOULD DO A LITTLE MORE THAN MAKE A BLOG ENTRY ENTITLED ‘WHOOPSIE’.

    There is now way DH could make up for the time and money I have lost trying to deal with this issue. Not only do I have to now contact my mortgage company and explain why dreamhost will be unable to make my mortgage payment on time this month… but now I am the one responsible for compensating my own clients regarding this matter, along being unable to regain the time and money spent this morning when trying to deal with the mess this whole situation created.

    I will do everything in my power to ensure than some additional form of compensation is given to me as a result of the damage it has done to my credit, my wallet, and my schedule. I DEFINITELY FEEL A CLASS ACTION LAW SUIT IS IN ORDER and I plan to contact my lawyer about this ASAP.

33. Lady Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 10:41 am

    As my former host told me when they lost all of the data for over 300 users over two weeks, “It just isn’t possible to send an email to everyone.”

    And it’s true. In order to email everyone and let them know what is up, they have to check their emails, a lot. Some people still don’t know what is going on in the first place, because they haven’t looked in the inbox.

    That’s why DH has the status domain. It’s up all the time in order to let everyone know what is going on and that’s why they suggest that you bookmark it, just in case you need to check.

    I would suggest that anyone look there if anything seems buggy. If there’s nothing, then check the support. If there is nothing on any of those, then you can complain and whine and go on.

    Just understand that this is a big issue for DH and that they are more stressed about it than any of you. Look at the facts: If they owe even half of the people billed $20 for overcharge fees, then that all comes from the company.

    The people that work here are *people.* They have jobs and bills too, so it’s not as though they don’t understand how important it is to everyone.

34. Deir Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 10:42 am

    Wow, what some people will congratulate you for…I do not appreciate what others are calling “honesty.” You had no choice but to admit to this mistake. It wasn’t your *choice* to be honest; your choice was in how you handled it, and considering the damage done to people’s bank accounts and the downtime on their sites for being “delinquent,” there is no way that pretending this is cute or funny is appropriate. It’s also not a good use of your time to find cartoons to post while my bank account still reflects that you haven’t reversed the DH charge and my site is still down and I have yet to receive an email acknowledging this to go with the email I received this morning where you double-billed me for a year.

35. bookem_dan-o Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 10:43 am

    You smug fucks.

    I am literally shaking my head in disgust at the unprofessional way you’re handling this. The overwhelming sentiment in the comments on your status.dreamhost.com posting is that you DON’T RESPOND TO THIS MATTER IN YOUR USUAL, CUTESY,”OOPS WE MADE A MISTAKE…BUT OH, ARENT WE SO CLEVER WITH ALL THESE FUNNY IMAGES AND SARCAST-IRONIC WRITING STYLE?”

    Suffice it to say, you’ve cost a lot of people a lot of money, in addition to jeopardizing thier credit ratings and account statuses. Joking around about this incident just proves to your customers that you guys are not a serious, professional hosting company.

    If you had simply posted a no-nonsense, “we fucked up, here’s how and why we fucked up, here’s how we’re gonna make it up to you, and here’s our formal, public promise that it will never happen again” blog post, you would have instantly regained my trust, respect and confidence that while you guys are a bunch of fun lovin’, non-uptight corporate types, you still know that you have professional responsibilities, and are mature enough to know when it’s clearly not the time to be joking around with your customers.

    The fact that you responded this way means that I am seriously going to consider pulling all my accounts with Dreamhost. I can’t trust my money to a bunch of fucking adolescents who don’t understand the concept of professionalism and respect for it’s customers.

    Westhost, here I come!

36. Adam Backstrom Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 10:44 am

    Heheh, “whoops” indeed. =) Didn’t take my bank account into the red, happily enough. No harm, no foul.

37. Tim Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 10:44 am

    Wow, Ms. Chapman really needs to calm down. It’s also clear that she’s just plain wrong.

    “Do you realize that for some credit cards, you have just pushed them over their max, meaning some people will pay fees, overage charges, higher rates PERMANENTLY, and their credit scores could be affected? Will you be reimbursing those charges?”

    See, when you hit your credit limit, charges get declined. That’s how credit cards work, and that’s exactly what happened to me when Dreamhost tried to bill me for two years today. They were only able to charge me for $5 instead of $238.80, and it’s already been refunded. Problem solved. As for “permanently” higher rates… if your credit card company won’t remove a default rate after six months of good payment history and staying under the limit, you need to find a different CC company.

    “…we’re house-hunting, and if a an almost $600 charge came up on the day that I was having my credit checked for mortgage purposes, it might affect what rate I am offered.”

    Actually, it wouldn’t, since credit card companies don’t report balances to the credit bureaus on a daily basis. But thanks for playing.

    “I called my credit card and they said they couldn’t see the charge I got an email about, so it was either already gone or hadn’t gone through. If there isn’t some serious restitution and firings over this, I will call them back to red flag a potential fraud situation.”

    DH is fixing it and said there was no need to call your CC company/bank, so you wasted your time there. Good luck with claiming “fraud” when DH has already corrected the situation on their own. It’s pretty clear nobody’s getting fired. I also see that you have made no mention of leaving DH over this, so I presume you’re just fine with the way this has been resolved.

38. Charles Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 10:45 am

    Will you double our disk space and bandwidth for the mistake? :)

39. Foggy Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 10:49 am

    TO “Lady” ^^
    “Cant email 300 people” and “People have to check email every min”? Thats just SO wrong…
    Im in communities with 20000+ members.. and THEY can sen correction-emails right away. If a big webhosting-company cant, thats just bizarr..
    Offcorse people wont be so angry, IF they had seen a email right away… Thats just what makes so many angry.

40. Lady Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 10:49 am

    I like Charles’ idea!

    :)

41. Helen Chambers Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 10:49 am

    My dear sweeties at Dreamhost. I’ve been with you since 1998 and have enjoyed your enjoyable newsletters that made me laugh when no one else could do that, however, I now take exception with how you have made a joke out of this billing issue. This time you have gone too far. No, I will not be leaving you, but you MUST know that regarding an issue of this importance, it is NOT THE TIME TO BE JOKING AROUND. I’m a senior citizen…listen to your elders and just be good kids, ok??

42. Tim Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 10:49 am

    Additionally, what’s with these complaints about not being sent an email regarding the problem? I received one:

    “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)!

    We’re really really realllly embarassed about this, but you have nothing to worry about. Please ignore any confusing billing messages you may have received recently; we’ve already removed all those bum future charges on your account (#XXXXXX) and fixed everything up.

    Thank you very very much for your patience with this.. we PROMISE this won’t happen again. There’s no need to reply to this message unless of course you have any other questions at all!

    Sincerely,
    The Foolish DreamHost Billing Team!”

43. Mark W Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 10:50 am

    Charges that go over the limit on your card aren’t always declined, it depends on the company, your account history, and your specific terms of use. My card has been overdrawn before even though it should have been declined.

    In this case, though, they hit me in the checking account. Thank God that my mortgage check cleared anyway, since I only keep about enough to cover outstanding checks and gas and groceries in there.

    There’s still nothing to explain why some people got billed TWICE for 2008 (or almost twice, some months were billed only once, most twice). That’s not explainable by a simple erroneous single run for the wrong year. Something else happened. I’d feel a lot more confident that this is going to be fixed if they’d explain why their explanation doesn’t match up to WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED.

44. Liz Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 10:50 am

    I’m going to agree with some of the people on here–the flippant attitude probably wasn’t the best choice for a blog post about something this serious.

    I also would have appreciated a mass email saying “Hey, there’s been a mistake, we’re in the process of fixing it, visit the status page for updates”. I knew about the status page, but plenty of people don’t.

    I won’t be canceling my account or moving anything–I like DH and I’m willing to give you guys the benefit of the doubt. You worked with me to move my site here even after my previous host didn’t want to release my domain name back to me, and I’ve had nothing but good service since signing up. But if there’s anything you guys learn from this, it’s that your attitude towards informing your customers about HUGE stuff like this needs to be a little more professional.

45. e Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 10:52 am

    For such a vast problem, I don’t think the jokey tone really serves you well. I usually don’t mind it, but in this case, it is a bad idea.

46. LG Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 10:52 am

    My company has one website hosted with dreamhost. An inconsequential website where if it goes down, no big deal. All other sites are hosted with proper, professional web hosts. I think now you can see why.

    For those who enjoy all problems (and excuses) being so transparent, well I’ll tell you what I enjoy: my websites working without constant problems and exuses to those problems. I enjoy when my other sites are up and running the promised uptime, with no problems. No constant jokey blog posts about “oopsie, we f-ed up again!”

    I would say you get what you pay for, but with the amount of hosting competition, there are many less expensive yet much better hosting companies out there. But if you enjoy the abuse…stay with Dreamhost. You two deserve each other.

47. Robin Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 10:53 am

    Thank you for making me finally get off my butt and looking for new hosting provider for my websites.

    This could have been handled in a professional manner, but instead, you insisted on turning it into a big joke.

    Anyway, guess what? It’s not funny.

48. Anna Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 10:54 am

    Thanks for getting this taken care of as quickly as you’ve been able to. Please remind the people crying “fraud” that it’s NOT fraud, as they gave you their CC numbers, and you were technically billing them for future services.

49. Tony Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 10:54 am

    Actually, my credit card will allow me to go over the limit and not decline what they deem to be “reasonable” charges (which can be well over $100 past my credit limit, I’ve found).

    And I have to imagine most people have debit cards set up for this instead. I do. And they deny things even less.

    It’s very possible that these things weren’t denied whatsoever. And in fact, let’s say this went through and only brought me $5 negative? Let’s say then that I have several other pending charges that hadn’t cleared yet. Now they’ve cleared and the bank thinks I’ve tried to take money from nothing 5 times. They’ll charge me 5 overdraft fees.

    So even once Dreamhost’s charge disappears (and I’d be really damn surprised if anyone’s bank does this instantaneously to begin with) they’re likely not just going to get rid of the overdraft fees. You ARE going to have to call and explain the situation. So calling the bank is hardly a stupid thing to do to begin with, you’re setting up the story for this to be less of an issue to clear up later on.

    God forbid people get upset and freaked out about what has amounted to almost $8 million dollars in extra charges.

50. Helen Chambers Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 10:55 am

    Tim, I will be anticipating my email on this as well.

51. Javier Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 10:56 am

    Thanks for the jokes Josh… =).

52. Barbie Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 10:56 am

    I had moved two clients over to lunar pages in august…what a mistake that was!!! their service totally sucks…i have one VPS account, and one business hosting account. the VPS is the most royal pain i have ever encountered. I can’t run all of my services over there, so opted to renew my account here when renewal came up.

    I am not leaving DH again. I know this will be a costly mistake for dreamhost but i have every confidence that they will pay all charges incurred.

    Seems the script is already working and peoples charges are being reversed.

53. Shawn Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 10:56 am

    I am glad the situation is being taken care of. Thank you Josh and dreamhost and lets try to prevent this from occuring again. -Shawn

54. bigperm Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 10:57 am

    Joke around all you want.

    If people think that being ultra serious is going to make this any better then they are retarded.

    I do think you are shitting your pants right now about all the customers you are losing, but I will be staying I think.

55. Amanda Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 10:58 am

    All these people throwing around the world Fraud: I don’t think that word means what you think it means. Fraud, usually, involves something called intent, which was definetly not present in this situation. It was an ACCIDENT, folks, and DH didn’t charge everyone for a year or two on purpose – it was not their INTENT to overcharge their customers $7,500,000. Besides, they were working through the night to figure out wtf was up. There is a lot of people that would have waited until it was time to start work.

    On the other hand, my account is still suspended for nonpayment. I only owe $10, and the payment has been made through PayPal. PayPal’s holding it, and would appreciate it if I can get it up and going. I can’t do any work until it is.

    Thanks,
    Amanda

56. Mousee Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 10:59 am

    OH NOES TEH JOKES R NOT FUNNEHS!!

    You know, I got my normal billing notice in December and was pretty short on cash so I figured I’d pay it this month. Then this happens and I was thinking “Wow, this is pretty short notice! But that’s cool, I’ll just go ahead and send in my mon….” *email 3 and 4 arrive* “Whoa…. I can’t pay THAT much!” xD

    The greatest thing is – I’m not even using DreamHost’s services anymore – I have a Dedicated Server and I’m loving it. But what I love even more, and the only reason why I continue to pay for my DreamHost account, is Dreamhost’s sense of humor and friendliness with its customers. My dedicated host, while not nearly as awesome, still is very friendly and forthcoming with responses and results, but not at all like DreamHost.
    I personally found Josh’s explanation to be FAR less “funny” than his normal blog posts. He also explained things in a great amount of detail that I would not expect from any other company I’ve ever worked for or with.

    To Summarize – thank you for being so awesome DreamHost!! The little mistakes aside. ;)

57. Jim Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 11:00 am

    Last month I accidentally deleted a whole blog site. I know your pain. Thanks for responding so quickly.

58. Leaving Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 11:01 am

    Well, I’ll be leaving. And I don’t have autobill and I paid via PayPal so I didn’t even get charged.

    I am leaving, even with six months left on my plan, because I do not like the light tone. This is not transparent, this is moronic. This is high school.

    When you deal with people’s money, you take it seriously. There’s a few shades of gray inbetween IBM and the Simpsons. For example:

    “Dear Valued Dreamhost Customer:

    We made a major mistake last night. We’ll be writing up a detailed post on exactly what happened, and posting it to our blog (located at: blahblahblah) if you would like to know more.

    Everyone was billed in error yesterday, some of you multiple times. We are currently in the process of refunding all of the money taken from people we shouldn’t have taken it from. If you feel you need to call your bank and credit card company, of course you have every right to do so. I can assure you that we are dealing with each and every overage as quickly as possible, and that you don’t need to make that call, but we would never presume to tell you how to handle your personal (or company) finances.

    There’s no excuse for the error except human error. We realize that we have put people into difficult financial and professional situations, and we deeply regret that our actions have caused any inconvenience whatsoever.

    Some of you will already see refunds. If you have gotten a refund, and there are other extenuating circumstances (overdraft fees, exchange rates), please contact us at this special address we’ve set up to deal with individual issues from the billing snafu: blah@blah.com.

    You should see your refund by DATE, TIME. If you do not have your refund by DATE, TIME, please contact the billing address above and we’ll get right on it.

    Everyone here at Dreamhost will be working around the clock to make this right for everyone, down to the last customer.

    Also, we will be compensating every last customer for the inconvenience caused by this issue. We haven’t had time to discuss what form that would take yet, and we hope you understand when I say that we need to focus on other issues first. But we will be providing every customer with some type of credit or other gesture to apologize for our error.

    Finally, I’d like to thank you for being a Dreamhost customer. There’s no shortage of hosting choices and you choose to give us your money every month. We wouldn’t be here without your patronage and we understand that.

    Sincerely,

    Dreamhost Poobah

59. d Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 11:01 am

    Bravo guys.

    It’s an unfortunate accident, and it happens. But at least you guys kept us somewhat informed. And at least you’re taking responsibility for it!

    For those that complain about it: suck it up. You’re not paying for Digg.com’s hosting, or some other media conglomerate. You’re paying a great price for a small firm in CA to do it, with 10 years of hosting experience, and a limited number of years in management.

    Mistakes happen. But at least DH is willing to suck it up and correct it. And they didn’t have to tell us exactly what went wrong. They could’ve just given a corporate answer of “there was an error and blah blah blah”.

    At least their mistake was owned up to, unlike ExistHost: http://www.dustinmeadows.com/existhost.html

    I’m sticking with you guys. I know a number of others will too.

60. dude Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 11:04 am

    your explanation doesn’t cut it; you should be fired.

61. Antares Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 11:04 am

    The $7.5 million question is: Why does your “bug-free” billing system not do sanity checking on the date it’s passed?

62. Mark W Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 11:09 am

    Guys, seriously, get a grip. I’m pissed. I’m super pissed. I think this explanation is crap (the charges I was billed, along with many others, don’t jibe with his explanation of one extra run) but the FBI? Fraud? You’re pissing up a rope.

    The flippant, joking attitude, the half-assed explanation, and the overall joviality about the whole thing are all WAY inexcusable, but fraud? Federal charges? Class action suits? You’re all nuts.

63. Dinget Esq. Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 11:09 am

    I think you should double our bandwidth allowance as a sorry. I am currently using 803824908239403275932058329053247329057329480935757328057203720349823094823095723094823904823904832490238492384023948903248239048329408324908324902384932048095709128501295832059324752093482309572309523849320597235098234-9023570239589023483948394839848349839849384209483.2 TB a second on my blog about pantyliners.

64. Kristie L. Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 11:11 am

    Once again, people using the terms “stealing”, “fraud”, or “theft” are missing one key factor of all of those – intent. You can’t go to the FBI because someone accidentally hit the wrong thing when processing billing. This was an accident, and Dreamhost is actually rectifying the situation by issuing refunds and possibly covering people’s bank fees. If it were “theft” or “stealing” or “fraud”, they wouldn’t be fixing their error.

    It’s perfectly reasonable to be upset and to even feel like the explanation is inadequate. It’s batsh*t insane to be screaming about calling the police because SOME1 ON TEH INTARWEBS STOLEZ MAH MUNEY! Relax. Take a Valium, have a cup of chamomile tea – whatever. Act like a rational person and not a nutjob. Voice your opinions calmly and like an adult, and for the love of whatever god you believe in, stop invoking the T.L.A.s (Three Letter Acronyms).

65. Charles Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 11:11 am

    Wow, I’m glad I dropped you guys months ago. Even though you DON’T host my sites anymore, the way which you handled this is pretty insulting.

66. hogarth Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 11:12 am

    Josh, how the hell DARE you joke and make light of this situation? You have just caused millions of dollars in damage, and you think this is funny?? Your butt should have been fired, immediately.
    I can’t believe Dreamhost is this callous about the damage they – and you, specifically, Josh – have caused.
    Once my account is cleared from your mistake, I will be leaving – and I hope many others will leave as well. You do not deserve to remain in business.
    I would have been willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, allowing that people make mistakes, but reading your blog convinces me – you guys just don’t get it. This is like laughing at a car crash.

67. Matt Payne Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 11:13 am

    Our website and email has been down for over a week due to a billing issue and we can get no response from you guys. This is crazy!

68. brasscrest Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 11:14 am

    [quote]This is you STEALING money and totally screwing many of us to the tune of $7,500,000 dollars.
    [/quote]

    What money are they stealing? Do you think DH benefits from an overdraft charge caused by YOUR bank? Or a charge for YOUR credit card company?

    Yes, it’s a big mistake. Yes, they should refund or reimburse all charges caused by their mistake. Yes, this blog post is stupid in tone and, in addition, has a huge copyright violation by using a copyrighted and trademarked image.

    But there’s no fraud here. And no theft.

69. Lady Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 11:15 am

    X Employee,

    I wish I was getting paid for saying this stuff!
    Can I start charging for being nice now?

70. Sven Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 11:16 am

    The worst part is the first part:

    >>”Hello.. how’s your morning going?

    I hope it’s been a little better than mine.”

    No, it’s been WORSE. You have $7.5 million more that you should.

    I’m overdrawn (I was charged more than $500!!!).

    What a smug MF.

    I’m backin’ up and movin’ out…

71. Joshua Rudd Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 11:18 am

    Why is it my job to continually tell my clients who have accounts with you what is going on? Today they all get an email saying their being charged – and they don’t know why. YOU STILL HAVEN’T SENT OUT AN EMAIL TO THOSE SAME PEOPLE TELLING THEM YOU GOOFED – NOR HAVE YOU OFFERED ANY INCENTIVE FOR THEM TO STAY WITH YOU.

    Not everyone checks your blog to find out if they emails they received were in error.

72. Cutriss Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 11:20 am

    Considering how many companies stonewall, lie, and self-congratulate in their “we screwed up” announcements, I thought this was perfectly fine. Amusing even. I’m a programmer. I’ve made mistakes. Granted, this was a pretty colossal mistake, but still, it’s a learning experience, and if they fire the guy, then that experience is lost.

    Regarding the humor, I think a lot of you forget that you’re reading a blog. If you want the official company statement/apology, that would be found at status.dreamhost.com, not on the blog.

73. Adam Kangas Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 11:20 am

    - Got billing email. Said “WTF?”
    - Checked my Dreamhost Panel’s Billing section. No help. Said “OMG WTF?”
    - Thought “Wait, Dreamhost is actually good at COMMUNICATING with its users about problems like this. I bet the Blog has something to say!”
    - Read this post. Felt better.

    Finding information here, tongue-in-cheek or not, is infinitely better than being left in the dark. I like a touch of humor, but certainly understand that I may be in the minority here. Regardless, I trust that you’ll take care of everyone.

    As a fellow Harvey Mudd alum, I’ll just treat this as a really elaborate prank. Just remember that pranks must be reversed within 24 hours of notification to do so. So, uh, good luck :)

74. KJ Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 11:21 am

    I’ll add my 2 cents to the voices of people asking for a more professional tone to this particular situation… might be time to hire a PR company to help Josh “write” his blog posts?

75. Lady Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 11:21 am

    I have gotten every email that they have sent out.

    If people don’t use the email addresses they have registered, there is no way that they can magically be contacted.

    If they are your clients, don’t you probably have their current emails? Instead of yelling at a blog that won’t give you a response, please go ahead and direct them in the direction dreamhoststatus.com so they understand.

    Afterall, that is the reasonable thing to do.

76. nothings Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 11:21 am

    I would like to hear some indication that the double-billing I and others have observed is being addressed, since it’s hard to see how that fits in with the supposed otherwise-bug-free nature of the thing.

    I don’t care about the jokes, and I’m not upset about the temporary charges. But since the people who’ve already mentioned this issue above also complained about the jokeyness, maybe you missed it.

77. Rob Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 11:22 am

    Thanks, you just put me overdrawn for the month.

    £80 I now have to find.

78. kaitlynthephonegirl Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 11:22 am

    What an incredibly unprofessional and flippant explanation. Yeah, hah hah funny until YOU have $400 unauthorized dollars come out of YOUR account, sending your ass into overdraft, getting you hit with additional charges from your bank that, I suspect, will take another several days to weeks to get returned, if ever.

    Not. Funny. And this response is flat out insulting to me, someone who’s been a loyal customer for over five years. Mistakes happen. Rude, unprofessional excuses don’t have to.

79. David Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 11:26 am

    Well, at least we get confirmation that they are going to compensate people for all the overdraft charges they caused.

    It still pisses me off that something so careless can happen. And I really don’t appreciate the joking attitude toward all of this. This isn’t a cute situation. The fun ends when you’re dealing with people’s finances. Not everybody has enough money to cover an erroneous $300 charge.

80. had enough! Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 11:29 am

    Wow, a cute “whoopsy daisy” blog post, complete with pictures from google images? Didn’t see THAT coming at ALL.

    Are you a real company staffed by grownups or a bunch of fucking kindergarteners? Jesus.

    Also, bye. Taking my fucking hosting elsewhere, you incompetent pricks.

81. Too much crying Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 11:30 am

    I enjoyed reading the responses, partially because I work for another hosting firm that didn’t make this mistake, and partially because I love seeing people cry. “OH NO, YOU MADE ME OVERDRAWN” followed by “I’M CALLING MY LAWYER. CLASS ACTION OMG” is hilarious. Does your lawyer work for free? Can I have his name, I’d like to file a bunch of silly lawsuits for free, too.

    HMC Prank rule in effect. 24 hour clock to reverse prank starts … Now.

82. Jeremy Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 11:30 am

    Normally, this kind of thing would piss me off badly; however, I’ve dealt with Dreamhost’s customer service a few times in the past and have always come away satisfied. This is an example of what I really like about Dreamhost: regular REAL people providing a service. If some other company to whom I normally pay a bill — Comcast or the electric company, for example — made this kind of mistake, they would certainly delay and obfuscate to cover their tails. Dreamhost, however, grows a pair and admits the mistake — in a funny blog entry, nonetheless.

    I suppose the people who have clients who can’t access sites and email may feel more inspired to anger than me because my account is for hosting my site and some sites for some friends’ bands. Also, my service wasn’t interrupted. Yeah, I probably got a huge fee from my bank because of this, but I know Dreamhost will take care of it. Like Josh requested, I’ll wait until later in the week to ask about it.

    Thanks for owning up to it Dreamhost!

83. TomasczV Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 11:31 am

    This whole fiasco I’m sure underscores for your customers (some of whom are certain to be former customers) that you need a phone number. The we’re-dotcomers-and-don’t-need-phones approach to customer service is infuriating horseshit.

    And the light, joket tone is OK most of the time, but when you have tied up 7.5 million of your customers funds, perhaps causing some of them to default on paying other bills, wrack up bank fees, spend how ever much time on the phone or via email sorting out what you find to be a chuckle-worthy oopsie, it’s really in poor taste. You suck if you don’t pen a heartfelt apology right now.

84. Daniel Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 11:31 am

    This is rediculous.

    Oops! I made a booboo. 7.5 million dollars is a shit-ton of money.

    and Kristie L., you can shut your stupid fucking face. Accidental here isnt shit. If you accidentally killed someone you’re still screwed and you’re apparently not one who got fucked over.

85. Hev Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 11:31 am

    Cutriss, is right people. You are reading a blog. Not the offical site. Yes, they were wrong. But you know something. This is why I don’t let companies charge my credit card every month automatically. I didn’t have to go through what you all did. I can sit back and laugh my brains out at you all having panic attacks while I sit back in my nice cool logically sound brain and find out exactly why my hosting bill was so high. This is why you don’t let companies automatically charge your credit cards. I hope you all learned a lesson. DH sends out a billing invoice every month telling you that you need to pay your hosting fees. That is when I pay them. I don’t have to worry, I have no problems what so ever. This morning when I say the email I just opened my account, seen the error and laughed. Then came here to read what they had to say and then read all your comments. So I really do hope you all learned not to let Companies automatically charge your credit cards. This is what could happen.

86. Angie McKaig Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 11:33 am

    Leaving has it exactly correct. Had the response from the Dreamhost team, and Josh in particular, been as professional and concilliatory as the imaginary letter Leaving penned, then far fewer people would be outraged. Yes, mistakes happen. But how a company chooses to deal with those mistakes is what separates the winners from the losers. Advising people NOT to call their banks is pretty thin beer, folks. Sounds like your next hire should be for a Corporate Communications officer or similar – because you guys have lost far more than what this will cost you in immediate financial impact – you’ve lost the goodwill of a hell of a number of customers, and that’s not something you’ll regain without some serious “shaping up”.

87. TomasczV Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 11:35 am

    P.S. have fun reading the accounts of your dumb-ass post in the major media outlets.

88. Big Al Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 11:35 am

    This conversation is funnier than the original blog. I would agree that maybe the blog post was trying a little too much to be “funny” though a bit of light heartedness is still good. As for credit card usage, you use it, you must also realize the risk just like those who accept them take a risk. Finally, your bank or credit card holder probably had a security breech and you have never been informed of it… One just needs to be prepared.

    BTW Josh and friends, keep up the good work. You have the best service for the best price and saves my companies thousands each year for what they want to do. However, a little more discretion in some of these blogs and a lot less “filler”.

89. Anonymous Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 11:38 am

    Is it the same fat finger that deals with Rails issues?

90. Tomas Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 11:39 am

    Many folks have the autobilling coming directly from their accounts – as soon as the bill hits, the money is gone – real money that was probably there to pay other bills, OR an instant overdraft of their bank account or overlimit on their credit card account.

    This is more serious to the customers than a laugh it off, gee isn’t that funny, ha ha blog post will cover.

    In many cases you may have actually damaged the customer and caused serious problems.

    Josh, a professional response to this would help you a lot, as would a proper public plan on how to handle the fallout.

    At the very least you probably need to be ready to cover overdraft charges or overlimit charges is a customer is able to present you with simple proof that your billing error caused it.

    Secondly, it would be a good idea for your to have your lawyers whip up a standard letter for your customers to use in explaining that YOU caused the problems with their accounts, not poor planning on the customer’s part.

    Lastly, you need to reconsider the flippant way you tend to blow off problems, especially ones this seriously affecting your customers.

    (Now I need to head for my account control panel and turn OFF auto billing…)

    Tom

91. LOL+++ Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 11:39 am

    Are you going to leave DreamHost? Yes/No…
    Vote on this topic here: http://nachostatic.com/polls/dh080115.html

92. Truth Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 11:39 am

    Hey Josh,
    congratulations!

    You’ve managed to piss off nearly all of your customers, not just by overcharging them, but by handling it like a fool.

    Oh, but your explanation was SO FUNNY! Right?

    Think of how many customers and money this is going to cost you. Now, THAT’S FUNNY!

93. Shawn McAllister Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 11:41 am

    The only way this would be fraud is if the money wasn’t refunded…

    I think you prbably did cost people alot of money in overdraft fees due to an unexepected charge (you charged me $166). It’s amazing how quickly the bank can really jack you when the overdraft fees start piling up. I just wrote $1200 in checks to pay bills yesterday and the charge really had me freaked out this morning… I had to borrow money to make sure it was covered. I won’t be getting any overdraft charges now… but I’ve never even heard of any company making this kind of mistake before and the fact that it happened is just a huge RED FLAG… if you can make a mistake like this… could you make a mistake and lose all of our credit card information to some loser?

    Go on and joke about it some more… if you don’t see some sort of legal action over this I will be surprised.

94. Kristie L. Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 11:42 am

    “and Kristie L., you can shut your stupid fucking face. Accidental here isnt shit. If you accidentally killed someone you’re still screwed and you’re apparently not one who got fucked over.”

    Oh, please. A billing error isn’t even in the same damned ballpark as someone dying. You’re seriously blowing this out of proportion. A billing error can be corrected, for one. Once someone’s dead, it’s not reversible. And that’s the point Dreamhost is making – they ARE fixing the problem.

    And for the record: yes, I DID wake up this morning to a scary email regarding hundreds of dollars I supposedly owed Dreamhost. Of course, I also don’t put things on auto-pay for just this reason – errors happen. It hasn’t even been 24 hours and they’re already on top of rectifying the situation. You’re being unreasonable, and screaming and acting like a child isn’t going to make the process go any faster.

95. PS Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 11:42 am

    Ouch. Just ouch!

    I’ve checked my Google Checkout page and all seems right. I also deleted my Credit Card info, just in case…

96. Henrik Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 11:44 am

    I must agree with quite a few previous comments here (even if I won’t yell out “fraud” or “call the FBI”); There is a time for jokes, and there is a time for being serious. This is a time for option 2.

    I can surely understand the comedic values here, but good comedy has always been about… timing.

97. Cargo Cult Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 11:50 am

    Dreamhost managed to charge me a mere $763.20 – which apparently got refunded a mere ten hours later. I need to double-check my credit card statements to make doubly sure there are no strange currency conversion problems.

    Apart from a confusing email with a disconcertingly large number in it, it’s not caused me any hassle. But I was lucky – and I’m still off to find another web-host. One with fewer awkward downtimes, general reliability problems, shutting-my-database-down-without-warning incidents, severe billing issues, you name it…

    Sorry.

    The Homer Simpson didn’t help either.

98. Micah Ernst Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 11:50 am

    Nice to see that Josh takes the accidental billing of $7,500,000 so seriously. Customers–;

99. Tom Says:
    January 15th, 2008 at 11:52 am

    I certainly appreciate the style in which these posts are written, especially as it counterbalances the seriousness of the situation. This is exactly what we need.

    I know many, many companies who respond to a mistake like this by denying it’s existence and waiting for people to contact them about the huge charge on their statements.

    The fact remains that Dreamhost made a mistake, have told us about it and are doing everything they can to put things right.

    Congratulations Dreamhost for letting us know what happened and what is going on in an entertaining way.

    I know that I will be staying.

    (P.S. I DON’T work for them)

100. David Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 11:52 am

     Kristie L.:

     By the way, your site is down. Ha.

101. Corruptor Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 11:54 am

     Yeah, this “Look at us, we’re not corporate stiffs” bullshit is uncalled for in a situation like this.

     I want to know what they are going to do about this, and more importantly, what they are going to do to keep me as a customer. “I’m sorry” just isnt going to cut it this time. They better be prepared to cough up free hosting and disk/bandwidth upgrades *WITHOUT BEING ASKED*. And if they want to complain about losing money for free hosting, they can offset it with Josh’s salary, since I’m sure people are already asking for his head, and it needs to be offered to calm down the masses ready to leave.

102. Adam Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 11:56 am

     Wow – I didn’t know that there were so many 12 year olds using Dreamhost.

     Yeah, there was a huge mistake. I was charged, too. They are fixing it. Yes, humor isn’t appropriate.

     For all of you whining about lawsuits, FBI, robberies, etc. Grow up and get a life. This is going to cost Dreamhost big time in the long run. Lost customers, CC fees, reputation, etc. They are going to take care of your overdraft fees. Your credit rating will not suffer.

     Everybody fucks up. I know you have. Get over yourself.

103. Mike Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 11:57 am

     Oh, Dreamhost. The love/hate relationship we share is really getting poked and prodded today. I’m glad things are getting straightened out, but damn, this is a big dropping of the ball. I’m not going to add anything that hasn’t been said already, so I’ll try to keept he digression down, but I just wanted to get my voice out there as well. I’ve made some big screw-ups in my career (none to the tune of $7.5M mind you, but they probably felt just as stressful) so I have some kind of idea what you guys are going through. I do empathize. But, being the one who’s on the receiving side of this raping, yeah I’m a little irked, but all is not lost. Please, if you learn nothing else from this or in 2008 as a whole, learn to be more god damned careful!

104. Mike Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 12:01 pm

     Get over it, people. You’re not curing cancer with your website hosted for $10/month. You may have incurred some inconvenience but DH is doing what it can to remedy the situation. It’s not the end of the world.

105. Kristie L. Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 12:02 pm

     David…

     “Kristie L.:

     By the way, your site is down. Ha.”

     Wow. What incredible powers of observation. This is because due to the billing glitch, my account is flagged as suspended, something which many other people are also experiencing. I also mentioned my account suspension in my first comment on this very blog entry.

106. Barbara Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 12:02 pm

     I am not a Dreamhost Employee. I am a consumer. The total of billing I got from them is $1,642.85.

     I am also one who wasn’t horribly affected. I do feel badly for those of you who were. I will say, “I know that Dreamhost will fully make this right by everyone.”

     I don’t consider it fraud. CNN won’t either! Dreamhost shows transparency when it comes to their mistakes. They allow us to openly bitch about what is going on and don’t delete posts that are negative. Not saying that is any reason to make you feel better. But I believe DH to be an honest, open company who will make this good to their consumers, both who are staying and those who are leaving.

     To those moaning about the moaners, money is not lucrative to everyone and some people live day to day. This most assuredly has left some people in tears today. Give them a little sympathy and let them cry.

     Good luck to all. I, again, will be staying, as I believe in Dreamhost.

     PS. The humor doesn’t bother me either. This is the unofficial blog for dreamhost. The official one is http://dreamhoststatus.com I would find it offensive if they were as lighthearted there, but they apologize profusely and have stated they will make this right to their users.

107. A happy Hostmonster User Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 12:04 pm

     I really shouldn’t be sticking my nose into this, but I seriously did consider DH for a while before settling on Hm. And lemme tell you, I’m glad I did.

     Plus, what kind of attitude is this for a “professional” business?

     “We had a teensy eensy weensy little billing error last night…”

     Uh… lol?

108. Adam Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 12:04 pm

     To the people bitching and moaning about the way in which Josh presented the problem… let it go. There was a mistake made, large as it may be, it’s still a mistake. There was nothing careless about it, the proverbial shit tends to happen. When I design an ad for a customer and don’t type the phone number correctly, they get a credit – I didn’t do it on purpose, as I’m sure Josh didn’t purposely overbill 7.5M$. Our only flaw is being cursed with fallibility ;]

     What’s truly unfortunate is that the majority of these comments that I’ve read (and I’ve read most) are whining about the professionalism, or lack there of, in which Josh handled the situation. C’mon, seriously? I understand the stress of overdraft and other fees following such a mistake, and in fact I’m hoping a few things don’t ‘clear’ so I can avoid all of that. But people are really angry for how he addressed it? You all need to take a close look at yourselves in the mirror, pissed as you may be, and ask if you HONESTLY would have been more pleased with a vague acknowledgement to this fiasco.

