The saddest voicemail you’ll ever hear

April 27, 2009 on 3:29 pm | In Insider View by Brett | 76 Comments

While we do offer telephone-based technical support in the form of callbacks, we don’t have a public phone number that customers can dial for technical support.

We do have a phone number, but it’s reserved for vendors and other specific applications – not technical support.

From time to time customers may find this number and they often leave irate/angry/pleading messages for assistance. We haven’t had one in a while, but this morning we received a voicemail that melted our hearts and moistened our eyeballs.

(We’ve obscured his domain name to protect his identity.)

903k, .wav file
– removed –

It's all just so sad.

This customer of ours had their domain registration transferred away from DreamHost to another registrar (in this case, GoDaddy.com) without their consent. This can only happen if an unauthorized party gains access to our customer’s account control panel to authorize the transfer, and we’ve indeed logged the actions and IP address of this individual.

The customer may have used an insecure password, been infected with a password-stealing keylogger, or may have simply fallen prey to a phishing scheme.

We’ve done all that we can do in situations like these – we’ve advised our customer to begin the dispute resolution process with the domain’s current registrar.

In the end, he should be able to get his domain back. Unfortunately it’ll take time and a fair amount of money, depending on how receptive the current registrar is to his situation.

To help soften the blow we’ve sent him a huge bouquet of flowers to help get him through this difficult time.

Please, accept these lovely flowers.

Update 5/4: We didn’t realize this would strike such a chord with so many people and have removed the anonymized voicemail from this blog post. We’ve been working with this customer to proceed through the UDRP and are confident a resolution is near. This should serve as a good reminder that you should always be very careful about disclosing your passwords to anyone on the Internet.

76 Responses to “The saddest voicemail you’ll ever hear”

  1. Marc Says:
    April 27th, 2009 at 3:47 pm

    lol, sounds exactly like the alien guy from Galaxy Quest.

  2. Sunny Says:
    April 27th, 2009 at 4:11 pm

    I love the “blah blah blah blah.”

  3. m4cc4s Says:
    April 27th, 2009 at 4:32 pm

    He sounded quite sad, now didn’t he.
    Sending flowers now that was nice. But the importance of a very strong password can never be ignored.
    I hope he gets his domain back.

  4. BUGabundo Says:
    April 27th, 2009 at 5:06 pm

    @sunny yeah the blah blah blah is too funny!

    the poor guy! hope this gets fixed for him

  5. Brad Says:
    April 27th, 2009 at 5:08 pm

    Why are people so unkind :)

  6. Plouj Says:
    April 27th, 2009 at 5:43 pm

    This is actually pretty sad and even scary after watching Slumdog Millionaire.

  7. Nick J Says:
    April 27th, 2009 at 5:49 pm

    Poor guy, he’s genuinely distressed. Hope it gets sorted out in his favor.

    In terms of preventing the problem, I guess you could do what my bank does, which is that every time you try to transfer money from your account to a some other new account, it sends you an SMS/text with a one-time code, that you have to enter, otherwise the transfer won’t go ahead. You only have to do this the first time a new destination account is used, so the number of texts required is very small in practice (because most transfers are repeated transfers to a small number of accounts).

    Potentially, you could do this for each DreamHost panel account when trying to transfer a domain to a registrar. E.g. if the user tries to transfer one domain from dreamhost to registrar X, then it prompts the user for a texted code on the first domain being transferred, but if this is successful then each subsequent transfer from that panel account to registrar X would not need a code. Something like that might help prevent the worst abuses (e.g. I’m assuming that in this user had not transfered a domain out of DreamHost before).

