Dreamhost SUCKS

Here is my experience with Dreamhost:

I opened my first domain with them, before they raised their prices and before they had 20 million domains.
Last week Dreamhost suspended my domain without any notice or warning
Here is why: I had to change the account where they sending the invoices to, so for months they were sending notices to account that didn't exist and they told me they have "too many customers" to check for bouncing emails.

The funny thing is that i still had no problem receiving Dreamhost's spam newsletter to another account i have without any problems!!!

To top it all off, their services are overpriced and overrated.
Check you www.dreamhost.com for a better alternative.

Sign up with dreamhost and you will be treated just another one of their thousands of domains: You will be just another number!

Hi Yuri -

Just to present our side of the story, it should be said that customers are ultimately responsible for keeping their contact information up to date. If you lose access to an email account or change to another one, that's fine, but you need to go into our ID page and change your contact information.

http://id.newdream.net/

...that way, we won't have any problems getting ahold of you in the future. :>

While I certainly understand your frustration, we do try to contact delinquent accounts before disabling them.

However, from a sheer financial standpoint we can't call every person who is about to be disabled for non-payment - we depend on our customers keeping their contact info up to date (and the vast majority of them do).

Tracking bounces WOULD be a good idea, but from a technical standpoint it may be kind of tough to match a bounce to a given email account. I'm sure it could be done, though, and I'll pass on your suggestion to our Dev Team.

We also give people something like 45-60 days to pay their bill after it's overdue, so you should have had at least a month or two to update your info after it was changed. Regardless, in cases like this, we have no problem immediately re-enabling such accounts, as long as you're willing to then pay your unpaid bill.

Whether or not this means you're being treated like a number is a matter of opinion, I guess, but we don't really have the money to hire the additional Billing Team staff it would take to make calls to all of our delinquent accounts (and trust me, it would be nice if we could, as more than a few people are delinquent in their bills). I suspect most of our customers would rather we focus on adding features and keeping servers stable than collecting on overdue accounts.

> The funny thing is that i still had no problem receiving
> Dreamhost's spam newsletter to another account i have
> without any problems!!!

I'm not sure on the specifics here, but it sounds like you had multiple email addresses set up for contact, but only one of them marked to receive billing information.

For obvious reasons, we can't assume that all contact addresses should receive billing information - an account holder may have their webmaster receive technical support help, but choose to keep their financial stuff to themselves.

I'm sorry you've had bad experiences with us, but I can assure you that this doesn't happen too often. If you're willing to try us out again, though, please send me an email at jeff@dreamhost.com (with your NDN ID) and I'll see what I can to make it right.

- Jeff @ DreamHost
- DH Discussion Forum Admin

I'm sorry you had such an unplesant experience, but I'm going to have to mostly side with DreamHost on this one. Perhaps they should/could have a more efficient way of tracking and notifying people whose accounts are past due before they're disabled, but they seem to do almost everything right as far as I can tell.

You've got billing contact information listed with them, and if you didn't keep it current, I find it hard to blame them for that. The same applies to my domain registrations with registrars, my Usenet service, and my ISP--they'll e-mail my contact address a couple of times if I haven't paid, but they'll cut me off without further warning if I don't keep that contact info current and don't pay.

It would be nice for Dreamhost to try and call/fax your listed numbers once as a reminder before cutting you off, but then there are a lot of other businesses who don't do that.

All that is just my opinion, of course, and I hope you find somewhere you're happier with at the same price. As for dreamhost being overpriced and/or overrated, I'm going to have to strongly disagree, at least for my needs.

Hi

It's obvious that you are a little upset by your troubles, but I really can't see how this is all Dreamhost's fault. It is the customer's responsibility to keep their contact details updated at id.newdream.net. If a business doesn't recieve payment from a customer, or any notice in a similar situation then any company, business or corporation will suspend your access to any given service.

> Sign up with dreamhost and you will be treated just another
> one of their thousands of domains: You will be just another
> number!

Sorry, but I *really* must disagree with this point. Dreamhost provide the most friendly, real "human" service out of any ISPs I have been with over the years. They have geniune happy employees that go out of their way to make sure that the Dreamhost experience is as rewarding as possible for any customer.

No standard letters, or standard canned emails from Dreamhost. Every single communication I've had with a Dreamhost employee has been satisfying, leaving me with the feeling that I'm confident in who is supporting my websites. I simply can't think of any other hosting provider who has ever come close to giving me the level of *personal* service Dreamhost has.

Now I'm sorry that things didn't work out for you. But, please just reconsider your options. I'm sure now your situation has come to light then Dreamhost will be more than happy to solve these issues with you. After all, if you've hosted your sites with Dreamhost all the way up until this glitch, then surenly they were doing something right? :-)

- wil

> Dreamhost provide the most friendly, real "human" service
> out of any ISPs I have been with over the years.