     “We’ve encountered a serious problem with our billing in which many of you have been charged without your authorization. Please be patient while we remedy this problem.”

     Would that have made you feel better? Seriously? DreamHost said the problem is being fixed. They also told individuals who acrued bank an/or credit card penalties to contact them for a resolution tomorrow. If you can’t be happy with someone not only detailing how the billing system works and then pointing out the flaw that led to this ordeal, then you’re probably not happy with anything.

     Sincerely,

     Tired-of-people-bitching

109. Robin Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 12:04 pm

     Um… Mike, some of us have the higher-end accounts with Dreamhost with 20+ websites hosted on them. It’s not just the personal website market that’s been hit. I have a business account with Dreamhost and I’m paying more than $10/month. So we got hit pretty hard by this “oops.”

110. Corruptor Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 12:07 pm

     Barbara:

     The header on the page looks like it says “official dreamhost blog” to me.

111. Not a customer Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 12:07 pm

     Yeah, this was a major screw up.

     But Dreamhost is doing the right thing.

     A lot of you screamers, however, really screwed up…

     But first – this wasn’t fraud. This wasn’t a scam. This isn’t being taken lightly by Dreamhost.

     Fraud: Fraud requires intent. This isn’t fraud, it was a mistake. They’re reversing the charges. Get over it.

     Taken lightly: This isn’t the “official status page”, it’s a blog. Read the official status page – it’s really and sincerely apologetic. Get over it, again.

     Dreamhost has already admitted its error. They have, de facto, therefore admitted responsibility for any charges stemming from this over billing.

     So get your paperwork together that shows proof that their over charge is responsible for your overdrafts and submit it to Dreamhost. If they fail to reimburse you, then scream bloody murder.

     Most important lesson that all of you screaming about overdraft charges should take home from this:

     DO NOT EVER, EVER, EVER LINK YOUR VISA CHECKCARD, DEBIT CARD, OR ANY OTHER TYPE OF CARD WHICH LINKS TO YOUR PERSONAL BANK ACCOUNT TO AN AUTOMATIC PAYMENT SYSTEM!

     Now count your blessings that Dreamhost is doing the right thing in response to their screwup and go get a credit card that’s JUST a credit card and not a bank card and play smart in the future.

112. Anonymous Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 12:09 pm

     Tony Says:
     Am I the only one who thinks the FBI needs to look into this matter?

     Yes, yes you are.

113. Phil Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 12:09 pm

     Unbelieveable. Even after getting 700+ pissed off comments on dreamhoststatus.com and improperly acquiring $7.5 MILLION, you can’t take this shit seriously. Sure, it hasn’t happened in 10 years, WHICH SHOULD BE ALL THE MORE REASON TO TAKE THIS SCREW-UP A LITTLE MORE SERIOUSLY. I was waiting to see if this blog post MIGHT be a serious, mature, contrite explanation before making a decision to stay or leave, because if erroneously billing your loyal customers by $7.5 million in one day isn’t cause for a straight face, I don’t know WHAT is, and based on this further slap in your customers’ faces, my clients and I are out of here and looking forward to seeing this utterly irresponsible, untrustworthy joke of a hosting service collapse in grand fashion.

114. Adam Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 12:12 pm

     Well said, “not a customer” ;]

115. Christian Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 12:13 pm

     Well, we’re only human. Fortunately. And humans make mistakes. Also fortunately. Because they learn from it.
     I really aprreciate that you guys at dreamhost are that open and transparent to let us know what happened in detail. Can’t tell this about many other companies.
     Of course customers’ money is nothing to fool around with, but this issue shurely can be reversed.
     Still in favour of your service,
     Christian

116. Mike Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 12:14 pm

     @ Robin – Sorry for the clerical error. Are you also curing cancer with your mega website(s)?

     I also have 10+ sites hosted with DH and the world will go on if people can’t access them for a short period of time. I feel badly for people whose accounts were overdrawn as a result of DH’s egregious error but they are doing what they can to rectify the situation whether people here type their empty threats in ALL CAPS or not.

117. John Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 12:14 pm

     As someone who left Dreamhost last year, I can’t say I’m surprised this kind of thing happened.

     I’m using AN Hosting now, and I’ve found them to be far superior. If you want to check them out, here’s my affiliate link:

     http://blamcast.net/anhosting

     And here’s the straight URL:

     http://anhosting.com/

     If you like what you see, do me a favor and sign up via the affiliate link, I’d do the same for you :)

     - John

118. Myrcurial Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 12:18 pm

     And you’ll be unsuspending people when exactly?

     Here’s the thing — I appreciate that you had to whip up a “fix me” script pretty quick, of which, step one should’ve been “get everyone back on line regardless of billing situation”.

     I’m glad I didn’t have any valid payment info stashed with DH, I’m unglad that I still don’t have a functioning web site.

119. Robin Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 12:20 pm

     What I really want to know – has anyone received a refund yet? Whose to say this new script that’s set to fix things isn’t as screwy as the script that caused the problem in the first place? :P

120. Niero Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 12:21 pm

     For a guy who just overcharged $7.5M in bad debt you’re surprisingly casual. I’d be offering free kicks to the nuts for any customer that wants to drive down. :)

     We’re happy with the service and we’ll stick with you, but fix asap! GO IN THE CAVE NOW! GO!

121. John Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 12:22 pm

     I have been a customer for 4 years. This is the first time they have really screwed up on billing. I am amazed at how lightly you guys are trying to make this situation seem. At over 7 million dollars, this should warrant a full investigation by the FTC. It’s not a joke, or a “oops, sorry, my bad” type of situation. Having worked with various credit vendors like First Data Merchant Services doing large clearing of transactions, I am well aware of how they work. Given that, I would suggest that you work on a more serious note with your business to ensure that once the transactions are corrected and any additional fees incurred by customers are paid, and that you make a process to ensure this never occurs again. Normally companies do this by reviewing their settlement files and sending reversals immediately if things are not found to be correct. It also appeared from the almost $500 I was billed that, you not only did it once, but twice since I show double billing for each month billed. I am glad you are working on it and resolving the issue, but the tone and methods of handling this make me question if I want to continue my service. As of now, I can live with the panel being flaky and the occasional host being down given I don’t do 24/7 business services as long as the billing is corrected. The price for what you get is still un-beatable.

122. Ben Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 12:24 pm

     Get serious! We are not in the mood for another comedic blog post.

     A lot of people are going to be paying overdraft fees. What do you plan to do about this?

123. Michael Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 12:25 pm

     Josh, thanks for the explanation of what initiated the overbilling, and for working to get all of the overcharges refunded, but really what I’m most worried about is that you didn’t acknowledge the double billing at all.

     In fact, you claim “[Our billing system] is so robust you can just run it on any day you want, and it’s safe. It won’t double-charge people”

     Obviously you were wrong about that, as quite a few of us were billed twice for each month of 2008. I’d appreciate an update stating that you are now aware of the double billing problem and have made/will make sure it’s fixed.

124. Mike Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 12:25 pm

     Look guys, do you try and sue a store assistant if they give you the wrong change… no wait, don’t answer that :|

     I have to comment on the fact that so many people had mortgage payments, rent to pay or w/e conveniently (or not) on this exact date, come on, are you really saying after your payments clear you don’t have any money till your next pay day. Doubt it.

     Besides, DH did give you plenty of warning that you were going to be triple billed :P

     Lighten up a bit already, and think about which type of customer you would prefer and be more likely to help as a CSR at any company…

     kbai

125. A happy Hostmonster User Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 12:25 pm

     Thanks for that link John, I’ll check it out.

126. twitchski Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 12:31 pm

     You guys slay me!

     I received notification today about the billing bungle.

     Big deal, $119? I can’t complain (of course, I speak for myself only – I have the room to spare, and I’ll be reimbursed soon enough so big f’n deal I say!)

     Good job on noticing quickly … though it’d be hard to miss a $7.5 million surplus billing, but hey, who’s counting!

     Anyway, I hear tell that the “competition” is jumping on the bandwagon… a retaliatory attack of sorts, based on recent past. That brought a tear to my eye… from the gut wrenching laughter it sent me through. Sadly, there are some who will get suckered in, and jump off the Dreamhost ship. To each their own I suppose…

127. Anon Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 12:31 pm

     Guys, this isn’t the official blog of Dreamhost. Granted it was probably way to light-hearted but you need to stop blowing things out of the water.

128. Seumas Hyslop Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 12:32 pm

     Some interesting things – with all the people wanting to check out their billing status, the Dreamhost Panel is not responding at all right now.

     And another thing, does this suggest that Dreamhost’s annual turnover is $7.5 million?

129. Diana Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 12:34 pm

     I’m fortunate in that my account happens to be a two-year and is paid up until 2009, so I didn’t get hit. I have to say that I *will* be making a point of turning off auto-billing, however. The pros just do not outweigh the cons, after seeing this mess.

     For those of you having hysterics about the whole thing, I do sympathize, but I’d just like to point out that Dreamhost is at least taking responsibility for their error and trying to correct it. That’s a bigger point in their favour than many of you may realize.

     Case in point: I have experienced a similar issue before, when I had just finished university and started a full-time job. I refused to allow the bank (CIBC) to automatically deduct my student loan payments because I knew that things were going to be very tight for the first year or so and I wanted to manually make the payments in order to ensure that there would be no shortfall problems. Unfortunately, after a few months during which the bank behaved themselves, they turned on auto-billing – against my express wishes and without any notice – and took a payment after I’d already made that month’s payment. Which, of course, resulted in other payments bouncing and fees for said bounces. The bank not only refused to refund the fees, their student loans division also would not refund the extra payment that they’d taken. They also would not credit it to the following month, which left me broke till the next bi-weekly pay cheque and scrambling to come up with the loan payment for the following month. If it hadn’t been for a helpful bank teller, who put a stop payment on the bank’s own withdrawal, they’d have done the same thing the next month as well (the student loan division claimed that it was too late to stop it and I’d have to contact them after it came out to confirm that I wanted auto withdrawals turned off). The bank never did admit that they were wrong, nor did they do a single thing to make up for their error. Dreamhost *has* admitted their mistake (albeit in a more flippant fashion than I’d consider appropriate) and they *are* working on correcting it. I’ll be staying and giving them the chance to prove that truly repentant and that they’ve learned from their error.

     The totally unrepentant bank, on the other hand, won’t see me for my dust once the last loan payment is made in a few months.

130. James Asher Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 12:34 pm

     Is anyone else happy that lots of people will be leaving DH and therefore the servers will have less people on them? I, for one, am.

131. Tuan Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 12:35 pm

     Josh, the programmer is not at fault – you are. What you claim is like crashing your car at 120mph and then blaming the car manufacturer for allowing you to go that fast.

132. bigfatdrunk Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 12:38 pm

     As a ***professional fraud investigator***, I wish everyone who believes this is fraud a hearty “Good luck!” in proving it. If they would’ve taken the $7.5MM and run off to Cabo, that’s fraud. Already working on reimbursing money? That’s doing the right thing.

     Yeah, this whole thing sucks. No argument. But I am incredibly happy with the service, and I’ll be staying.

133. S Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 12:44 pm

     People leaving DreamHost? Ooh, more bandwidth for me :)

     DreamHost has been a great service, and while I do understand people’s points about overdrafts, etc., they made clear that they’re going to take care of it.

     DreamHost stands to lose a LOT of money just in the transaction fees, and paying off the people who did get overdraft fees… that should be punishment enough.

134. Bob Ancle Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 12:47 pm

     I certainly hope this all gets cleared up soon. I prolly won’t leave mostly cause I’m too lazy but I do think it’s time for a little bit more professionalism.

     As one who has been an IT professional for 25+years, a Team Lead on $100 Million projects, I would tell that if I found a programmer writing critical code like that did not have a proper validation check I would not fire them. No that would be letting them off way too easy. I would tell them everything is ok, let them have a false sense of security, and then slowly but surely turn the rest of their lives into a living hell they can never escape from, no worse fate can be had.

     The biggest loser in this is Dreamhost itself. The hit to your credibility will take some time to recover from. I suspect you will have some very serious explaining to do to your upstream billing provider, and I would not be suprised if you got cutoff from billing credit cards until you could prove proper controls are in place.

135. Anonymous Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 12:47 pm

     You morons crying for this to be investigated by *insert government agency here* obviously didn’t read the part where everything was explained. There’s not a whole lot to waste taxpayer money investigating when we already know what happened.

136. BrianJ Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 12:49 pm

     After working at Hostway Corp/Affinity Internet (hostway.com, affinity.com) as an application developer, i know that this kind of operation has to be staged, tested a few times before running it. If you find discrepancies, you study them and you make sure you know why before making an executive decision (keyword: executive). What in the world are you ppl doing running scripts blindly and just because the billing looked below average.

     And don’t claim your billing and provisioning systems are so perfect, how about you fail safe that S#IT so it does not ever bill future dates (date

137. Antonio Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 12:50 pm

     People…
     Millions in damage?
     ITS SPREAD OUT
     You got charged what 200 mabey 300 dollars?
     They refund. Problem Solveed.
     Those of you saying THIS IS MY COMPANY IM SO ANGRY YOU PUT US IN THE RED.
     300 dollars put you in the red?
     Wow…sucky company.

     Thanks for the laugh.
     But I do still need that email.

138. Slightly confused Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 12:50 pm

     This seems like a LOT more than just a simple date goof. According to the email – it seems to imply that I was being billed $342.84 per MONTH. (”Balance of $342.84 due since 12/14/08, plus $342.84 overdue since 11/14/08″) And yet, I’m on the $190.80/2 year plan. Somewhere — that math just doesn’t add up. How do you get $342.84 a month instead of $7.95? A simple date error wouldn’t make that massive of a goof. After all… my current plan expires in June. Therefore, if the billing system thought it was December 2008 or January 2009 — that’s @ 6 months overdue. That should only be an overdue bill of $47.70, if I were to have renewed with the same plan I’m on. So how do you get that I owe $685.68 instead of $47.70? That just doesn’t calculate under the guide of a “simple user error”. There seems to be something kind of bigger problem there.

     Normally, I don’t mind the flippant attitude. On something as serious as this, however ($7.5 million in overcharges?!), it seems like this would be the ONE time for a nice professional explaination. Instead, the humorous tone here gives the appearance that you were too busy looking for goofy images instead of taking this seriously and working to repair the issue. I’m not doubting that there was work going on to repair it — just stating that the tone of the entry give the impression otherwise. (Same with the goofy photo in the status blog post).

     I’m just incredibly relieved that the credit card I had on file had long since expired; and I wholeheartedly feel for those people who got charged.

139. Slightly confused Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 12:52 pm

     “under the guide of” should be “under the guise of”. Oops.

140. Adam C. Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 12:52 pm

     People seem to focus on the fact that this was a big ($7.5M) error, as if that entire sum affected them personally.

     If you’ve been overdrafted, or hit especially hard, yes, it hurts. But would you want to be vilified in the same way if you had a similar mistake? If you answered yes, you’re not thinking rationally.

     Everybody talks about how Josh and DH needs to grow up, and expects their talk of being “insulted” and “pissed off” to pass? The only childish people are those that pass blame off to others. If you only had a few bucks in your checking account, why leave auto-pay enabled? This was bound to happen somewhere at sometime. We expect machines and people who render us service to be infallible, when in reality they cannot be more infallible than ourselves. If you’re going to leave DH because of this, then by all means leave, but think through your anger.

141. BrianJ Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 12:52 pm

     After working at Hostway Corp/Affinity Internet (hostway.com, affinity.com) as an application developer, i know that this kind of operation has to be staged, tested a few times before running it. If you find discrepancies, you study them and you make sure you know why before making an executive decision (keyword: executive). What in the world are you ppl doing running scripts blindly and just because the billing looked below average.

     And don’t claim your billing and provisioning systems are so perfect, how about you fail safe that S#IT so it does not ever bill future dates (date IS SMALLER THAT CURDATE()) or duplicate transactions for that matter (unique: acct, date, amount). Now that is a joke to any programmer.

     The only reason i hosted here is because nobody in my company hosts personal pages in our system, they are too personal. So you go to what you feel is the next best and affordable solution. Well i must say i thought this was such, and i am now aware that this company is ran by a whole bunch of kids, and the affordable just became plain cheap. Making childish decisions with no executive control.

     In many aspects, GROW UP! this is so dumb.

142. T Mac Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 12:55 pm

     OH GOD THIS ARE SERIOUS WEBSITE THIS ARE SERIOUS BUSINESS

     To all you people screaming about them taking this “too lightly”: get over yourselves. I’d rather have a company make a statement that makes me feel like I’m a person rather than some crisp press release that makes it sound like they don’t even CARE that they just screwed up. They could have also just said “We’re fixing the problem” and not offered any explanation. They’re not contractually obligated to tell us crap. You people need to stop cultivating the weed in your ass and get over it.

     To all of Dreamhost: Thank you so much for taking immediate responsibility of this problem and losing sleep to make sure it’s fixed. You guys are seriously the best provider I’ve ever found on the internet.

     To all you losers leaving Dreamhost: Thanks for clearing up the bandwidth for the rest of us that aren’t raging assholes.

143. twitchski Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 1:02 pm

     follow up…

     For those complaining about the emails not arriving w/ notification.. I received mine today.

     Dreamhoststatus.com has a post up, and 17+ pages of comments.

     They are working on it, posting about it, keeping us informed. Don’t get sour because you didn’t know about it before it happened.

     To those looking to blame….
     You can’t logically pin this ‘blunder’ on Dreamhost as a whole… Sure you could pin it on Josh, like so many are… but really, what’s the point. You’re getting your money back.

     We all fat finger things once in a while…. Just because the number is “big”… $7.5 million is more than likely a somewhere in the vicinity of 2/3 to 3/4 of the total annual income for Dreamhost.

     So while not small, it could have been worse. And don’t you worry, with all the charge backs occurring, they’re getting their licks too.

     I can’t imagine that Josh, in all his candidness is actually not slightly embarrassed by this situation. But he doesn’t deserve to lose his job over it. This is the big leagues folks.

     You may not see the scenario as I do, but I look at it like this:
     Does the kid at the grocery store get fired when they’re over on till count by $100? Nope.

144. Maggie Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 1:05 pm

     IM IN UR BANK ACOUNT TAKIN UR MONEYZ!

     I’M AT UR COMPETITORZ SIGNIN UPZ!

     There. Have a LOL or two back.
     Fun is fun, but DH needs to at least get some grown ups in the billing department.

     To those dismissively saying “accidents happen, man, hey they’re fixing it, stop complaining”… STFU.
     This should never happen. Ever. Period. For a business to screw up this massively… well, it’s inexcusable on a scale far beyond the average DH screwup (and accompanying LOLZ post). And if it costs DH their livelihood, they’ve no one to blame but themselves. Frankly, I don’t have time to deal with this.

     I also think I’ll get my sites the hell out of ‘dodgy power, space and cooling’ valley.

145. Chris Anthony Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 1:05 pm

     Josh, thank you for taking the time to let us know about this. You must be pretty rattled; I work with far smaller stakes, and even then a processing error has me pissed off at myself for days. I am disappointed that this happened, but I’m also sympathetic; it sucks when a typo sends errors all the way down the line. And I appreciate that you’re doing everything you can to fix the problem as soon as you can.

     I’m even more disappointed in your customers, though. Friends, the era of the business-suited, pompous, always-serious “professional” is over. It’s been over for twenty years. Professionalism now isn’t about being serious; it’s about getting the job done. Josh and the rest of the Dreamhost team are doing that, and if you don’t appreciate the way they’re doing it, you’re free to leave for a hosting company that will make mistakes and then not be human beings about it.

     Keep up the good work, Josh &c. I look forward to using your service as long as you keep providing it.

146. Ernie Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 1:07 pm

     Wow, this is just the straw that broke the camels back. In the past two months, I’ve had ALL of my sites – personal, hobby, contract work for my clients – go down all at once, service get slow or intermittent.

     And then instead of apologies, I get charged an extra $250.

     You just lost a six year customer, and now I’m going to tell ALL of my friends to NEVER use Dreamhost again. Hope you guys don’t go to the SXSW Interactive festival!

147. James Paden Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 1:07 pm

     Hey, my website is down. This is not funny.

148. twitchski Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 1:10 pm

     X Employee:

     I’m aware of that, I just posted it as a note.
     It amuses me that they jumped on the situation like a fat kid on a smarty is all.

     The retaliatory attack as I coined it, is simply a way for the competition in question to take back what they let go when they tried to make money from their client sites with a 404 hijack, without their clients’ knowledge. Good for them, they need to get back on the horse when they fall off.

     Dreamhost won’t be hurt by this down the road. It’ll be water under the troll bridge soon enough.

149. tab Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 1:12 pm

     Dreamhost, here’s how to keep me as a customer:

     1. Fire Josh. Do it now. Unless this guy is fired, I’ll definitely be leaving. He just may have cost you the entirety of your business. Fire him. People get fired for much, much less. Maybe he’ll be more careful in his next job. Also, you were wrong to PUBLICLY pin this on ONE guy anyway, stand up and take it on the chin. You should have privately fired Josh and taken responsibility for this mess as Dreamhost.

     2. Return the money you took from my account. Do it now. You have basically stolen from me. If it’s not back within 12 hours, I’m gone. You were able to instantly take it, I’d like it instantly returned. If anyone makes an unauthorized charge to my card my first instinct is to petition to have their merchant status removed. I don’t care if it was a “fat finger”. I want my money back. I trusted you to bill me correctly. I trusted you to be competent. No longer. No trust in you. Zero.

     3. Compensate me for this stress and inconvenience. 50% off my next billing cycle sounds good.

     These things are pretty to accomplish and would restore you in my eyes. I would continue to recommend to you to everyone as I have done in the past.

     Best of luck, hope you guys weather this, but I think you may have just put yourselves back 5 years, if not out of business. I can’t imagine the fallout. I still think you’re the best host around, but this is pretty bad.

150. not so happy customer Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 1:12 pm

     wow a real bit of insensitivity in action! I feel very sorry for your predicament it is a pretty serious blunder, which will cost you as it has your customers, but like the many other views expressed already ‘dont mock us’.

     I have a friend in hospital, having pretty major surgery, shes had me look after her hosting account for her, whadya know her credit card has been charged. I dare not even mention it to her family who have plenty on their plate as it is.

     only a “Grade A” bonafide “a**clown” would be so irresponsible as to write a post like this straight after biting the hand that feeds it. Go and wash your mouth and apologise. I know I would.

     …and i hope the lack of access to the panel isnt a way of forcing your customers to cooldown in case theyre thinking of switching hosts, that infuriates me even further and while I was thinking of staying now for all the good years of being hosted happily and recently in a less than stellat fashion, now Im just thinking of leaving as soon as the panel is up.

     Im very ashamed that last night my friend signed up through my recommendation. thankfully itll be the last time I recommend you guys, in fact ill try my hardest to dissuade anyone to join just for your immaturity tonight. hope you eventually learn your lesson and dont go blundering like this again.

151. LOL+++ Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 1:13 pm

     Heh..

152. Pyrion Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 1:15 pm

     Hey, I like the fact that you guys can keep your sense of humor despite a screwup of this magnitude.

     I think people need to get over the “zomg I got overdraft fees/zomg my site’s shut down” and realize that shit like this is bound to happen sooner or later. At least DreamHost is compensating you for its screwup. Most other companies would say “talk to our billing department” and their billing department would say “talk to customer service” and you’d never get a straight answer. As for those with overdraft fees, whose fault is it that you can’t keep enough money in your accounts to prevent shit like this from happening in the first place?

153. Tracy Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 1:15 pm

     I was fortunate enough to be able to access the Control Panel earlier this morning (before THAT hit critical mass) and discover that there was a known issue, and that it was being worked on. Additionally, I knew to check the dreamhoststatus.com site for news on the overbilling.

     However, I am IRKED beyond all that Dreamhost has STILL completely failed to send out a simple email explaining the situation to its customers, many of whom may still have no idea that their credit card and bank accounts have had excessive charges made.

     Not. One. Simple. Email.

     I find that abhorrent. Say what you will about how it was a mistake, how users shouldn’t have used their debit cards for automatic payments/should have had more than a $435 balance left in their respective accounts in the event that something like this should occur (like, seriously?)/should have done this or not done that… it still does not explain Dreamhost’s complete and utter failure to provide the most BASIC tenant of online customer service: To *proactively* notify its customers that a problem has occurred via the fastest and most reasonable method possible. Email.

     The fact that people had to GOOGLE to find out what was happening was pure and simple gross negligence on the part of Dreamhost’s management.

     We all got those erroneous rebill statements (I received mine well after finding out about the issue). Why the heck weren’t they followed up with an email from DH letting us know that they were erroneous rebill statements, that overbilling had occurred, that DH was working on resolving issues and had a plan either in the works or in action for dealing with any penalties lodged against DH customers because of this mistake?

     This is just appalling.

154. Mike Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 1:16 pm

     “To all you losers leaving Dreamhost: Thanks for clearing up the bandwidth for the rest of us that aren’t raging assholes.”

     WIN! This thread is over, you can all go home now.

155. Pyrion Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 1:20 pm

     And no, we didn’t ALL get erroneous billing statements. My site’s still up, I didn’t get rebilled, but that’s pretty much only because I’m new here and only signed up three weeks ago.

     And really folks, anybody here familiar with Murphy’s Law? Why the hell would you allow your accounts to remain in the red in the first place? That’s when it’s prime time for shit like this to happen.

156. Shane Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 1:20 pm

     THIS IS A MAJOR ERROR ON A HOSTING COMPANY – yes.

     Accidents happen. I own a web design company and I use DH for many of my ma & pa shop websites so I know what today has been like for many of you. I may switch to another host but not likely for my smaller sites. I have other more expensive hosting for my websites that need the reliability and quick support and I suggest that anyone else that needs that should go elsewhere. It’s too bad you had to learn the hard way but you SHOULD know better to spend the extra $100 a year for your important websites and not complain when something happens to your extremely inexpensive DH hosting!

     Yes it’s a huge error I think they kept their usual ‘cool’ as always and attacked the problem as soon as they could. I would like to hear more updates on the progress but as far as I’m concerned they are using all resources to fix it as fast as they can. I also enjoy a little humor as long as I know problems are being resolved.

     Cheers!

     Good Luck DH!

157. Paul S Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 1:22 pm

     I would just like to say I think Dreamhost is a great company and the way they have handled this incident only increases my respect for them (as long as I do actually get my money back!!).

     I wish the other company’s I deal with where as forthcoming and entertaining as Dreamhost.

     You guys are awesome!

     “What’s the harm in keeping it flexible?”

     About $7,500,000 in harm, that’s what!

158. Cupcake Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 1:22 pm

     Ya’ll need to simma daaan nah.

     If you can’t handle the downs with the ups, and you fly off the handle about it, maybe you a)shouldn’t be trusted with a website in the first place or b) should host your own site if you’re such an expert (which, PS, you’re not. I asked your mom).

     After reading many of the 800 comments on the status page and most of these 150 , I gotta say: you kids really need to get out more often.

     So very many passionate but ignorant comments and questions…you guys know this isn’t a support forum, right? There’s no operator standing by to answer your questions and being hateful isn’t helping.

     Asking for Josh to be fired is just silly and spiteful.

     We’re all frustrated and I’m sure the gang is doing everything they can. Do you want your money back, an email or the status page up? Which is the priority? I’m thinkin’ it’s the money and guess what? That’s what they said they’re workin’ on.

     Everything is going to be okay, cats and kittens. BREATHE.

     Oh, and if you used your debit card for something with auto-bill? You should be jammed in the eye with a snow globe. Don’t be hatin’ on someone else for your own foolish choice.

159. Michał M Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 1:28 pm

     OK, that post was something we were waiting for. Now I can sit back and relax. Thanks!

     PS. I did similair mistakes in my company but I was always prepared to revert them in matters of minutes so you probably should consider some big red button “we’re screwed, revert!”.

160. Michał M Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 1:29 pm

     Cupcake: about things we want first you are probably aware of the fact that DH hires more than a one person? So Josh could be fixing that, some other guy or gal could be sending emails and another one doing some other things.

161. Shane Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 1:31 pm

     Exactly, always have a backup plan. If you choose to cut costs with an affordable host company, have a backup plan!!

     Keep your domains on a specific registrar so you get just repoint the dns to another host.

     Come on people!

162. kelly Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 1:34 pm

     Hi Josh.

     Listen, will you marry me? I think you should marry me.

     Love,
     Kelly
     (DH customer since ‘98)

163. Shane Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 1:40 pm

     I do agree with having DH notify everyone a little better on the progress of everything. I think that alone may result in lost customers but we learn something new every day!

164. Daniel Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 1:42 pm

     OK from the top…

     Your credit card company / bank cannot legally charge you any fines for anything because the charge was made in error without your permission.

     All charges / credit scores are therefore refundable and returnable to the original state as if this erroneous payment never happened.

     It may involve DH contacting your credit card company / bank and informing them of the error, but you will get everything back to the way it was before Josh got calendar happy.

     He made a mistake – he probably saw his life flash up in front of him. As there is no permanent damage, we should simply see it as one of those things that makes life more interesing.

     Also, I think the reason Josh uses humour is cos crying and whaling about it won’t solve anything.

     Everybody, don’t panic. Chill.

     (I should so work for DH customer service, shouldn’t I? ;) )

165. mr Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 1:42 pm

     This explanation doesn’t make sense to me – you said we got charged for all of 2008, but my regular monthly bill is $9.95/month. So that would be $119.40 – and yet the actual charge on my account was $218.xx. So there’s clearly more going on here than you’re saying.

     Assuming that the refund actually does come through – and that hasn’t happened yet, so I’m not committing until it does – I won’t be leaving Dreamhost, because I’m a) inherently lazy about my personal life and b) not aware of any serious downtime for my site or my email in the past year. However…

     I agree with all the others who are saying that the flippant tone of this post at this time is really off-putting. The header of this page says “OFFICIAL DREAMHOST BLOG”, when a company overcharges its client constituency to the tune of 7.5 million dollars, I expect their OFFICIAL BLOG to reflect the seriousness of the problem. You haven’t tripped and spilled your soda on us; you’ve cost us money. And since your rates are so low, I would imagine a lot of your base is people who can afford $9.95/month, not $218 all at once — especially on the 15th of the month, when so many other bills come due. This is not a Homer-Simpson-joke situation.

     Yes, fixing the problem is the right thing to do, and reimbursing everyone for any overdraft charges is the right thing to do. But respecting your client base is also the right thing to do, and this post – and honestly, the tone you take in the email that went out and in the Status page post as well – is seriously disrespectful. “Ha ha ha I screwed up your finances, sorry!” is disrespectful. “Ooops”, when it’s about your clients’ money? Is disrespectful.

     I’m a project manager for a marketing and communications firm, and when we overcharge a client, we don’t laugh about it; we treat the client and their situation with respect, and we address the problem with the gravity it deserves.

     You need to do the same, or get someone involved in PR who can do it for you.

166. Greg Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 1:43 pm

     Guys, if you’re so damn poor that a year’s worth of hosting bills puts you into overdraft or maxes out your credit card, you need to save your money and stop spending it on webhosting. What in hell’s the matter with you?

     Dreamhost, it’s cool. Everybody makes mistakes, it’s not like you’re the first to fuck up a credit card issue. Took care of it promptly – didn’t even notice until after things were resolved. Your tone is fine. It’s one of the reasons I like the company. And the people who leave will be doing you a favor – anyone who moans so much about an honest mistake are likely in the 20% of customers that cause you 80% of the hassle. Seriously – is the revenue they bring in worth putting up with all of the above?

     But just because this seems to be the place to make ultimatums, here’s one from me – I’ll happily stay, but if you fire Josh, I’ll be moving my sites.

     Cheers,
     Greg

167. Cupcake Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 1:45 pm

     Michal – as an employee of an organization that employs over 10k peeps, I can tell you without a doubt that an issue of this magnitude undoubtedly has hundreds of people scrambling.

     Todays parable especially for you: if you go looking for a fight, you’ll eventually find one.

     Is that the person you want to be?

     I repeat: simma dan nah

168. Cupcake Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 1:46 pm

     Kelly rules.

169. Daniel Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 1:46 pm

     p.s. if you fire Josh i’m leaving! the billing emails you all got are meaningless because you never authorised the payment so stop going after this guy’s blood and go have a wank or summink!

     - a happy DHer since 2003 :)

170. Charlie Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 1:47 pm

     Hey, CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT -yelling person. Shut the hell up.

     They made a mistake, and are fixing it. They said they’d pay for the morons that overextend themselves and get overdrawn because of a tiny $120 (or whatever) charge. Your bank will too, assuming you haven’t been overdrawn frequently. I’m guessing you have, though.

     DH has never said something and then not done it. Legally they don’t need to reimburse you for anything but the erroneous charges, and if you initiated a CA suit, I’d counter-sue for Malicious Prosecution, if I were DH.

     DH has integrity, and it’s extremely rare to get this amount of transparency from a company. Seriously, if you don’t enjoy the lighthearted tone, you should leave.

     (I do agree that a mass e-mail was in order, though)

171. Schuyler Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 1:47 pm

     So, someone mentioned that some people may have incurred permanently higher rates on their cards.

     That’s the truth. Because of a stupid mistake that I once made, though I very quickly took care of the issue, within the same 24 hours, I now pay 6% more than I did initially. It’s still a much better rate than I would pay with most companies and I do love my bank, but just pointing out that that could be a longer-term effect of what happened today.

     Hopefully most folk’s banks will respond to this in a reasonable manner (mine certainly did) and it won’t become an issue for anyone, but it’s certainly a possibility.

     Anyway, point 2:

     The joking tone. There are a lot of comments on both sides of the aisle and I figured I’d just point out that those people who love the lighter tone and who think it’s one of the best things about the company (I, myself, am in this camp) probably weren’t going to leave if you had injected a bit more gravity in this explanation.

     However, those who were shocked and felt violated today were obviously looking for a more serious tone. Less pictures, more promise, etc.

     I love this company and hate to see what seems like an arbitrary choice that could have been the deciding factor in a good number of people staying or closing their accounts.

172. Daniel Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 1:53 pm

     Schuyler write:

     “and I do love my bank”

     Yeah, I love a good blood-sucker me !! :)

173. Michał M Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 1:53 pm

     I don’t want to fight :). I am just waiting for this issue to be resolved, nothing more. I was charged $119, not much and I know it will be back. But you need to remember that there are people not happy about that situation (a guy said that he was charged $9000 for his dedicated server, that WOULD make me mad because it is not kind of money you can joke about).

     Somebody said something about PR and it is true. When we have some downtime or other trouble (we are ISP company) people are satisfied when somebody answers their call, explains everything and be nice to them. There were times we had are support lines working in shorther hours with less people and people weren’t complaining about some issues but about a fact that they can’t reach anybody on support line.

174. Robin Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 1:55 pm

     Well, for the record, my account does seem to have been refunded. So let’s hope this new little script thing actually is working for everyone.

     However, I think the PR damage done by this post by Josh might stick around for awhile:

     http://consumerist.com/345185/dreamhost-is-very-very-sorry-for-75-million-billing-error

     You can joke around and be casual on some things. But it’s really idiotic to do it, especially when you’re a company that makes at least $7.5 million a year (and now we know this), where customers’ money is involved.

     Guess what? Regardless of how cool and hip you act, you are apparently a big business. And you need to learn how to handle your business in a way that doesn’t isolate people with a corporate attitude, but also learn how to speak to customers without making them feel that they’re nothing but a joke to you.

