2 accounts banned for reward system abuse????

Hello,

I have 2 account on Dreamhost and pretty satisfied with the hosting service (I registered my first account with 3 years package).

The second account I registered used reward coupon of the first account and now I get both account banned and they said they will not refund me..
I don't know what prevent me to register many accounts on Dreamhost, just think each account should be treated as a new customer.
I have many sites hosted here and now all of them disable.
I need an explanation from Dreamhost and hope to get my sites reactive soon.

Thank you

First, you should know this is a customer to customer forum and, while DreamHost staff occasionally drop by, they rarely post here. If you have an issue you wish to discuss with DreamHost, you should use the appropriate channels for that: filing a support request in the control panel, replying to a tech support email, or using the contact form at http://dreamhost.com/contact.cgi.

In reply to:
I have 2 account on Dreamhost ... The second account I registered used reward coupon of the first account and now I get both account banned and they said they will not refund me..

That sounds about right to me, from what you have described. By using the promo code from your first account when you opened your second account you fraudulently obtained a discount that you were not entitled to receive (you were *not* a new or "first-time" customer).

In reply to:
I don't know what prevent me to register many accounts on Dreamhost, just think each account should be treated as a new customer.

Well, the TOS prevents you from opening multiple "plans", and warns that all plans will be terminated if you do (See paragraph 8 under Material Services)"

"The Customer agrees to hold only one (1) active web hosting service plan at any given time with DreamHost Web Hosting. Signing up for multiple plans is grounds for termination of all plans, including the first one, without warning."

That said, there *is* a way to "add accounts" from within the control panel, and they allow you to do that for accounting reasons, but *not* to do it as a "new" signup with a promo code discount. wink

In reply to:
I need an explanation from Dreamhost and hope to get my sites reactive soon.

You should seek any further explanation directly from DreamHost; I don't know how anyone *here* can help you.

As for getting your account(s) re-instated, I cannot speak for DreamHost, but I would be very surprised if the continue to business with you after having terminated your account(s) as you described.

I can understand that you are unhappy about not being able to continue to host your sites on DreamHost, but if it were me, I'd just move on and find some new hosting as soon as possible. frown

--rlparker

I think the problem is mostly around having referred yourself, which violates the terms of the DH affiliate agreement. If you contact support, you should be able to remove your promotional code from your account.

Also, and very importantly, you should note that DH specifically forbids you from moving from one hosting account to another while using promotional codes. Support has said that if you create two accounts and keep both, they're fine with it. If you open one with the intention of closing the other, you're in big trouble.

Good luck! I hope you get things worked out.

What are 50DISK50, 3DOM50, and 1IP1DOM50?
They're Dreamhost coupons!

Thank for your very clear explanations.
I known it's my fault, yes my ignorance.
I hope they can get my data back to move to new host.
Or the best case, they reactive my sites and I'll pay off what I receive from the discount. Anyway, I'm very new with Dreamhost and hope they can sympathize me for that.

I have my server but I'd like to host my multiple sites on share environment, it's cheaper for me and I chose to go with 2 accounts solution on Dreamhost.

BTW, you know that you can host as many sites as you want under one account here, right?

What are 50DISK50, 3DOM50, and 1IP1DOM50?
They're Dreamhost coupons!

In reply to:
I think the problem is mostly around having referred yourself, which violates the terms of the DH affiliate agreement. If you contact support, you should be able to remove your promotional code from your account.

... Support has said that if you create two accounts and keep both, they're fine with it.

I'm not so sure about that. This is straight from the TOS and doesn't seem too vague:

In reply to:
The Customer agrees to hold only one (1) active web hosting service plan at any given time with DreamHost Web Hosting. Signing up for multiple plans is grounds for termination of all plans, including the first one, without warning.

It doesn't even mention promo codes, so it looks like he'd be in the same boat even if he hadn't used one.

In reply to:
It doesn't even mention promo codes, so it looks like he'd be in the same boat even if he hadn't used one.

Since you don't trust me, (and I don't blame you, wink ) I thought I'd post an excerpt from my reply from DH support, though I tend to be a bit shy about publishing an ostensibly private communication:

In reply to:
Mostly this rule was (and still is) in place to prevent crafty customers from gaming the system. At one point we had customers canceling their accounts and signing back up using promo codes to get heavy discounts on their next year of service. More than that, we've also had customers
gaming the system with referral bonus scams by signing up multiple accounts and reaping the rewards involved. Mostly the sales team put that in there as a warning for both of those kinds of people above all else.

There are a few customers who have multiple accounts for valid reasons tho. Say someone like yourself who has a private server but doesn't want all of their sites on it. Signing up for a separate account with a different email address and credit card and moving sites over (with our help, preferably) is totally fine in a case like that. So if that's something you're looking to do, don't worry.

What are 50DISK50, 3DOM50, and 1IP1DOM50?
They're Dreamhost coupons!

I believed you were told that -- I just think that if something comes up, the TOS will override a support reply, unless maybe if it's coming from a Honcho that can easily over-ride someone that enforces the TOS on you. wink

Or, in the case where you cleared something in advance and got the okay, it might not apply to someone that reads it here then tries to do something similar.

Plus, in your case, they're making up for it on the price of the PS, which might have something to do with it. Not sure if they mean it as a generic "yes" in that it's okay for two shared plans and/or other reasons for doing it.

It would be nice if they made it clearer in their TOS, if there are exceptions. Otherwise, they could lose the occasional person that actually reads the TOS before signing up, because he has a need (that might be okay with them) for two or more accounts.

I've been using DreamHost for work for about a year. The other day, I took the plunge and started another account for personal use. It happens to be "me" doing both accounts, but different people are paying, and the accounts are for very different things/entities. Until I read this thread, I didn't even have a thought about any possibility of this not being kosher.

At least I didn't use a promocode when signing up my private account.

In reply to:
At least I didn't use a promocode when signing up my private account.

Which means you have nothing to worry about. wink

--rlparker

2 accounts banned for reward system abuse????