This is all really ironic, as we replaced our entire staff with human-like Replicants some time prior to the DH2 move.

Now all we need to do is get past that pesky 4 year life span, and... :>



- Jeff @ DreamHost
- DH Discussion Forum Admin

I just wanted to give my 2 cents here. I don't mean to be rude but who's responsibility is it to pay your bills? You! I know next month that DH will be billing me so it's up to me to make sure my billing info is updated. It's actually not right now since my credit card expired. I just got a notice from Dotster telling me my card was denied (cause of the expiration). I have until 08/05 to get it updated. Now if I don't do this and Dotster dumps my domain is it their fault? I really don't think so. Of course I'd be mad as hell but it should be directed towards myself. Just like with all my other bills it's up to me to know when they are due and to take care of them. Dreamhost gives MORE than enough time to get your bill paid. I was actually surprised how long they let you go after you're late. I really think it's unfair that you are blaming DH for something that I don't see as their fault.

As far as prices go, they are definitely not too high, at least for me. They give us a heck of a lot of stuff now for what we pay. Two reasons I chose DH for my very first domain 3 years ago was because of their great prices and because they had the best FAQ that I found. I had no clue what I was doing and DH explained things the best. I have no other experiences with other hosts and I would like to keep it that way. On top of their great prices I think their support is great also. Even when I have asked questions I should find out on my own they have always responded very fast and they were always friendly.

I've gone on enough ;) I hope you think twice about who's to blame here. I understand you're mad and I would be too but I'd be mad at myself.

Christy (who doesn't feel like just another number)

I have to agree. I did signup partly cause Sage works here. Sage was the one who created WebRing, the original, pre Yahoo, pre SSNB, webring. I have been very pleased overall and only had one slow response to a request. I did initially have problems with file permissions and getting Ringlink to work. All fixed. Dreamhost keeps me updated on system problems. Note you do have the option to select what level of notices to receive. And all the added goodies have made a great service better. I can even get CVS if I upgrade. And when you consider what you get for what you pay for, you get a great deal.

Allow me to chip in with another story that is quite a contrast to yours.

>I opened my first domain with them, before they raised their >prices and before they had 20 million domains.

Their new plans are a much better value than when I signed up, and quite comparable to hosts in their category. Pay 5 bucks for a host, and you'll get 5 bucks worth of hosting.

>The funny thing is that i still had no problem receiving >Dreamhost's spam newsletter to another account i have >without any problems!!!

You mean that letter that tells you of improvements and added on services? The one that adds the 'personal touch' so many other hosts lack? The one that rewards a site of the month and doesn't try to sell you anything? The one that you can easily opt out of? Doesn't seem like spam to me, at least none I've ever received.

>You will be just another number!

I can only speak for myself, but NOT being another number is what I like about dreamhost. They're always friendly, admit mistakes, and have been more than helpful with my constant stream of questions.

The fact that they havn't deleted this thread, with a title of "Dreamhost SUCKS", with capital letters even, when it was your job to change your billing contact, flies in the face of my experience with other hosts.

>The funny thing is that i still had no problem receiving Dreamhost's spam
> newsletter to another account i have without any problems!!!

Also note that you can easily ask not to receive our newsletters in your contact preferences. While we do think it's a good idea to receive the newsletters, we don't require you to receive them.

Hello Yuri,

I'm sorry to hear you had such a bad experience, but I'm afraid I have to agree with everyone else here.

It's your responsibility to keep your contact info accurate and up to date, not your host's.

During all that time, you must have noticed that you weren't getting any invoices? Why didn't you contact them then but instead wait until they suspended you?

In reply to:

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Sign up with dreamhost and you will be treated just another one of their thousands of domains: You will be just another number!

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I've been a customer here for over 4 years now.
I definitely disagree.

People are friendly and helpful and I've never felt like just another number ... .





Got me a pretty, pretty, garden.

Maybe said person only pays once a year? I do and make sure my info is up to date before that date comes around. Such a small complaint compared to problems people have with other providers. Hey, the downtime is negligible with Dreamhost.

Hey, and the garden is pretty. Like the ringies popup. Nice text ring fragments.

Dreamhost does suck.

DreamHost's poor customer service has led to a serious privacy invasion. When my client attempted to sign up for an account, the transaction hung halfway through. When customer service (which can only be reached by tedious email exchanges) "fixed" the problem, the pay by credit card option was no longer available. The customer service representative insisted that we use Google Payments. I proceeded, and then my client realized his financial information is now in the Google system. The worst possible scenario then came true. Instead of completing the transaction, Google called my client's bank for "preapproval". This was not to complete the transaction (which was never completed), but to gather information for Google's marketing. My client is furious, reviewing everyone's privacy policy, and is looking into ways to bring this problem up at the political, and possibly the legal, level.