     I began to host with another company, a smaller company and in the year that I’ve been with them, I’ve had no downtime, whatsoever and they have communicated with me on a very timely basis. When something happens, I don’t have to go to their blog to find out what’s happening. I generally get an email and at one point, I even got a PHONE CALL.

     That is called customer service. I suggest you guys look into that.

175. Anonymous Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 1:55 pm

     daniel wrote:

     Schuyler write:

     “and I do love my bank”

     “Yeah, I love a good blood-sucker me !! :)”

     :P I’m a proud USAA member and really can’t blame them for enacting the penalty I agreed to and incurred when I made a dumb mistake. You know?

176. Bevis Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 1:56 pm

     Cupcake I think I love you. Maybe we could have a joint ceremony with Kelly and Josh.

     VIVA LA HUMOR

177. That Guy Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 2:02 pm

     I had a nice $1000+ charge this morning while I enjoyed my cup of coffee and you don’t see my panties in a wad!

     DH will get er fixed and everyones lives can resume and then we should thank them for teaching us something new today.

178. Barbara Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 2:05 pm

     Awe, I want to be a wife of Josh too. perhaps we can all move to Utah together!!!

     I am glad all is working out for you Dreamhost. I love you.

     barbie

179. Daniel Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 2:05 pm

     I agree with That Guy.

     At least Josh is honest, unlike people who work in PR, for instance :)

180. reality check Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 2:07 pm

     whats the deal with the “atleast you guys told us”!? OF COURSE THEY TOLD US! We’re the custommer! its our money they are stealing! I was already insulted by the lack of care my account has seen in these past two days, but to add insult to injury, this blog post put me over the edge.

     And hey, way to go guys on making light of the situation! you did a real bang up job with your funny pictures and jabs, I hope you remember how funny this blog post was when you have 20% of your clientele left and a class action lawsuit sitting on your skyscraper desks.

     Here’s a concept, next time (after you recover from writing your 50,000 $100 checks) try crossing your t’s and dotting your i’s a little better and act like some legitimate business men instead of a bunch of stoner morons.

181. jasonbuss Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 2:07 pm

     i have been a member of dreamhost since ‘03. payed my bill every month via rebill on the same credit card. besides the problems that stem from the internet and uptime and upgrades (which are few and far between here). i have had NO issue with dreamhost. my personal bank messes up weekly with my money and fees etc… hell, even the company i work for messes up my pay, vacation hours etc…

     get the picture? this is the first time dreamhost has ever made a error of this magnitude to me and people who rely on my account (clients). I go to work, come home and have two emails waiting for me. first one is the 08-09 charge statement. the second is its fixed and we’re sorry email.

     granted, it was still an error. they admited it, fixed it, and are seeming to take steps to prevent this in the future. im satisfied. if my account was overdrawn (it wasn’t) i would have to take steps to get those fees from the causing party. but since it wasn’t… all is well with me.

     from day one this hosting service has provided a excellent product in a lighthearted manner. i have grown accustomed to this style, and am for one gratefull to see even in crisis, you all are still able to hold your head up high and say “hey, we messed up, we fixed it. we are sorry -insert dreamhostism-”.

     can’t please everyone, but from where i am sitting, im smiling. thanks for the quick resolve dreamhost.

182. William Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 2:09 pm

     This is not a joking matter.

     How dare you even try to make it light-hearted?

     You can say “we are really sorry” but the laughing tone or your blog, the updates, etc. prove otherwise.

     Everyone affected should be entitled to some sort of compensation.

     It’s time to GROW UP.

183. Brutus Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 2:11 pm

     “That Guy Says: I had a nice $1000+ charge this morning while I enjoyed my cup of coffee and you don’t see my panties in a wad!”

     Of course not deary. They’re still at my place where you left them.

184. CharlesV Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 2:13 pm

     I think that one of the reasons why everyone is so upset is the reason that dreamhost is so great: their openness and their community.

     I’ve had “cheap” webhosts before, and none of them had an active community blog, detailed status updates that allowed comments or a staff that was so helpful and open when needed.

     If this blog didn’t exist, and dreamhost hadn’t been so forthright with the situation, you would have a big charge, you would email dreamhost, they would say “we apologize, it was an accounting error, and you have been refunded” and you would go on with your day. Yes, it may burn for them to make light of what has caused you a worrisome day, but from what I understand there has been no permanent financial damage done (other than the ill will towards dreamhost).

     If it wasn’t dreamhost, to all of us, it would just be a bad morning, not a 7.5mil disaster.

185. Daniel Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 2:19 pm

     Well said Jasonbuss, and William: time to take your own advice :)

186. Adam Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 2:24 pm

     I think the biggest insult in all of this is the “we are really sorry, but we’ll act cute about it” reaction we are getting. Its not a time for you to be acting cute about your mistake. No analogizes, no cute excuses, no making fun of yourselves. Just remedy the situation in a professional matter.

187. Roger Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 2:29 pm

     I feel sorry for anyone who will have their interest rates jacked as a result of this – or, at the very least have to waste their time fixing up this error with their cc company.

     But:

     I also feel for Josh.

     Have I ever screwed up before and inconvenienced a whole lot of people?

     Yes.

     Was I fired for it immediately?

     No.

     Was I treated with compassion and understanding?

     Yes.

     Let the compassion and understanding flow, people. Pass it on.

     Josh, maybe the tone of the blog post was – er – a bit flippant under the circumstances.

     Still, I intend to stay and support this company. I have always gotten great service from Dreamhost and I feel like I’m dealing with people, not a faceless corporate entity.

     And that’s worth something to me.

188. Marcus Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 2:29 pm

     First of all I couldn’t read all the comments so I am sorry if my main point has already been mentioned.

     1. I do appreciate the cander with the explanation.
     2. I have been with Dreamhost since 2000 so I am acustomed to the tone of communications and this is no different.
     3. I won’t be going anywhere, because Dreamhost always fix my problem and I am sure they will now.

     Now the main point:

     What about eCommerce sites that just released a new product range yesterday and now the site is down. Everyone anticipating the launch will be trying to go to the site today and they can’t see it. How much income will be lost? How do I measure it?

     I only raise this point because I want Dreamhost to think about other effects caused by this error and then take care of it approriately.

     Thanks again for the cander in the explanation of the error, but please fix the remaining problems.

     Cheers,
     Marcus

189. Bradford Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 2:31 pm

     Wow, I’m sorry everyone had to go through this stuff. I hope it’s resolved quickly.

     Don’t fuss about “Fraud”, they made an honest mistake, and I’m sure they’ll corerct it and handle any repercussions. Chill.

190. Felix Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 2:36 pm

     I find it funny that at the various places that talk about this incident. In the user comments, some “horror” stories that this caused are repeated over and over by different users.

     Honestly, if your website was so huge and important, and you’re paying 500-1000 dollars a month…shouldn’t there be much more money/credit in the cards that you use to pay your bills?

     I pay 500 dollars a month for dedicated hosting elsewhere, I don’t do auto-charge and the card I pay with, I have at least triple the amount required per month. It’s a safety net. Learn it. Love it.

191. Michael Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 2:37 pm

     To put this into perspective for those who can’t understand how one could have so little in their bank accounts that they would get hit by overdraft fees…

     Among the many reasons that can happen, including just not having much money (which is why some people choose an inexpensive host), consider this:

     Quite a few people keep both savings and checking accounts, using the checking to pay their bills. One might have a comfortable sum of money in savings, but only only enough to cover current, expected expenses in checking. The bulk of one’s money stays in savings so that it is 1) Safe from people with fat fingers, and 2) Can accrue more interest than one would get from a checking account. These same people often forgo overdraft protection because they manage their money well, never spending more than they put into checking. It’s not an unreasonable approach to finances.

     I’m glad Dreamhost is committed to getting money back to everyone adversely affected, but some of the comments made here from customers to other customers are disgusting. Getting upset over a billing surprise is understable, though some could stand to calm down a bit and wait for Dreamhost to fix things, but jumping on fellow customers over their personal financial issues is really reprehensible.

192. Canadian Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 2:38 pm

     There are alot of people here who really have no understanding of computers, networks, or their own finaces.

     For those bitchers and moaners; learn about your finaces. You obviously have not the slightess clue about how banks and credit card companies operate. Read a book; say something on how computers and the internet work. Then maybe you’d see how (super) easy this mistake would be to make. Also, shut up. Not a soul on this thread cares about how this financial burp is destroying your pathetic life (It really is pathetic if this issue is that much of a problem for you).

193. mass email Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 2:38 pm

     So where’s the mass email that immediately notified customers of the problem? One of my friends had no idea why he was being charged. Luckily I had checked out the status page and blog page. But really, why not notify people in the easiest, fastest way possible (email) as to the problem? Perhaps you hope that they simply won’t notice?

194. Greg C Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 2:41 pm

     I for one will continue to be a customer, as I’m sure my websites will be faster and have less latency now more than ever with so many customers canceling their service.

     Everyone complaining that DH is getting too big and too corporate need not worry after today. ;)

     Even before this blog post (after I calmed down myself), I thought about the scene in Office Space where they go to the ATM and see the account has way too much money.. I can’t even imagine the chill that went down Josh’s back when he saw $7.5 million on the billing report.

     Also, I like that DH responded in an honest, “cutesy,” perhaps even Conan O’Brien-like manner. I’ll take that any day over a dull, canned, PR for Dummies response most other companies would do.

     Oh, it will take more than a $478.80 erroneous credit card charge to get rid of me, DreamHost! Bring it on!

195. harlie Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 2:41 pm

     I understand that mistakes happen, so after reading this entry early this morning, I was okay with waiting; however, as the hours pass, I’m seriously reconsidering if I want to stay with DreamHost.

     It’s been over 10 hours since you acknowledged the problem on the DH status page but I haven’t received so much as a simple email stating that you know of the error and are working to rectify it. Instead of an explanation and apology in my Inbox to curtail any worries, there was nothing but a grossly overpriced bill leading to a morning of stress.

     The fact that there was a computing error I can accept. The fact that I still haven’t received any communication after more than 10 hours is unacceptable.

196. J Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 2:41 pm

     I’m glad you are making terrible attempts at jokes and being rather flippant after such a major screwup. I think i’ll move to a hosting company that is run by people who are a lot more professional, especially after screwing over a large number of customers.

197. Felix Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 2:42 pm

     Hey look what’s at the top of the dreamhost status page.

     “PLEASE BOOKMARK (usually control-D) THIS PAGE NOW SO YOU CAN FIND IT AGAIN IN CASE OF AN EMERGENCY!”

     By the way you guys are reacting, it seems like an emergency.

198. Daniel Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 2:46 pm

     Adam writes:

     “No analogizes, no cute excuses, no making fun of yourselves. Just remedy the situation in a professional matter.”

     NEVER EVER let Adam anywhere near DH’s billing machine, lol!

199. Henrik Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 2:46 pm

     On a related note; Did anyone receive their refund yet?

200. Andrew S Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 2:47 pm

     A big careless f^&kup. So when is Josh’s farewell party? Does he have any of the alcohol from that photo (http://blog.dreamhost.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/josh2.jpg) still available?

     Seriously, pick up the professionalism. Dealing with cowboys is not something I want to continue doing.

201. Daniel Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 2:47 pm

     I’ve been fully refunded – my account is back to normal. No charges or anything. The bank hasn’t even noticed.

202. Mark Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 2:49 pm

     Unacceptable. That’s it, end of story.

203. Daniel Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 2:52 pm

     Bye Mark! Good luck in corporate cheese ville :)

204. Jerry C. Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 2:52 pm

     Anyone who frequents the blog can tell that the “tone” of this post is vastly more humble and apologetic than is typical. Also consider that it was written by a guy who has been up all night fixing his own fuck-up, and is likely operating on very little sleep. All considered, this isn’t being handled all that badly — in fact its being handled rather well. Refunds have been processed, and a pledge has been made to correct overdrafts. Aside from the ideal of not occurring at all, there’s not a better outcome you could hope for.

     Those of you complaining about the “tone” simply don’t get it — the vast majority of companies would never, ever, EVER make such a public apology, much less acknowledgement, of such a fuck up. I worked at a company years ago whose entire customer database — including full contact information, credit card data, CVV, the works — had been hacked. They had a meeting with the employees to make it clear that nobody was to let on about it or they would be fired. The company never did go public about it, and those individuals were never aware their financial data had been compromised until they undoubtedly started seeing random charges on their bill.

     Again, good on Dreamhost for the exemplary transparency and forthrightness. Bad on ya for your terrible QC process, but we’re all human, even the coders.

     On the bright side, I’ll bet it never happens again. :)

205. punk Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 2:53 pm

     No problem. Honest mistake, quick recovery, complete explanation. Any of the above who are not accepting this are basically acting as pricks.

206. Corruptor Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 2:53 pm

     Almost 12 hours since I’ve received my billing email, no refund yet, no “I’m sorry” email, no idea of what is being done to retain me as a customer or what’s going to happen with my overdraft fees as a result of this.

     *Hands DH back the ball they dropped*

207. Ossi Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 2:53 pm

     Josh,

     Even after this big of a mistake you still seem unable to respect your customers enough to take the matter as serious and professional as it demands.

     You give the impression that Dreamhost is run by kids.

     I’ll search for alternatives and most likely leave DH sooner than later. Partly because of this mistake, but mostly because I value a professional and serious communication between me and my hosting company.

208. Daniel Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 2:55 pm

     Well said Jerry C. Any corporate company would simply blame it on a bug or a virus or anyone but themselves.

     Josh is honest – publicly honest – even down to his tone, he’s honest.

     How many people commenting on this blog can say the same?

209. Daniel Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 2:57 pm

     Corruptor – stop stirring the pot. Your bank cannot legally charge you overdraft fees cos

     (1) they cannot charge fees same day
     (2) the payment was not authorised by you.

     Now go have a wank and calm down.

210. Jonny D. Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 2:58 pm

     I wonder how many people’s credit cards you pushed over limit buy billing them 3x + the amount they normally pay and expected.

     Will you be reimbursing them for those credit charges – if there were any?

     This enormous mistake as well as your light-hearted blog post is enough to make me leave… so, what if anything will you do to keep me as a customer?

211. Justin Hear Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 3:00 pm

     As a developer/programmer and computer technician, I’ve made some doosies of a mistake in my time. Heck, one time, when I thought I was a server technician, I managed to somehow delete the kernal32.exe file (while the server was running!!). That led to a day when my company, (about 400 employees), had no email. While I’ve never made a $7.5M mistake, I can surely appreciate the stressfulness of the situation you’re in. And I hope that most customers will take it all in stride. I do hope those customers that may have excessive charges (do to Insufficient Funds charges), are reimbursed and credited for the trouble. And I hope that you don’t receive too much of a bad rap for this issue.. best of luck!

212. Just leave Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 3:03 pm

     I’m leaving Dreamhost as soon as I can. I have been very disappointed with you guys lately and this last “blunder” is the last straw.

     If all customers were affected and you knew about it, then post it on your home page or even a default splash page, and you should not expecting everyone to search for it on dreahoststatus.com. Frankly, emailing everyone should not be an issue as DH should have an error messaging system for such scenarios. If you can create a billing system that email everyone on overdued invoices at the same time, then you can do it. Its not hard or expensive to setup so excuses are cope outs.

     Frankly, Josh, I will be very surprised that DH keeps employing you. Mistake is one thing, but many of us don’t appreciate the jokes when customers like me are angered by your action. Your apologies maybe accepted but the jokes are not.

213. Kirsty Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 3:05 pm

     Even though I was one of the few who wasn’t affected by this, you guys have seriously got to get a freaking clue and drop this cutesy ‘oh gee look what i did lolz!’ attitude. I’ve complained about this before (like when my site and many others were hacked thanks to DH) as it’s seriously the most obnoxious thing you can do. You’re all adults? Act like one. Every time you resort to doing this you make us, your paying customers, feel like we’re being treated as prize fools. We’re adults too, treat us like one.

214. Schuyler Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 3:08 pm

     Refund in. Thanks for taking care of this guys.

     To those complaining that you don’t know if dreamhost is going to cover any fees:

     1 – hopefully you won’t incur any as your bank shouldn’t charge you for fraudulent charges.

     2 – “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.”

     from the post.

     Dreamhost’s best, when it comes to customer service, has always been incredible. I obviously have no clue how things will play out, but to the worst effected I wouldn’t doubt dreamhost getting on the horn with your bank to take responsibility and work things out as best as is possible.

215. Felix Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 3:09 pm

     I find their attitude more like treating us like we’re their good friends. It’s like they accidentally crashed the car you let them borrow but they’re going to pay for it and make sure you get it back good as new.

     But that’s just me.

216. J Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 3:12 pm

     Felix: We’re not “good friends” though. They are a business and I am a client.

217. Just leave Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 3:13 pm

     @ Felix – “It’s like they accidentally crashed the car you let them borrow but they’re going to pay for it and make sure you get it back good as new.”

     Geez, if my friend crashed my car, I’d be pissed if they were trying to joke about it. BTW, can I borrow your car?

218. Henrik Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 3:16 pm

     A user named “Javier” seem to have gotten his refund (from the status blog comments). That’s a start :)

219. Edgar Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 3:18 pm

     @ Just leave: “Frankly, Josh, I will be very surprised that DH keeps employing you”

     Not me, as Josh is one of the co-founders.

220. Robin Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 3:18 pm

     I’ve been refunded as well, Henrik.

221. Anonymous Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 3:18 pm

     To the poster Punk: I hate stupid motherf**kers like you. No doubt you are just JOSH pretending to be an understanding (fake) customer. I’d love to see you tear apart the family of a someone hurt by a drunk driver … I can see it now … “Geez! The guy apologized for putting Billy in a coma! Quit being pricks and get over it already.”

     In the end your name says it all … You are a PUNK.

222. Felix Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 3:18 pm

     they’re presenting it in a more light hearted manner. But yeah, I’d be pissed. I actually thought my analogy was pretty good. You’re pissed, but at least your friend is paying for it. Heck, maybe he might even pull some strings and talk to your insurance company for you.

     Now the question is, are you still going to be his friend? Depends on your past experiences with him, is it the first time he crashed your car?

     And I actually don’t have a car, but you can borrow my scooter.

223. apathetic Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 3:22 pm

     even moreso… I can imagine Josh sitting there with a bong in one hand, lighter in the other, laughing at these comments in a month from now, thinking “phew, that was a crazy time,” while customers are still trying to get their finances back in order, as this type of thing can offset your plans by at least an entire paycheck or two – meaning anywhere from 2 weeks to a month, or more.

     What the hell was Josh thinking as he googled an image for “fat homer simpson?”

     “I bet this will lighten the mood, instead of a courtesy email!”

224. t Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 3:25 pm

     “the one thing you DO get perfect is your billing system.”

     apparently not.

225. kevin d Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 3:26 pm

     Was I affected? YES. Has it been resolved? YES.

     It was fixed before I knew it had happened.

226. T Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 3:27 pm

     Dreamhost is the best host I have ever come across. They have the best prices the best plans which no one out there can touch with a ten foot pole. Josh might not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but hes human and made a mistake. 7million bucks can generate a shitload of interest, I think he shouldve held out on any explanation for a few days and then banked the interest.

     XM Radio just billed me $404 dollars off my MC and didnt want to admit to any wrong doings. After many phone calls I was finally refunded 19 days after the fact, this dreamhost screwup was refunded instantly.

227. Mad Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 3:31 pm

     #214: I do not pay Dreamhost to be my friend. I pay them the money my web design clients pay me to provide a service. My clients, in turn, do not expect me to treat them with flippant sarcasm, insular references to American pop culture, or pathetic attempts at wit and intelligence. If I treated my clients like friends, or as an assumed audience for my egotism, they would not be my clients any more. Dreamhost needs to learn some basic, simple business concepts – starting with not allowing their CEO to personally run critical business processes, apparently shirtless from a dope-filled dorm room.

228. Warren Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 3:37 pm

     IF THIS BILL IS IN ERROR

     If you do not feel these charges were correct or authorized,
     please contact us by replying to this email at:

     billing@dreamhost.com

     and we will be happy to resolve whatever confusion there
     may be!

     Thank you for choosing DreamHost!

     Sincerely,
     The Happy Dreamhost Billing Team

229. Zach Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 3:39 pm

     Thank you for taking care of this quickly and providing a detailed explanation.

230. Zach Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 3:39 pm

     Holy shit, no wonder why I saw a full year’s worth of billing on there. And I was dumb enough to pay for it. Hopefully I’ll see that money come back in the bank sometime this week.

231. Felix Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 3:40 pm

     Wait wait, now we’re back to the argument of what they should do in order to maintain their integrity and future. That’s far too boring.

     Anyway, no one pays dreamhost to be their friend, and if they do, somethings wrong. To my knowledge, we pay dreamhost to give us a service (webhosting) and they do that. You’re only problem is how they relay information to you, in a wacky and comical manner (or idiotic manner, just depends on you). Which, really, is to each his own. So this argument is useless. Let’s talk about dogs.

232. viqas Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 3:41 pm

     7.5 million is a lot of money

     I guess i was fortunate that i was not affected, but i do feel bad for dreamhost as they have to pay transaction fees to get the 7.5 million and to refund the 7.5 million

     Though the humor was sort of needed, people shouldn’t take these things seriously as they are trying hard to resolve the expensive issue. If you the customer got charged with fees then disput the fees with the credit card/bank as it was an error on the merchants part.

     If all else fails then contact dreamhost to recover the fees. At least they apollogize and not take their time to get the issue resolved.

233. Anonymous Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 3:49 pm

     I just got my refund and I just cancelled my account with DreamHost effective this second. I removed my credit card info first.

     Goodbye DreamHost, Goodbye Josh. By the way Josh … You need to grow up buddy and learn how to provide professional service. Showing your appreciation by posting a pic of Homer and then also offending heavy people out there at the same time shows your lack of understanding and intolerance to those of us affected by your inexcusable billing error. I’m Jewish Josh … Why not just throw in a cartoon Adolph Hitler comically urinating on a bunch of prisoners with the caption “We made a WEE WEE mistake! We hope URINE for the long haul with us!” On your next blog pee wee maybe you can say “I hope you Swaztika with us it’s Nazi our fault!” … You’ve proven one thing by this blog of yours.

     I think your an elitist and you are angry that we were so upset. Do you even have one clue about what Customer Service is?

     Just remember something buddy … You reap what you sew

234. josh Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 3:52 pm

     $7,500,000 … that’s a lot of zeros. that’s a lot of accounts. but i’ve already been reimbursed. they said they’d handle the charges because of their mistake. at least they told us, completely. imagine their headache, you lost a few hundred and got it back … they’re going to undergo so many fees and loss of accounts the backlash will hurt them for a long time.
     i keep staying here because of the beauty of their “panel.” i loathe cpanel. it’s ugly … it’s fugly … i can’t stand it.
     a momentary lapse of reason caused this … if they hadn’t mentioned giving refunds then yes, get pissed. past that if you think another company would be so open to what happened and attempt to not cry by making a light-hearted post on their “blog” (blog != official news) then go try. i doubt you’ll be pleased.

     take a chill pill. i got my money back in less than 24 hours, that’s better than i can say for larger more well-known companies.

     blarg … cpanel ……. EEK!

235. Felix Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 3:55 pm

     His name is Josh! Get him!

236. Anonymous Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 3:55 pm

     who gives a shit if you’re jewish? what does that have to do with anything? whether I was jewish or not I’d still be offended by a hitler joke like that, but let’s stay focused on the actual matter at hand.

237. Smitty Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 3:58 pm

     I used to hate when I got those newsletters and this unfunny asshole told all his stupid jokes. I run a comedy site so let me say I realize there is a time and place for humor.

     Getting screwed over when I was a customer here each month (really poor service) was one thing, getting these newsletters that this clown thought was funny was another.

     Totally inappropriate. The people running this company are clearly overmatched. They screw up like this and think it is a joke. They can’t go out of business soon enough for my liking.

238. Matt Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 4:00 pm

     Yo Josh,

     I’d buy ya a beer if we were in the same city–shit happens, and thanks for owning up, giving a great explanation, and trying to fix it. I hope you have a better day tomorrow.

239. better hosting Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 4:05 pm

     user webhost4life.
     better hosting
     Linux/Windoze….no issues

     I passed on DH because of their adolescent attitude and now…it shows. If this was any other company HEADS WOULD ROLL and lawyers would call…but it at DH it’s more like “HA HA FUNNY TIMES”.

     NO BUSINESS FOR YOU.

240. holly Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 4:05 pm

     [note: i don't work for dreamhost]

     Unfortunately, I still had to contact my bank because they put a fraud hold on my account, since DH had never charged me such a huge amount before. Good lookin’ out, WaMu.

     As said before, no harm, no foul. I’m stayin’, bitches.

241. josh Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 4:07 pm

     oh god i just realized the dreamhost dude’s got my name … time to get it changed before people go and try to rape my website … lol
     but yea, i’m not THAT josh. maybe he’ll gimme a discount for having to run scared? ;)

242. internet Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 4:09 pm

     Wow, look at all the employees fill in the comments with “whoops i shouldn’t cancel even though we’re being screwed around by someone who thinks 7 million dollars is a big joke”.

     I was considering buying service, but now I think I’ll find somewhere else to buy hosting from. Maybe from someone that doesn’t think it’s hilarious to bill their customers millions of dollars in excess.

243. Andrew Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 4:11 pm

     Thanks for the post, Josh. I apologize on behalf of all the people who are spitting obscenities and threats at you; it’s an unfortunate byproduct of something like this.

     While you obviously haven’t handled this flawlessly, I realize that you’ve been up late and working your ass off to fix things. The only thing I would suggest you do is move the information about covering credit card overdraft bills to the top of the post.

     Also, I think it’s extremely irresponsible and inappropriate to post about how great web hosting service n is. It’s like a representative from a car company coming to a funeral and saying “Maybe next time you’ll drive OUR car instead of THEIRS.”

244. Monique Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 4:13 pm

     I think your an elitist and you are angry that we were so upset. Do you even have one clue about what Customer Service is?

     Makes me laugh so hard. I hate people who can’t use the term elitist properly, and follow it up with a grammar error or two.

     Anyway, my view is, the post wasn’t funny. I’m not a DH customer, I don’t really care, blah blah blah. It sucks to be overdrawn, and maybe DH should have given a free month to everyone affected to compensate after reversal of the charges. To the people lulzing at people overdrafting, it’s not exactly funny. That kind of shit can ruin your credit for five years.

245. Ben Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 4:17 pm

     Wow, this is boring – the money did’t even show as going out of my account, before it was back in :(

     For the people saying this isn’t the correct way to be talked at regarding the issue?? WTF, how is being told in PR speak going to make you feel better? Are you really that shallow? Guess so.

     This is the ‘blog’ people!! The BLOG! Go to dreamhoststatus.com if you wear corduroy trousers and a beige tie. This is the place where people from the twenty first century get their information. Good bye, and good riddance.

     Oh, and I don’t work for Dreamhost, but I would love to.

     Love you guys, seriously, and I’m definately not leaving.

246. Jeff Carr Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 4:17 pm

     I really appreciate you guys being upfront about it, and unlike some others, I appreciate the humor as well. I know for a fact that this error did overdraw my checking account (oops, that was a combination of dumb mistakes on my part that let that be an issue in the first place) so I’m as affected by it as the rest of you.

     But on the other hand, shit happens, and you seem to be dealing with the fallout as well as anyone can be expected to. Good luck, and I hope this doesn’t turn out too badly for you.

247. autocorrelation Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 4:18 pm

     Wow, how completely and utterly unprofessional. I thought this was a joke until I read some previous posts. I can’t understand how anyone would possibly try to make light of a situation like this.

     I will never, never, NEVER use or recommend DreamHost.

248. Ben Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 4:21 pm

     Oh, and before I forget, when all the poeple who are going to leave finally get their shit outta here, we should get some screaming ass speeds – VPS servers for all, yeh?

     And have fun when your new company has a fuck up, but doesn’t fix it, won’t you?!

     Caio!

249. john Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 4:23 pm

     I will be so glad when you all who are leaving leave, adios, saynora, Joi gin, Sige, Paalom na po and any other way you want to say it. Make things a little faster here.
     BTW fraud has to be intentional not accidental, if you get a good attorney he or she will explain it to you. Calling you CC or bank may actually slow down getting your money back. As a bank employee expalined to me about a erronous charge they have 30 days to make the refund, be happy it is being resolved the same day.

250. David Saylock Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 4:23 pm

     While I do understand how those who do run professional sites feel, I must also echo what many other users are saying: shit happens. While you may not agree with the tone that they use to apologize, at least they had the balls to own up to it in the style that DH has almost always used in their communications.

251. Gabriele Favrin Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 4:32 pm

     This probably is the biggest mess in the entire Dreamhost history. BUT no matter what people say (and I’m sure someone had serious problems with his bank, his family or his customers) I wanted to say that I still beleive in you, appreciate your service and find it a sure presence for all my activities on the web. No matter how many problems there can be since june 2003 I know I’ve my email, my web space, my resources. I con’t on them and use them and have friends use them. Problems (and shit) happens. This was big and probably will cause someone to leave, but I’m sure that as like me, there are people who LIKE Dreamhost, the mood in newsletter, this blog and so on. So, thanks. I didn’t lost trust in you.

252. Mike Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 4:33 pm

     Just waiting for you to fix your broken panel so I can unlock my domains and be on my way.

253. ryan Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 4:34 pm

     Hey Josh,

     My partner and I were a little freaked this morning with all the “past due” notices we got, but on scrutiny realized that our service would be suspended if we didn’t pony up the dough by… august 2009? We suspected something was fubar at the billing side and sat tight for you all to sort it out.

     People fuck up sometimes, we understand, and your prompt response and correction is in line with what we’ve come to expect from Dreamhost (as is the lighthearted tone – a large part of why we stick with DH over stick-in-the-mud craphouses like Speakeasy).

     Thanks for the explanation and the post – we forgive you :)

254. adam Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 4:35 pm

     i’ve been a pretty happy customer with DH since 2005. yeah, there have been a few downtime issues for me. and yeah, the way they worded their announcement that existing customers (regardless of the plan-type) would get disc space doubled was misleading (they didn’t double mine even after i complained). for the most part i have no complaints.

     however, the fact that DH didn’t have any check systems in place to catch something as simple as a Y2K-like date error does raise some red flags.

     and yes, the way they responded to this (i’m guessing it was josh himself who posted his own pic) was pretty unprofessional. and something tells me josh is probably a founding father of the company so i doubt he’s a target for firing.

     kudos, though, for going after it so quickly and openly (but come on DH – let’s get that email out!).

     DH won’t go out of business until the last of their customers cancels their account or their account expires. why? because as long as there is at least one person signed up DH will have to provide the service they agreed to provide (unless they buy out the remaining time on existing contracts).

     luckily my CC was expired so nothing was charged to me, though i did get the crazy email that made me spend time out of my day researching my payment history. i’m going to wait to see how this pans out before i make any decisions about bailing. and i seriously doubt a class action suit can be brought against them.

255. Logan Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 4:38 pm

     Everyone makes mistakes. I have no problem with the tone of this blog, or the way DH is working to correct the situation. I don’t work for them, but have been happily hosted by them for years and this SNAFU, no matter how big, isn’t changing that.

     Good luck, Josh & Crew and don’t let this get you down.

256. Eric Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 4:40 pm

     Dreamhost,

     An email to your customers would have been nice.

     Thanks,
     Customer

257. C Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 4:40 pm

     I find this post very unprofessional, especially when dealing with an issue that has affected your entire client base to some degree.

     I think a lot of us would feel much better about this situation if even the tiniest bit of genuine contrition was being projected, but from my point of view, it’s not there.

258. Michael Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 4:41 pm

     wow this was horrible! HostUpon Hosting is offering $40 off ALL shared hosting plans for Dream Host customers. Just use the promo code ’saveus’ on the order form.

     They are much more reliable and won’t ‘accidently’ bill you!

     sorry Dreamhost but the immature post made me switch…good luck all!

259. SB Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 4:46 pm

     I don’t care if it’s a professional blog post, grow up. The juvenile, light-hearted approach to things is why I came to DH in the first place.

     Any other company would have put up a message with a picture of a posh lady in a headset and a message saying “We’re currently experiencing a billing problem”, and it’ll be fixed when they get to it.

     We’re lucky enough to have a team that respects our collective intelligence enough to actually tell us what’s happening to our hosting, and I don’t want you jinxing it because you’re all butthurt over a billing error. Lick your wounds by yourself and stop posting stupid shit on the blog.

260. Nin Harris Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 4:49 pm

     This is weak. Seriously weak.

261. Katie Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 4:50 pm

     As someone who has worked for a rather average IT provider of sorts for the last few months, I know that human mistakes happen, especially at this time of the year. With staff away on leave, automated systems running unattended and often the decision to do upgrades or migrations because less people will be affected by the downtime because they’re off having fun.

     Sometimes, when you know you’ve stuffed up and stuffed up bad and have spent the last 15+ hours trying to undo what you did (or what a coworker did), all you can do is laugh.

     There is nothing worse than the feeling you get when it hits you that your little mistake has such far reaching affects for some people and so you throw yourself into fixing the problem as quickly as possible, working through the night, not stopping to eat, all the while kicking yourself for such a foolish mistake. After a while you do kind of enter a delirium of sorts.

     The fact that Josh has been so candid and upfront in both explaining the problem and accepting full responsibility is to his credit, you wont see that very often. Sure it’s not good enough and by making customers aware of the root cause so quickly and candidly I think it shows that Josh knows this. I’m sure the light tone is more to help him stay sane at this point — and that’s the most important thing, if your admin breaks under the pressure (not a pretty sight) nothing gets fixed.

     The simple fact is everyone makes mistakes from time to time, people will either accept that and accept the compensation offered or they won’t and they will move on.

     As someone who has been on the receiving end of legitimate, angry phone calls, all the while trying to fix the problem, I can tell you, we do understand, we do give a shit and we would be equally angry in your position, however, if we get too focused on our mistake right now, if we start to question our ability and knowledge while under fire so to speak the problem won’t get fixed. The time for fingerpointing and recriminations comes after the crisis, during the crisis you do what you have to do to get things fixed, even if that is be a little bit silly to stop yourself from going mad.

     For the record, I don’t have any service interrupting mistakes on my conscience, but I do bare the guilt for not preventing others from making such mistakes.

262. Joe Foo Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 4:57 pm

     This episode is pretty distressing. It’s pretty hacky that this happened in the first place.

     But here’s what is worse:

     Dreamhost is letting this one dude “Josh” hang out there with his Dick in the wind as if it’s “all his fault.” I’m an HR professional, and I’ve never heard of company — let alone one with a multi-million dollar revenues — let one junior staffer take the blame for a clusterfuck. This is an all-hands-on-deck sort of fuckup.

     That to me is the issue here. Josh’s boss should be fired. And DH should realize that josh’s “happy-face” emails and posts make DH look very small indeed.

263. thaumata Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 4:57 pm

     I can tell you this: I wasn’t going to leave you guys because you messed up, but I will be leaving after seeing the joking way you’re trying to laugh this off. You tried to bill out SEVEN AND A HALF MILLION DOLLARS that didn’t belong to you. It’s not a laughing matter, and if that’s how you run your business, I want no part of that.

264. SB Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 5:02 pm

     Again Joe, you prefer the silent corporate edifice? Not only do they admit their mistakes, but they tell us why.

     I will never understand why you people would prefer a picture of a white guy shaking a black guy’s hand in a business suit with a simple “We’re experiencing service issues” and no further information.

     I prefer it this way. Anyone who doesn’t is a fool, there I said it.

265. Felix Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 5:05 pm

     For the record. Josh isn’t some “dude”, he’s co-founder of Dreamhost.

     http://www.dreamhost.com/profile-joshj.html

266. Allison Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 5:06 pm

     Putting a human face on these issues is a bad thing? C’mon guys, you’re just mad that you can’t rage against “The Man”, because you can’t when they talk to you on your level.

     So you’re saying you’d PREFER they talk down to you.

