In reply to:
You can't be serious. While I personally don't have the minimum service at dreamhost, it's pretty apparent that the "7.95 a month" package should work as it is advertised- it IS due them. It's due me, too.
I am. Serous as a heart attack. Well, I guess I'm "half-serious". gordaen, in his earlier response to your post, very accurately paraphrased the message I was trying to send. I get "frustrated" too, (though not necessarily by the same things that frustrate you). As for "work as advertised" goes, the fact that something is advertised as having a particular capability does not mean that nothing will ever "break". Dreamhost *does* provide the things it advertises *within the scope of their "TOS"*. In a perfect world, things would never break, but, "grasshopper", this is not a perfect world.
In reply to:
The snipe of elder generations at e-world's sense of entitlement to performance didn't go unnoticed..
Good !
No, I do not work for Dreamhost (which is something that should have been completely obvious to you had *read* the post to which you responded). No Dreamhost employee I have ever encountered would make even a passing reference to any of their customers "newbie" status in such a "flip" manner. They are far to polite for such things 
. "Reading" is generally a "good thing"; had you carefully read (and understood?) the TOS when you made the "contract" you are so fond of blathering about, you would realize how untenable your position is when you talk about "contractual binding" and what you believe you are "due". gordaen did a good job of pointing that out to you, so I won't rehash it here.
As for why I think Dreamhost is the best hosting provider, again "reading is fundamental". My post was in response to the orignal poster's question about past experience, and I detailed mine. If you are truly interested, you can easily read any/all of my prior posts on such subjects and you will have all the "reason" you need for why I feel the way I do. If, on the other hand, your main purpose in this thread is to just complain and lobby for a credit (which is kinda what you earlier posts in this thread look like to me), none of the historical experiences of others will be of interest to you.
In reply to:
Honestly, I'd love to have clients like yours. Apparently I don't have to know how commerce works to get them.
You could probably have such clients yourself, but you will have to have a *mature* understanding of "how commerce works", and always provide those clients with a "real world" perspective of the landscape in order to find, and keep, them.
In reply to:
If you can't adhere to every. single. piece of the contract, then don't write it/sign it. I'm obligated to pay them my bill, and they are obligated to provide me service that is professional. This false rep is detrimental to my business.
I agree with the spirit of what I *think* you are saying here (though, being apparantly one of the "elder generation", I'n not completely sure of what your last sentence above means). I submit you should view your "contract" in exactly the terms you describe: Dreamhost "promised" you *nothing* in the way of uninterrupted service and, in fact, expressly disclamied any such representation. If you represented something other than that to your clients, I *expect* that your "false rep" *will* be detrimental to your business.
As always, when it comes to an individual's experience with a business, YMMV. I too have "high expectations" of quality from Dream host, and *my* expectations over the long-tern have been, by and large, met. My response to the poster to whom I replied accurately described this. It just appears your "sense of entitlement" and understanding of your "contractual bindings" are different (and less accurate) than mine. You "go" for that "credit" though; you will likely have some success with that, as Dreamhost has always been, in my experience, more than fair and generous in dealling with dissatisfied customers.
Nobody likes the kind of service that most of us have experienced over the last 3 weeks. That said, while "reasons' are different than "excuses", and do not, in and of themselves, "excuse" anything, they *are* still "reasons". Stuff *does* happen. I appreciate that Dreamhost "owns up" to this stuff in a forthright and candid manner, and would rather "stick it out" till they get it sorted (as they have in the past) than run around being "outraged" over a broken website, yelling about my contract, and generally acting like the sky is falling. As for "professional service", "professional" interaction between business associates is a two-way street; if you want to be treated like a "professional", I suggest you will have more success in that area by behaving and communicating in a professional manner yourself. Screaming about what an "outrage" it is when a shared server "borks", a filer fails, a router goes "paws up", or a power failure occurs, or "all of the above", and lobbying for a refund, credit, or other consideration (for a prorated piece of a month's fee?) betrays to all the extent of your own "prossionalism", given the amount of money involved for any Dreamhost "shared hosting" account. Professionals are far more interested in minimizing the damage from such circumstances, and getting things back to "normal", than arguing over a (very) few dollars.
--rlparker