Throughout this whole situation, Dreamhost has been nothing but pig-headed. Every customer service representative ignores the case history and either refers us back to Google Payments or says patronizing things like we could have paid with the original credit card system. I offered them a solution where I quietly pay for the account using Google transactions, and they won't even let me help bail them out!!!

I will never refer another client to dreamhost. Right now I'm looking for the best place to air this complaint publicly in as many places as possible. People have to know that when Dreamhost pushes people into using Google Payments, Google then has their financial information to aggregate and deploy for their own purposes.

Seeing how this is your first post ever, I take your story with a grain (or less) of salt.

-Scott

You're employed by dreamhost, I gather?

You have amazing powers of observation.

-Scott

In reply to:

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I will never refer another client to dreamhost. Right now I'm looking for the best place to air this complaint publicly in as many places as possible.

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And bumping a thread from 2002 seemed like a good start?

Are you sure the problems you've had with Dreamhost weren't the result of you not being very bright?

You're so unpredictable that I couldn't possibly guess where this thread's going, but I'll just take a wild guess and answer: No, I'm not an employee.

1. Are you saying that every merchant who uses Google Checkout sucks?
2. Are you saying that Google spent time and money having an individual contact your client's bank just to gather marketing information and not for legitimate anti-fraud reasons? (this question is rhetorical, btw)

Use the 3DOM50 promo code for 3 extra lifetime domains and $50 off
More Dreamhost coupons here!

In reply to:

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The customer service representative insisted that we use Google Payments. I proceeded, and then my client realized his financial information is now in the Google system. The worst possible scenario then came true. Instead of completing the transaction, Google called my client's bank for "preapproval". This was not to complete the transaction (which was never completed), but to gather information for Google's marketing. My client is furious, reviewing everyone's privacy policy, and is looking into ways to bring this problem up at the political, and possibly the legal, level.

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Google Marketing don't have the necessary priviledges to access Google Checkout's credit histories on clients. That would be an absolute breach of the privacy act. Acting as a financial insitution, Google Checkout are bound under strict law regarding transfer of customer information. If you have evidence that Google Checkout has released personal credit history to Google Marketing I'd lay money down that you could find OVER NINE THOUSAND lawyers willing to take the case pro bono.

"Calling the bank for preapproval" is standard practice. Google Checkout aren't in the business of approving loans to anyone with a Gmail account. If the funds aren't available then they can't very well honour any monetary transaction between parties.

I do agree that "pushing" someone to use a specific method of payment is not what I'd personally regard as being good practice on DH Customer Service's part, if that is indeed what actually occurred. If they perhaps "suggested" Google Checkout then I'd be fine with that (and then promptly dismiss the "suggestion" in favour of other methods). But that's just my personal choice.

In reply to:

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I do agree that "pushing" someone to use a specific method of payment is not what I'd personally regard as being good practice on DH Customer Service's part, if that is indeed what actually occurred. If they perhaps "suggested" Google Checkout then I'd be fine with that (and then promptly dismiss the "suggestion" in favour of other methods). But that's just my personal choice.

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Remember that Dreamhost's anti-fraud system will sometimes insist that new customers from certain countries use Google Checkout rather than a credit card. We've heard that this is because Google Checkout has better anti-fraud facilities.

I seriously doubt that Dreamhost pushes one form of payment over another. They'll accept any form of payment that their anti-fraud system tells them is an acceptable risk at a particular time.

Use the 3DOM50 promo code for 3 extra lifetime domains and $50 off
More Dreamhost coupons here!

Yeah I got the impression from the poster's comments that there was perhaps more to the story too, in particularly noting that apparently the credit card payment option was "no longer available" (for whatever reason *snip *snip) followed by indignation that a financial institution would want to check if the poster's "client"(?) actually had any money before honouring a monetary transaction.

The "client" should start a Dreamhost Sux hate blog. He can use my promo code below to get a discount at Dreamhost if he wants.

Disclaimer: I get a kickback if he's good for 97 days. lulz!

Unfortunately in this case "preapproval" didn't mean checking on the credit card to approve the transaction. Google did not complete the transaction - they just gathered more information.

Dreamhost did not "suggest" Google Payments: they gave it as the *only* option after their system hung. Fixing *their* problem somehow led to eliminating Dreamhost's credit card option. All this could have been avoided if Dreamhost had either reset their credit card option or handled the transaction manually. Dreamhost could call the bank if they had any objections. It's Google that my client objected to.