267. Vixx Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 5:08 pm

     I love the calls for Josh to fire himself. Awesome.

     Felix: I think I’ve fallen in love with you.

     Favourite comment to date: “smug fuck”. Wow. That’s cold, mister. Cold.

268. Itprotj Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 5:11 pm

     To think I was even going to consider hosting with you guys…
     And the way your trying to say this in a big joke? 7million isn’t a big joke.

269. James Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 5:12 pm

     How about you give us something for this.

     $50 account credit? $50 in the bank? A free years hosting?

     Actions speak louder than words.

270. webvictim Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 5:14 pm

     To all of the idiots who have commented saying that they’re going to action lawsuits against this company – grow up, seriously.

     Do you seriously think that a hosting company with enoough customers to make a distributed rebilling for $7.5 million dollars cares about losing one or two accounts because some underinformed idiot is throwing their toys out of the pram?

     This “compensation culture” is what has made Americans the subject of mockery the world over. Worse still, it’s carrying over into the UK, and we get almost as many total imbeciles over here trying to claim for things just to make a quick buck.

     The bottom line is that there was an error, a rather catastrophic error in fact, but rather than really go over the top, the company at fault are just dealing with everything, and for those of us who are actually sensible enough to manage our finances, we won’t even notice the difference.

     The people who are trying to make heads roll over this really need to take a long, hard look at themselves in the mirror. You are making not only yourself, but also hard-working, decent Americans look like complete and utter ambulance-chasers. Which, to be quite frank, is exactly what you are. Go rot in hell.

271. www.dreamhostclassaction.org Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 5:14 pm

     Once again, thanks for your support. We’ve already received a number of questions at http://www.dreamhostclassaction.org. We’re not trying to ‘bring Dreamhost down.’ We simply seek reimbursement beyond a credit for the mischarge. This has affected people in ways that could not possibly be labeled a mere inconvenience.

     http://www.dreamhostclassaction.org

272. Anonymous Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 5:15 pm

     Allison, you are a complete retard. It’s one thing for someone to talk “on your own level”, but it’s quite another for someone to make light of a situation that for some people is potentially dire. I’d have no problem with putting a human face on issues, but that doesn’t mean you can toss away common sense and etiquette. If anything, DH should be bowing profusely to the people they’ve wronged instead of making a joke of it… the customers are the ones making DH’s business possible, and it seems they might be forgetting it with this nonsense.

273. Corinne Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 5:16 pm

     How about free anger management courses.

     I think some people here need them.

     I’d hate to see how they react to things that cannot be fixed.

274. Anon Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 5:17 pm

     http://www.dreamhostclassaction.org ??

     HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Christ. That’s PATHETIC.

     Betcha ain’t hosted at Dreamhost, eh? HAHAHAHAHA!

275. Anonymous Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 5:17 pm

     “We simply seek reimbursement beyond a credit for the mischarge.”

     so you want to line your pockets because of DH’s stupid blunder? If DH does indeed take the steps to repay fees incurred and do damage control where necessary, you shouldn’t need to get your imaginary lawyers involved… have a little patience to see how this plays out over the next couple days.

276. Allison Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 5:17 pm

     Right, when did they forget again?

     When they made the mistake, or when they scrambled to fix it within 24 hours of it happening?

     I’d say they didn’t forget for long.

     And no, you don’t deserve anything free for it unless you personally were charged the 7.5mil.

     It was a day’s outage and a call to the bank. Hang on while I get my black veil and handkerchief.

277. Outtahere Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 5:19 pm

     Wow. Dreamhost just got “Techcrunched”.

     http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/01/15/dreamhost-overbills-customers-75-million-uses-homer-simpson-to-deliver-apology/

278. sadukie Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 5:20 pm

     It’s the first month of the year. If they fired people who entered 2007 instead of 2008 or vice versa… no, better yet just rid the planet of those of us who struggle to write 2008 on our checks because we were used to writing 2007… there probably wouldn’t be many people left. Yes, this was a super serious problem. But Josh’s way – as it is most of the time – is to spin it with humor and try to keep a positive side. It was an honest mistake; it wasn’t as if DH was like “Let’s scam our customers and take all their money today.” And mistakes happen.

     If you want to live life serious all the time, go somewhere else. You obviously haven’t read their newsletters or seen any of their insanity through the rest of the site.

     Josh & Crew: Thanks for being honest with us. I’ve got a friend running his own hosting place, but even he can’t lure me from your hosting. Great job and hey, typos happen.

279. Rob Nugen Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 5:20 pm

     Josh, I appreciate you being funny about this. Keep your style; don’t worry about people being mad at you.

     You’re doing a great service by being open about this; you’re cleaning up the mistake; you’re all good in my book.

     Blessings
     – Rob

280. Michelle Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 5:21 pm

     Thanks for a completely honest and forthright explanation of what happened. I don’t hold it against you at all, although I was shocked — shocked! — to get an email explaining that I was billed for the whole year this morning. I think this is another example of why it’s good to be honest with your customers.

281. Adrian Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 5:21 pm

     I signed up for DreamHost because it’s pretty good hosting for a low cost, especially with the promo code I had that first year.

     Nonetheless, I’ve stayed because of the personality. DreamHost has moxie and spunk, baby! And I appreciate how they’re so open about the few mistakes that they do make. So, for those getting your proverbial “panties” in the proverbial “bunch,” I do wish you would chill out because DreamHost, to me, isn’t the guy in a crisp suit breaking news to me like I want to hear it–DreamHost is that neighbor you have smalltalk with occasionally and at some point you’re invited into his place for a party and despite your assumptions that it’s going to be a lame sausage-fest you wind up doing bong hits in the laundry room with a Puerto Rican chick and longcat.

     That is a rough analogy of what DreamHost has been to me. Thank you, DreamHost. Much love.

282. Anonymous Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 5:22 pm

     If you paid attention Allison, the scrambling isn’t what most people are complaining about, it’s the manner with which it was originally presented. They didn’t post a more formal (appropriate) apology until later in the day. What most people saw was the tomfoolery on this blog. A business has to hold itself in at least some sort of professional light to be taken seriously… so when people see pop-culture images mixed with LULZ OUR BAD, you can bet money that there’ll be outrage

283. Allison Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 5:23 pm

     “A business has to hold itself in at least some sort of professional light to be taken seriously”

     Says who? You?

284. amy Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 5:24 pm

     I Just bought a 1 year plan at HostUpon (www.hostupon.com) they are giving $40 off any of their hosting plans for Dreamhost customers who want to switch.

     They will also buy out your plan at dreamhost. I’m sorry I had to leave but this new host have good reviews and no ‘mocking’ involved.

     use the coupon ’saveus’ on the order form to get the discount.

285. Anonymous Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 5:26 pm

     “Says who? You?”

     Says the business world.

286. SB Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 5:26 pm

     Seriously, nothing – NOT ONE THING – on DH’s site uses a professional tone, what’s with the shock and awe act? This matches their M.O. perfectly, and yet we have a lot of butthurting here.

     When you run a huge webhosting company of your own, you can run it your way. Since you’re obviously still paying for hosting, you’re no Amazon.com and therefore really have no say in what a business should be doing.

287. Felix Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 5:28 pm

     So I signed up for HostUpon and wow they are so fantastic. They paid off my 10 year plan with DreamHost which was over 1000 dollars! I love them! Everybody who’s had it with DreamHost should really switch over. I even made a promo code that every can use. It’s better than 40 dollars.

     Code:
     Cananyonesaybadadvertising?

     Without the question mark of course.

     Much love,
     Felix

288. Allison Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 5:28 pm

     “Says the business world.”

     They’ve managed to get along just fine without culturally diverse people in matching suits and corporate buzzwords thus far, so I have faith.

289. Krentist Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 5:29 pm

     Well dreamhost, you guys sure don’t have any tact when it comes to approaching a pissed-off mob, but at least you handled it before it went completely out of control. I admit I had a “wtf” moment in the morning when I had gotten an email about being charged early, but now that it’s been rectified, I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt.

     … that and I’m removing my credit card info.

290. Marcus Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 5:29 pm

     I suggest going to HostReviewSite.com and posting some reviews so this does not go un-noticed. You can porbably find a good host on the review site too!

291. Gordon LMATX Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 5:30 pm

     You know, if Dreamhost haden’t said ‘Oops we ganked 8 mil’, and had instead said ‘Oops we charged you for the whole year’ , I don’t think we see as many ‘professionals’ screaming ‘fraud’ and ‘Im not laughing’. But alot of people eyes and pants swell when they see big numbers.

     And as somone has already said ‘You get what you pay for’ . In this case, you knew all along how the guys at dreamhost would respond to the issue. Dont expect their character to change because you smell money. They fixed the issue before you got your ulcers pumping.

     Stay true to who and who you are, this world needs to take things less seriously. And apparently, business can be very succesfull without the white collar crap. Cheers!

292. Krentist Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 5:31 pm

     Wow, the hosting vultures sure are snacking upon dreamhost right now… why would HostUpon need to pay off a dreamhost account? That’s some really sad attempt at snagging customers, you should be ashamed of yourself.

293. Felix Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 5:32 pm

     HostReviewSite.com is okay, but I find Webhostingtalk better. SO GOOD in fact, I left my previous host, HostUpon for a new host I found which bought out my HostUpon contract. They’re called NightmareHost. I remade the previous promo code so you can use it there too.

     Code:
     Cananyonesaybadadvertising!

     Without the exclamation point of course.

     Much Love,
     Felix

294. Anonymous Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 5:32 pm

     Dumb dumb dumb.

     “So off it went, busily through the night, “fixing” everything up for “today”, December 31st, 2008.”

     What kind of stupid program doesn’t check to see if today is December 31st,2008 looking at the system clock?

     You guys are nuts. I am looking for a new host.

295. Allison Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 5:33 pm

     “business can be very successful without the white collar crap”

     You’re damn right it can! If only people would stop demanding a homogenized corporate edifice. I’d rather deal with a person.

296. Anonymous Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 5:34 pm

     You’re right Josh, er I mean Allison! :)

297. Cal Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 5:36 pm

     I appreciate the sense of humour of you guys, and now I’ve stopped panicking I can smile about it. Mistakes happen, and they’ve said they’ll reimburse any bank charges, and that’s just fine by me. I don’t plan to move my site, because I’ve tried plenty of others and DH has been the best for my needs.

     And no, I’m not an employee. Jeez.

298. Felix Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 5:36 pm

     You’re right Anonymous! Allison IS Josh! Pft, had I known, I wouldn’t have been suckered into this junk. Let’s find a different host HostUpon, er I mean Anonymous.

299. Illogical Billing Catcher Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 5:37 pm

     Something is very wrong with your explanation…..if you are checking if something is past due on 2008-01-14 then why do you have to also run it for 2008-01-13, 2008-01-12…etc ? Wouldn’t those just be a subset of the latest date (which is today’s date ?). If something is late as of 2008-01-01, then it will *definitely* be also late as of 2008-01-14.

     Come on, give a better/correct explanation.

300. Allison Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 5:37 pm

     Just because I’m not jumping on the butthurt crytrain and threatening ultimately pointless litigation, Anonymous, does not mean I’m working for them. I just think your complaints are ridiculous, and you should be ashamed of yourselves.

301. Gordon LMATX Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 5:39 pm

     ” butthurt crytrain ” – AKA tech support.

302. ButthurtAllison Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 5:40 pm

     Can’t we all get along?

303. Allison Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 5:42 pm

     “Can’t we all get along?”

     Not as long as Americans have an undeserved sense of entitlement, it seems.

304. ButthurtAllison Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 5:43 pm

     I think we all know what’s gonna happen: the really professional types will leave dreamhost, and everyone else will stay where they are and keep their sites where they maintain their deviantart or other pointless personal stuff. No harm no foul.

305. Anonymous Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 5:47 pm

     I think the general net populace finding out DreamHost is run by a bunch of retards should be satisfying enough. If anything, I think most people are saying DH looks like a joke.

     Next time, if you’re gonna be jokey, don’t use a homer simpson image; people are enjoying themselves ripping on your stupidity with that enough.

306. re illogical billing catcher Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 5:54 pm

     most likely their system checks for payments being made on specific days of the year, you can call them cycles. So lets guess that they charge their customers on the 14th of every month.

     So an application charges all accounts on a monthly cycle.
     But what if an account didnt pay one month? or they were refused payment on the automatic withdrawl?
     thats where the backup comes in to play.
     the backup cheks previous payment cycles to see if all accounts are paid or not.
     if they arent paid, the backup then attempts to charge the account for the remaining balance, or shuts down the site pending payment if unable to compleate the transaction.

     so what happens when you tell the backup the wrong year?
     it goes through every single account applying charges or shutting down the page pending payment.

     AND WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED?

     so, is it a bog oops to put the wrong date in the billing system, oh you bet.

     do they deserve to be stoned in the streets?
     well it would make a good youtube vid but i wouldnt throw hard.

307. Re Joe Foo Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 5:57 pm

     Hey Joe Foo, Josh is a co-founder, not a junior staffer. Believe it or not.

308. Martin Doms Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 5:59 pm

     Well Josh, I’m glad you are able to joke about removing vital funds from my bank account. Fuck you.

309. Allison Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 5:59 pm

     “do they deserve to be stoned in the streets?”

     After a day like today? Yes.

     I’d recommend you smoke at home though. I heard you end up in a Mexican torture prison if you get caught in the US.

310. Jameson (Happy Longtime DreamHoster!) Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 6:00 pm

     Yay! This whole thing was a lot of fun. I don’t know why but somehow I enjoy these little screwups, because I know they’ll be resolved quickly and I’ll get a funny e-mail or blog post about the snafu (in this case, both!). Thanks for fixing it so quickly, and giving us a long-winded and perfectly toned explanation.

     I love you guys. Keep scaring away customers without a sense of humor!

311. Callie Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 6:03 pm

     Shweeeeeeeee….I am staying!!!! it took a few drinks for me to decide…but after i heard my friends story, dreamhost rocks over all other hosters!!!

     you might read his on digg in a few days!!!

     lunarpages..you royally are foo

312. Amy Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 6:05 pm

     I read about this in a friend’s blog. I’m not a DH member but the tone of this response would certainly not encourage me to become one. As a software developer I know that mistakes are made, even if things are checked and double checked, but I also know when to “man up” to my mistakes in a professional manner. This kind of response to my customers would have my supervisor up in arms. It would cause me more trouble than the initial mistake.

313. Flatvurm Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 6:07 pm

     Josh and DreamHost: No doubt this is a giant blunder. We all make ‘em. :) But I remain a believer and choose to stay a Happy DreamHost Customer. Don’t be routed by the haters. Thank you for keeping customers in the loop and being forthcoming when things go wrong; that’s the biggest reason I like this place. Carry on!

314. MI Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 6:08 pm

     Josh, I sincerely hope you get fired – not because of what you did, but the fact you decided to explain your mistake in the most unprofessional and superficial way possible. What a fantastic way to represent your company…and this from someone who’s had nothing but the best tech/sales support from Dreamhost staff for almost a decade.

315. Allison Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 6:09 pm

     “This kind of response to my customers would have my supervisor up in arms”

     I’m sorry you have so many senescent clients and staff members. Please consider working at a company that caters to young people with a sense of humor in the future.

316. techie Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 6:10 pm

     I am sticking with dreamhost. I have been there, not done that, but if i did, oops too. you guys at least tell us the truth.

317. j4s0n Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 6:11 pm

     Hahahaha! That’s fine. Shit happens, including $7,500,000 – you should have went to some island instead and hide. LOL!

318. Kirk Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 6:12 pm

     Guys, guys, guys… seriously.

     DreamHost is probably the best web hosting company you could hope to have. Everybody makes mistakes.

     At least DreamHost isn’t like other hosting companies. I always got a laugh out of BlueHost, and how they sell 500GB of space on servers with 400GB hard drives…or whatever the actual numbers were.

     As for taking the situation on with humor, what else would you expect from DreamHost? I actually did think it was kind of funny. I love the picture of Homer on the top of the blog post, hilarious!

     Class action law suits? Closing down merchant accounts? I read almost every comment on this blog post, and I can’t believe how full of crap you guys are!

     I highly doubt DreamHost is threatened by your random threats to take legal action. In fact, I doubt anyone who replied to this blog post even has access to a lawyer. I’m not saying I do either, but I’m also not threatening to file law suits.

     As for those of you complaining about the downtime. Every host has a period of time where it’s inaccessible. Downtime is inevitable. If you don’t like it, go spend hundreds of dollars a month, and get a dedicated server. Oh, right, you probably don’t know enough about computers to compile Apache on Linux!

     This comment is not directed at anyone in particular, it’s directed toward common sense.

     Every web hosting company is going to have downtime and make mistakes. The only way to avoid downtime is to get a dedicated server, which is very expensive, and requires a certain level of technical knowledge that, if you had, you probably wouldn’t be using DreamHost for your corporate website anyway.

     You guys can go right ahead and claim I’m DreamHost staff, or whatever you want, I don’t care, I probably won’t read this post again anyway, so reply however you want.

     Lay off DreamHost. Cut the dramatic crap. If you’re leaving, goodbye! There’s no need to announce it to the rest of us and try to convince others to leave too…that’s becoming more spite than simply leaving for the good of your website.

     -Kirk

319. re Mi Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 6:12 pm

     he owns the company. so you have him to thank for that tech/sales support.

     If any of you were a real software dev/professional company, youd be hosting your own stuff anyway.

     keep up the good work and way to clean up this spill quickly and affectively.

320. Steven Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 6:13 pm

     I totally agree. This inadvertantly could have happened to any of us. Mistakes happen. You made it right. I am stayingwith DHost. Thanks for the honesty.

     your friend.

321. Pandrake Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 6:14 pm

     Wow. And here I thought all the hostilities were contained in the status blog.

     Looks like some folks go out of their way to issue digs wherever they can.

     Hay Josh! Keep dancing….

322. Bean Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 6:16 pm

     I am just getting my family blog up…having a bit of a time with it. Your people in the forum are great at helping. I won’t leave. it’s just a family site, but the people here are great. i want to marry Simon SCJessey and not Josh though!!!

323. Beth Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 6:20 pm

     My, i see the hostility too. Jeff @ dreamhost, i have been around a bit…around the block so to speak. You can count on us standing behind Dreamhost. All of us doggers will stand behind you.

     I know that some are having problems. I only hope they have family and friends to help during this hard time. If they can’t count on anyone now…perhaps they need to work at HOPE.

     bless you dreamhost
     Namaste

324. Trae Regan Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 6:20 pm

     January Fools!

325. Luziphir Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 6:20 pm

     Being casual is one thing, acting like some sort of retarded man-child in the face of an enormous fuckup is quite another.

326. PA Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 6:20 pm

     looks like DreamHost needs a new billing and PR department. What a way to make a bad situation worse.

327. Quizzi Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 6:24 pm

     how come you got namaste before me???

     Rock on Dreamhosters. Peace and Namaste to all.

     I am staying with this host too. I feel good vibes.

328. Goon Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 6:24 pm

     Haha. Hope you guys will be enjoying the class action lawsuit that will be filed against you. Nothing like overdrafting customers bank accounts and making a huge joke out of it. You’re forgetting the probable hundreds of dollars people rack up for each little charge they make. Wonder how funny its going to be when you guys will be shelling out 7.5 Million bucks.

329. Tim Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 6:25 pm

     I cannot even believe the way Dreamhost has conducted themselves with this severe of a problem. One thing you DONT do is have a CATASTROPHIC mess with billing and actually charging to people’s accounts. A server down, slow access, anything but messing with people’s money. And then to approach those customers with this? Unfuckingbelievable.

330. MI Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 6:25 pm

     “If any of you were a real software dev/professional company, youd be hosting your own stuff anyway.”

     ugh – get over yourself, god forbid people run small businesses and companies not in the fortune 500 or a Digg clone. Believe it or not this company targets more than your fucking turtleneck demographic…and so what if he’s responsible for/invented the support staff if he can’t practice what he (or whoever train thems) preaches to them

331. Joe Foo Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 6:27 pm

     He’s the boss? I feel much better now….

332. Jazz Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 6:27 pm

     What really got me is that I only learned about this from ANOTHER BLOG. An e-mail would have been greatly appreciated. The jokey attitude? Not so much.

333. Jason Myre Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 6:30 pm

     Class action lawsuit…Right ha ha ha

     Dreamhost has already done what is needed and no lawyer will take this one on. although…one hungry enough (like that dweeb brodsky who took on drew peterson) might. but like brodsky, any lawyer trying to form a class action suit would be laughed at by his / her peers.

     lol

     god, i love it when dreamhost screws up and all the freaks get let out. comon josh, we need more. not as big as this one…but i have to admit, this one was big

     we too will continue our hosting with dreamhost.

     but, where are my referral credits…Never Mind…get the CCs money back…then worry about me…but don’t forget us referral customers… : O))

334. tmike Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 6:34 pm

     eh, so people mess up. i once typed “rm -r */backup”… except with an accidental space after the *.
     stone cold sober.
     on a production box.
     in the root directory.
     as superuser.

     within minutes, i learned how fast i could run from the computer room to the tape vault. (pretty fast, actually, but not faster than HP-UX could crash)

     josh should be required to do 40 hours of community service – naked on webcam.

335. Common Sense Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 6:35 pm

     All of you crying bastards are fucking retarded. Seriously, FRAUD CHARGES? Buahahhaa I wish I could slap every single one of you and I happen to hate DreamHost.

336. goon Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 6:35 pm

     Say dreamhost overdrafts your checking account. You have payments ready to be paid the same day, through auto-billing, or checks. You get hit with overdraft fees. Now, what if that check gets kicked back, now you have bouncing check fees.

     Oh hey, you know that credit card you just ‘paid’ but DH overdrafted you, yeah, say hello to skyrocketing interest rates on your creditcard because you failed to pay them. Do you think they give a crap about DH screwing you? no they dont. They want their money.

     So, by bouncing checks, and more importantly, not ‘paying’ your credit card, your credit score plummets and is unrepairable.

     So yes, DH is making a joke out of something that is very very bad. I do hope they get sued and hope they pay out the ass for their stupidity. Maybe theyll compromise a few thousand more FTP accounts like they did a few months ago.

337. goon Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 6:37 pm

     Haha, looks like someone is already on the advance.

     http://www.dreamhostclassaction.org/

338. Cameron Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 6:39 pm

     I was working when I received the email, read it, thought WTF.
     Replied to the email with questions about dates etc.

     Then logged in to the pannel, hit status, and there was already a big red box letting me know that they had a billing error. Thought kewl, they already know.

     Went to bed..

     Got to work the next morning (I live in Australia) and had received an email letting me know what had happened, and that they were really sorry. I sent it around the office as I loved the writing style. The responses? Everyone thought that it was the best email they had seen. Why?
     It definitely showed that they were sorry; they obviously knew that there was a problem, and they accept responsibility! I have worked for companies, that when there is a billing mistake, “It was a computer error” – BULLSHIT

     I have read the blog posts, and loved them! People have suggested that DH does the “manly” thing to do when you make a mistake. Well Haven’t they?

     They quickly jumped on it, ADMITTED THAT THEY SCREWED UP, are trying to rectify the results, and are looking in to how to stop this happening again.

     I can’t think of a more honourable way of handling the situation. As for the “flippant” remarks? They make is personal, which is why I love DH. I deal with companies all the time that put up walls, deny they screwed up, say it was a computer error, or a programming error.

     Personally, I think that DH handled the situation well.
     I got a fast response to my email, it was on the status page by the time I actually got the email, I know EXACTLY how they screwed up (which I really like, as I’m the type to ask, HOW THE F*$% DID YOU SCREW THAT UP?), and I know they are rectifying it, and if i get a charge from the bank, they will fix me up.

     DH, I’m here for a long while yet!

339. Ian Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 6:39 pm

     “josh should be required to do 40 hours of community service – naked on webcam.”

     Please no!! Take my money instead!!

     Sticking with you DH.

340. Republican Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 6:41 pm

     Wow, to actually think something is more interesting than the primaries today.

     Well, perhaps not as interesting. But I must admit Josh and the Dreamhost crew has kept me on the end of a toothpick today. My accounts were not compromised. So, of course I am going to stay. I wonder why I was not effected? Perhaps all of Dreamhost are Republicans who are secretly trying to get the Democrats in a scruff in Michigan?

     Nice going. Um, NOT.

     Dreamcrew. All funnies aside. Thank you so much for your diligent efforts today. Most of your web hosters know (at least from what I have read) that you are doing your darndest to rectify this big ole fudge up. I am giving you the benefit today. You seem to be doing more than anyone I have ever seen before do, even through all of the “FRAUD” sayers. Keep up the good work, and thanks. Dont’ forget to breath and have a few beers!

341. Matthew Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 6:41 pm

     OK. In the overall scheme of things it is not that big of a deal.

     Nobody is going to lose their home, no body is going to have their credit ruined, sure a few checks might bounce, but if anyone’s bank does not reverse the charges after DH’s explaination to their bank I’ll give you the bank fees out of my own pocket.

     Things like this do happen from time to time.

     Remember there is some guy in a third world country who has not eaten in 36 hours, just relax and take deep breaths people.

     Click http://www.thehungersite.com and be happy we have it so well.

342. Brian Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 6:42 pm

     I can’t help but laugh at the idiocy of people who are expecting a serious reply. It’s a BLOG. If you want an uptight, corporate-like reply, look at the damned status page, you morons.

343. Luziphir Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 6:44 pm

     I should say that while I don’t exactly approve of people acting like retarded children in the face of a serious issue, dreamhost’s response is vastly preferable to the “we’re not going to fucking tell you about anything other than that a mistake happened and we’re working on it” type of response you’d get anywhere else.

344. Daniel Reeders Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 6:50 pm

     Personally I found this post charming and refreshing, but if you’d billed MY card I’d find it really insulting.

     I’m sure you’re working through lessons for the future to learn from this episode. One might be to get a good PR person, brief and retain them, and keep them on speed dial. Fxxkup involving more than five zeroes? Call immediately.

345. Dan Hulton Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 6:56 pm

     You morons. Well, not all of you. But certainly the ones ripping on Dreamhost for publishinga a “jokey” explanation. Yeah, you guys. You morons.

     They’ve never been a “The-Internet-Is-Serious-Business” web hoster and they likely won’t ever be. If you were expecting anything else, then you’ve fooled your own damn self and have only yourself to blame.

     The ACTIONS they’ve taken are as professional as possible, given the circumstances, and it’s what people do, not how they tell you about what they’ve done that really makes the difference.

     But if all you care for is the style and not the substance, well, here’s hoping the door doesn’t hit your shallow ass on the way out.

346. jae Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 7:00 pm

     debit cards are the devil

347. Zach Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 7:01 pm

     I don’t even use DH, nor will/have i ever.

     I was just linked here and decided to post this, it’s a PHP snipper to help you in the future.

     $today ) {
     die(’You are retarded and losing hundreds/thousands of customers. good job sport’);
     } else {
     echo “go go power rangerssss”;
     }
     ?>

348. T Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 7:02 pm

     Hah, reading through all these posts, soo many people posting while enraged. Yeh, if I were a customer and this had overdrawn my accounts, I would be pissed as well, until the company notified me it was a mistake and was being corrected. I would then back off for a day or two to let it all settle, and only THEN unleash my full wrath upon them if it still was not fixed.

     I have worked in several computer/internet related businesses before, and am intimately familiar with billing processes, downtimes, errors, fatfingers, and off-the-wall bonkers insane raving customers. Several points to make here to sum things up in my mind:

     1. Yes, this should have NEVER happened. Billing systems should ALWAYS have a pre-billing run that does everything EXCEPT actually bill the customers. Most payment systems even have test accounts so you can actually fire off the payment requests to your payment vendor so that you get valid responses back from them without actually making the charge. You then validate the response, and run it again with payment processing turned on. Most auto-pay things also send billing announcements out a week or more in advance of the auto-payment being filed, such that errors like this can be caught by the customer before hand.

     2. For those bitching about your site being down still…. guess what, unexpected down-time is generally expected with ANY hosting provider, whether you payed or not. If you are so critical about the site being down, you need what is known as Redundancy: get another host, hide your DNS behind a caching service like Akamai or Level3. If one site goes down, no one notices as your content is both cached and redundantly served from your other provider. Yeh, its not cheap, but you get what you pay for. Same goes for your internet access/phone lines at work/home, if its that critical, dont trust a single point of failure…

     3. For you people screaming Overdraft fees, increased rates, credit report, fraud, FBI, class action… calm down, the overdraft fees will go away. If they managed to charge and reverse the charge on the same billing day (cant tell from the sparse details, but sounds like thats the case here) it will be like nothing happened, and the only other payments that might be affected are those caught in the few hours between charge and reversal, and even then probably not. If it happens between 2 different days, it might get more complicated, but billing errors happen, this is NOT the first time someone has been double/triple billed before, and the credit/bank/etc agencies have ways of dealing with it. It will be taken care of, and you likely wont even have to write the protest letter, send in receipt coppies and statements and wait for months for it to be reversed (as I have had to do several times in the past), hell, the people responsible for the overcharge even TOLD you it happened and are fixing it for you.

     4. Lighthearted tone, joking, LOLz.. Guess what, this is a BLOG. And from what I know about DH, they are like this in general. Blogs are generally not serious/official as has been pointed out several times above. If you want serious, go to the official status page, or wait for an official email.

     5. re: no email (yet). Unless you have a massive distributed emailing system, sending Emails takes time. Each message has to contact the receiving end, authenticate to it, verify email address, then send the content. When a site starts spewing many multiples of the same thing, it tends to increase its spam ranking, often resulting in the receiving end queuing the messages, thus drastically slowing delivery times, and possibly marking them as JUNK. Yahoo is especially bad about this. Also, if DH doesnt have your valid email addy, they cant read your mind for it, they also cant contact and of YOUR customers that go through you for the hosting site, unless their emails are on the DH account.

     6. People make mistakes, and bad things tend to happen together. Here, several bad things piled up and caused a major problem (no pre-billing verification, no date-checking, fat-fingering of the date, etc).

     To summarize:

     GET OVER IT.

     Wait a day or two, and if its not fixed/better (or obviously going to be fixed/better in the near future), THEN you can start lighting the torches and gathering the pitchforks.

349. Vincent Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 7:08 pm

     Serves you right, charging people on Future Christmas.

350. T Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 7:11 pm

     And just to clarify, no, Im not a DH employee, Yes, I do work for a “hosting-ish” company (not quite webhosting, but webservices based stuff) and previously worked for a telecom and built billing related scripts for them as part of my job (they also had web hosting as part of their package offerings), and no Im not a DH customer either, though I have evaluated them in the past and considered it

351. Mrs. Micah Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 7:17 pm

     Well this is why I don’t uses automatic debit. I don’t trust human error. A simple one-digit mistake—I mean rocket scientists make those (and they cost America millions by screwing up a whole project)—and my money might be in trouble. The government sends people huge refund checks, other companies bill people millions of dollars for electricity. Human error, simple mis-entries.

     While most bills are fine, I’ve seen too many stories of people hit by crazy bills. And though those bills get resolved, I wouldn’t want something to try to debit my account automatically unless I approve it.

     How Dreamhost handled it—eh, I could go either way. Probably not the best move with peoples’ credit accounts being majorly dinged, bouncing other checks for insufficient funds, and whatnot. That could seriously screw up a person’s week getting it straightened out and figuring out what to do before the refund is credited.

     Very sensitive and a less humorous apology would have probably been a better choice. Maybe Josh hadn’t thought about all the implications of mis-billing when he wrote it. Some of us who don’t have automatic payments just got a bill, headed over with a WTF question and got our answer. Little harm done for us.

     Thanks for explaining exactly what went wrong, how because it makes sense. It’s good for me to know that you know. Otherwise I’d be considering leaving.

     It’s also something any of us might do. Ever entered the wrong year on a check? Josh just needs to fix the program’s loopholes and I bet they’ll be triple checking billing in the future.

352. Brad Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 7:18 pm

     Thanks to you, the company I had a shot at getting a job with couldn’t read my resume and portfolio that I posted on my website. I just said goodbye to my follow-up interview…

     I bought and paid for my site 3 months ago, I had no idea it would cost me a chance at a job.

353. todd Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 7:18 pm

     goon Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 6:37 pm

     Haha, looks like someone is already on the advance.

     http://www.dreamhostclassaction.org/

     Maybe they should learn how to code a page. 10 yrs of service to this numbskull and thats all we get…yikes.

354. Hosting Poo-Poo Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 7:29 pm

     Wait a sec!

     You messed up my credit card, fees, penalties, my credit report gets a ding because my credit line went over the 33% limit, and all you’re telling me is:

     “…we’ll do our best to make it right for you.”

     Your best? YOUR BEST?

     Forget “your best”, buddy! DO WHAT”S RIGHT!

     Refund any and all monies that were overcharged, including all bank fees, and freaking pay for a company to fix the Credit Reports of those affected.

     You do that, and after you get fired, you might have a chance to become a manager in a Quiznos, or something.

355. Wow Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 7:34 pm

     Wow at this DUMBNESS. I was linked to this blogpost in a thread that predicts worst company moments and you’re number one. Your company is going to get sued so badly, it’s not even funny. Whoops? I can see ppl saving this blogpost here just to present it and say look how negligent he is.

     I’m in the process of making a big website that calls for the suing of DH and petition signing that I will present to everyone. Good Luck ;)

356. used to be on DH Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 7:35 pm

     A class-action lawsuit is pointless when they’ve already offered to make good on bank and credit card fees users might get charged as a result of their mistake.

     That said, reading about this bugger-up makes me even more glad I that I left DreamHost last year.

357. TrojanCentaur Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 7:36 pm

     I might be on eof the few people here who actually enjoyed a benefit out of this entire fiasco. Ths page is simply gold! To think, if my Credit Card had not been mischarged and this didn’t happen, none of these crackpots shouting ‘CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT RAWR’ as if it was a punctuation mark would never be here.

     Thanks a billion DreamHost for exposing some of the more nuttier side of your customer base. It’s a total riot; no doubt I’ll renew my account for the next year!

     TC

358. Azirius Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 7:37 pm

     Wow, you made me laugh as well as go OMFG!!! I thought it was something I did, but nope, just Dreamhost trying to keep me amused & awake!
     We all make mistakes (unless… um… you don’t exist – and if that is the case why/how are you reading this?), and I’m happy to let it go – Humans are far from perfect and are bound to make a mistake at some point in their existence.

     Have a lovely day!

     Azirius

359. Ms. L Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 7:42 pm

     I’ve been with Dreamhost for many moons, and while I’ve had my issues with them, I have to say that after listening to other’s issues with their host…I count my lucky stars that I don’t have to deal with that sort of nightmare.

     Auto-payments are the devil. Don’t do them.

360. Paul Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 7:44 pm

     I love the fact that the guy that calls himself “PROOFREAD!!!!!!” double posted.

     I also love the guy that insulted people in PHP. That’s like the kid across the street that sits in his car on sunny afternoons blaring “This Is Why I’m Hot”. Dude, that is exactly why you are _not_ hot. Your actions are proving the exact opposite of that which was intended.

     I have always liked the way the Dreamhost guys have put a human face on their business. It is far too easy for people to hide behind corporate drone-speak and legalese. These guys made a mistake and they owned up to it. They even apologised _before_ people started threatening them with lawsuits.

     I’m hot because I’m fly
     You ain’t because you’re not…

361. josh c. Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 7:44 pm

     AOL (AOHell) overcharged me once and because of it my checking account was overdrafted … of course I notice this after having written at least 3 checks and buying some random things online. $33 for each transaction when i’m overdrawn. Did AOL reimburse me (at all)? No. Although my bank did say once AOL removed their charge they would in turn remove all the overdraft fees (which means you should go talk to you bank if you did in fact get overdrawn). Dreamhost is obviously not AOHell. I got my money back from them before I realized it was gone! lol

     I’m staying, to the annoying whiners: your wasting your time on this comment thread, spend 2 minutes on the phone with your bank and i’m guessing they want to keep your account, so they’ll work with you for overdraft fees. although that would mean you don’t have anything to GASP about here…

362. marshall Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 7:58 pm

     wow… you guys are amazing. with any other company, i’d be pissed. but who can stay mad in the face of such a sincere and witty apology? thanks for the explanation and lets hope this doesn’t happen again!

     signed,
     a first year customer.

