Dreamhost support non-responsive

How do you get in touch with a live person at Dreamhost in a crisis? I'm getting very slow response time and there appears to be an ongoing misunderstanding with my contact. In the meantime, my account has been disabled. I cannot stress enough how dire the situation is for my client. All I need is to get to the next level of management, or just another person to read the case. What to do? I am so regretting not using a hosting service with telephone support!

You *can* request a call-back in the Support section of the panel. It's something like $9.95 per month, but this may be worth it. So, yes, there is telephone support here.

-Scott

The problem is that they've disabled my account, so I can't pay for anything, even though I want to! This is a desperate situation. I need a live person, anyone!

We can't really do much for you here, this is *not* an official support channel and while DH staffers occasionally stop by, they rarely post.

That said, "disabled" can mean many things. Some who have been around a while could share what we have seen in the past in these forums and possibly offer advice, but anything we might be able to tell you depends upon the circumstances of the disablement.

TOS or Abuse issues go to DH staff members who only deal with that, and general tech support staffers will not intervene - you will have to deal with the Abuse folks, and as there are fewer of them, the queue will be longer.

A billing problem related disablement (that is not a "fraud" issue) *can* often be handled by "rank and file" tech support staff, however.

You say "non-responsive" - does this mean you have had no communication from them at all? That would be very unusual. At the very least they almost always attempt to inform an account holder of any disablement, and that notification usually details what, if any, alternate communication channels will be responded to.

What is the domain involved in the disablement, and why was it disabled? WIth that information, many here could probably tell you what to expect (though they cannot speak for DreamHost unless they are identified as a DH staffer).

There is no phone number to contact DreamHost (even those with "voice support" options on their plans must accept a callback only - you cannot call them).

-rlparker

When I say non-responsive, I mean that response time is very slow, and when there is an e-mail, it does not respond to my entire message and/or misses the point of the message.

The issue is that, in error, my client's credit card company disputed a recent charge. When Dreamhost disabled the account and we realized what had happened, we sent a fax to Dreamhost from the credit card company showing that the dispute was in error and the dispute has been cancelled by the credit card company.

By way of providing context, we explained that the client had been confused by the multiple credits and debits on her statement in January because of the double-billing incident, and had disputed the new, recent charge, because she thought either she had already paid it (in January) or that it was not legitimate. In either event, she disputed in error.

At first Dreamhost re-enabled the site, but then disabled it again twenty minutes later because it cannot verify that the dispute has anything to do with the double-billing in January. But the reason for the client's error is beside the point. The point is that she recognizes the error and has taken steps to rectify it, and has already sent documentation from the credit card company that shows that any dispute has been cancelled. She has also said she'll pay anything.

And yet the site remains disabled.

Yeah, from what we have seen on these forums, any "disputed charge" filed with a charge card company (chargeback) is dealt with pretty severely.

Hopefully they can/will get it sorted for your client. Good Luck.

--rlparker

Yes, but we have already explained that it was a mistake and have fixed the problem with the bank, so I don't understand why the site is not being enabled.