  8. Brad Says:
    April 27th, 2009 at 5:57 pm

    And rather ironic that blahblahblahblahblah.com is registered with GoDaddy.com

    Domain Name: BLAHBLAHBLAHBLAHBLAH.COM
    Registrar: GODADDY.COM, INC.
    Whois Server: whois.godaddy.com
    Referral URL: http://registrar.godaddy.com
    Name Server: NS19.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
    Name Server: NS20.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
    Status: clientDeleteProhibited
    Status: clientRenewProhibited
    Status: clientTransferProhibited
    Status: clientUpdateProhibited
    Updated Date: 12-feb-2009
    Creation Date: 03-feb-2006
    Expiration Date: 03-feb-2010

  9. kliu Says:
    April 27th, 2009 at 6:04 pm

    @Nick J
    The current system of domain auth codes is pretty similar to that, except that it’s not sent by text/SMS. Aside from inconveniencing people who don’t have text messaging (like me :)), schemes like that won’t actually fix anything (bad guy can just change the phone number in the account, and then you’d have to cook up a whole new scheme to protect *that* change, and you’re back to square one).

    @m4cc4s
    The world’s strongest password can’t save you if there’s a keylogger. I never use public terminals or even a friend’s computer to log into anything because I don’t know what it may be infected with.

  10. TB Says:
    April 27th, 2009 at 7:16 pm

    Poor guy, I really hope GoDaddy doesn’t drop the ball on this… but then again, it is GoDaddy.

  11. Good Samaritan Says:
    April 27th, 2009 at 7:40 pm

    ICANN’s TDRP allows for the losing registrar to contact the gaining registrar when the registrant contends the transfer. Dreamhost should contact transferdisputes@godaddy.com and request an FOA and ask that GD look into the transfer. Godaddy.com may also be able to undo the change based on the transfer in data. It can’t hurt to ask.

  12. raskull Says:
    April 27th, 2009 at 9:30 pm

    I can’t believe you post stuff like this about your customers. Very unprofessional.

    Maybe it was done with his consent, but I somehow doubt it. The customer leaves a rather personal and maybe humiliating voicemail.. and you post it on the internet for the humor, and play it off like some sort of wierd “look at us, we send flowers if you get your domain stolen”…

  13. Hmm Says:
    April 27th, 2009 at 11:46 pm

    That’s kinda cruel. The guy’s obviously incredibly distressed. He’s neither being a dingbat nor an ass, so mocking him just isn’t cool, guys.

  14. Ronald Poi Says:
    April 27th, 2009 at 11:56 pm

    Wait. Is this real?… Because, if so, then its really unprofessional to post something like this. Funny or not (and I don’t think it is), its cruel to make fun of someone who is having a really hard time! He is crying for God’s sake! I can’t laugh of someone who got stolen.

    Please tell us this was a joke or you have his consent (wich I think its impossible). If not, please remove this post and show me I’m not giving my money to some morons.

  15. Pete Says:
    April 28th, 2009 at 2:25 am

    I didn’t find anything particularly cruel about this post. Nobody’s laughing at the guy, in fact, the commenters are showing compassion and empathy.

  16. Disgusted in Houston Says:
    April 28th, 2009 at 7:59 am

    Let me get this straight… Your customer support is horrible, so to “make up for it” you expose your customers to ridicule?

    Go out of business. Sooner would be better.

  17. Jordan Says:
    April 28th, 2009 at 9:37 am

    I must say I agree with the commenters who are disgusted by the fact that you posted this. I don’t know what your intention was in posting this, but think about it from the customer’s perspective for a minute. Would you want your call posted? (anon or not).

  18. Alfred Says:
    April 28th, 2009 at 9:42 am

    He won’t get his domain back since it’s transferred to Go-Fucking-Daddy!

  19. dwr Says:
    April 28th, 2009 at 9:45 am

    I stand with those who think that posting this was not cool.

  20. TB Says:
    April 28th, 2009 at 10:41 am

    I’m with Pete, I don’t really see anything mean about this post. Dreamhost post the voicemail, they don’t make fun, they shed a tear, they help out as best as they can. Where’s the poking in fun? If anything, the comments mentioning the “blahblahblah” were probably the meanest thing on this page.

  21. jmello Says:
    April 28th, 2009 at 12:03 pm

    Wow, that was pretty awful. I can’t believe you guys actually posted this.
    I’ve been a Dreamhost customer for 4 years, have referred several of my friends and clients, and have had nothing but excellent service, but the fact that you guys posted it here, presumably for laughs (”blah blah blah blah”), has me worried about the integrity of the people working at Dreamhost. I hate to imagine what would happen if one of my clients that I have referred were to read this entry and be as shocked as I am, and then judge me as a result.