363. Steve Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 8:01 pm

     Wow guys.

     I’m a software developer, and I know how hard it is to make sure that billing systems are rock solid. So, I can understand how circumstances lead up to catastrophe, and so long as you are willing to refund the money you took and all the overdraft fees I’ll inevitably incur because of this, that’s no problem.

     However, I’m a poor college student. I barely have enough to cover gas some weeks. And I had a miniature panic attack when I read the $240 bill in my inbox this morning, but figured there was some mistake. When I saw the story on the status site, I was happier that there was just an error and it was being taken care of.

     Then this blog post comes out. It’s one thing to have a script do something like this. It’s another thing to fucking joke about it.

     I laughed at the jokes in the blog posts, the silly names for the products, and enjoyed the price. I’ve been with DreamHost for almost 3 years, and aside from the extended uptime issues, I haven’t had any problems. But then you take my money and then try and say “ha ha, laugh it off”. Nothing shows more complete and utter disrespect for your customers.

     I couldn’t be more disappointed with the company’s response. I stuck with the service through your extremely serious uptime issues, which cost me a lot of money, but this will probably be the straw that broke the camel’s back.

364. Martin Doms Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 8:06 pm

     Who the hell actually uses checks these days? Cavemen.

365. Rob Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 8:09 pm

     Wow. I moved myself and my clients from DH to Media Temple last year, at personal expense, after two major outages were explained with these derisive, “our bad!” blog posts like this one. I lost time, money, and a couple clients from the experience. A year later, thanks for justifying that decision yet again by explaining your shoddy work with more of the same. Unbelieveable, really.

     I hope several current and newly former clients will at least be taking issue with the Better Business Bureau for this error if not more.

366. PoopiePantsGalore! Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 8:16 pm

     It’s probably been said a dozen or more times at this point, but all that is required is a phone call to the bank or credit card company to dispute the erroneous charge(s). Standard operating procedure is to pull the disputed charges out of the equation, leaving your account to function as it normally would until such time as the dispute is deemed valid or they stick you with the charge and fees. If your lending institution doesn’t provide this service to you, then you should consider changing banks – not hosts.

     I freaked out just like everyone else, but it is this now criticized jocular tone which has shown me, over the last two years or so that I have been with DH, that the folks who run DH are real people. For those who would lose their shit and attempt legal proceedings, I certainly hope that your legal bills are substantial and that you have the pleasure of mailing a check to your attorneys each month for years to come. Get a grip.

     DH customer for life,
     P.P. Galore, Esq. III

367. monkey Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 8:18 pm

     Complain all you want guys but it isn’t going to make the mistake go away. It happened, they fixed it, they’re sorry. Stop complaining like a bunch of babies and change hosts if your so pissed off. Mistakes happen.

368. lsauce Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 8:22 pm

     thank god i left dreamhost a few months ago…. my site makes 400$ a day… and i can’t afford the downtime again.

369. Russell Ziegler Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 8:28 pm

     I appreciate the honestly, and prompt correction of the problem. I’m here to stay for many more years to come.

370. Russell Ziegler Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 8:28 pm

     I appreciate the honesty, and prompt correction of the problem. I’m here to stay for many more years to come!

371. Marcus Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 8:32 pm

     I am not one of the people that will NOT be leaving Dreamhost right away, and as I stated 150 comments earlier, I am happy they were straight forward with the problem.

     But we still have a serious problem here. If the payments did not go through, our accounts were suspended. I have received an email saying my account has been reactivated and it may take two hours for my servers to start working again. That email was over 4 hours and 30 minutes ago. My sites are still down. Stop saying they fixed the problem. They may think it is true and foget about me. ;-)

     Cheers,

     Marcus

372. Chris Gallagher Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 8:33 pm

     You tight asses act like they billed -YOU- personally 7.5M.

     If this was ANY other company, you would have received that generic “We have experienced a billing error…” message. But here is a guy who is trying his best to make things right and all you can do is bitch.

     Josh keep doing what you’re doing. As for the rest of these tight-wads, go on to your big-boy hosting and see if there is any level of honesty close to this.

373. Oliver Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 8:38 pm

     I was REALLY hoping the whiners who are filing the lawsuit (www.dreamhostclassaction.org) had hosted their site with Dreamhost…

     It’s Verio, BTW, for those who would check ;)

374. Joe Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 8:44 pm

     wow.. do people not know how credit cards work? did anyone actually get *charged*? normally in the first day all you will see is a temporary authorization. which WILL NOT incur an over the limit fee, and WILL NOT effect your credit score, because it isn’t an actual charge.. and they should all be canceled or refunded before the actual charge goes through.

     Thank you Josh for your honesty, and I appreciate the tone of your emails/blog posts/etc. it shows that there’s actual human beings running this company instead of all the rest of the mega conglomerates.

375. VOO Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 8:45 pm

     Lunarpages is offering $40 to Dreamhost refugees, but Dreamhost offered THEIR refugees their entire first year FREE! I told em on their blog that they’re pussies:

     http://blog.lunarpages.com/2008/01/15/dreamhost-robbing-their-customers/#comment-94294

     and it’s true too… the owner is a chick and so is that dude
     Mitch on their forums!

376. InvestorBlogger Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 8:46 pm

     Couldn’t you at least run a backup billing program that you just use for testing purposes like this? Or copy the data, but disable all the outputs, then run the backup billing program on the copied data before you run them on the REAL system!

     Dunno, my billing system is simple but HIGHLY manual! I write them by hand!

     Kenneth

377. Cher Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 9:05 pm

     VOO..too cute!

     me, i am stickin’ it out with dreamhost!

378. dv8 Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 9:05 pm

     Wow. Dreamhost, I had no idea you guys had so many highchair pounders for customers. This is the part where I mock all these Important Internet Entrepreneurs who were apparently sunk by an unexpected low-triple-digit rebill: mock.

379. Cher Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 9:06 pm

     although, i didn’t like havin’ to fill out the Kind-a-Captcha

     annoying…but, as you can see…i did!

     I want more whiners, it’s getting boring now!

     lol

380. Paul Fichte Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 9:12 pm

     Thanks for being so straightforward and fixing the problem so quickly.

381. Dan Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 9:19 pm

     Wow, so your billing system doesn’t perform any kind of sanity check…

     “Hey, today is 1/15/2008, do you really want me to bill people for 12/31/2008??”

382. Hmmmmm Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 9:39 pm

     I wonder how much interest you earned off that 7.5 Million.

383. Bjorn Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 9:41 pm

     You don’t have to be a lawyer or a genious to know that this blog post was probably a bigger mistake then the billing error. Did you even check with a lawyer before posting this admission of wrongdoing? When making one larger error, it is best to not follow it up and make a larger one. :/

384. Adam Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 9:45 pm

     While understandbly an error has been made, I received an e-mail confirming what the issue was, what steps would be taken to resolve the problem and a sincere apology for it not occurring again.

     I then visited this page to find an open and honest account of how one of the senior staff made a ‘mistake’ (honestly, most people need to remember that we’re talking about one number entered incorrectly here!) and that they were doing all in their power to rectify the issue.

     I then read (again, via e-mail as a followup) their sincere apology, that it was a huge f-up and that they had rectified the situation so that it will never happen again.

     DH will well and truly pay for this one with a littany of fees, complaints, negative press* and those who leave. And for an organisation that does it’s damndest to be 100% transparent in it’s dealings, I think they have well suffered enough.

     * unnecessary, but nevertheless

     Kudos to being men and ponying up for the mistake you made, kudos to you for resolving the problem as quickly as you humanly could and kudos for being brave in the face of adversity.

     You will continue to have my business while you stick with this attitude.

     Regards,
     Adam

385. Nathan Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 9:54 pm

     Haha. Dreamhost sucks. Its customers are suckers by paying a premium for a non-premium service, and then this happens. This is not a, “people make mistakes” situation, but a situation that should never happen and has NO excuse. Grow up. I can’t believe some consumers actually take you idiots seriously and rely on you for stable hosting.

386. Martin Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 9:56 pm

     My money has yet to be refunded. Tick tock.

387. Nathan Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 9:58 pm

     PS. http://www.serverbeach.com – a colo run by grown-ups.

388. Evamaria Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 10:03 pm

     I only heard about this from a friend who’s also a DH customer (or was, as she’s leaving now), so I went to check my account – and ‘lo and behold, I also have an invoice for a payment I don’t owe.

     Being overseas at the moment I will have to check to see whether my account was charged and then refunded (if I’m lucky my credit card info was out of date) – but what actually irks me is that I did not get a single email regarding the issue. No invoice, no bill, no notification. And I check my email religiously. I even went to check the spam filter, but nothing.

     As for the tone of this announcement – I don’t mind a little levity, but parts of this post took things just a bit TOO lightly, considering that this caused real problems for some people. Yes, crack a joke, it’s fun and good to know that the people at DH are human, but know when to leave well enough alone…

389. James Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 10:05 pm

     My question is… since I used a debit card, should i drain my bank account so that this charge won’t drain my bank account before I can drain it?

     If I had used a credit card I wouldn’t care as much…but using a debit card makes things much worse… and I’m shocked you guys have made a joke about this.

390. Class Action Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 10:15 pm

     Dreamhost… Can you spell Class Action Lawsuit. Cause I sure can.

391. HelloGoodbye Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 10:20 pm

     You guys at Dreamhost are dumb. Dumb to make such an idiotic billing mistake and dumber to make a joke out of it. Nothing funny at all here. I was about to bring 3 accounts here to join another one that I work on which is hosted by you. Not going to happen now!

392. Paulo Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 10:24 pm

     To the people complaining that this blunder has destroyed their finances and credit rating: get a job or perhaps stop spending more than you earn? Mistakes happen and if you can’t handle a mistaken credit card charge you need to fix your shit or cut up your cards.

393. dv8 Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 10:30 pm

     388: You can spell it, but I doubt you know what it means. People like you love to throw the term around because hey, it’s two more words plus lawsuit so it must be something really really scary!

     The fact of the matter is that Dreamhost’s mistake has already been forgiven and will certainly be forgotten by most by this day next week. The only people left to rant about it will get the smile-and-nod treatment from the rest of the world.

     “Oh my god! don’t use Dreamhost! they’re evil!”
     “Why are they evil?”
     “This one time, about a hundred years ago, they overbilled a lot of people! Then they owned up to the mistake and refunded the overcharges right away.”
     “How does that make them evil?”
     “Didn’t you hear me? DREAMHOST MADE A MISTAKE!”
     “Yes, but they corrected it right away. Have they done anything like that since then.”
     “No… but… but… THEY MADE A MISTAKE!!! FDAOFHDALAFHLAHADSL.”

     Good luck with that, highchair pounders.

394. Cameron Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 10:30 pm

     Hmmmmm Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
     I wonder how much interest you earned off that 7.5 Million.

     Prob. not enough to pay for the refunds on bank fees etc. I think you can basically guarentee that they will loose money from this.

395. Corruptor Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 10:31 pm

     Ok, I’ll admit my earlier comment calling for Josh’s blood was a little hasty and uncalled for. I’ve had some time to calm down, I got my email and am just waiting for the refund to hit my bank so I can tell them to shove their $250 in overdraft fees.

     All I would really like to see is some kind of bone thrown to the customers. A few free months, a commitment to pay any overdrafts your bank won’t cover due to this billing error, I dont know, *something*.

     Even if it’s nothing immediately concrete, just tell us you’re going to take care of us. Apologies are nice, but, after this, a lot of your customers don’t trust you. A few will leave, but the ones who stay need to feel appreciated after weathering this storm with ya’ll.

396. idolator Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 10:33 pm

     And here come the gimmee-gimmees. I’m surprised it took this long.

397. ThinkSoJoE Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 11:08 pm

     I think you guys did a pretty good job handling this situation. Given the circumstances, this could’ve been handled a lot worse, and in fact, I’ve even given you guys an endorsement on the Fropac Entertainment website, saying we stand behind you and are proud to be your customers. Keep up the good work, and please don’t screw up this big again!!

398. Christoph Dollis Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 11:09 pm

     Jeremy Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 10:13 am

     Josh – it is time you realized when the light jokey style in which you run this business is NOT the appropriate tone. Any of us involved in running a business knows when you approach your customers with a serious tone. Your customers are taking that tone with you; Time to step up and be serious and act like your company depends on it. I think it does.

     Jeremy, with all due respect — and I seriously mean that — might I hazard a guess that Josh has more customers than you or I? Probably more monthly gross revenue too?

     I suspect behind the scenes it isn’t all fun and games… but for marketing purposes, this seems to be working for DH.

     Yeah, I was a bit choked to get the email about how much money I owed and was really relieved I took my credit card off auto-rebill… so I’m lucky.

     I just want to make the point as a marketer that a light hearted approach is great and a serious business back-end is great. Mixing those too up doesn’t work so well in most cases, not with $10 a month services anyway.

     Josh, the approach you took here is right out of Dale Carnegie: “When you’re wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.”

     And man, were you ever wrong.

399. Todd Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 11:26 pm

     I really appreciate the explanation and the frank acceptance of responsibility. There are MANY companies that could learn from this blog post.

400. Howard Shubs Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 11:30 pm

     Billing errors are no laughing matter. Period, end of story. Explain, good. Fix, better. Prostrate yourself and pray few people leave as a result of this and that you keep your access to plastic payment. Not that I’m perfect, mind you, but really.

401. Pete Fats Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 11:30 pm

     Moral of the story:

     Perl can help you rebuild the world slightly after Perl helped you destroy the world.

402. Matt Van Dusen Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 11:47 pm

     I guess it’s a good thing that the billing system shows me all paid up through 06/14/2009, in that case. I was wondering when DreamHost was going to come rape my bank account. Now that I know I’m safe, I guess it’s a good thing I send payments in, every month, via paper check generated by my BANK’S system – I would expect their methods of handling finances are a little more sound than a small webhosting company’s out of California anyway. Anyway, I have the filter set on my debit card anyway, so the most they could ever charge me in a day is $100.

     Those of you crying fraud and running to your banks… this would not be fraud, sorry. This is a company you have an existing business relationship with, that you willingly gave your credit card information to with the understanding that it would be charged for services rendered. Also, DreamHost has already admitted their mistake publicly, explained what happened and what has already been done to ensure it NEVER happens again, what they’re doing to resolve the issue ASAP, and the recourse their customers can take due to any overdraft/overlimit fees charged by their financial institutions. I think they’ve handled it extraordinarily well, especially considering most companies would have just disabled their email systems and hid while fixing it.

     Also, if it were fraud to charge for future services, my employer would be out of business. I can only imagine the types of calls I would be taking if Dish Network made the same mistake – 13.7 million people being charged anywhere from $240 to upwards of $1200 or more? Not to mention, at 90 days overdue, accounts are sent to collections – so everyone’s credit would be damaged by that too. Good thing we have a whole department of people working on finances, rather than just having one guy with a script :P

     Oh, and Josh, you might want to keep your hands off the billing system from now on. Let the people who you’ve hired to do things like that worry about it.

403. GT Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 11:53 pm

     Its all very well to try and be supportive – I was at first, based on an interaction with customer service which was very satisfactory (an extension of a full month on an overdue invoice).

     Then my account got suspended – BEFORE the due date – and it is still suspended despite four support requests (of increasing invective level).

     There is a line that marks the boundary of a fellow’s patience: I let it slide for half a day while they got the basics of their act together. At midnight French time (6 p.m. US Eastern, 4 p.m. Coastal) I actually paid half of my outstanding bill in order to try and unfreeze my account.

     And still NOTHING.

     So I’m off to HostUpon as soon as DreamHost gets its act together sufficient to provide me with a transfer number for my domain.

     You give folks the benefit of the doubt until they show you that they are unworthy of it, then you leave.

     Cheers

     GT
     France

404. Calum Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 12:27 am

     THanks for the honesty, Josh… And please, don’t change the style, it makes you who you are..

     I’ll agree with PROOFREAD! right up there at the top.. When doing something like that, you need a “shoulder surfer”, someone sitting next to you, reading what you’re doing, checking it, and giving the go-ahead before you push the GO button..

     No system is perfect, human error can always find the unexpected gap.. so please, put something in place to double-check the human on big things at least.

405. santosh Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 12:53 am

     U need to have a process for doing things in production, if u
     do things randomly the way u describe u will land into trouble
     more often in future.

406. Rohan Almeida Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 1:01 am

     Thanks for the explanation. Don’t you guys have enough tests to run through your billing code? I’d recommend some tough and dirty tests.

407. michelle Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 1:10 am

     Just switched to HostUpon web hosting and will be moving all my domains there. I can’t afford for mishaps like this to happen, sorry.

408. OzBob Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 1:12 am

     Just a word to the wise, most IT systems are designed as open as this with the capacity for screwups. The fact that they don’t happen that often is a testament to the IT workers employed these days.

     Remember this “flaw” has been through several analysis and development points and not been picked up; if you want blame, there is plenty to go around! And where was his “Lab” environment? You know, a like-for-like duplication of the existing Production systems for testing any changes, and also the first thing to go from the wishlist when money gets tight?

     Good on you for copping to the fault. Next time I hope it is not me that makes the impressive typo.

409. MagicHat Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 1:15 am

     I left DH two+ years ago because my website kept crashing and support response was running 24-36 hours and was generally unhelpful.

     If you’re doing anything remotely serious on the web, DH ain’t the place for you (as you probably know from recent events).

     MediaTemple is great.

410. Steve0 Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 1:28 am

     I want to know what they are going to do about this, and more importantly, what they are going to do to keep me as a customer. “I’m sorry” just isnt going to cut it this time. They better be prepared to cough up free hosting and disk/bandwidth upgrades *WITHOUT BEING ASKED*.

411. Ishay Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 1:35 am

     Amazing story!

412. Consultant Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 1:50 am

     As far as discussion of fraud investigations go, that may be on the cards already. I am sure Dreamhost has auditors that come in every year to make sure all is right with the books, as is standard for most companies.

     They are surely going to be interested in why the CEO is personally running the billing processes for a HUGE company using a homemade script that has not been proofread. Questions to consider: Why is Dreamhost so afraid of having a finance department? Or delegating responsibility away from top management? Or using independent, third-party, seperately hosted financial software instead of something they made at home? Why is the company’s head personally running both the finance and PR functions for the business, and leaving belaguered and genuinely good DH staff to clean up his mess?

     Don’t underestimate this – in most industries, Josh’s actions would be considered highly suspicious and presumably fraudulent, and that’s not even considering the billing error. The auditors and accountants are going to have a field day with this company.

413. Henrik Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 1:53 am

     There’s a thread about this on WebHostingTalk; http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=663705

414. Michel Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 1:58 am

     7.5 million USD in one day… wow! :-)

     Hey, angry customers! You better say ‘thanks’ to the guys at DreamHost, who started to refund the money so quickly — with 7.5 MILLION in the pockets, for something I even DIDN’T start to sell for the whole year of 2008… imagine the possibilities — yachts, islands, trip around the world, buying a 5-century-old castle in France, Monte Carlo fun… :-D

     I would be tempted, LOL :)

     Now seriously: this is a big mistake. Let’s hope everything will be fixed soon. Josh Jones even promised if your bank charges you for un-expected over-the-limits charges to your VISA/MasterCard/AmEx, to re-imburse you soon. And I’m sure he’ll stick to his promise.

     Things could be worse.

     Errors happen.

     But just think — one digit, ‘8′ instead of a ‘7′, can make a difference of a 7+ million dollars in one day! Sure, that’s something to think about… :-)))

415. bobert Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 2:43 am

     I have to wonder about all you people who are now overdrawn or over the limit. Do you max out your credit cards and keep no cash in the bank? To not be able to absorb an accidental $4-500 charge (much less the more common $80) for a day or two while things get straightened out if unbelievable. If your finances are in that bad of a shape, you have no right to criticize ANYONE regarding financial matters. And no, I’m no millionaire. I’m a college student, who just happens to also not be a retard.

     As far as the tone of the post goes – shut up. This isn’t nearly as light as most of the stuff DH sends out. It’s really pretty serious. He explains the problem, admits fault, apologizes profusely, and promises restitution – what more do you want?

416. Anonymous Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 4:55 am

     BOBERT … HA HA HA … YOU ARE JOKING RIGHT? … First off let me congratulate you on a completely “Douche Bagian” name! WAY TO GO … BOBERT!

     Second … This is not just an issue of being overdrawn DICKHEAD … USE YOUR FUCKING BRAIN FOR ONCE. Your lack of compassion shows me one thing. You are a yes man through and through and I guarantee that little bitches like you are the ones that scream the fucking loudest when they feel like they’ve been betrayed or are affected in any way (That college liberal view tells you that you deserve EVERYTHING.)

     Most of you affluent college brats only know how to operate in life with a feeling of entitlement. Like you are entitled to talk down on people without knowing the real reason WHY this could happen. Sure everyone may have blown this out of proportion; but the bottom line is that DreamHost screwed up BIG TIME … not once, but twice in trivializing the whole issue with this assinine blog.

     Now to come down on people because of their finances, where do you get off asking how this could happen? Not everyone has the easy going college life that a silver spoon fed kid such as yourself does. They actually have a real job and real life responsibilites. Where as you are sure to have enough cash available should your buddies throw a kegger this weekend. You don’t know everyone’s circumstances Douche. Many of these people have savings accounts and they keep very little in checking because they are wise not to make that cash readily available to identity thieves. Does that make it clear enough for you moron? … Or do I need to explain it further with a pie chart and in the voice of one of the liberal professors that you worship (Who can’t cut it in the real world (like you are sure to turn out) so they teach college) and whose ass crack you probably lick daily for lunch?

     Can your uncaring simple mind understand WHY now … RIMJOBERT?

417. UpNorth Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 5:07 am

     Well…well well. Sad. At this point I just want my web sites up and running again. Tick tock tick tock. Money isn’t a big deal – issue took care of itself at my end no worries. But it’s just after 8 am and tapping my fingers waiting for web sites to get up running again *pouts*. I hate down time. Creates a deep distress when clients or customers are wondering where it all went…

     That’s just my two cents…

418. Anonymous Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 5:07 am

     WOW! Josh promised to take care of charges due to overdrafting. Man he’s a fucking saint ain’t he? Let’s see. He totally fucks things up and then promises to cover charges created by his shitty code-checking skills. Wow, that’s mighty nice of him. He’s saying that shit so you’ll think he’s going the extra mile. The truth that he knows and I know is that no bank or CC company in this workld would let them get by with it. So he wants to make it look like it’s his idea to cover the charges. The banks and CC companies would bend josh over the love seat and bang his rear good if he were to try and not re-imburse the charges. This would be like me getting in a wreck with someone who has full coverage and then telling them “I’LL COVER EVERYTHING SO DON’T WORRY” Knowing damn well my insurance will cover the accident.

     My wish is this. I wish I could meet Josh’s smug little ass on the street and totally kick the shit out of him. With each punch to his forehead I’d ask this question over-and-over-and-over “You laughin’ now FUNNY BOY!” I guarantee his little bitch ass would think twice next time before posting this bullshit or not having his code triple checked when it comes to hurting his customers.

419. Anonymous Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 5:10 am

     “RIMJOBERT” HAHAHAHA!

420. Adam Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 5:10 am

     RE: Comment 415. Srsly, get that sand out of your vagina.

421. LP Warning! Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 5:17 am

     [quote] 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!”[/quote]

     Hey Tiara! Sort of like the pot calling the kettle black isn’t it? I mean, what DH has done was an accident that they readily admitted to and are working to remedy asap.

     However, what you morons did a while back was calculated and intentional even to the point of BANNING YOUR OWN CUSTOMERS FROM YOUR FORUMS for complaining about your tactic of replacing their 404 error pages with your own 3rd party link laden ones. Not to mention the fact you guys tried to cover it up by claiming it a test!

     Got some brass ones over there LP. Pot calling the kettle black alright. Do us all a favor and go back to “acting” like a reputable hosting company.

     If these folks do go anywhere, I sincerely hope they choose a “reputable one with honesty and integrity”! Not LP!

422. Fenix Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 5:34 am

     interestingly, the billing system seems to have known it was wrong, as this was the billing message i received:

     —-
     This is just a notice that your DreamHost Account #nnnnnn (”xxxxxx’s Account”) has a balance of $nnn.nn (including any charges not due until 2009-01-20), with $nnn.nn due (since 2008-12-20).

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

     of course i immediately replied with an ‘eep… er… what?’ and checked my account. thank goodness i did not have auto-pay turned on.

     i must admit, i too am mildly nonplussed with the flippant tone, but it is historically consistent and i suspect the degree to which people are not recognizing or remembering this is proportional to how badly this has jacked them.

     that doesn’t help those who are in a real mess as a result, obviously. i shudder to think what would have happened here had i had auto-bill enabled. i live on a shoestring and there just isn’t any room for errors like this.

     my advice to the folks at dh is to consider that for some, humor of any sort is indicative of lack of concern or care. this is why it is traditionally not a part of corporate communications. humor when there is an error that doesn’t hurt anyone is usually a nice way to lighten things up… but honestly? this just wasn’t one of those times.

423. LP Warning! Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 5:35 am

     This is a response from a responsible hosting company:

     [quote]The customer loss from it will probably be significantly less then one day of signups for them. The real damage is going to be with their reputation and trying to catch up on work load.
     Dreamhost is having one of the worst days they are ever going to have right now. If you were one of the people affected try to go easy on them while they get everything under control. I’m sure in a few days times they will have everything corrected and will reimburse you for any losses that have occurred.
     [/quote]

     Want to know who? Hostgator. No bashing, no attempting to steal customers away (like LP). Just a responsible reply to a tragic accident.

     Quote was taken from here: http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showpost.php?p=4906999&postcount=20

     Try learning to be professional LP! Not acting childish at the benefit of what happened with DH.

424. Ed Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 5:39 am

     You know guy because of this mistake there was almost a homicide…..my wife almost killed me!

     bbbbuuuuuuuuutttt me being blessed with sly sexy moves was able to get out of it.(By that I mean I begged for my life) Well now that the money has been refunded to my debit card I now have to see if there are any charges. o_0

     lol when you guys make a mistake you guys go for broke! And to think that you guy with that amount could have went into hiding in like Bangladesh or some where like that and lived like kings! Kings I tell you! I just have one request if that happens. Take me with you!!

425. Daniel Schmitt Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 5:56 am

     Sheesh, reading through all those comments is really disconcerting. You people work on the web. Have you already forgotten about the cluetrain manifesto? Or does that reference date me hopelessly?

     DH, thanks for *handling* this screwup in a professional manner, and double thanks for *communicating* about it in a voice that is human, and thus actually trustworthy.

426. Mark W Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 5:57 am

     Guys, still no refund 12 hours after my “You’ve been refunded so chill out!” email hit my inbox. My bank won’t reverse the charge either, saying they have to wait 10 days (this is nonsense and inconsistent with their stated policy, but they apparently know what’s up with Dreamhost and are stalling me).

     This is NOT cool. You need to figure out how to expedite these refunds or something. I wonder how many people saying they’ve gotten refunds have actually RECEIVED refunds, or only an email saying that they have. This is big, guys, and it’s gonna compound until the money is back where it belongs.

     I know you recognize this, but in the meantime, I can’t buy gas or groceries, my wife is ready to kill me for ever even THINKING of signing up for web hosting, and my bank account is dipping lower and lower into overdraw. If I have a heart attack, are you gonna cover my hospital copays, too?

427. Mark W Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 6:00 am

     Also, you MEDIA TEMPLE guys, we “get” your little nonsense “viral” posts in here pimping your service. How stupid do you think we are? Go away. You’re making yourselves look like asses.

428. Alex Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 6:19 am

     You’re not my provider, thank goodness, but as someone who’s managed web hosting for others I must say I find this post highly unprofessional. It’s not the casual tone, which is fine and appropriate for blogging. Rather, it’s the complete lack of sensitivity to the financial emergencies you’ve caused many people. You’ve screwed up their lives.

     You’ve probably caused some to be unable to pay bills or buy groceries.

     You have probably caused some bounced checks, depending on the polices of the financial institution your customer uses.

     If you overdrew on credit cards, you have probably caused some people’s interest to go up.

     For those needing to suddenly borrow money or pawn items to deal with their sudden lack of cash flow, you’ve eaten into their time and caused them extra costs (for example, a pawn loan’s interest can be nearly 30% a month).

     For those using their websites for business or resume purposes, you’ve made it much harder for them to accomplish their goals. You’ve probably cost the businesses money.

     Most importantly, you’ve unnecessarily increased the stress of many, many people, which creates a host of extra problems in and of itself. I know people make mistakes, but you should acknowledge the depth of this one and make good for your customers. Show them you take it seriously, not that you think you’re the star in a comedy show.

429. SteveG Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 6:23 am

     Some people need to relax a bit, if you can’t take a few hundred dollar hit you might need to go out and get a real job instead of playing internet mogul in your basement..

     This one thing has convinced me to switch hosts TO Dreamhost for some of my sites that are on a host that is less responsive, and less fun to work with.. Excellent response to an ugly mistake..

     You just gained at least one customer to replace some that are going to be silly enough to leave over this..

430. Mark W Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 6:29 am

     >Some people need to relax a bit, if you can’t take a few hundred dollar hit you might need to go out and get a real job instead of playing internet mogul in your basement..

     Yeah it’s pretty amazing that people who use a value, volume host are here because they just aren’t loaded, isn’t it?

     It’s not that I can’t come up with $400. It’s that I can’t have it randomly plucked from my account without warning. Should I have a nice buffer in there? Yes! I shouldn’t have Crohn’s Disease either, and I shouldn’t have a sick kid. And I shouldn’t have a LOT of the problems that have led to me living paycheck to paycheck. Having a webhosting provider for $20 month just doesn’t seem extravagant to me when $20 is 30 minutes’ pay.

     Stop acting morally superior because you’ve had good fortune. All of you. It’s ridiculous.

431. twitchski Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 6:43 am

     “”# Brad Says:
     January 15th, 2008 at 7:18 pm

     Thanks to you, the company I had a shot at getting a job with couldn’t read my resume and portfolio that I posted on my website. I just said goodbye to my follow-up interview…

     I bought and paid for my site 3 months ago, I had no idea it would cost me a chance at a job.”"

     …ever heard of a printer and/or CD/DVD Burner?

432. Anonymous Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 6:46 am

     “hehe lol woops I damaged several of ur bank accounts omg my bad lol *picture of homer simpson*”

433. Fred Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 6:46 am

     I love the light tone and humorous side of the DH staff…
     Mainly now that I am no longer a DH customer. Makes it even more funny…

     Fred.

434. hk Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 6:57 am

     This is absolutely hilarious. If I was DH staff I’d be laughing my ass off at this utterly impotent collective whinge.

     I bet less than 10 customers leave because of this, that no class action lawsuits are filed, and all these laughable rants amount to exactly nothing.

     Kudos to DH for their prompt, clear explanation. Lol at all the $10/yr customers expecting a head job or something because they were overcharged a few bucks for a few hours! You whining losers are absolutely pathetic!

435. Mark Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 7:03 am

     Oh man! I feel for you guys this morning.

436. Mark W Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 7:04 am

     It was more than a few bucks. Your trolling is sillier than the class action whining. $10/yr is also a bit daft. Being charged twenty times for a bill I’d already paid last week is a big deal no matter how you spin it. :)

     You’re right: there will be no class action suit, probably. There’s no merit in it. Also, I doubt whether half the people who say they are leaving, will leave (I myself would rather stay but my wife will be adamant that I do not).

     Still, this isn’t a small deal. Acting superior gets you… what? The opportunity to be smug on the internet for 10 seconds? Way to go, guy.

437. c Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 7:09 am

     I woke up this morning to find out I got tagged for my regular monthly bill on top of what was billed already. Why on Earth would you run another billing cycle before resolving the current situation?

438. Mark W Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 7:16 am

     >I woke up this morning to find out I got tagged for my regular monthly bill on top of what was billed already. Why on Earth would you run another billing cycle before resolving the current situation?

     Oh my fucking god are you SERIOUS?!

     Dreamhost! What the Hell, guys?! How much of a slap does it TAKE for you to come up out of your slumber? I understand the geek need to balance all the accounts, but PR is paramount right now… the routine billing cycles could have been deferred until everyone’s bank account is straight, even if you can’t reconcile everybody personally. Damn.

439. frank s Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 7:35 am

     Stop wasting your time writing stupid blog posts and refund my fucking money.

440. Stacie Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 7:39 am

     I got tired of reading the comments. They were boring and repetitive.

     I thought the blog post was funny. I assumed its slightly punchy tone came from having been working to fix the problem for many hours and being overtired but still trying to get an informal “this is what’s going on” message out there. I enjoy working with Dreamhost. Your customer service has always been prompt, pleasant and personal. I’m not going anywhere.

     I am glad, however, that I don’t have to contact you to ask WTF is going on with my bill.

441. Dave Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 7:50 am

     I like Homer Simpson, but I DON’T want him hosting my sites. I’m a longtime DH customer and am flabbergasted at the casual tone.

     I would only reiterate what others have stated — there’s a time to be serious…after having unhinged for $7.5 mil is just such a time. Otherwise, you risk me thinking that the Three Stooges have access to my bank account.

442. ogłoszenia drobne Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 7:52 am

     your honesty makes me so happy, you guys rule

443. Chris Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 7:56 am

     I have a couple hundred quid on my credit card, on which the interest at the end of the month will be a few quid.

     Now that this charge has been added to my credit card from Dreamhost (even though it has been re-credited) – I’m under the impression my bank will charge me interest on the full amount I have spent on my card, regardless of the final amount at the end of the month. UNLESS, i pay off the debt I had there originally – zero-ing my balance.

     I can’t afford to zero my cc balance this month and anticipated my interest charges as being relatively low. But now i’m going to be charged a higher interest level due to these dreamhost charges. Will dreamhost cover my increased interest level at the end of the month?

444. c Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 7:58 am

     Hey MarkW –

     Serious like Ebola, man. 21 months billed yesterday, and another billed today.

     This has gone way beyond ridiculous.

445. Ed Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 8:07 am

     Chris,

     Dude no need to worry. That’s not how credit cards work. You only get interest charges on stuff that’s been on your card past one bill cycle. So anything new in the before the next bill period will not have any interest charges. If item is left on past the first bill cycle you’ll get charged whatever your interest rates are until it’s paid off.

446. nick Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 8:10 am

     I like the attitude. A lot of these comments show that people take things way too personally.

447. john Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 8:15 am

     I’m glad I moved away to a better host before this happened.

448. Lindy Adams Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 8:15 am

     I received your billing email late the night before I was going in for surgery, and I was quite concerned.

     I want to assure you that I do not consider your Homer Simpson apology appropriate for such a serious mistake on your part.

     You are a successful company, and need to GROW UP and drop the funny names and attempts at adolescent humor.

     Lindy Adams
     Predisan-USA, Inc.

449. Robin Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 8:25 am

     Hello, Josh. I just forwarded a copy of the overdraft fee I got hit with. According to the panel, I have been refunded, but according to my bank, I HAVE NOT.

     My patience has officially worn completely out.

     I want my money back. I want it now. And I want you jerks to pay for my overdraft charge that you so humorously incurred.

     And you know what? My other hosting company has a phone number I can call so that they can work with me directly. I had one billing issue with them a few months ago and it was taken care of RIGHT THEN AND THERE.

     You guys should not be in business until you’ve figured out how to run a business. Period.

450. Mark Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 8:30 am

     People, I think we are all missing the real crime here. Mis-appropriation of a copyrighted logo is no laughing matter. I fully expect Fox to send Lionel Hutz over with a cease and desist letter for the unauthorized use of Homer Simpson on a corporate blog.