As for the nine thousand pro bono lawyers, that's going to be up to my client. It was his privacy that was violated. I know he's reviewing both Dreamhost's and Google's privacy policies very carefully right now.

In reply to:

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Dreamhost did not "suggest" Google Payments: they gave it as the *only* option...

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If there was no problem with credit then yeah, that's just plain slack.

In reply to:

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Google did not complete the transaction - they just gathered more information.

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Google Checkout must have given your client a reason. Perhaps he isn't telling you the whole story.

In reply to:

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As for the nine thousand...

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OVER NINE THOUSAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If Google Payment Corp. shares financial details to a marketing subsiduary, no matter what their privacy blurb says they "can do", they have broken the law. If your client can prove actual damages resulting from said disclosure, he can process a civil $uit.

In which case he won't need my promo code


All foo aside though mate, there must have been a problem at the start. Maybe the problem reared it's head again during the Google Checkout procedure as well. Only Google and your client really know. Regardless of any issues, I don't think it's a Dreamhost Sux thing here. It's more like a "that Dreamhost operator sux". I'd be pissed at him too.

I just don't like how many things support won't help you.
Ioncube install, example. One friend has it on his domain (DH hosted), tried to install in mine and didn't work.
Many others hosts have CGI folder, customize PHP and panel integration with others WHM.

I've been quite happy with DreamHost.
I moved here after my last host decided it was a good idea to use my 404 pages to spam there stuff.
Dreamhost offered a awesome deal, and now that year is up, and I'll be renewing in the next few weeks for a new year & all my domains (Forums / and such)

Yes there was something that hung the original transaction. However, there's nothing wrong with the card or my client's credit. I helped him buy a TV from a major online vendor the same day. He also called the bank twice to follow up on the Dreamhost issue - the second time was when he was told about the Google phone call.

The bottom line is that Dreamhost should have completed the transaction manually to guard against fraud. But since they don't want to be bothered with that, they should offer more options than Google payments. Especially now that they have been alerted as to what Google does.

I would have liked Dreamhost to accept Paypal when I signed up. I was thankful that once "in" I could remove the credit card details and switch over to Paypal, but yeah, it would have been nice to have made that intial signup using Paypal as well.

Concerning Google and your client's bank, any business involved with the transfer of funds between parties is going to test the water. Having said that, I can understand your client's angst that a company name that is famous for online advertising was poking through his wallet. I flatly refuse to use them myself and it's unfortunate that your client was painted into a corner with regard to payment options.

I bought a stereo and three gold watches on the internet that very same day which proves I am not fraud!

More somberly, your current level of frustration and tendency to act out makes it pretty clear that you are not a good fit for DreamHost's famously relaxed environment. Your application to be one of DreamHost's many online best friends forever has been declined.

Holy foo...

Listen, I have seen this cliche tossed around willy nilly many times before, but this aint no drill... you have won the whole dang internet right there, and that aint no ass kissin cause you're a DH hero. My GAWD man, I mean really... please tell the story on the moment the inspiration came to you to create that reply... that HAD to be a legit vision from The Almighty Universe... no "mere mortal" could have crafted that quite so perfectly.

I am deeply grateful that I was lucky enough to witness that, and I have saved this page to my hard drive and may even print it off and frame it one day.

BTW, I am now 5 hours and 55 minutes (eastern) into my 35th birthday, and I consider this a present from The Almighty Universe channeled through you!

Thank you, thank you, thank you so very much fer that little nugget of awesome!!! DANG!!!

Listen man... please, do everyone you are able to a favor... send out a link to your post in a company wide email... they ALL need to enjoy this rare work of spectacular postitude, and I would also find someone who can git this to that MakiMaki foo at digg and git this front paged... it would be a serious shame fer it to go ferever tucked away into this obscure little corner of The Great WWW. Hale, Josh should also include it in the next Newslettery as well, and a post a Dreamhost Status entitled "Servers Healed By Energy Of Funny foo Michael Has Posted" wouldn't be too much either.

lmao Daniel you need to come down here for a month and learn how to drink mate.

Got Teamspeak?

I aint really a drankin kinda feller much anymore. I MIGHT take a notion to brew up another batch of shine one day if The Tao so moves me, but generally aint an enjoyer of spinnin in my bed and hangovers / wakin up with my underwear on backwards / wearin a clean change of clothes / truck missin / not even knowin really where I am er how I gite there anymore!

Really, I'm lucky to still be livin after them days.

You don't know what you could be forgetting you didn't miss out on

If you're into Taoism, holistically speaking you won't ever have a hangover. Just everyone else will apparently have less of one.