  22. Baja Real Estate Says:
    April 28th, 2009 at 1:20 pm

    Well for my part I’m sure I don’t want to call DH crying… so I’m toughening my passwords.

  23. Rick Says:
    April 28th, 2009 at 1:27 pm

    Punch him in the face for not having a pair

  24. Ricardo Sousa Says:
    April 28th, 2009 at 1:56 pm

    I’ve standed out for your informal style several times. In my opinion if this style do not hurt anyone in particular is healthy and should be encouraged. As others have pointed out I’d nothing else but a good service with support replies on time from you.
    Now this “informal style” have gone too far, IMHO. You guys, wanting or not, have ridicularized this poor man who was in a terrible situation. I really hope this gets out of fashion as i would not like to have neither my voice calls neither my chats with your staff published someday.
    So, summing up, i think is rude not only for the client which have been going throught a difficult time but also for your companie as it shows some insensibility.
    So, keep up informal, but keep it up with the respect your clients deserve.

    Thanks

  25. Eliza J Says:
    April 28th, 2009 at 3:54 pm

    Wow.

    I’m guessing this guy had more on the line than you think. It’s really not so funny. At the very least you can imagine that he’s been threatened with his job. But maybe something worse.

    It’s spectacularly bad form to post this.

    And then you say you sent him flowers? Yikes.

    I’m a DH customer of many years. And now so embarrassed that I recommended DH to my colleagues and friends.

    What were you thinking?

  26. mcdisease Says:
    April 28th, 2009 at 4:23 pm

    Saw godaddy tweet about this.

  27. luken Says:
    April 28th, 2009 at 4:26 pm

    How grossly unprofessional to post something like this. How funny would it be if he committed suicide because he just lost his families business? Would you send flowers to the funeral?

    Then co-workers/family recognize his voice and contact the media. Do you really want to deal with that kind of media?

    Of course godaddy will do the right thing, ESPECIALLY with all the attention you have so graciously given them.

  28. Nathan Says:
    April 28th, 2009 at 6:34 pm

    No personal information was disclosed. There is no breach of privacy.

    The post is meant in good humour, and is appropriately packaged that way.

    But of course an unfortunate few litigious crazy Americans will do anything to destroy their own “FREEEEEEDOM”. Zomg can I have some Freedom Fries?

  29. phototristan Says:
    April 28th, 2009 at 6:42 pm

    Humor at someone else’s expense is not good humor.

    For many of us a domain name is pure vanity and it’s not a huge problem if we lose it, we’ll live.

    For this guy, it may be his only means of making a living, supporting his family, etc.

    Man, I’m glad I’m not a DreamHost customer (see my site for who I use and recommend).

  30. dwr Says:
    April 28th, 2009 at 7:35 pm

    Nathan said: “No personal information was disclosed. There is no breach of privacy.”

    But what if the fellow sees the post / hears the file and feels like an amazing level of shit about it? He’s already in obviously fragile shape, and this could make things much worse for him.

  31. divakleo Says:
    April 28th, 2009 at 10:58 pm

    Seriously? You guys seriously think this is funny??

    These are potential CUSTOMERS for you.. and this is how you treat them?

    as phototristan said, I’m SO glad I’m not a customer of DreamHost.

    Karma is a bitch.

  32. Boo Hoo Says:
    April 29th, 2009 at 12:51 am

    Great post!

    Assuming it’s real:

    I don’t know which is funnier, the moron crying on the voicemail, or the morons crying in the comments here.

    That idiot’s tying up a phone line that has absolutely nothing to do with the service he pays for, so there’s no reason for any privacy policy or anything else to apply to him. He knows they don’t offer phone support and instead of following directions, he threw a girly little tantrum on the voicemail of an irrelevant number.

    He’s almost as pathetic as the losers here claiming to not be customers of Dreamhost that have nothing better to do than post on Dreamhost’s blog.

    Okay, back to the crying. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

  33. Schmoo Says:
    April 29th, 2009 at 3:06 am

    I think it’s entirely reasonable to post this, and it’s completely fair for us all to gain enjoyment from someone else’s distress. If he didn’t want to be ridiculed, he shouldn’t have been so upset about a situation that I don’t understand, should he?

    Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go and throw faeces at the disabled kids from the local school, in order to stave off the boredom until lunchtime.

  34. Rob Le Boutillier Says:
    April 29th, 2009 at 9:22 am

    That’s the best voicemail I’ve heard in a while.

  35. Sad Says:
    April 29th, 2009 at 11:38 am

    Dreamhost, you’ve lost one future customer.

    Terrible post.

  36. Jason Says:
    April 29th, 2009 at 1:20 pm

    Wow, you guys are douches.

    Maybe instead of making fun of people in a moment of misfortune you could take that opportunity to help them out.

    Remember when companies valued their customers?

  37. Boo Hoo Says:
    April 29th, 2009 at 1:30 pm

    Keep the tears coming girls. It’s hilarious watching the little babies cry.

  38. Boo Hoo Says:
    April 29th, 2009 at 1:33 pm

    Dreamhost, you’ve lost one future customer.

    Waaaaaaaaaaaaa Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

  39. gnatlet Says:
    April 29th, 2009 at 2:26 pm

    @Jason: “Maybe instead of making fun of people in a moment of misfortune you could take that opportunity to help them out.”

    Um, they did:
    “We’ve done all that we can do in situations like these – we’ve advised our customer to begin the dispute resolution process with the domain’s current registrar.”

    And then they used the opportunity to remind people of ways to avoid having this happen to you?

    Sounds very responsible to me. At no point did the blogger say, “Oh, look at this idiot” or “I posted this so everyone could laugh”. Saying the DH was being cruel is based on… what?

  40. Casper Says:
    April 29th, 2009 at 11:50 pm

    The only thing that is funny about is i how many customers are going to leave Dreamhost.com for this. That just sucks for them.

    The next time your going to hear “blah blah blah blah” is when this dipshit owner is fucking his fat wife and she mumbles, is it in yet?

  41. Casper is braindead Says:
    April 30th, 2009 at 1:55 am

    The only thing that is funny about is i how many customers are going to leave Dreamhost.com for this. That just sucks for them.

    Hey, look, another retard!

    More customers sign up in 10 minutes than the number of whiny little girls that would leave over this. Especially if you count all the lying idiots that say they’re leaving, because they think crying looks cool… but aren’t really going anywhere.

    The second part of your post is almost as clever as the first part.

  42. Grunties Says:
    April 30th, 2009 at 2:17 am

    Hey Boo Hoo, tell us your story. Everyone else, please listen carefully, it’s important.

  43. Grunties is braindead Says:
    April 30th, 2009 at 10:10 am

    That was probably Grunties leaving the message.

  44. Ants Says:
    April 30th, 2009 at 5:27 pm

    @Casper: We’re all technically owners here… :(

  45. Grunties Says:
    May 1st, 2009 at 2:18 am

    Try harder, Boo Hoo. As far as avoiding-questions-without-appearing-to-do-so goes, that was barely even an effort. If you’re not going to explain what insecurities your trolling hides, at least have some pride in the quality of the work.

  46. C Says:
    May 1st, 2009 at 4:42 am

    I’m one of your customers and I totally agree with comments #12-14. This is not cool.

  47. Alfred Says:
    May 1st, 2009 at 11:24 am

    Stop whining assholes.

  48. Coincidence? Says:
    May 1st, 2009 at 1:17 pm

    It’s cute how only they whiny retarded babies are siding with the whiny retarded baby and crying about it. Must just be a coincidence!

  49. Jim Says:
    May 1st, 2009 at 8:34 pm

    I don’t agree with some of you. This may not be totally professional, but he shouldn’t have been hunting for private phone numbers he was not supposed to have. Also, someone crying over a domain???? Is it really that important that he needed to hunt down a private unlisted number, call it and plead in a non-support voicemail that is clearly something that Dreamhost cannot handle. The guy lost the domain himself. PERIOD. If he was scammed/phished it is his own fault. Clearly if he already transferred the domain away from Dreamhost there is little they can legally do anyway. He should be pleading to GoDaddy (who probably will not help anyway…), but it is clearly in their hands. If the domain was stollen then he needs to complain to ICANN. In the words of Arnold Schwarzenegger: “Stop whining!”