     So lessons learned everyone:
     1- If you are autobilling anything to your bank account you asking for something like this to happen. Credit cards people, just make sure you pay them off immediately and they can be a great tool for managing this sort of thing. Never let any company pull straight from your checking account (maybe mortgage, but that is it)
     2- Don’t have your web service billed to the same account your mortgage is billed to. It appears from the comments that many people will be losing their homes over this (or more likely they are trying to make their situation sound so dire they are offered a few free months of hosting)
     3- Dreamhost has a sense of humor about everything, even when owning up to their mistakes. I like that. If you don’t consider going to one of the many faceless corporate hosts that would never (a) allow people to post comments in a blog like this, (b) admit to a mistake like this, or (c) offer to cover bank fees and such.
     4- If you are shopping for a new host, there are many advertising in these blog comments.
     5- Josh should not be allowed near billing systems. Stick to the newsletters.
     6- There does need to be a followup post indicating what controls are put into place to ensure this never happens again (hint – we do not believe that your billing system prevents multiple billings for the same month, many comments in this blog have dis proven that)

     Really though, having been with other hosting providers I do not get why so many people desire the faceless, humorless, type of business that would be expending all of their effort to suppress and conceal this mistake rather than own up to and and even (ghasp) include a little humor. I know, the internet is Serious Business and all that, but really people, would a dry, PR-sanitized press release really make you feel better?

451. Kris Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 8:32 am

     OMG… I GOT OVERDRAWN … I’M POOR… PLEASE HELP… MY CATS GONNA DIE!
     Seriously if you can’t handle a little charge (and YES, anything under $500 is LITTLE)…maybe you should be out looking for a better job instead of sitting here posting retarded comments about how youre going to kill the dreamhost staff… And I don’t wanna hear your sob story about living paycheck to paycheck and being sick and all that BS… Everybody has problems, you can either let them push you to greatness or push you down a mountain… And BTW we havn’t just had “good fortune” jackass, some of us have had it a lot worse than you and still made it… Why? because we worked our asses off instead of wallowing in our own pity…

452. Mark W Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 8:35 am

     >Don’t have your web service billed to the same account your mortgage is billed to. It appears from the comments that many people will be losing their homes over this

     Having a $20/monthly fee come out of the same checking account as my mortgage didn’t seem such a big deal to me, guy. :-) Until OOPS, today it’s $400. Maybe you have a bunch of zero balance credit cards lying around, in which case, congratulations on your good fortune!

     I don’t know about the others, but in my case my mortgage check cleared MINUTES before the Dreamhost charge came in and overdrafted my account. I could have gotten REALLY screwed. While I wouldn’t have lost my house, I would have taken a serious credit hit and would have had to pay penalties to the mortgage co, let alone the fact that my chances for a favorable refinance down the road would have been shot to Hell.

     So yeah, there are some real consequences for real people here who don’t happen to be rich Republicans or something. I don’t think belittling them makes you very big. :-)

453. Mark W Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 8:38 am

     >And BTW we havn’t just had “good fortune” jackass, some of us have had it a lot worse than you and still made it… Why? because we worked our asses off instead of wallowing in our own pity…

     Keep on believing that. You got lucky. This society is a big lottery. You can do all the right things and increase your odds, but nobody can guarantee that they’re gonna do just great in life. Shit happens. In this country, it happens to a LOT of people.

     Long Live our Corporate Overlords, and pass me my $85 asthma inhaler.

454. Mark W Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 8:39 am

     Some of you kids on here posting about how well off you are and how anybody who can’t swallow an unannounced $500 charge from a $10/month webhosting company is an idiot should go look up “cognitive bias”, then go look up “humanistic socialism”. Some of you might even stop sneering long enough to learn something.

455. MW is spam banned again Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 8:39 am

     Some of you kids on here posting about how well off you are and how anybody who can’t swallow an unannounced $500 charge from a $10/month webhosting company is an idiot should go look up “cognitive bias”, then go look up “humanistic socialism”. Some of you might even stop sneering long enough to learn something.

456. Mark Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 8:51 am

     Mark W:

     1- You don’t need a bunch of zero balance credit cards, you need one with at least $20 available. Pretty much anyone can get a credit card, sure if you credit is bad the interest rate will suck but that does not matter if you always pay it off right?

     2- I’ve had a mortgage auto-bill bounce once due to insufficient funds. Do you know what happened? Nothing. I made sure I had enough in the bank and pushed it though. Unless you somehow have your auto-payment set up to kick off 29 days AFTER your payment is due, you will be fine (and if you set that up, what the hell?). If you are auto paying with a check mailing service the worst you will have is the bank overdraft fee which DH said they would cover. Your credit will be fine and your chances of refi will be fine as long as you pay on time. Have your auto payment run a few days or weeks before the mortgage is due to allow for this kind of thing (ID theft happens too you know). Either way, it is not a negative against you unless you are more than 30 days late. Mortgage companies are not in a rush to punish people at this point since they are losing money left and right on foreclosures to begin with.

457. Daniel W. Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 8:52 am

     screw this I’m switching to HostUpon with their $40 discount code (’saveus’) cause I just got hit with an Overdraft and this is ridiculous. My new host has a phone number and live chat so at least I can speak to someone in real-time.

458. devmorgan Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 9:00 am

     This was a big screw up.

     I think your tone in this post might not be to the liking of some, but I do understand it is how you generally prefer to interact with your customers.

     I wish this would not have happened, but at the same time I understand how. I appreciate that you at least explained the entire matter (be it lighthearted or not).

     I will not be leaving dreamhost, but I do wish you luck keeping the upset customers.

459. kc Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 9:01 am

     Really, most of them are just trolling.

     I got hit for a $618 charge ($308 overdraft), to my checking account that I normally pay bills out of. Coincidentally, I had 2 other real bills that were being paid yesterday. What that means is, I am currently being hammered with overdraft charges and fees. So now, If I want to pay anymore bills, I have to come up with roughly $500 just to hit a balance of $0. Then I have to put in the money to pay.

     I simply don’t have $800 to float to cover DH’s mistake. Here we are 24 hours later and I still have not been refunded.

460. MW is spam banned again Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 9:05 am

     kc – exactly. Trolling or full of youthful idealism and flush with pride over their own luck so far in life. In all cases, they can be safely ignored. :-)

     Like you said, I just don’t have hundreds of dollars to float to cover DH’s mistake here. I understand the mistake. I’m not howling for blood, but some compensation beyond a simple refund is called for at this point. 18 hours now since I received my “you’ve been refunded” email and I still have no such refund.

461. MW is spam banned again Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 9:09 am

     Mark -

     Not all mortgage companies have the same policies. I incur fees and wrath and smoke if I’m 10 days late, not 30. I can’t pay off my credit cards every month: I owe 50K on them which is 67% of what I make in a year. How did I rack them up? TVs and leather sofas? Nope. Medicine. My daughter needs a shot 4 times a year that costs $3,000, is not always covered by insurance, and is only ONE of the medications our family buys every month.

     Yeah, sucks to be us, but don’t judge me based on your cognitive bias. It’s childish and frankly, inhuman. I’m not asking for handouts or special consideration, but I AM entitled to let DH know how this has impacted me, as are others. It’s partially the jovial tone of the blog post “Oh hehe we just took your money oops sorry LOL!” that brings out these posts. People want to make it VERY CLEAR to Josh that there’s no joke here, lest he not take returning their money VERY seriously.

462. MW is spam banned again Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 9:10 am

     Also, for the record, I sent my mortgage check in a week early, every month. My mortgage co ALWAYS waits until the 15th to cash it, for some reason. They always have. Can’t explain it. I mailed the check, as always, around the 25th of last month.

463. Dany Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 9:20 am

     OK, I am slow, I just stumbled on the issue this morning. This is what happens when people are doing wedding preparation and not jumping on their emails every 10 seconds (I have a friend’s LJ to thank for even finding out about it). However, here is my status at this time.

     Found out this morning about the error, came here to get the details. However, an email was sent to a Hotmail account I use for DH communications..one I check every few days or so, give or take. So yes, I got the message.

     Luckily, since my credit card max is high, and I pay my bill every month, I was not hugely worried and was not under threat of overdrawing my account (this is why I use my card..I used to have it coming out of my bank account, but I learned my lesson there). However, in spite of what was said here, I -did- call my credit card company because the charge wasn’t showing up yet..and I’m sorry, I’m -not- paying for an accident, no matter what its source.

     At the time I write this, the charge is pending status, so as yet, it is not affecting anything. A refund, on the other hand, is not visible at this time. I made a point to tell my credit card company, however, that the charge is inaccurate, and that DH is in the process of refunding accordingly. I plan to allow 7 days for them to correct the error on their end before I utilize the resources for disputing provided by my credit card company.

     I expect that, all jokes aside (I laughed. Yes, I laughed and I feel good for it, dammit. So there.), that this will be resolved before I have to go that route. While my webspace has been very dormant in the more recent past, I do have intent to use it for wedding information soon, and I -need- it to be working and billing properly. I can’t afford the stress of big mistakes like this.

     So yes, this is me waggling my own skinny finger at DH’s fat one. Please to be mindful of the shiny candy-like buttons in the future, thankyoumuch.

     And speaking of jokes…I’m not against them as long as there is information as well. Right now, I got the message of “Ooops, we screwed up, sorry”. I appreciate that.

     What I do not see here, or I may have missed, is a true timeline of when I can expect that charges will be resolved, outside of ASAP. Hence, this is why I am giving them 7 days to fix the error before going to my credit card to do the work for them. If the email that was sent is correct, this is more than enough time necessary for everything to resolve..at least for me.

     A mistake was made. It happens. Maybe none of you have made a 7 million dollar mistake, but they happen in all lines of business, and many are unseen by the public because they are caught in time (obviously, this one wasn’t). What is important now (and what will be likely my deciding factor as to whether I stay with Dreamhost or not) is going to be the expediency of the resolution.

     With that, I’m going to sit back and see what happens.

464. Yet Another Disgruntled DH Customer Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 9:31 am

     Just be glad most of you don’t use a dedicated host.

     They tried to get me for about 2k.

     The jokes are less than funny.

465. Not a customer, and never will be. Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 9:36 am

     That’s how you apologize to your customers? Company sounds like it’s ran by a douche bag. Be more professional when something like this happens. I wonder how many customers you lost?

466. Sean Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 9:37 am

     I can’t say I was pleased when I got the email saying I owed $600. It left a pit in my stomach. But then I saw it was a bill for future services and I figured it was a mistake. Several hours later, DH sent me an email acknowledging the mistake and corrected it. Voila!

     Do I wish they would have been a bit more professional in the way they addressed this problem… yes. Do I care they weren’t? Not really. I’ve always appreciated the prowess behind the scenes. I’ve always appreciated the attentive service they’ve given me when I’ve screwed up my sites because I thought I was doing something brilliant but wasn’t.

     Customer since 2000.

467. Tyler Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 9:41 am

     Wow. I put up with a lot here because it’s a cheap place and I don’t care about some downtime, but this is beyond anything imaginable.

     This is a serious problem. “Fat finger” is not a serious response. It’s pretty much an insult.

     My account will be canceled as soon as I find new hosting.

468. guest Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 9:42 am

     Anyone get their wrongly suspended account re-enabled yet?

     The CC DH had for me was no longer valid, but I almost wish it was since the downtime on my website with accompanying inconvenience to my customers is worth more to me than the extra charges at this point.

469. Stephen Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 9:42 am

     I find your joking manner refreshing and enjoyable and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter. Oh wait! I already do!

     Thanks for being so forthcoming about the error. I was mildly confused when I got a bill for 2008 but knew that you guys would catch the problem.

470. me again Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 9:45 am

     Hm. The people who think it’s ludicrous that Josh be let go because he’s a principal…

     When your principals start messing up the bottom line and destroying your business, they’re just another liability. He’s not the only principal.

     DH should, at the very least, reconsider his day-to-day responsibilities. He obviously needs someone to check his work.

     I worked at a company with 3 founders and co-owners. They did very well, but when one flaked out and messed up too many times, guess what, soon there were only two.

     This is not an unusual concept, this being personal accountability. Us “little guys” deal with it every day.

     Not to mention the tone of his post here being totally out of line with what has happened. 99% of the overbilled will be fine, but there are people who have been seriously screwed up by this and will have literally YEARS of fallout. He’s just made hundreds of people’s lives much worse than they were 48 hours ago. A head should roll.

     Also see: Steve Jobs getting ran out of Apple. How that for kicking a founder out?

     Course, he came back and is king of the entire planet now. Maybe Josh needs to invest in some mock turtlenecks.

471. Sean Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 9:51 am

     Oh, and I wanted to point out this nifty little feature for those of you who use Debit Cards like I do to pay your Dreamhost Bill. See, on the recurring billing panel, right under the checkbox that authorizes Dreamhost to bill your account, you can tell them not to bill more than $x a day from your account.

     I don’t know about any of you, but seeing all the people who amazingly bounced mortgage checks (really? I think statistically it is unlikely and if so, you really need to look into overdraft protection) setting this amount to something reasonable might be an important step in your financial management.

472. MW is spam banned again Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 9:58 am

     Sean -

     If you’ve read the posts, several people say they DID have limits set, which were ignored by the script for some reason. Given that the script did NOT simply bill for all of 2008 in advance, but even duplicated 10 out of those 12 months for a lot of people (resulting in 22 charges, not 12), another bug is not a wild accusation. Josh STILL hasn’t explained the 22 charges thing.

473. Mark Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 10:04 am

     MW is spam banned again:

     Speaking of cognitive bias, I think you are confusing me with the idiots saying “It’s only $500, you losers should be able to absorb that”.

     My main point has been to those who are claiming to suffer horribly under this (losing houses, bounced checks, etc) that it is somewhat avoidable on their end as well with some planning. There is certainly some major lessons here for DH. However, this kind of thing happens a lot (usually it is the result of identity theft or credit card fraud which has hit about 5 of my friends and co-workers lately). The major take away from this is that any card information you give out can be mis-billed, stolen, etc. So for god’s sake NEVER use direct debit against your checking account or use a debit card for this kind of thing, especially if you are living paycheck to paycheck (despite the fortunate republican image I guess I give off, I certainly am).

     And everyone has a right to bitch at DH for this, it is a really boneheaded and major screw up. I guess I don’t agree with the complaints over tone since that has always been Josh’s style on this blog. The professional suit response is at the dreamhost status page, the human (and arguably more forthcoming with the details) response is here. Pick which you prefer to be the company’s response. I don’t mind dreamhost using humor, nobody died here. If you do mind, read the other one.

     Also consider this, the only reason you have this “official” place to express your disappointment give public feedback right to the company is because they do have a different culture than the PR-sanitized, watered down typical suit company. Does your mortgage company have a blog that lets anyone post comments? Heck, would they even own up to a mistake like this publicly? Mine certainly would not, and would likely go after any blog that outed them for making such a mistake. And let’s be honest, Dreamhost makes a lot of mistakes but they are always upfront about it. I’ve been with hosting providers which have a much better reputation when in fact their service is significantly worse, they just exert most of their efforts hiding it.

     That said, I probably would not be using dreamhost as a provider if my sole source of income was a website I was hosting with them. But in this case they seem to be owning up to the mistake and doing everything to make it right. I’ll reserve judgment once I hear about some people getting reimbursed for bank fees and such. As long as they are taking care of the results of their mistake, I’m cool with them, flippant tone in a blog or not.

474. Mark Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 10:08 am

     “If you’ve read the posts, several people say they DID have limits set, which were ignored by the script for some reason. Given that the script did NOT simply bill for all of 2008 in advance, but even duplicated 10 out of those 12 months for a lot of people (resulting in 22 charges, not 12), another bug is not a wild accusation. Josh STILL hasn’t explained the 22 charges thing.”

     I agree, THIS more than anything else is what is alarming me about this whole mess. I really would like to see an explanation of this issue and how it will be prevented from happening again.

     How about it DH, joke about it if you want but address this issue because it seems to be major bug that you claimed you did not have.

475. MW is spam banned again Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 10:08 am

     It’s pretty flippant in both places Mark. :-)

     Anyhow, no, dreamhost isn’t my source of income. Quite the opposite, especially this week.

     I got an email saying I’d been refunded, but I haven’t. That’s sort of upsetting, too.

     While you’re right that I could have taken more steps to prevent what happened to me personally, it’s still Dreamhost’s collosal fuck up and not mine. If I step out of my house and get shot, few people will chastise me for not wearing a Kevlar vest.

476. MW is spam banned again Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 10:12 am

     Wow, homophobic comments will sure show Josh! Way to go, anonymous internet vigilante!

477. MW is spam banned again Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 10:16 am

     http://www.upstartblogger.com/i-leave-dreamhost-dreamhost-leaves-me-almost-speechless

     Josh, will we all get flowers and teddy bears like this guy? Can the bear be wearing a shirt with homer simpson on it? You may have to pay some licensing to FOX of course…

478. Robin Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 10:22 am

     I had to drive 20 miles to get to my bank this morning (yes, I live in the country, so sue me), will Dreamhost also pay for the gas that got me there? I can forward a receipt…

     Anyway, my bank taught me a lesson about good customer service. I went there, took copies of my Dreamhost receipt as well as a print-out of this blog as well as what was on the Status page. My bank literally said “Are you kidding me? This is how they’re handling the situation? Do you have a phone number to call?” I said nope and they told me that it’s best to NEVER do business with a company that won’t even give you a phone number to call when there’s issues with said company, among other things.

     Needless to say, they took care of my overdraft fee because it wasn’t my fault. They also pointed out that this was the first time EVER that my bank account has been overdrawn since I’ve had my account (about 4 years now).

     I am still, however, waiting for my refund. I’ve dealt with faceless corporations without senses of humor before. Guess what? I had my refund on the same day after I actually spoke to someone on the telephone.

     Guess which I prefer? I’d rather deal with a business that’s got a standard response for everything that actually TAKES CARE OF THEIR BUSINESS than work with some idiot who not only has fat fingers but is apparently completely unable to handle the customers that he has.

     And why the HELL doesn’t Dreamhost have an accounting department? Um… letting a programmer handle finances? No offense to programmers, but THAT’S NOT YOUR JOB. I have a small business. Even “I” have an accountant…

479. MW is spam banned again Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 10:26 am

     ++Robin

     It’s getting old. Still no refund. “Wait 2 days” is not an acceptable resolution. I’ve spoken to friends who have already gotten their money. What’s the hold up? Are you guys going insolvent or something and taking our ill-gotten cash with you? I’m seriously beginning to get VERY upset. Yesterday I was shell-shocked and pissed from the surprise of it all, then calmed down when you claimed to be handling it. I believed you.

     But we’re in day two here, no further word from you, some people have their money back, some don’t, is the script still running? I got my email (which had a decimal formatting bug in it by the way, hope that’s not critical).

     WHAT’S GOING ON?

480. Robin Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 10:38 am

     MW – you know, when I saw that charge yesterday, the first thing I thought was “OMG, they’re taking our money and closing down shop and heading to Mexico!” *LOL*

     But then I realized they just screwed up. I’m not entirely sure which is worse. But yeah, no refund. My bank couldn’t find anything in their system even remotely looking like a refund.

     However, in my Web Panel, it says everything is fine and kosher. I’m hoping that maybe it’s a delayed thing and will show up tomorrow. But I’m running out of hope. I agree that two days is not acceptable. Other companies (those that keep getting called the faceless corporations, I might add) have taken care of issues immediately and have handled billing refunds and issues on the same day. If Dreamhost is SO much better than them, then why haven’t they expedited the matter?

     I’m under the impression that they have more clients than they can handle and are too cheap to hire the right amount of personnel to deal with us all. They “assumed” that all would be well with everything they do, so were unprepared for this (obviously). This was an accident, granted, and they do happen, but at the same time, it’s in the handling of the customers that makes or breaks a business.

     Dreamhost is obviously very broken right now.

481. Jeff Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 10:42 am

     Why not just call your credit company and tell them it’s an unauthorized charge and you want to do a chargeback?

     Don’t do this unless you really want to cause Dreamhost serious pain, because each chargeback costs them a not insignificant amount of money, and enough of them and they lose their merchant account. You do have rights. You do have power.

482. Sean Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 10:47 am

     I’m certain DH is deluged right now.

     All I can talk about is my experience in this situation. I was billed for all my accounts into the future but they could only take $50 from my account. For whatever reason, the system works for me.

     I’ve only seen one person complain about double billing… at least vociferously complain.

     I’m not an overly loyal kind of person and don’t expect anyone else to be either. If you find this to be horrible then get your refund and cancel your account. That is the only way to really send a message to the company.

483. MW is spam banned again Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 10:49 am

     I called my bank. They won’t do a chargeback. They told me they have to investigate for ten days and THEN they’ll give me my money back provisionally. This is total nonsense of course and not even in line with their stated policy. I think they know what’s up with Dreamhost and they’re stalling, which is making me MENTAL.

     I have a bank-issued Visa debit card. A Visa logo on the card USED to mean IMMEDIATE return of unauthorized charges, but apparently it no longer does. I’m TOTALLY f*cked until Josh manages to give me back my money.

     This is getting less funny by the hour. Josh has SERIOUSLY screwed a lot of people with this “fat finger” hilarity.

     As a collegue of mine put it:

     ***

     Undoubtedly there are lots of people whose rent and credit card checks will bounce because their accounts got drained. Then they will have to pay bounced check fees, their credit will be fucked up, their interest rates will be jacked up for the next 15 years, and they’ll pay a full month’s interest on their CC balance since it didn’t get paid at the end of the month.

     I doubt dreamhost is even planning to reimburse this while it sits earning interest on the money it stole.

     If I broke into dreamhost and stole money from their account without authorization, do you think I could say it was all a scripting mistake and get away with it if they found out? Or would I still be arrested for theft?

     ***

     I know DH has offered to pay back bounce fees. What about people who’s FICO score has been impacted. How about hiked interest rates? Do you think Citibank et al really CARE that your rate was raised inadvertently? They really don’t. If you think they will, you’re naive. The customers with pull: high limits, low balances, will get what they want. The rest of us will be screwed.

484. steev Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 10:50 am

     I hope Josh and/or whoever else is responsible is being fired, pronto. this kind of thing is not acceptable.

     DH’s whole billing system is screwy and always has been, in my opinion, even when it’s the correct amount and time. when you only bill once a year, you need to warn people and give a little bit of notice (i would say a week) before you just suck money out of their accounts. instead, you send an email and then 30 seconds later, it seems, run the transaction, and then send another email saying you did it. that is not cool. you should send a warning, wait at least a few days so people can make sure their account can cover it, and then do the transaction. This would also prevent problems like what happened yesterday, because there would be time for people to contact you and say “hey, wait, this is a mistake, don’t do this.”

     i hope you make some systematic and personnel changes very quickly. i’m really thinking about jumping ship, especially because your comedy routine in response on this blog was not cool at all.

485. L.J. Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 10:51 am

     Hey! That is one of the funniest blogs I’ve ever read. Of course, I guess I feel all right about it since my e-mail is working fine, my site is a-ok, and all seems well, plus I suspect that even my bill or my tiny basic account won’t break my credit card. . . I hope. I’m awfully sorry this happened, and because I’m studying web programming and databases it’s actually kind of horrifying to think about what kind of things I might screw up in the future – but I appreciate that you told all this. I really DO like the light tone because I realize that real people are doing this stuff.

     Take care, and once it’s all fixed, GET SOME SLEEP!!!!!!! :0)

486. Martin Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 10:53 am

     LOL!! I should forward this hilarious blog post to my landlord, maybe he’ll laugh so hard he will forget that I can’t pay the rent this week.

     Get your head out of your fucking ass Josh. Seriously.

487. Sean Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 10:55 am

     @MW:
     Once, my company screwed up on payroll and a check that was supposed to be direct deposited was issued as a live check. Fine and dandy except I was in Detroit at the time and needed the cash in the account to pay for the hotel room.

     Life is messy. Stuff happens. So exactly when are you going to cancel your account with Dreamhost? What site do you have hosted with them, by the way?

488. Mark Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 10:55 am

     Yeah, it is pretty unacceptable that everyone does not have their refund yet (although it is possible they do and their bank is just not updated, I know mine sometimes does that). It certainly should not take any longer to do the refund than it did to do the “oops” charge.

     I certainly agree that DH needs to take a solid look at how they do things internally. It is not acceptable to have Josh decide they have not received enough money yet and start mucking around with charging people via their accounting system to make it look better. That is exactly how this kind of thing happens. You guys are making 7+ million a year, time to hire someone to manage that system that rather than have your founder/funnynewsletterguy doing it.

     Also, again, once you credit everyone and fix everyone’s bank fees (least you can do), your next priority really ought to be to figure out why your accounting system is not as robust as you think it is since it most certainly does allow double billing.

489. MW is spam banned again Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 10:58 am

     Sean –

     A few. I’ll cancel once I can back up my databases and move the two dozen people I have hosted under my account on subdomains, and give them time to back up their stuff, too. This is more than a minor nuisance.

     I work on payroll. Before we ran ANY sort of script that affected our entire employee base, we’d TEST the new parameters in a test environment and AUDIT the output WAY BEFORE we ever ran it on live data using a system that EVIDENTLY goes ahead and sends ACH transactions to a clearing house WITHOUT ANY HUMAN APPROVAL!!!! Seriously, OMFG, cats and dogs living together, this was a HORRENDOUSLY stupid mistake, and Josh is absolutely right, it’s AMAZING it hasn’t happened yet in 10 years. If they don’t make SERIOUS changes following this debacle, they’re CRAZY.

490. L.J. Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 10:59 am

     BTW – can I come work with Dreamhost when I get out of webdev school? Sounds like crazy crazy fun!!!

491. MW is spam banned again Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 11:00 am

     ++ the double billing issue. You STILL haven’t explained this or even ACKNOWLEGED it Josh. How about just ADMITTING that it happened? You talked up your system in your post yesterday, how robust it is, etc. I was double billed for most (but not all for some reason) of 2008. Your robust process doesn’t ALLOW duplicates, you said.

     We need a new blog post today Josh. One, you need to give us a status on refunds and the refund script. Two, you need to admit that duplicate charges DID occur and let us know that you’re addressing that issue as well. Three, we need to know that ACH files will NOT be sent to your card processor without human eyes seeing it EVER AGAIN.

492. G Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 11:07 am

     Why not drop the jokes and act like a major corporation?

     try reading a few books on narcissism – which might put your thinking into a better perspective because IN REALITY your company isn’t “all about you.” It’s about your customers. So you might consider a need to start acting like it. Making jokes about huge mistakes (and even mundate stuff in your newsletter) is plain childish and is a weak attempt to deflect responsibility. It adds insult to injury. Some people fall for that crap. Some of us see it for what it is.

493. Sean Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 11:07 am

     @MW:
     You must have an awesome site you are proud of.

494. MW is spam banned again Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 11:09 am

     You know, I laughed yesterday when somebody suggested that the FBI be contacted. Now I’m not so sure. Does anybody really KNOW that this “mistake” WAS a mistake, and not some sleight of hand bullsh*t designed to cover some gambling debt, maybe a loan shark/drug situation… who knows? I’m TOTALLY speculating and know NOTHING, but nothing can be ruled out when DREAMHOST HAS STOPPED TALKING TO US.

     This “Hey here’s a blog post, sorry we still haven’t emailed you. Just sit tight and we’ll give your baby.. uh I mean money back any minute now!” isn’t holding any water. There’s no reason for anybody who hasn’t received their money yet to believe that they will. Especially when many people claim to have received theirs yesterday. Why the apparent “gap” during which refunds seem to have stopped?

495. MW is spam banned again Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 11:11 am

     Sean?

     You’re rather… odd. What has my site to do with any of this? My sites are all hobby sites. None make any money. None are particularly even notable. That has nothing at all to do with any of this.

496. Sean Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 11:13 am

     @MW:
     I strongly suggest you do contact the FBI.

497. Ed Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 11:14 am

     @MW
     Dude….step away from the computer and go calm down….I think that if you stopped and actually looked at what you’re saying. You’ll see that it’s getting crazier and crazier….go for a walk or something and then come back and re-read what you just wrote….it’s been two seconds since you’re last post….so yeah DH won’t be dropping everything to talk to you when they’ve got issues bigger than you at the moment….

     Ed

498. MW is spam banned again Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 11:15 am

     I’m only saying that maybe it’s not so crazy. I’m not averse to waiting another day or two to see my money, but the public face of Dreamhost has SERIOUS egg on it right now. They’re handling this HORRENDOUSLY badly from a communication standpoint. Global messages that are sent out at a rate of one every 48 hours (at best) are NOT cutting it.

499. Sean Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 11:15 am

     @MW:
     Just curious as to your status as a customer. You seem to be rabble rousing quite a bit.

500. MW is spam banned again Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 11:17 am

     Ed -

     I’m fully aware of what I’m saying. :-) Maybe Josh will pull his thumbs out of his ass and give us an update. The fact that his explanation DOES NOT EXPLAIN why I was billed for 22, and not 12, periods, is a MAJOR discrepancy in his story. The fact that people–by second hand observation, granted–seem to have stopped receiving refunds sometime last night, is MAJOR. And no word from the exalted co-founder. This is utterly ludicrous.

501. MW is spam banned again Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 11:20 am

     Sean -

     I’m not rabble rousing. I’m voicing my discontent, certainly.

     I definitely want my money back. That’s for sure. I don’t think this is at all funny and tonight I’m seriously going to have to borrow money to feed my daughter. That doesn’t make me happy. So I’m seriously pissed and I happen to have a lot of idle time today.

     If you’re implying that I’m from some rival host, that’s ludicrous. But I’m certainly not gonna give you my Dreamhost hosted URLs so you can whois them when controversial crap like this is going on. I don’t need any troublemakers having my home address, thanks.

502. Ed Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 11:25 am

     @MW

     Well from what I’ve been gathering it seems as though that maybe the staff just isn’t there to handle both this problem and PR at the same time.
     I’m not saying that it’s right or wrong in any way I’m just saying that if that’s the case…They’re doing the right thing by using all their man(and woman) power in fixing the problem….

     If they do have the staff to be able to handle both then yes they should be another post by now on a status….

     See I use my site for business. I do 3d work and little design it effects me in a large way because I only freelance… so money isn’t always flowing and almost 400 came out of my account randomly… so I’m in the same boat as everyone else…
     Getting angry and frustrated isn’t going to get anything done.. right now they need to fix the problem…they’ll have plenty of time afterwards to hear everyones complaints.
     I’m not too happy myself but I’ll wait until everything has been set right and then depending on how my personal situation has been handled. I will decided weather or not to stay. As of right now I’m not planning on going anywhere but who knows right now….

503. MW is spam banned again Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 11:25 am

     I will tell you (though of course you have no way to verify this) that I’ve been a customer with Dreamhost since 1999. I like them. Or I did. This ’slacker’ attitude Josh is exhibiting isn’t impressing anybody who’s getting screwed by their mistake. A blog post at LEAST every morning until this is resolved would be a MINIMALLY acceptable level of communication from Dreamhost to their customers.

504. MW is spam banned again Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 11:27 am

     Ed, I agree mostly. But I’m concerned that the reports of “I got my refund!” seem to have stopped. I got my email saying my refund had been processed, but no refund to be seen. My bank is no help. It INFURIATES ME that a computer error can wipe me out,and because of a line in a delimited text file somewhere, I’m screwed for a week. This is CRAZY.

505. Ed Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 11:29 am

     @MW
     That’s a good point but I think that maybe the 22 month thing has something to do with when your renewal date actually is.
     I got billed for the same 12 month period but some how I was paid until 2012….Doesn’t make sense to me yet either.
     I think once everything is corrected we’ll be fully explained as to what happened and why. (I hope)

506. MW is spam banned again Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 11:33 am

     Ed, nope it wasn’t a renewal date thing. I was billed twice for February, March, May, June, July, August, October, November, and December of 2008, twice for January 2009, and only once for April and September 2008. That’s some wacky crap, and it’s not explained by Josh’s post, or even acknowleged, and I’m not the only one. Several folks on digg posted similar invoices to mine.

     Why did many people receive their refunds the first day, while others are out in the cold? I understand that there are differences between banking institutions, but I don’t see anybody anywhere talking about receiving money today past 9 am.

507. Ed Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 11:34 am

     @MW

     True, I got the same email. I that that what the email should have stated that it has be refunded and processed on their end…which is what I think they were saying.

     I understand the frustration believe me. I do plan on saying something when everything has been finished. I want to wait until everyone has been dealt with because One. I’m no more or less important than anyone else so I’m not going to hold up the staff and delaying the account of someone else being fixed and Two I want to see how they plan on “making it right with everyone”

508. Sean Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 11:35 am

     @MW:

     I thought as much.

     So by my reckoning, reading your posts here and on the Status page, you were charged twice… $1,200 AND you don’t have _any_ groceries in your house to feed your child.

     I also bet you need to refill your prescriptions, right?

     Do you have a puppy dog that needs to go to the vet?

     I have several websites I want to introduce you to to assist you in money management. Setting up multiple checking accounts, savings accounts, etc. so this kind of stuff won’t happen to you in the future.

     Seriously, once this is all straightened out and you get your refund, compartmentalize your accounts so you aren’t left high and dry like this. I’ve had to learn this lesson the hard way as well and it sucks. I’m not diminishing your pain, though I am when you start trying to win sympathy by saying your daughter won’t get food unless you borrow money. I just think you really need to complain about something and this is the first very legitimate thing you can really get your hackles up over and you aren’t looking at it rationally.

     If you are in serious need of money and you have a slew of checks bouncing out of your account over these past two days (god, I’m so glad I’ve given up on checks and just use billpay) then you really should be making those arrangements and at the same time, arranging overdraft protection. This instance made me realize I hadn’t activated the link between my checking and saving for my own overdraft protection. Luckily it wasn’t a factor.

509. Ed Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 11:37 am

     Could be based off of last name or possibly customer number. I agree that it’s wacky. I’m just saying that I’m sure that once the dust settles it’ll be explained.
     I got from the post that he was putting in dates manually so that could be a reason? I don’t know. I like everyone is waiting for an up date.

510. MW is spam banned again Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 11:43 am

     Sean -

     The “manage your money better” silliness has been addressed ad nauseum in this thread of comments. Go back and do some light reading because I won’t be addressing it again.

     Yes, my mortgage DID happen to clear on the same day that Dreamhost pulled this stunt. And I was lucky that it made it through.

     Yes actually, I DO have a doggy that needs to go to the vet. She’s 6 months old and may have to be euthanized because she has mange so bad that it’s killing her. How did you know? She’s a Bernese Mountain Dog named Molly, and she’s very sweet.

     No, I wasn’t billed $1200. Not even close. But it was enough. Almost $400. An unexpected $400 charge on a day when I’m not even supposed to receive any bill at all from Dreamhost, is yes, a big deal for me. Is that a bit sad? Maybe? Does that make DH not at fault? Nope.

     I’m not trying to win sympathy. You made snarky comments about the fact that I seem to be “rabble rousing”. I’m just, for your benefit, explaining why I’m so pissed. I have a right to be pissed. So does everybody who got screwed by this.

     Do I want DH or anyone else to feel sorry for me? Nope. If I did, I’d have put up a paypal link or something so that YOUR PITY WOULD HAVE MATTERED.

     Don’t be ridiculous. And believe me, I have LOTS I could be complaining about. This is an egregious mistake by Dreamhost and they continue, into day two, to handle it VERY badly.

     Where’s my money Dreamhost? What good is an email that says “…you should have your money on immediately. One or two days, tops.” What the hell kind of an estimate is that?

511. MW is spam banned again Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 11:45 am

     And no, I don’t have any groceries in my house. Unlucky, huh? I have an almost empty gas tank in my car, too. Are either of these things Dreamhost’s fault? Nope. Is it their fault that I have no money to cover these things, when I would have if not for their error? Yes!

512. happy joe Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 11:54 am

     I wrote a comment on lunarpages s(hitty)blog saying that despite current DreamHost phat-finger problem I am still with them and giving my reasons why.

     My bad to lose my time with them, the a-holes didn’t publish the comment, still they have the f-u DH and other ‘wise’ comments

     I’ll put my reasons tomorrow here — on why I’m still with DH
     One thing to share with you before tomorrow: use Google CheckOut! (I wasn’t billed at all, just emailed about it!)

     Cheers,

513. MW is spam banned again Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 11:55 am

     And of course I’m being irrational. Chances are by Friday I’ll have my money back and I’ll be mostly mollified. But leaving so many of their customers high and dry like this while laughing it away in a ‘clever’ blog post that PRETENDS to explain the problem (but doesn’t ACTUALLY explain what happened)… none of this is OK. None of this is cool. Yes, I’m mostly mad that this happened at all and granted, you could probably criticize anything they did at this point somehow, but you can’t tell me that their handling of this has been ideal or even acceptable.

514. Sean Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 12:01 pm

     @MW:
     I certainly don’t believe they handled this properly at all. But as Ed pointed out, they first have to correct the problem (the issue isn’t resolved on the status page) and get things back to situation normal before they can focus on the exceptions. Your case does seem to fall into the exception category and will need actual Eyes On Problem to fix instead of some handy script that worked for a lot of other people.

     I honestly don’t think they are laughing. A google search of Dreamhost right now turns up competitor sites talking about ‘being over billed’. They are in a nightmare right now and if they are taking time to read any of this, then their priorities are out of whack.

     Yes, they should give a daily status update to this problem. The fact they haven’t is poor Crisis Management. Ranting about the fact it is poor crisis management won’t alter it.

515. Nate Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 12:04 pm

     What I don’t get, is why dreamhost isn’t hiring temps to make phone calls and sort through the emails and send faxes to banks.

     I understand they’re in an all-hands kind of situation, but the right thing would be to hire extra hands for the week and get out of this mess.

     An additional 3 days of 3 temps at $300 per day would equal $2700, and help them immensely. Doing this would say “we care” to plenty of their customers, and that would easily make enough stay to offset the cost of this.

516. Sean Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 12:11 pm

     @Nate:
     I fully agree, but I’m agreeing without really knowing what is going on inside the shop. Maybe it isn’t a more hands issue but a more time issue.

     At some point they should consider calling in someone’s cousin, brother, sister, whatever to provide very calm rational non-jokey status updates.

517. dreamhosthater Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 12:23 pm

     thanks for making me poor, im outta here – the exdreamhost user

518. This is a big deal Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 12:37 pm

     I can forgive the billing screwup.

     I can almost forgive the light hearted humor over a VERY serious screw up.

     What I can’t forgive is the fact that my site was shut down.

     You see I was at a job interview and my site has my portfolio on it. When I wanted to show of my work, guess what? My site was down! VERY Embarrassing to say the least. I hope you understand that while you are coming up with witty jokes to explain this, this MASSIVE screwup affects peoples lives.

     I can only hope that they don’t hold my site being down against me.

     So thanks alot DH!

519. TVForPC Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 12:40 pm

     Its ok, http://www.TVForPC.com is still on board!

520. envygeeks Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 12:51 pm

     Better get an eye test and go ahead and visit a neurologist to check out your brain Josh. I noticed the 2008 part of the list right off the bat. Secondly, are you a programmer? Because what you said about programs and programmers is fucking wrong. WAY FUCKING WRONG.

521. Teresa Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 12:58 pm

     It was a complete, honest mistake that has been worked on diligently by the DH team. I am grateful for their honesty and their quick response.

     Shit happens! How many of you who are flaming them for an error are guilty of doing stupid mistakes in your own workplace? It’s not like you’ve never done anything wrong.

522. Raphyy Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 12:58 pm

     …and that’s where the line was crossed. 7.5 million dollars isn’t something you fuck up and joke about. It’s serious money, and it’s a serious matter. The 30 minutes that took you guys to come up with this post could have been 30 minutes to fix the issue.

     I hope that you guys have a nice way to apologize for the immature act. Whatever, I’ll be moving host now anyways, and unless they do something for you, I hope you choose the same action.

523. Creature Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 1:00 pm

     So in the past 18 months we’ve had a month long outage¹, a massive leak of people’s passwords², and now the billing snafu.

     People take their web sites, email, and the other services you provide very seriously. Some of them are using it to run their business; others are using it for pleasure. Either way, for better or worse, people care about it. Maybe they shouldn’t³, but they do. Most of them just want it to seem like you care as well. The jokes come off like a sniggering schoolboy – something doubly inexcusable because you’re not just affecting people’s online world but their bank accounts too.

     People will forgive your mistakes up to a point (it’s a different point for everyone), but laughing at your own mistakes that cost people time, money, and hassle will bring that point sooner. This isn’t Dreamhost’s first cockup.

     ¹ http://blog.dreamhost.com/2006/08/01/anatomy-of-an-ongoing-disaster/
     ² http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/07/dreamhost_hack/
     ³ http://www.encyclopediadramatica.com/index.php/The_Internet_Is_Serious_Business

524. Gregory Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 1:00 pm

     After reading as many posts as I could (and the post on TechCrunch), I figured I should actually post.

     I really appreciate what you guys do- sure, my sites down more than it would be other places. But for the price I’m paying, I’m completely okay with that. People seem to want low prices with perfect quality. And, this isn’t knocking Dreamhost at all- I would never pay two or three (or more, a lot of times) times the price for the extra 1-2% more uptime. It’s a compromise, and people who want 100% uptime and no errors should go somewhere else.

     As for the tone of the post- what did people expect? That’s the attitude dreamhost has always had. Ive never seen a host that’s as up front with their customers as Dreamhost… For example, during all those outages a few summers ago. And what’s wrong with humor? I found it funny and completely sincere at the same time.

     I know its been said by a lot of people already… However, I’m going to say it again: most of you aren’t going to have a problem. For those of you who do have a problem, Dreamhost already said they’d do whatever they can to fix it. What more do you want? If anybody has the right to be upset and in a bad mood, it’s dreamhost- they just made a huge error, and are going to have to face some serious consequences. And yet, they’re still able to stay positive about it.

     I can’t be the only one who has made an error- overwriting a file by mistake, or pressing something I shouldn’t have. We all do it. Dreamhost’s slips were just a bit more costly – how many of you people that are complaining have the ability to overcharge people $7.5 million dollars? When you can say that you’ve never made a slip (and I know you can’t), then you have the right to bitch.

525. Loyal Customer Since 2000 Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 1:05 pm

     I have been a customer for a long time. Something like 8 years.

     I find your honesty and humor refreshing compared to large faceless companies. I do not find it degrading or offensive in any way.

     Frankly, I am glad you are real people, like me, just trying to do your best. Accidents happen. I know this didn’t happen because you were joking around writing a newsletter or anything.

     Everyone makes mistakes.

     Somehow it’s cute when a 5 year old is honest for making a mistake and apologizing, but when you guys do it you get flamed? What kind of sense does that make?

526. Mel Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 1:08 pm

     Your honesty is appreciated. It’s a lot more than some companies give you when things go wrong – and having worked for one when things went very wrong, I know this firsthand.

527. Robin Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 1:14 pm

     I get so sick of everyone talking about companies do this all the time… Um… no… they don’t. In fact, I’ve been doing business online for a long time and this has never happened to me. And I’ve asked around – no one has ever had this happen to them either.

     So get off your high horse and stop kissing DH’s arse. Because they screwed up royally. And are continuing to screw up.

     I got an email. I don’t get my money back for 5-7 days? That is completely and utterly unacceptable. And I’m not being offered any sort of compensation, although I’ve had to make a trip to my bank to have an overdraft fee taken care of because Dreamhost isn’t competent enough themselves to do it.

     What I really don’t understand is that why things were refunded, rather than charges reversed? Because that would have gone into effect immediately, rather than now having to wait 5-7 days for $300 that I needed for something else.

     I’m fortunate, I have a good savings account. However, I should have not had to dip into it to cover Dreamhost’s mistake.

     And to answer the guy about the 5-year-old. That’s exactly it. This is a large company, not a bunch of 5-year-olds. They’re just acting like they’re children because they find this whole situation funny and cute, apparently.

     I still don’t. $300 might not be a lot of money to some of you “rich” folks on here, but to working Americans like myself, it’s a lot.

528. Rod Stewart Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 1:21 pm

     HaHa, very funny. Enjoy the extra revenue you made from your lame ass mistake.

529. statevectorcollapse Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 1:22 pm

     It’s this kind of forthcoming, honest and candid communication that keeps me at Dreamhost. I’ve been working with data service providers for well over 20 years and Dreamhost is by far the best experience I’ve had. The communication is always proactive, and when there’s a problem, they LET YOU KNOW. I can’t tell you how refreshing that is given years of dealing with CYA corporate BS when trying to get a straight answer from data service companies.

     If there’s one constant in today’s business world, it’s that mistakes are always going to be made. The fact that Dreamhost has identified this problem publicly, shared a detailed explanation, and has explained how they’re fixing it shows a level of respect for their customers far above and beyond that of their competition.

     Yes, this is a big problem. Yes, they need to fix it. But I have every confidence that Dreamhost will come out stronger for it provided they learn from this mistake and continue to stay honest and up front with their customers.

     Keep your chin up, Dreamhost, and ignore the negativity. You’re doing a great job.

530. Robin Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 1:23 pm

     I just got an email that stated the following:

     “We have already reveresed the incorrect charges that we charged you but in some cases you may still have further issues. So refunds have already been made but in some cases may take 5-7 business days to show up.”

     So it actually says they reversed AND refunded? I don’t think they know the difference. A reversal goes through immediately, unless I’m mistaken?

531. envygeeks Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 1:25 pm

     Josh IS NOT A FUCKING PROGRAMMER. He is a fucking poser, programmers DO NOT MAKE MISTAKES LIKE THIS. WE HAVE THE ABILITY TO NOTICE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 2007 and 2008. HE IS NOT A FUCKING PROGRAMMER.

     Caps FTW? I was screaming so I guess it was alright :(. Either way, that mother fucker Josh, is not a fucking programmer. He may know a bit of “programming” but certainly, as stupid as he is, he can’t be a programmer. He Fails.

532. envygeeks Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 1:27 pm

     Comment #540 was just my personal opinion though. So pay no mind and don’t get butt hurt.

533. Chris Openmind Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 1:31 pm

     1st chance given. This is the 2nd: remove the copy written/trademarked material from this blog.

534. Bobert Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 1:34 pm

     My Dearest Anonymous,

     Of course, Bobert is not my real name. However, something that ridiculous makes it much easier for others to reply to me than if I used the same fake name as 300 other people on the same post – say, “Anonymous?” But if making fun of a name no one would ever give their child lightens your day, please, continue at your leisure.

     Past that, I love that you think you’ve got me figured out. I’m not a liberal, and I hate what liberals have attempted to do to our colleges. I am not one who feels I am entitled to anything. I actually hate people who feel that way, and make fun of them on a regular basis. I have no silver spoon, nor am I affluent. I’m working my way through college – 30+ hrs/week of work and 16 hours of classes (not including homework, studying, etc.) I pay for school, books, rent, gas, insurance, food, utilities, and everything else “real grown ups” pay for. You’re right, I don’t know everyone’s circumstances. But I find it amusing that you think you do. Heck, I could go into a big lengthy discussion of your hatred of all college students. I could discuss the lack of intelligence and/or talent that kept you out of school, the painful “prank” some frat boys played on you one time, or the newly-graduated college kid who just became your boss at half your age and twice your pay. But I won’t do that, because it’s ridiculous.

     Now on to the real issue – the money. Linking a bank account to anything online, especially anything with an autopay feature, should never even be an option. That’s the only fault I find with Dreamhost here (besides the obvious overbilling mistake). I don’t understand how anyone would decide to actually take advantage of that option. Same with a debit card. You have no protection when using a debit card. The last place you want to use it is online, regardless of the site’s security. If anyone happens to steal your card information, you’re liable for every single charge made, and every overdraft fee associated with those charges. Credit cards (or, if you don’t have one, paypal) are the only realistic options for online payment. Their limit on fraudulent charges is $50, and many companies will refund any overage fees incurred by mistakes like this (and not put it on your credit report if it’s resolved within 30 days). If you don’t understand the financial tools you’re using, don’t use them, at least until you do a half hour’s worth of research.

     And you’ve ended with yet another excellent jab at a ridiculously fake name. Well done. It cuts to the quick.

535. Anon Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 1:38 pm

     WE AR IN UR BLOG SCREEMING SHITZ!

     You guys could use the time you’re bitching to get a job to generate money to replace the money dreamhost “stole” from you :) And people with a job wouldn’t have the time to cry like that.

536. Antonio B Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 1:47 pm

     Im a programmer. A pretty good one.
     And I WOULD make a mistake like that.
     ….it’s part of bieng a HUMAN programmer.
     And don’t use one label and make it aply to everyone.
     Even programemrs are not perfect.
     I have crashed so much stuff it’s not even funny.
     Well it wasn’t at the time.
     But I have also dome some great stuff.
     So….

537. Dominik Ferber Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 2:04 pm

     hehe this is a pitty for your customers, but i really enjoyed the way you wrote your article. it was fun to read. thank you :)

     looking forward to your next mistake :D

     PS: i feel like you are going to be my next host.
     sry for my bad english.

538. donna Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 2:11 pm

     my, people get testy.

     I’m a customer BECAUSE I like the light tone that DH takes, and their complete transparency with problems like this. I’ve worked in web hosting, I know that things fuck up — ok, granted, I’ve never fucked up quite to this magnitude… but whatever.

     And I still don’t care. They made a mistake. They’re fixing it. Good enough for me. Hell, if it hadn’t been for this post, I would have assumed it was just my account that they screwed up.

     I agree that anyone who has automatic rebilling might want to rethink that, though. I don’t do automatic billing for anything, be it online or not. Mistakes happen, I prefer to choose when I’m paying for things rather than just letting them happen on their own.

     As has been said before… it’s only money. :)

539. tomelders Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 2:16 pm

     You fucked up, you were honest about it, you fixed it, you apologized. No other company would dare admit to a monumental fuck up like this. I take my hat off to you all and if you keep on going like this (with out the screw ups) then I’ll be a customer for life.

540. Nazim Jamil Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 2:17 pm

     Lay off Josh, it takes a bigger man to admit when he’s made a mistake.

541. hogarth Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 2:19 pm

     I had no idea that DH had such a bevy of fanboys at their disposal. It is amazing that these people are attacking those of us who feel aggrieved by what happened, making it seem as if it was, after all, really OUR fault that this happened.

     You guys should be lawyers. Really.

     I’ve said it before and I’ll repeat it. I believe this “whoops” is going to lead to Dreamhost closing their doors forever, once the dust settles. What happened was legally actionable, and I am quite surprised that law enforcement has not shown up to close the operation down while they investigate. The banks and other financial institutions involved in this debacle take a very dim view of this sort of nonsense, as Dreamhost will soon discover, if they haven’t already.

542. Matt Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 2:20 pm

     “As has been said before… it’s only money. :)”

     Gimme $50, afterall… “it’s only money. :)”

     Clearly, you don’t value your time if you don’t value your money. Hm… guess that’s why you’re here.

543. Sean Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 2:27 pm

     @Hogarth:

     If DH closes their doors because of this, I will be really surprised.

     I’m not a fanboy of DH, I have no loyalty and will switch at the drop of a hat if I believed I could get better service elsewhere.

     I am a person who believes that making noise about calling in the FBI, filing class action lawsuits, etc. at this point in time is being done out of some hopes that DH will fill the pressure… as if they aren’t feeling it already.

     Instead of the bluster about how someone is going to leave their service… say it once and leave. But I’d love to know what domain you had hosted with them. So far when people have linked their websites, the name servers have been from all sorts of random places. Only a couple people posting their concerns have been from Dreamhost and those people while posting upset messages about how this has been handled have been at least rational in their approach.

544. Jeremy Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 2:31 pm

     tomelders Said: “You fucked up, you were honest about it, you fixed it, you apologized. No other company would dare admit to a monumental fuck up like this.”

     Oh come on – they incorrectly billed EVERY ONE of their customers (all who had automatic billing) for a total of SEVEN POINT FIVE MILLION DOLLARS.

     Not admitting to that would ABSOLUTELY be legally actionable. It would have been FRAUD. Any other company that wanted to stay in business would HAVE to admit to it!

     Whether there is a class-action suit possible depends on those who actually suffered damages due to this. My THREE DIFFERENT credit-card accounts got corrected before anything bad happened so I’m not out money (and wouldn’t be any part of a suit). But aside from that, trust of DH is severely damaged. And Josh doesn’t give a crap. His company is raking in YOUR $7.5M + a year.

545. hogarth Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 2:35 pm

     @Sean

     I am not “making noise” about calling in the FBI, or filing suit. I said I am truly surprised that law enforcement has not gotten involved. (In point of fact they may already have, which may explain DH’s silence since this morning).

     And I also stated that I believe this event has doomed DH to failure. I stand by both statements, though they reflect only my opinion.

     I was stunned at what happened, but was willing to accept that “accidents happen” – even accidents that doom your business. What has totally frosted me, however was the blog entry that Josh chose to post. It is stunningly innappropriate to the gravity of the situation, and that – and that alone – is why I would consider leaving the service here.

     Incidentally, I do host stereographic.net through DH. Currently no website, but the domain was acquired and registered through DH.

546. Sean Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 2:45 pm

     @Hogarth:
     I could believe DH lawyers are making sure they are tight lipped and I am one of those who was put off by the attempt to be flippant in regards to this error.

     Yet, it was an error. They are still in the midst of fixing it and in the midst of fixing something is not the time to rattle the cage.

     When all is said and done, then we will see the true fallout. I respect your speculation, but I just find it doubtful this dooms DH. I do think it will be a serious blow to their business and will be something they have to recover from.

     Chilean grapes were once thought to be laced with poison. Tylenol was once thought to be tainted. Jack-in-the-Box killed people. In fact the jack in the box situation is a great study in how to turn a crisis moment along with a pr foul-up into a win.

     http://www.jonentine.com/ethical_edge/jack_crisis.htm

     Doomsday predictions are pretty weak and normally off the mark.

547. Sean Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 2:52 pm

     @MW:
     Man, I’m truly sorry. Your 2008 is turning out to be really crappy.

548. TomasczV Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 3:24 pm

     Still no refund. And now responses to DreamHost’s “support” email address are returning “Delivery Failure” messages.

     And by the way, anyone who writes here defending DH on any basis whatsoever has their head completely and irretrievably up their own ass. If you think DH somehow doesn’t rate as a corporate entity just like all others just because of Josh’s breezy bullshit or because employees wear jeans and t-shirts or have various not-typically-corporate shit in their office (I direct you to the photos of their “new office party” elsewhere on this blog), then your head is tickling your tonsils.

     DH has now had my money for two full business days. They owe me and all other affected parties not only the amount of the original debit plus fees, they also owe us two days’ interest for that period.

549. TomasczV Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 3:34 pm

     P.S. See how cool DH is by trying to give their parent company, New Dream Network, LLC, a call: here’s the info:

     5610 Soto St
     Huntington Park, CA , 90255-2636
     Phone: 323-583-7991
     Website: http://www.newdream.net

     “Delivery Failure” messages; phone out of service. Yeah, they’re the very model of what a modern company should be.

550. Anonymous Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 3:42 pm

     Tim said: “See, when you hit your credit limit, charges get declined.”

     You are plain out wrong there buddy. YOUR credit card company may decline any further charges, but many credit card companies WILL allow the charge to go through and WILL assess a fee in accordance with their terms of agreement. If I went over my credit limit I would be assessed a fee of a none less that $100. Get your facts straight before you go spouting off as if you know it all.

551. Tof Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 3:43 pm

     @ Kimberly Chapman

     You obviously have no idea how one’s credit works.

     QUOTE:
     “I don’t carry a balance on my card so it won’t be a problem for me in that regard, but we’re house-hunting, and if a an almost $600 charge came up on the day that I was having my credit checked for mortgage purposes, it might affect what rate I am offered. Will you be reimbursing people for those potential losses?”

     Are you kidding?? It might affect your rate???? You’re out of your mind, lady. Get your facts straight before shooting sh1t all over the place.

552. Christopher Bowen Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 3:57 pm

     First off, let me begin by saying I was unaffected by this; my rebill date is January 5th, so thankfully, no charges were incurred by me. So maybe I’d be a little more outraged if it was my money that was affected.

     However, that said, even if I was affected, I understand the concept of “billing error”, and I also understand the concept of a company and a person that needs to handle a catastrophe – the kind that can cost jobs – with humour. While I understand the outrage from people that were affected by this, I can think of a lot of company – a LOT more – that would have spun this massively, and no one would know a damn thing of what happened. Total transparency, regardless of humour, lets us know they know the problem, what the fix was, and that steps are underway to handle the fallout. I’d rather have that then “we’re handling it”, and then a lawyerly piece of spin that some Lv. 1 tech drone has to read off her screen.

     So while this is a horrible, truly HORRIBLE situation, I am satisfied with Dreamhost, and will stick with them because I like to know what’s happening.

553. Kris Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 4:02 pm

     stop pissing and moaning, instead go find a way to make more money…. theres always going to be someone that comes along and takes your money or shits in your cereal… moaning wont bring back the cereal, instead always be prepared by having more cereal… if you had enough money to cover it you would be laughing about the mistake with josh instead of bitching… Josh, if you ever read these lame comments (which I sure as hell wouldn’t if I were you)… but if you do, just ignore these people because if you stuck them in the situation youre in right now they would probably hide like little bitches instead of owning up like you did…Good job dreamhost, this situation has actually made me want to upgrade to a dedicated server…

554. Sean Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 4:03 pm

     @Christopher:

     One thing is for sure… this mistake won’t ever happen again.

555. Christopher Bowen Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 4:11 pm

     Josh still hasn’t addressed or even acknowleged this discrepancy. Despite all you people saying how wonderfully transparent you are (I’m really, REALLY beginning to suspect astroturfing here and I DON’T appreciate it).

     None here; I’ve had my own past problems with Dreamhost, but they were resolved because I got to talk to the person that suspended my account in the first place (DMCA issue); it wasn’t pretty, but at any other company, I wouldn’t have had that chance; I’d have been blinded by paperwork and legalese.

556. Kris Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 4:12 pm

     @MW is spam banned again
     Let me know when you get two vaginas… then we’ll talk…

557. hogarth Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 4:13 pm

     @Christopher Bowen:

     You’re sticking with DH because you like to know what’s happening.
     That’s interesting. I’m considering leaving DH for exactly the same reason. No one from DH has said “boo” since this morning.

     What I actually think is happening is a handful of folks are scratching their, er…heads, trying to deal with the morass that the actions of one of their employees has created.
     Sucking money OUT of someone’s account is one matter – putting it back is something else. And what happens as a result of possibly fraudulent billing practices varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. What is allowed in one place is grounds for jail time in another. A can of worms has been opened. Big, scary worms with nasty, sharp teeth.

     How, for example, will DH deal with the claims of its members who say that their accounts went into overdraft, causing checks to bounce, etc? Will they require proof of this before paying, or will all claims be paid regardless of veracity?
     Will all claims be paid in full, and won’t this severely damage DH’s ability to pay its OWN bills if so?

     The enormity of what has just happened is awesome. Whether you consider it fraud, or otherwise illegal, the peril to DH’s continued existence should be obvious.

     This is not the same as Jack In the Box killing a few kids while most of its customers felt just fine, thank you. In this case, MOST of DH’s customers have been affected.

     I believe we are witnessing the implosion of our webhosting company.

558. Dude Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 4:17 pm

     Dude, Ouch.

559. Kris Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 4:19 pm

     If it was me i would have just taken the 7.5 million and bolted to a country somewhere in eastern europe…

560. Jeek Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 4:25 pm

     Wow.. this is NOT funny!

561. Martin Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 4:26 pm

     So still no refund, and no word from DH for a while. Their emails are bouncing and the phone for their parent company is disconnected. How do we know they haven’t just skipped away with a cool $7.5m?

562. Dany Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 4:28 pm

     “You’re sticking with DH because you like to know what’s happening.
     That’s interesting. I’m considering leaving DH for exactly the same reason. No one from DH has said “boo” since this morning.”

     I am going to swim against the grain towards optimism and say that perhaps the reason for this is because things are being worked on and there is no time to stir the coals any hotter than they already are.

     Also, in regards to an earlier statement about mortgage and such:

     “Are you kidding?? It might affect your rate???? You’re out of your mind, lady. Get your facts straight before shooting sh1t all over the place.”

     When I last looked at my credit report, there was a listing of the maxes of my cards, and what my cards were carrying at the time that the report is run.

     The amount of debt carried on your cards versus what you have as your maximums, as well as your overall debt, affects your FICO score. Your FICO score affects interest rates for other credit cards and yes, mortgages.

     So depending on the situation, it has the potential to affect you if you are househunting. Now, given the situation, you could explain to the bank that hey, my webhost did a stupid, but it’s much easier if you don’t have that problem.

563. Kris Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 4:32 pm

     or you could live in a van down by the river

564. spiral Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 4:38 pm

     Kris… this reminds me of those “Southwest Airline” commercials, where someone does something stupid and embarrasses themselves –

     “Want to get away?”

     With 7.5 mil… hellyeah… the first country that came up on my google search for “no u.s. extradition agreement”

565. DJSlim Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 4:40 pm

     want a professional host who won’t pull this stuff. Check out

     http://www.imountain.com :)

566. spiral Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 4:41 pm

     Maybe… try some change management for future code runs when it comes to anything that could directly affect a customer. working for an MSP – I would have been nailed to a cross in the front lawn by my manager had I done this “on-the-cuff”…

567. Cliff Wells Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 5:05 pm

     Luckily I don’t host with DH (I’d have been pretty annoyed), but jeez.

     First off, you can’t call the FBI. Or rather you can but you’ll have your “case” round-filed before the phone’s back on the hook. Get real. It’s a mistake. No one prosecutes mistakes.

     Secondly, I thought the article was entirely adequate. It explained how what otherwise might be considered a deed of evil by a faceless corporation was actually just human error.

     To all the people who felt that they were somehow slighted by the article’s tone, perhaps you ought to understand that the article was making light of the *author’s* stupid mistakes, not yours. Any light made of your stupidity came later, when you whined about it.

     Anyway, pretty funny.

568. shawn stone Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 5:37 pm

     So this is all fine and dandy
     But I was charged for two-two year subscriptions. Luckily i had just changed my CC number and you guys did not have the new #. So no harm.

     But my concern is; Next year or next month when I have an 1400 dollar mortgage payment. and come up 400 dollars short due too more mystery charges from dreamhost.

     I am payed to nov 2008 and will be leaving my credit card OFF my account untill I get a renewal email. By then I will decide to repay, based on future problems or lack there of. or move elsewhere.

569. Dany Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 5:55 pm

     “But they ran their happy fix it script, right? What could they possibly still be working on? The script has fixed everything. Right?”

     Don’t know any more than you do, probably.

     Chances are, there’s probably a lot more to look into than just one script to supposedly fix it all. Things break a lot faster than they are put back together.

     And given that 10,000 individual breaks just happened? I’m sure it’s going to take longer than 24 hours and some glue.

570. warped Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 6:01 pm

     Get Warped.

571. GR Andy Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 6:11 pm

     I am the sales manager of another webhost. I must admit that this is the stupidest thing youve done. Not overcharging customers but making a joke about it. Roud and inprofessional. I look foreward to more customers.

572. dustin Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 6:25 pm

     This company is a fucking joke. I hope you guys are sued.

573. Myles Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 6:27 pm

     Well, I’ll be staying with DH.

     Forgive and move on. Unfortunately the charge did push me below the minimum rate to maintain on my checking account so I’m out about $10 or 20 dollar charge with Bank of America.

     I hope they can pay for this but then again, I hope they don’t go under, survive the ordeal and learn for the future.

     I think a more sincere posting about it would have been better received and then you can joke afterwards.

     Best of luck guys.

574. Mr. Smee Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 6:56 pm

     OMG some of the responses here are so damned funny! “class action lawsuit especially” I work for a major registrar/host company and I can tell you that the company I work for would have given less info than than here and would have taken longer to fix.
     The post also made me LOL. Some people are just anal and want something to scream about. I mean I’d be upset too but geez how can you be mad at someone who mans up then can laugh at himself for doing something dumb AND offers to pay you back with damages (like overdraft or the OMG my credit rating!!!)

     Big W00T to you DH.
     -Tech Support from a rival company

575. David Molnar Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 7:37 pm

     Hi,

     Thank you for the explanation. The unexpected charge was a shock, and knowing what went wrong is helpful. I have to say, though, that the tone seems out of place and the post rambles. Not what I’m looking for when I’m trying to figure out what It’d be helpful if in the future you had a short summary at the top that explained things quickly before getting into the bizarro world.

     Like, “Summary: we made a mistake and overcharged users for a year or more of service. We have fixed the problem and will refund your money as soon as possible. Please contact XXX@dreamhost.com with questions.” Something like that would help quite a bit.

576. ROFL@U Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 8:02 pm

     @GR Andy: “roud and unprofessional… i look foreward to more customers”

     hmm… ignorance? stupidity? TYPOS?

     dorque.

577. wow Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 8:06 pm

     You guys seriously fucking suck. Ive been begging myself to pick up all my stuff and transfer it over for about 9 years now. I don’t know who to hate more. Me for being so patient with you, or you guys flat out for being the MOST INCOMPETENT, FRUSTRATING, EXCUSE FOR A COMPANY EVER.

578. bob Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 8:07 pm

     I’ve got to say, between the owner of DreamHost talking shit to people on forums (Something Awful), and these kind of massive fuck ups, I’m glad I reconsidered ever signing up with you incompetent, smug fucks.

     I literally was able to ask random people at a datacenter I went to last week about your company, and they had nothing good to say.

     What a shitty fucking company.

579. _ex_ Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 8:09 pm

     thank you for this explanation, you dind’t try to hide or makeup your mistake, so kudos for you!! I hope you are not fired :) I really learned something with your post. Thank you again.

580. bbdevil Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 8:20 pm

     Good thing I sat up my own server and don’t need a bunch of nerd teens to host my site. Thanks DreamHost for giving me the perfect post for my site today.

581. bbdevil Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 8:24 pm

     One more thing: I suggest a name change: NightmareHost.

     You are welcome!

582. GR-Andy Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 8:48 pm

     Typo. I guess thats what happens when you eat and work. You get sticky keys. *That is a more appropriate joke for a blog* Joking about overcharging 7.5 mil isn’t a laughing matter.

583. Areus Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 9:44 pm

     I’ll be a lot more remorseful for some of these asses when they can show that a whopping years worth of hosting put them on the streets.

     Until then, lighten up and quit acting like GR-Andy and the rest of the thumbsuckers out there.

584. Laura Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 10:03 pm

     A lot of you are inventing insult where there is none. You’re gleeful to be offended.

585. GR-Andy Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 10:05 pm

     There is alot of college students and highschool students that use hosting. Yes a couple 100$ over draft could in theory make them collapse. Putting my personal oppions behind me. I think you guys did a nice job as a company to at least be honest.

586. anonymous except for my logged ip Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 10:27 pm

     Please file a class action lawsuit if you are a patron of this company. What they have done is explicity illegal due to the extensive damages caused by negligence. The company, and that fellow pictured, are each fiscally responsible for recompense in different amounts.

     Please contact a lawyer.

587. Dave Says:
     January 17th, 2008 at 1:21 am

     The amount of poeple with poles inserted far into their butts is depressing, and indicates the problem with modern business.

     ‘Let’s have a nice corporate response so we can deal with it in a corporate way’ seems to be the appropriate attitude – I wonder how many of these people have never had the cold sweat of ‘wtf have I just done’ and had to issue a red-faced apology.

     At least they had the balls to come out and admit it – and offer compensation, refunds and any assistance required.

     Business would be a whole lot more successful in this era if people relaxed more and accepted that we’re still run by humans with human frailties.

     Good luck with your stress management and ‘life conselling’…

588. Bob Says:
     January 17th, 2008 at 2:18 am

     I hear HostGator.com has some nice deals going on. Maybe I’ll go join them…

589. Simon Robertshaw Says:
     January 17th, 2008 at 5:18 am

     Well, at least it isn’t $7.5 Million Per Person

590. Chaf Says:
     January 17th, 2008 at 5:37 am

     Apology accepted!!!!!!!

     You really scared the crap out of me and my partners the other day!

591. Pasquale Says:
     January 17th, 2008 at 5:38 am

     You are an idiot. It’s annoying enough that we have to read a blog just to find out when crap goes wrong, r, and companies that are tounge in cheek are great, but trying to blow it off as a joke is ridiculous.

     I’m moving to mediatemple asap. This host feels like it’s run by a bunch of dumb teens.

592. SuriV Says:
     January 17th, 2008 at 6:41 am

     NEXT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

     Bye bye Dreamhost!!!

593. Roy Says:
     January 17th, 2008 at 9:03 am

     What I see int he comments here are lots of tight-assed whiners and even more astroturfing from your competitors. Frankly, I enjoy and appreciate the fact that you’re willing to manage your business on your own terms. I’m curious how many customers you lose because of this debacle though :(

594. Legal layman Says:
     January 17th, 2008 at 9:19 am

     # anonymous except for my logged ip Says:
     January 16th, 2008 at 10:27 pm

     Please file a class action lawsuit if you are a patron of this company. What they have done is explicity illegal due to the extensive damages caused by negligence. The company, and that fellow pictured, are each fiscally responsible for recompense in different amounts.

     Please contact a lawyer.
     ———————
     I say you’re an idiot if you believe this.

     Didn’t you notice the part where they said they’d make good on any charges or other damages?

     Class action lawsuit rofl – have fun going broke on the frivolous lawyers fees.

595. Mortgage broker Says:
     January 17th, 2008 at 9:22 am

     Those of you worried about what going over limit will do to your credit reports need to read the news more.

     If your cards are maxed out that badly, your credit score is probably too low to get a mortgage now. The sub-prime days are over, baby!

596. Greebo Says:
     January 17th, 2008 at 9:26 am

     A primer on ACH transactions and why refunds take longer than charges.

     Short version – thank your bank.

     Long version – when you perform an electronic transaction involving your bank account, the electronic transaction takes 4 days to process, verify, and commit. The 4 days is to allow bank 1 and bank 2 to agree that yes, the spender had the money, and yes, we’re taking it out of his account and giving it to you, and yes, we got it.

     Now most banks when you withdraw money via ACH debit that money from your account immediately. It just makes sense – they lock that money out so it can’t vanish while the transaction is open.

     Likewise, when you *receive* money, the money isn’t posted until confirmation of receipt has completed. Why? So you don’t go spending it and then have the money taken out again.

     So – withdrawals are immediate from your perspective, but the recipient of the money doesn’t really get it for 4 days. Refunds to you take longer from your perspective, but the sender of the money sees the money go immediately.

     DH can’t change that.

597. sally Says:
     January 17th, 2008 at 9:31 am

     i’m out $3400, it would be nice to know when i’m going to get it back.

598. Lilacwire Says:
     January 17th, 2008 at 10:50 am

     Thanks for the quick response on this, guys. I, for one, am glad you can be light-hearted about it. It shows you have perspective. I appreciate that you have been so honest as well. This is why I continue to do business with you. Good luck getting everything sorted out.

599. Nancy Reagan Says:
     January 17th, 2008 at 1:07 pm

     RAWR RAWR RAWR HOW _DARE_ YOU EXPLAIN YOURSELF IN YOUR OWN WORDS HOW _DARE_ YOU TURN YOUR BACK ON DECADES’ WORTH OF RESEARCH INTO THE FINEST CORPORATE EMPTY APOLOGIES PERMITTED BY LANGUAGE HOW _DARE_ YOU INCLUDE A PICTURE OF HOMER SIMPSON. HOW _DARE_ YOU. YOU _MONSTERS_. YOU HEARTLESS _MONSTERS_.