  50. Electronic Lint Filter Says:
    May 2nd, 2009 at 5:33 pm

    Jim

    If someone keylogged your password to your online car insurance, cancelled it, then you crashed your car and were financially ruined, would it be your fault?

  51. Jim Says:
    May 3rd, 2009 at 8:29 am

    @Electronic Lint Filter – YES! If I was stupid enough to put an easily guessed, similar, and/or hackable password (most people do). But this guy went one step further and called his health insurance company (which probably has the same password as the auto insurance and will be hacked soon) and complained about it.

  52. subay Says:
    May 3rd, 2009 at 9:52 pm

    omg poor guy

  53. jay Says:
    May 4th, 2009 at 3:35 am

    http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=859161

  54. Pathetic Says:
    May 4th, 2009 at 4:43 am

    Posting this on an official blog shows how unprofessional you are.

    That is incredibly harsh and is wholly unprofessional.

    Ignoring the fact that you’ve broken your own Privacy Policy, this just makes you look like children.

    Pathetic.

  55. Gill Bates Says:
    May 4th, 2009 at 5:09 am

    Once again the Dreamhost blog becomes a wankatorium.

    Jedito

  56. Frank Says:
    May 4th, 2009 at 9:17 am

    You guys are pathetic and immature, as well as unprofessional. You’re no better than the kiddie hosts that sprout up all over.

  57. Nestor Says:
    May 4th, 2009 at 10:08 am

    Unprofessional. The man is seriously distressed, possibly in danger of losing his job or worse. Look up the videos of Saudis torturing and beating foreign employees for an example, this man could easily be in such a situation.

  58. Tyler Says:
    May 4th, 2009 at 10:33 am

    Wow, grow up.

  59. Morris Says:
    May 4th, 2009 at 10:57 am

    As a lot of webhosting companies have tons of stories to tell about customer support, I found this one pathetic from DH. DH is not making fun of it for sure, but why posting it? why using a “blah blah blah” sound to cover his domain name? you could surely used another sound instead. You should consider removing this post or at least the voicemail, because I don’t see DH as the hero of this story. My 2 cents, no offense.

  60. Joe Says:
    May 4th, 2009 at 11:07 am

    Assuming this isn’t a joke, well, then I can’t understand why you would even post that.

    Don’t your customers have some expectation of their information being handled professionally and kept private? I understand the person called a number that wasn’t intended for support, but I’m sure it also wasn’t intended to poke fun at people. And whatever you say, the only reason to post this is to poke fun at the individual. If you really wanted to post this to ensure nobody called the number and uses the right support methods, then just state that. The audio/voice mail is unnecessary.

    I hope your clients will follow up and remind you of your privacy policy:
    http://www.dreamhost.com/privacy.html

    “Customer privacy is something we take very seriously at DreamHost. We do not, and have never, sold or disseminated (except in cases where required to by law by law enforcement agencies) the personal information of our customers to any parties outside of DreamHost Web Hosting, or its parent company, New Dream Network, LLC. We use customer information for the purposes of creating and maintaining individual customer accounts, contacting customers in case of a problem with their account, sending personal information, for statistical purposes, to administer our systems, to conduct surveys, to administer drawings or contests, and to provide technical support. All of our development is done in-house, and hence no contracted parties will ever have access to individual customer information.”

    Maybe add “making fun of the customer” to that.

    And even if this is a hoax, which I’m sure you will say shortly (regardless of the truth), that would just display ignorance and prejudice.

  61. Joe Says:
    May 4th, 2009 at 11:12 am

    Oh, and those who say they are not making fun, check what the post is filed under:

    “Funnyish, Insider View”

  62. Mr Choudhary Says:
    May 4th, 2009 at 12:53 pm

    It’s terrible and sad to see that Dreamhost post my calling to them.

    I am in panic at my domain name going somewhere not in my controlling.

    I want my money back please.

    This is not good.

  63. Mr.Paco Says:
    May 4th, 2009 at 1:41 pm

    Domain transfer disputes have to be sent by losing registrar, it’s dreamhost, not the customer, who MUST file a Registrar Transfer Dispute inmediately!

    This post is an example about how dreamhost cares about their customers, publishing private communications and leaving customer alone when a problem happens

  64. Mr.Paco Says:
    May 4th, 2009 at 1:42 pm

    Check this http://www.icann.org/en/transfers/dispute-policy-12jul04.htm for the Registrar Transfer Dispute Resolution Policy

  65. WHT'ers are assholes Says:
    May 4th, 2009 at 7:44 pm

    Who cares what all the WHT shitheads swarming over here think?

    A bunch of spamming kiddies pretending to be hosts on a forum that just exposed their members’ passwords, private info, and credit card numbers along with the security codes they were illegally storing. That place is is a hosting cesspool.

  66. lol Says:
    May 4th, 2009 at 9:37 pm

    fucking lol.

  67. pls halp sir Says:
    May 4th, 2009 at 9:38 pm

    pls halp sir plz halp

  68. Ann Thrax Says:
    May 4th, 2009 at 9:46 pm

    How “professional” of you guys. (Note the sarcasm)

  69. Adam Says:
    May 5th, 2009 at 5:23 pm

    I’ve read with interest a number of the comments here and particularly those who (I believe) are highly sensitive to a post that highlights some very important points for anybody who uses online systems:

    1. Be wary of phishing scams. They are out there and they’re successfully deployed every day;

    2. Protect your passwords and keep them unique;

    3. Your online identity is just as important as your physical identity (passports etc) and should be treated as such;

    The highly emotional voicemail highlights a singularly imporant message ‘if it happens to you, it’s going to be very painful’ ….. and i’m sure the context of the DH post is ‘please… *please* be careful and don’t let this happen to you’.

    Dreamhost can do not a great deal more for this customer than pass on the advice they did, to be empathetic, and to remind it’s customers that vigilance is eternal and non-compliance comes at a (potentially) heavy cost.

    They have achieved that end by showing their customerbase how bad the impact can really be by letting you hear the voicemail of a real person who was impacted.

    “…but this morning we received a voicemail that melted our hearts and moistened our eyeballs ….”

    That certainly doesn’t sound like an organisation that doesn’t care, quite the opposite in my opinion.

    Adam

  70. Electronic Lint Filter Says:
    May 6th, 2009 at 11:42 am

    Jim: Keylogged, not easily guessed.

  71. rtcamp Says:
    May 7th, 2009 at 5:38 am

    why such post here

  72. rtCamp.info Says:
    May 7th, 2009 at 5:39 am

    ….

  73. rtcamp is an ass Says:
    May 7th, 2009 at 12:01 pm

    why such post here

    ….

    They do it so lowlife spamming pieces of shit like you have a place to post multiple links without actually having anything to say.

  74. Shinji Says:
    May 8th, 2009 at 5:32 pm

    I’ve long since thrown privacy out the window as I expect none from any company. This just proves it here. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if any other company did it. Unlike some here I think Dreamhost has been a great company to me and I can overlook the occasional slip-up. I guess I missed the actual wav file since it is already removed. I don’t know why people initially thought it was funny when someone else was suffering. What if it was you?

    P.S. – I have been with Dreamhost for over 2 years and have transferred in excess of 500GB monthly. Granted that may not seem much compared to my 10+TB limit right now but alot of other hosting companies would of shut me down or charged me huge overage fees by now even if they were marked as “unlimited”.

  75. fixoyun Says:
    June 4th, 2009 at 2:20 pm

    pls halp sir plz halp ? what?

  76. a Says:
    June 6th, 2009 at 12:37 pm

    Please help me, my a/c has been disabled by you….some one of my clients ftp was hacked so someone hosted phishing page there.

    again it was due to bad password, please rectify it, i will take extra care in future.

    Please dreamhost….i invested all my pocket money with you and i have so many dream hosted with you.

    please look on it as soon as possible

    please i am really crying, and i can say the person who called you should also cry i am in this situation i can understand what he felt.

    Plzzzzzzzzzz

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