     I WILL HAVE YOU KNOW THAT I AM A VERY SERIOUS INTERNET PERSON AND THIS IS INCREDIBLY SERIOUS BUSINESS AND IN FACT WERE YOU TO OFFER THE SAME STYLE OF APOLOGY I WOULD GET FROM MICROSOFT, DOW CHEMICAL, ET. AL., IT WOULD PROBABLY MAGICALLY REPAIR THE HYPOTHETICAL DAMAGE TO MY CREDIT RATING! YOU WILL BE SPEAKING TO MY LAWYER AND BY GOD THE JUDGE _WILL_ FORCE YOU TO WRITE A SOULLESS APOLOGY. YOU WILL BE VERY VERY SORRY. YOU COUNTER-APOLOGETIC _MONSTER_.

     Seriously, some of you people in the comments are such imbeciles.

600. not a customer, but... Says:
     January 17th, 2008 at 2:42 pm

     C’mon guys. Do you really think he meant to overcharge you? I mean, i’m not a customer, but if i was, I’d stick with them for having the balls to explain what they f**ked up on, and what they are going to do about it. And moreover, having the balls to add a dash of fun to it, maybe trying to lighten people up, yet half of you are being grumpy, tight and pathetic, over a little mistake. Everyone makes them. This might have been expensive, but in the long run it’ll hurt DH more than it hurts you, so LAY OFF THEM FOR A WHILE, give them a chance.
     If your credit rating is damaged, call the card company up, tell them what happened, and fix it. If they don’t, then they aren’t worth your business. The company i’m with would get verification, and fix the problem, same day. Same goes for other fees, and maybe it’ll teach you a lesson, don’t leave things on autobill, and leave SOME BACKUP MONEY IN YOUR ACCOUNTS! this could happen from anywhere at any time, be ready, prevention is better than cure.
     If I was with DH, I’d stick around, and continue to refer my mates. Josh fucked up, pushed the wrong key. It cost you a bit. So what, you are going to move your oh-so-precious sites that aren’t actualyl worth that much if you don’t even have enough in your accounts to cover a years fees, to another cheaper, shittier webhost, and then give them shit for a little mistake that is BOUND TO HAPPEN. See where I’m going here? DH learned from their fuckup; and it won’t happen again. Taking Joshs’ job from him would be pathetic, think of all the helpful support he has given everyone; and that he started DH. Without him, you pathetic losers with shitty sites that are now complaining, would be bitching at another company.
     And lawsuits? because of a messup? That’s just pathetic guys, grow up. you are acting like 3year olds. I’m sure my 9 year old kid would take this better than you lot.
     For those who are staying and defending DH, i’m with you all the way.

601. not a customer, but... Says:
     January 17th, 2008 at 2:45 pm

     pathetic losers wasn’t the right thing to say; I don’t mean that to everyone. There are some peope being stupid about this, and the notes that the blog wasn’t great are valid, it’s the ones spitting swearwords like candy; their being pathetic. Just to clarify

602. Richard Says:
     January 17th, 2008 at 2:48 pm

     OK, I’m not a customer so I’m not affected by this…. but all you guys whinging about not getting a “serious” apology?

     Here’s what you’d get from XYZ GenericHost:

     Dear Customer,

     Due to an issue with our billing system, your card was inadvertently overbilled. We are working to fix the problem and will keep you updated.

     We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

     Regards,

     XYZ

     —–

     Yet these guys had the balls to outline IN DETAIL exactly what went wrong, opening themselves up to what will probably be endless criticism. And you know what? If I were a customer, I would GREATLY APPRECIATE the effort and courage it took to admit the mistake in such a personal and thorough fashion.

     All you halfwits whinging about business etiquette, maybe you SHOULD switch to XYZ GenericHostCouldCareLess. You’d be very happy together.

603. Richard Says:
     January 17th, 2008 at 3:08 pm

     “The company, and that fellow pictured, are each fiscally responsible for recompense in different amounts.”

     THAT FELLOW PICTURED!! Oh I have not laughed so much in my life.

     Matt Groening must be filling his pants in fear.

604. Richard (again) Says:
     January 17th, 2008 at 3:26 pm

     In fact, you know what?? I WISH there were more hosting companies that communicated on such a personal and open level with customers, even if it is in a blog rather than an email. I’m gonna be needing hosting pretty soon, and hell, I might just go with DreamHost.

605. L.J. Says:
     January 17th, 2008 at 4:44 pm

     POOR MOLLY!!!!! She’s such a cutie – I hope she feels better soon. And that everyone gets refunded, and that Dreamhost bounces back. ..

606. Andrew Says:
     January 17th, 2008 at 5:17 pm

     Sure, some people are pissed about what happened and the tone of this post, but there is something to be said for the degree of transparency with DreamHost. Sure, things like this are annoying, but DH is owning up to it and it sounds like they plan to do whatever possible to own up and take responsibility to correct it.

     Being affected by a mistake, being told there really was a problem and why is much better than being screwed by a company and being told there isn’t a problem and fighting tooth and nail to prove them wrong.

     A company is only as perfect as the people running it (and programming it’s tools, hell, even using them in this case) and that means no company is perfect. All we’re left with is honesty and integrity when problems do arise, which is what I have found with DreamHost and is why I appreciate and have stuck with them through thick and thin for 6 years now. They admit to being human and treat me like one too.

607. Sunny Says:
     January 17th, 2008 at 5:22 pm

     I’m going to be honest. I will stay with Dreamhost, and it’s partly because of this response that I’m doing so.

     I had experienced something similar with other hosting companies, and in this case I had already prepared for it financially. In the former, I was treated as a typical number, given no apology (except via an automatic email) and never given any assistance in retrieving my funds. I had to go to the bank numerous times to appeal, and I had been fortunate to do so with that one specific bank. Not to mention other issues which Dreamhost seems much better in comparison. They’ve been around for a decade, and have just recently moved into a better office – without mentioning the service my account has received here – that shows a reasonable level of stability that I haven’t had elsewhere.

     I like being treated as a human being. It’s one of the characteristics of this host that I get approachable, friendly, and reasonable answers. That I know what is going on. That through blogs like these, and through their fairly decent support, they give appreciative and reassuring answers. While I can see why and how it was a huge mistake on Dreamhost’s part, I also realize it was accidental and that they have taken steps to ensure to the best of their abilities that it wont happen again. That – for me – is good enough.

     I realize that the light-hearted nature of the Dreamhost staff can seem intended for comedy and unprofessional, yet their service hasn’t been – at least to me – all that bad. In fact, it has been more good. So yes, while their writing skills are equitable to those of say a newbie, their skills with regards to hosting have been more or less professional and decent.

     I’m more disheartened by the SA involvement that seems rampant over this. I haven’t been a goon for ages, and know only through hearsay that despite the responses of Dreamhost’s owners being less amiable there, it’s not surprising to me at all the level of conflict that has come as a result of SA having to do with it.

608. novalis Says:
     January 17th, 2008 at 7:44 pm

     Lightheartedness is good so long as the problem is fixed immediately, which it was. T-mo screwed me in a similar way, and they planned to take 60 days to fix it. DH has just fixed their problem immediately, admitted fault, and apologized. Nothing more can be asked for.

609. that guy in the corner of the room Says:
     January 17th, 2008 at 9:12 pm

     Can I have my money back now, please?

610. Person Says:
     January 17th, 2008 at 10:50 pm

     This is why I don’t have a credit card.

     But it wasn’t very funny. 7.5 million dollars isn’t funny, and the blog is corny.

     You are also an idiot. I think shoveling dirt is a better job for you. Just don’t fuck that up, too.

611. A-999 Says:
     January 17th, 2008 at 11:20 pm

     que chistositos eeeeeeeeeeeee quien me ba a pagar el importe del banco por la comicion de reembolso

612. dreamhost sucks balls Says:
     January 17th, 2008 at 11:27 pm

     WTF

     No the only joke is your payment software. I hope everyone did charge backs cause dream host will be stuck with the fees. Now that’s something we can laugh about.

     Do the old customers a favor and quit the business.

613. Alex Says:
     January 18th, 2008 at 5:02 am

     This company is a fucking joke, right?

     Embarassing.

614. seyDoggy Says:
     January 18th, 2008 at 5:38 am

     Seriously what I love about this company is their informal approach to handling their clients. They do it with a smile and a nod, yet still my service is uninterrupted or my concerns go answered IMMEDIATELY. When something goes wrong you know who to get in touch with and you know that guy will fees up to it and you know that guy will talk the same lingo you do. You don’t get the deflection tactics of every other corporate support team.

     What’s done is done, what’s fixed is fixed, who cares, get over it. Or just join the haters on the web because that’s the cool, hip this to do. Nothing draws more hits than joining the hate wagon!

     DOH! Mmmm, doughnuts… grglgrglgrgl…

615. wildman Says:
     January 18th, 2008 at 7:16 am

     I can understand a mistake, we are only human, but this was huge and had a huge impact on people. You can mess with a lot of things but you dont mess with there money. To run or change around a program that would potentially do this kind of damage to so many people without thoroughly testing it first is inexcusable and totally shows no regard for there customers.
     Ok, so we quickly do a script to refund it….again it appears, we still dont know what we are doing. After 3 days I emailed them, now the wait begins, hey they are getting better, it only takes 11 hrs. to get a response. And I quote:….”Sorry about that, we had a problem w/ the system, where only some ofthe refunds were processed properly. We’ve since fixed those, andeverything should be refunded. If you’re not seeing that, please let usknow ASAP and we’ll check it out. ” ………. WOW, we messed up again.
     Now the funny part is, this debit card is just for online things, not my serious checking acct. and they caused it to overdraw almost $500.00. So yesterday they ran a 19.95 debit thru my acct for the normal hosting…..all before we tested this refund script and made sure everyone got there refund. See what just happened, another 35.00 service charge that they created and have to pay.
     Tomorrow is Sat. banks closed, Monday holiday-banks closed. I wonder when or if my refund will ever come.
     I have been online for 15 yrs. and have a dedicated server as well as a couple of other hosting providers besides dream host, whom a friend recommended to me and I have been mad at since.
     The way this whole thing has been handled by them is very unprofessional and shows no regard for there customers

616. juice Says:
     January 18th, 2008 at 7:39 am

     i cant believe how many douchebags there are out there. everyone makes mistakes and really the explanation doesn’t mean anything. if somebody says sorry with a frown or sorry with a smile it still happened. nothing can change that. but, you all have your opinions and can do what you want.

617. juice Says:
     January 18th, 2008 at 7:45 am

     Also their funny tone is part of their business model and its what they do. if you dont like it you shouldn’t have been a customer in the first place. do some research before making a hosting decision. DH takes the blame for the billing mistake but i say you take the blame for being upset about the response. hwo can your expectations be any different?

618. what Says:
     January 18th, 2008 at 9:26 am

     What’s with all the whiners grousing about the article’s tone? Did you really think he was making fun of you? You need to work on your reading comprehension.

     He explained _exactly_ what he did wrong, apologized multiple times, and wrote up the experience to warn future developers away from the same kind of mistake. What humor he did inject was all at his own expense.

     What’s wrong with you people?

     And yes, I say this as a volunteer for a charity that has used DreamHost’s services.

619. Anonymous Says:
     January 18th, 2008 at 10:31 am

     I just submitted this to my State’s Attorney General via their online complaint system. Copy and paste it to your state’s Attorney General if you are still angry. To those who think it’s BS that I’d do this. I could care less what you think. This ball is rolling and I want that ball to thoroughly crush Josh Jones and DreamHost.

     Here’s what I filed:

     Due to what they called a billing glitch this company DreamHost charged their clients (me included) 7.5 million dollars and took the money out of everyone’s account as an unauthorized transaction via credit cards and bank accounts. They charged me for something I was not due to have renewed and have wreaked havoc on my expenses because they have not put the money back. My issue is that they’ve violated the trust and unlawfully, no matter how much they try to claim it as a glitch, stole 7.5 million dollars from their clients. The 7.5 million dollar figure is straight from the company via their blog statement about the billing. Go to blog.dreamhost.com if you wish to read the info straight from the Co-founder/CJO (Joseph “JOSH” Jones) about the 7.5 million. Please read his first comment regarding this which will be the second blog post down the page (You’ll see an overweight Homer Simpson graphic) and also notice how matter of fact and heartless his admission to the theft is. It is my assumption this was done on purpose to give them some sort of short term cash flow (even though they have to get it back) to cover expenses for a day or two. the billing glitch is just the cover story. They know full well that the money will enter their account and then not go back for at least 3 days. I show the money has been debited from my Checking Account but not returned. It is my intention to have the State involved so that they may communicate with the State of California in regards to the fraud and identity theft that has happened to thousands of people. Any time our trust in the banking system has been compromised it is my belief that the culprits should be held completely responsible for violating our trust.

620. GG Says:
     January 18th, 2008 at 11:11 am

     Thankfully I decided to switch to MediaTemple and finally got my damn DreamHost domain transferred away from here.

     Here are some awesome things I’m thankful for:

     Thanks for the cheap prices.
     Thanks for the awful service.
     Thanks for the awful blog posts.
     Thanks for the awful customer service.
     Thanks for having inappropriate images on your homepage.
     Thanks for causing mass headache for thousands of your customers.
     Thanks for being awful enough for me to realize to switch to a real webhost.
     Thanks for making such an obvious mistake so that everyone is alerted to your poor service.

621. a-mused Says:
     January 18th, 2008 at 11:51 am

     Un-freaking-real. All you whiny bastards. YOU are the idiot for putting it on “autobill”. What kind of mental midget gives someone they don’t know the ability to automatically withdrawl funds from *any* account, *PARTICULARLY* when said accounts are “thin” (i.e. not having a buffer of a couple thousand dollars)? Sure, DH made a billing error. They’re correcting it. HOWEVER, *YOU* assumed liability when you elected to have payments automatically deducted.

     Fraud? Theft? Law Suits? I’m sorry, but the fact that YOU assumed liability places YOUR tail in the hotseat, not DH’s. DH is being very kind, very obliging, and putting their mea cuplas where their wallet is by reimbursing you financially irresponsible dolts for your overdraft/overlimit fees. Had YOU kept control and paid the bill when it was due, there would have been plenty of time for this to have been sorted out and you would NOT have been financially harmed in the least.

     As for the tone? Who cares? The message was conveyed clearly. Some of you clearly need to become more familiar with financial rights, the law, and money management. You sound like a bunch of raging lunatics whom I sure DH would be better off without.

622. alpha mega Says:
     January 18th, 2008 at 1:10 pm

     As a dreamhost customer, I think they have been/are doing a good job. Circumstances like this have to be foreseen, and like mentioned before, you have to have a fallback plan ALWAYS. You shouldn’t have everything hinging on one solution, thats bad business practice. Besides, with Dreamhost youre probably saving/have saved much more than you lost through this, had you going with another provider. A mistake is a mistake, time to correct it and move on. Any other host would charge you 10x to begin with, before the error, and wouldnt be as willing to be frank about it, detailing exactly what happened and how. I say keep up the good work Dreamhost, and im glad to be a customer+will continue to be.

623. Mitchell Says:
     January 18th, 2008 at 1:25 pm

     That’s why I left Dreamhost. I had a ton of downtime and all my websites were hacked. So I left, and tell EVERYONE not to buy from Dreamhost. Dreamhost ridiculously oversells, I thought 1TB Bandwidth was ridiculous when I was a customer. Sheesh! Leave now while you can, save yourself.

624. Partha Says:
     January 18th, 2008 at 1:47 pm

     Hey,
     I work for another web hosting company and landed in this page (from WHT). I am impressed with the way DH mentioned the incident (not the light syle) but the details. I feel that they have gone a long way explaining that it was ‘their’ mistake.
     I frankly do not understand the cribbing and crying.
     There is absolutely no fraud or stealing here and those mentioning DH as kindergardeners, may think twice why they are cribbing about the light style in a blog post. If someone needed a professional style, what are they doing here in the blog, the right place to see such explanation would be http://status.dreamhost.com/
     For those screaming and abusing about bank charges, probably you do see the line
     “If, because of this billing mistake, you somehow incurred some fees from your bank or credit card company, please let us know after tomorrow ….. and we’ll do our best to make it right for you.”
     I even see Michael Dulanson taking an opportunity to post his affiliate link!! and Tiara possibly by a staff of the competitor posted a Coupon code. Guys if you need money that badly, try earning in a decent manner. Spend some money in adwords to get clients!!

     For DH, I would say there is another moral to this incident … that we have grown to trust too much on technology that often we allow it to get over us.

     Good Lucks

625. -ES- Says:
     January 18th, 2008 at 1:59 pm

     Hi

     I’m not a DreamHost customer thankfully, but after reading through some of the comments I can see people are a little annoyed at the way dreamhost have chosen to deal with this, it’s good to see a large company like dreamhost taking a lighthearted approach rather than the plain old corporate one but I can’t help but feel the ‘plain old corporate’ approach would’ve been better on this one. However it’s been fixed and for those who have paid their fees previously i don’t see them getting their money back being a problem, if you hadn’t paid your fees then well….

     At least DH have been honest about this, despite a rather informal approach and have or are fixing it.

626. Kikrtech Says:
     January 18th, 2008 at 3:34 pm

     While the error was unfortunate and is being corrected, I think people are over re-acting.

     When I got the notice of the charges I simply fired off an email to the billing department and they replied very quickly with an explanation of the error.

     As for the “tone” of the explanation, you sometimes can’t help but throw up your hands and laugh at such an event. What more do you want Dreamhost to do? Give free months or domains to people that were affected? Refund fees that were legit? Or how about just close up shop because they make a boo-boo that is bing corrected?

     They made an error and took the correct steps to fix it.

     For those where the “tone” wasn’t appealing, I am SURE mine isn’t either.

     If you can’t just shrug it off and move on, then MOVE ON.

627. brad Says:
     January 18th, 2008 at 4:41 pm

     I’ve been working on a site for some time, and looking at different hosts. Well this post just put you at the top of the list. No excuses, no blameshifting, and immediately trying to fix what went wrong. Yeah it’s a hassle for people, but from the sound of it you guys are working hard to put everything right again. sometimes the measure of a company isn’t in how many mistakes you find, but how they handle them when they are found. kudos

628. brad Says:
     January 18th, 2008 at 5:45 pm

     i’ve read a little more on this, and yeah, DH should have contacted you guys.

     if you are seriously worried about your credit rating, then contact the credit reporting agencies and issue an inquiry. They will contact the reporting agency (your credit card company or bank) and ascertain the status. If it comes out to be a reversed charge they will in turn reverse the report. It’s really quite simple.

     in the meantime change your billing to a prepaid card that has nothing to do with your credit rating and recharge it only in the amount you will need to cover any online charges.

     I worked in online billing for several years and I can tell you that is the only way to protect yourself. No matter how foolproof software is made, there will always be a bigger fool. at least you got hit by someone honest.

     At the hands of a thief yu would all mostly be screwed right now. PROTECT YOURSELF….DON’T TRUST OTHERS TO DO IT!!!!!!!!!!

629. Jules Says:
     January 18th, 2008 at 10:34 pm

     http://www.juliesjournal.com/2008/01/18/the-dreamhost-75-million-dollar-whoops/

630. Evan Says:
     January 19th, 2008 at 5:58 am

     What the FU*K, man. That’s so cazy!

631. madhan Says:
     January 19th, 2008 at 6:41 am

     u spoiled ur own name has been spoiled:

     http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Tech-Buzz/~3/218392714/

632. rjl Says:
     January 19th, 2008 at 6:46 am

     I wonder if the 7.5 million was deposited into an interest bearing account for a day

633. LSF Says:
     January 19th, 2008 at 7:24 am

     rjl, the money wouldn’t have been deposited anywhere by DreamHost – it takes four days for payments to arrive into accounts due to banking procedures and they started the refund process before then.

     Anonymous, I’m sure your attorney general will do what they’ve done with all your previous letters – that filing cabinet marked waste bin.

634. The Red Krawler Says:
     January 19th, 2008 at 7:58 am

     Another stuff up by Dreamhost admitted to, and fixed with full disclosure.

     Try getting that elsewhere, whinging majority.

     Ill stay with Dreamhost :)

635. Nicholas Gerasimatos Says:
     January 19th, 2008 at 12:56 pm

     Hello,

     As a previous employee of DreamHost and shift manager of their Graveyard Team I can advise you that billing errors within the company are nothing out of the ordinary, suffice to say I was not very shocked when I read there was a 7.5 million dollar billing error. The DreamHost billing system is far from “robust and stable” as Josh Jones proclaimed on the companies web blog, the only thing that could be counted on is the constant issues that have plagued DreamHost for the past few years. Billing issues are quite common with their company and the “fat fingers” he refers to having have led to countless mishaps causing customers downtime and other costly consequences.

     As a matter of fact, I am actually the head of a class action lawsuit “Gerasimatos vs New Dream Network” in regards to DreamHost not abiding by the California Department of Labor regulations for paying employees overtime for working greater than 8 hours daily, and also for illegally deducting vested wages for sick and vacation time. I became a whistle blower on DreamHost and shortly after the DLSE contacted the DreamHost owners retaliated against me for “doing the right thing”.

     Here is the exact letter the DLSE representative sent DreamHost prior to my retaliatory termination for engaging in protected activities with the DLSE. The law firms participating in the Class Action suit are as follows.

     http://www.coviello-law.com/ and http://www.duvel-law.com/

     Thank you,

     Nicholas Gerasimatos

     Dallas Kashuba and Josh Jones:

     I am a retired Senior Deputy Labor Commissioner who was asked to return to assist in answering queries that come to the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement from the public concerning California Labor Law. One recent query had to do with alleged practices of your business. I do not know if the query originated from an ex-employee, current employee or friend of somebody who knows your business practice(s). This response is informational in hopes that your business practices do not generate future wage claims and additional liability for your business.

     It is alleged that you offer both sick leave and vacation leave as benefits of employment. It is also alleged that in the case where an employee takes sick leave and does not have enough sick leave time accrued, that you deduct double the excess number of hours from that employee’s vacation leave bank. The example give was that if an employee had two hours of sick leave on the books and took a day off “sick” (a total of 8 hours) then you would deduct the two hours from the available sick leave and 12 hours vacation (double the 6 hours necessary to cover the absence). If this is a factual representation of your policies, you are incurring a great deal of liability.

     Labor Code § 227.3 protects vacation hours as vested wages. The California Supreme Court in the case of Suastez v. Plastic Dress-Up (1982) [31 Cal.3d 774, 647 P.2d 122, 183 Cal.Rptr. 846] unanimously ruled that under the provisions of Labor Code § 227.3, vacations are earned day by day and any unused vacation must be paid on a pro-rata basis to the employee at the time of termination. The California Supreme Court concluded as follows:

     “The right to a paid vacation, when offered in an employer’s policy or contract of employment, constitutes deferred wages for services rendered. Case law from this State and others, as well as principles of equity and justice, compel the conclusion that a proportionate right to a paid vacation vests as the labor is rendered. Once vested, “the right is protected from forfeiture by § 227.3 on termination of employment, therefore, the statute requires that an employee be paid in wages for a pro-rata share of his vacation pay.”

     Vacation wages, being vested as earned, cannot be taken from the employee; they must be paid. Therefore (back to the example) taking an additional 6 hours of vacation hours from the employee’s leave bank is a failure to pay for the hours that were vested. This is cumulative and affects every current and prior employee that has had excess vacation hours deducted from their leave bank. A particular quirk of the protection is that there is no violation of the statute until such time as the employment agreement is severed (termination or quit); when payment of final wages becomes due. If the illegally deducted vacation hours are not paid at the final wage rate in accordance to the applicable statue (either Labor Code §§ 201 or 202), the employee has the basis to file a wage claim against you for not only the vacation hours owed, but for penalty wages under Labor Code § 203 (for up to an additional 30 days of wages at their final wage rate).

     I have advised the party that queried the Division of unlawfulness of the deduction and suggested that they have the basis of a wage claim if they were an employee of your business and had the hours deducted or would have such a claim if they were a current employee and such wages were not paid when the employment relationship ends.

     Please note that business that combine sick leave and vacation leave into some form of “paid time off” or “PTO” such hours would be entitled to the same protection as vacation wages under Labor Code § 227.3. Certainly you do not owe wages to employees for work not performed; you are within your right to deduct (hour for hour) any absence from the wages owed that were not worked (time off without pay). You could deduct (hour for hour) from the vacation hours (so long as the employee is paid for these hours on their regular pay check). I would strongly suggest that such hours are reflected on the wage earning statement as something other than regular wages (either sick leave or vacation hours, as is applicable). The only issue with your policy would be any deduction of vacation hours that were not paid.

     You may access the Labor Code from the left side of our web site at http://www.dir.ca.gov

     The foregoing has been provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Information contained here may not be relied upon or used as an official opinion of the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement ( DLSE ) in any forum. Access to, transmission or receipt of, or reliance upon this information from the DLSE does not create, and is not intended to create, an attorney/client relationship between you or any other person and the DLSE or between you or any other person.

636. Joshua Trevino Says:
     January 19th, 2008 at 7:53 pm

     Well, it’s January 19th, and …. I still don’t have my refund for my massive overbill. What’s the deal, Dreamhost? You figures I didn’t need that $1,044 anyway?

637. exaggerations Says:
     January 19th, 2008 at 10:03 pm

     W-O-W some people are really freaking out here. 7.5 mil may seem like an extremely big number, but c’mon!!! If there are 600,000 domains hosted here than roughly that is the cost of the renewal of everyone’s account, something that would total about… oh wait, 7.5 million. Yes, it is a big mistake, but something thats easy to have happen.

     Dreamhost, thank you for maintaining a light hearted tone. If you can’t laugh at yourself, life isn’t worth living (so apparently some people here have a pretty sorry life.)

     I was considering moving to a new host recently, not because I was displeased with my hosting, just simply that I think Mongrel will work better for hosting my Rails apps than fastcgi. No hard feelings, now just to spite all those people who are so personally offended by a small mistake (YES I SAID SMALL!) I think I’ll stay and keep recommended you guys strongly to my friends.

     Thanks Dreamhost!

638. TS Says:
     January 19th, 2008 at 11:39 pm

     So a lot of people are apparently pissed off at the response. (I’m not one of them.) Just for a data point, compare that to this:
     http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=a919ec994ef2af9c833537eba12507dc&p=4915092#post4915092

     How many people prefer Network Solutions’ (lack of) response over Dreamhost’s?

639. Doug Says:
     January 20th, 2008 at 4:49 am

     To DH
     Thank you for:

     A) Taking credit for a mistake
     B) Explaining the mistake in English
     C) Fixing the immediate problem quickly
     D) Taking corrective actions to prevent future errors.

     Most of the time when companies make errors, they won’t do any of the items I listed above – it’s all very non-transparent and getting satisfaction is damn near impossible.

     I would ask that you consider doing one thing (if you’re not already there) and that is to make sure that you have at least two sets of eyes working on these kinds of problems/fixes (ie things involving other people’s money). It’s not clear that two pairs of eyes would have noticed the wrong date, but it might have.

     Thanks you.

640. Serena Says:
     January 20th, 2008 at 5:30 am

     I’m still laughing at the Homer pic.

     Seriously though..this whole thing is fucked up. Thank goodness I never joined DH. Call me old fashioned but I like any company I’m doing business with to not be so “lulz”.

641. WebAPP Says:
     January 20th, 2008 at 6:14 am

     I fail to understand all this hysteria, charging errors can happen and do happen. DreamHost had a bug, fat finger or whatever, it does not really matter.

     The most important things for us as customers are:
     1.) That the error was fully notified without any delay as soon as it was discovered and
     2.) it was corrected.

     If anyone has a third party issue as an indirect consequence, I am 100% certain that DH would take care of that as soon as one fully documents such an issue.

     Now people please cool down, there are much more important things to be really hysteric about in this world!

     Good night and good dreams!
     WebAPP
     http://www.web-app.net

642. Patrick Says:
     January 20th, 2008 at 2:53 pm

     OK…where do I start?

     You guys fail to realize that in a situation like this you should NOT be fucking joking. This is hardly a joke. What if somebody had to pay college bills, or was getting a new house and needed credit checks? You could of just entirely fucked that up by billing some as much as, yes, 2 g’s+.

     “OH LOL WE FUCKED UP.”

     You didn’t even fucking apologize. Again, the people that stick with you have to be even bigger morons than you.

     $7,500,000 USD is a lot of money to be toying around with. Sure, mistakes can be made and are likely to happen. Sure, it happens to everyone. I would of understood if you would have even apologized. Way to show some fucking professionalism, assholes.

     Also apparently your “super, robust” biller billed people two-three times and in some cases, more. How would something that is so perfect fuck up and also let you bill people in the future? Kudos for fixing that though, but you STILL didn’t apologize for your mistake.

     You guys are true morons. Expect a few law suits from this.

643. Father Luke Says:
     January 20th, 2008 at 3:28 pm

     I have hated you since your first mealy mouthed
     explanation to me about how your company works.

     True morons, and inept ass suckers.

     I will never trust you.
     Not ever.

     - –
     Okay,
     Father Luke

644. Tom Says:
     January 20th, 2008 at 5:14 pm

     Wow what an idiot you are. You realize this will could potentially cause ALOT of problems for people don’t you. By posting silly little pictures you have just reinforced that you guys are a bunch of clowns. You should be fired.

645. N/A Says:
     January 20th, 2008 at 5:17 pm

     Moron…!

646. NotACustomer Says:
     January 21st, 2008 at 12:37 am

     3 things to say:

     1. banks take time to process refunds, it is their way to collect interest in money that is just sitting there. not DH fault.

     2. if you are hurt, financially, they already said they’d make it up to you… i am quite sure they would live by their written word (or they would not be putting it out… living in such a law-suit happy country)

     3. you get two options here: leave, or stay. make it now, stop whining — get on with your life. i am writing this during my 1200-1230 pm break while trying to pull away from working. i am sure you also have other things to do.

     true, i am not a customer. but i am a customer service consultant… you may not like the tone, you may not like the latency to getting your money back — but these guys just put out a A+ model on how to handle a problem with your customers.

     now, as i said, it is upto you… stay or leave (but, as i tell my 4-yr old daughter, no reason to whine or cry here)

647. John Stephen Lewis Says:
     January 21st, 2008 at 1:44 am

     Empathy. Pretend if you have to.

648. marcusbacus Says:
     January 21st, 2008 at 7:26 am

     One word and its variations has been said many many times in these comments: professionalism (and your lack of it). You are joking too much about everything, IMHO. How about getting a thousand e-mails a day from your customers saying “LOL WE’RE LEAVING OMGWTFKTKSBYE”?

     Mistakes, jokes, fat fingers, all this happens, but not day in, day out.

649. felipocho Says:
     January 21st, 2008 at 11:39 am

     I DEFINITIVELY DO NOT AGREE WITH THIS JOKE.

650. Kevin Hatfield Says:
     January 21st, 2008 at 9:56 pm

     sh*t happens! Get over it!

651. Penisy Says:
     January 22nd, 2008 at 1:45 am

     I am Very thank full the owner of this blog. Becouse of this blog is very imformative for me.. And I ask u some thiing You make more this type blog where we can get more knowledge.

652. Moving Company California Says:
     January 22nd, 2008 at 12:18 pm

     Glad it got resolved so quickly!

653. Loyal Customer Since 2000 Says:
     January 23rd, 2008 at 5:50 am

     Dear all of the people who posted disgruntled messages about this incident:

     The only reason I would leave Dreamhost at this point would be because I wouldn’t want to be associated with assholes like you people who posted such nasty messages here. Get a life.

     Anyway, I’m just annoyed with mean people going off on you guys. I love Dreamhost. You keep me happy.

654. John Riccardi Says:
     January 23rd, 2008 at 7:44 am

     All you people who are complaining should just relax. It’s not like any individual got hit with $7M in charges. I love the services that dreamhost provides, and I will continue to recommend it to my friends. Frankly you are lucky that you’re dealing with a business that does regular checks. It could be title”thislife.org”>a lot worse.

655. John Quincy Says:
     January 23rd, 2008 at 5:56 pm

     Man you guys need to bail out. Inmotion Hosting is buying out contracts.

656. diana Says:
     January 26th, 2008 at 12:59 am

     超声波清洗机
     电加热器

657. a Says:
     January 26th, 2008 at 6:30 pm

     What a buncha winers. Shit happens. Get over it.

658. Henry Says:
     January 28th, 2008 at 8:10 pm

     HostUpon are a bunch of losers. Who comes in on another company and then tries to pick up on customers. Pathetic losers. Dreamhost rocks!

659. zw Says:
     January 29th, 2008 at 5:10 pm

     I have now canceled my account and moved on to a better host. Thanks for being unprofessional idiots.

660. Destin Autin Says:
     February 16th, 2008 at 12:14 pm

     I can’t really remember the names of the clubs that we went to. – Shaquille O’Neal on whether he had visited the Parthenon during his visit to Greece

661. Non-Dreamhost User Says:
     February 28th, 2008 at 4:10 pm

     I’ve always flirted with the idea of moving to Dreamhost. That won’t be an issue anymore…

662. 翻译公司 Says:
     March 3rd, 2008 at 9:01 pm

     Ha……A wonderful joke.It’s so interesting.

663. Ravi Says:
     March 13th, 2008 at 2:23 am

     thank god i didnt choose you, and I found this post in time as i was just about to take a package now :)

     I read about this problem from wikipedia actually :D

664. Looking for good webhost Says:
     March 17th, 2008 at 1:18 am

     I echo Ravi’s comment. No way in hell I’ll be coming to Dreamhost now. Comments posted here suggesting that people should “just get over” incurring overdraft charges? It’s their fault they didn’t have enough money to cover being triple charged? That sickening fanboy attitude, combined with the tone of this blog post (and yeah, the banner at the top of the page looks like it says “OFFICIAL DREAMHOST WEBLOG” from where I’m sitting), give me the impression that dreamhost customers are largely morons who are happy to receive this kind of treatment (and have got what they deserved), and that dreamhost couldn’t give a shit (in any organisation I’ve ever worked for, a fuck up of this magnitude would have the culprit in the local recruitment agency by the end of the day).

     I won’t be jumping into the same idiotic boat.

665. Nick Says:
     March 17th, 2008 at 9:23 pm

     A prompt and refreshing response from a hosting company. Yes you F’d up, yes it’s going to be a pain in the ass but that’s life and a majority of the overly concerned posters here need to get one.

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     March 20th, 2008 at 10:38 pm

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     April 17th, 2008 at 5:22 pm

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668. Bhathiya Senanayake Says:
     June 2nd, 2008 at 3:03 am

     Ha ha ha! Very funny, Guess what I’m laughing!!!!!!!!
     ……………………….
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669. Mexipal Says:
     July 2nd, 2008 at 12:35 pm

     Too good. Thanks for the information.

670. Tenk Says:
     August 19th, 2008 at 3:33 am

     Thanks for the information

671. stevenyesfre Says:
     August 31st, 2008 at 7:17 pm

     key ibm frog are watch elephant glass

672. mgb Says:
     October 1st, 2008 at 5:16 pm

     Exact opposite here – somebody explaining what went wrong and admitting it gets me as a new customer.
     It’s better than a corporate spam email “regretting certain inconsistancies” or just denying everything while I argue with the bank.

673. Dillon Coetzer Says:
     November 15th, 2008 at 11:14 am

     I think you guys are doing a fantastic job! I use my hosting account for business purposes and had absolutely no problems because of the billing error. I had a mild freak-out before reading about the error, but in the end there was no harm done. I actually enjoy your frank, funny response to the mistake. And keep those monthly newsletters coming – I love them!