The Right Way Of Doing Business, Slicehost Style
Published July 9th, 2008 in Small TalkAt the beginning of June, I received my monthly bill from Slicehost, but something wasn’t quite right.
BILLING SUMMARY
—————
PRIOR BALANCE: $0.00—————
NEW BALANCE: $0.00
For those who don’t know, there should be a charge in there (good web hosting always costs money). I’m a reasonably nice guy, so I shot them an email:
I just received my billing statement today (3June08) and it didn’t show any charges to my account. My monthly balance was $0.00 (and still is). Normally I am billed $20 each month and that is charged to my credit card, but there was no actual hosting charge (and therefore no credit card charge) this month. I’m not complaining if you all want to give me free hosting, but I thought I’d be a nice guy and let you know.
Notice that I was overly verbose… a habit that develops after dealing with Dreamhost customer support… Anyway, they promptly sent a reply basically saying, “Thanks Ian, appreciate the heads up.” I didn’t hear anything more about it until I received my bill for this month:
BILLING SUMMARY
—————
PRIOR BALANCE: $0.00
[2008-06-03] $20.00 = Monthly charge for gordaen - 256 slice
[2008-06-03] $-20.00 = Credit for being the guy to alert us to the billing issue.
[2008-07-03] $20.00 = Monthly charge for gordaen - 256 slice
[2008-07-03] $-20.00 = Monthly payment applied—————
AMOUNT CHARGED: $20.00 USD
CREDIT CARD: Mastercard ending in 1234
NEW BALANCE: $0.00* negative amounts are credits
So, they made a mistake and forgot to charge me twenty dollars. To fix it, they credited my account by that twenty dollars so that when they put the bill through, the account stayed at zero. Essentially, they gave me a free month of hosting because of their mistake! Twenty dollars isn’t that much for a business like Slicehost, and it isn’t really all that much for an individual, but acts like this really highlight the values of a company and give another reason to love Slicehost.
You can sign up for Slicehost with me as your referrer or without a referrer, but either way, I recommend checking out their service if you aren’t satisfied with your current host or simply need to upgrade.
And no, my credit card number doesn’t really end in 1234.
Wow, now that’s how to run a hosting company. From all that I hear about slicehost, I’ll be moving to them when my hosting contract is up.
Ian,
Companies can make very unhappy customers by doing the wrong thing.
I bought a pair of shoes from Haband and I loved them but they did not have eyelets and the strings cut through the material.
I wrote them and told them the above plus the fact that I would love to buy some more just like them if they had eyelets.
All they offered was a refund if I send the shoes back. I was aggravated that they wanted me to go to the trouble to return something that was damaged and useless — at least for its original purpose.
So I don’t buy anything from that company anymore.
Robert
@Josh: Yeah, it’s quite a bit different from a company like Dreamhost, which would bill you extra and not provide decent service.
@Robert: I’m the same way; if a company disappoints me, it doesn’t get my business any more. To me, excellent customer service and quality products are the best ways to advertise and that’s why companies like Newegg do so well.
I like hearing stories like this one as opposed to the other kind.
You should be commended as well, Ian, for being the kind of guy to report something like that when you obviously didn’t have to. Though I have to wonder, how many people ended up having to pay their bill for the month after you reported the error? Hopefully they don’t find you.
Haha, yeah, I did wonder if it affected anyone else or if it was just a freak incident with my account. I figure someone has to pay for their incredible office though!
Awww :’(
BILLING SUMMARY
—————
PRIOR BALANCE: $0.00
[2008-06-09] $20.00 = Monthly charge for haven.pig-monkey.com - 256 slice
[2008-06-09] $20.00 = Charge for not being Ian Clifton.
[2008-07-09] $20.00 = Monthly charge for haven.pig-monkey.com - 256 slice
[2008-07-09] $-60.00 = Monthly payment applied
—————
AMOUNT CHARGED: $60.00 USD
CREDIT CARD: Visa ending in 1337
NEW BALANCE: $0.00
Ian,
I looked at the photographs of the office and I see why they may need a charge for “not being Ian Clifton.” Wonder how many people would pay the bill without paying any attention to that charge?
Did I tell you that a few weeks ago I had breakfast with my friend Tom and his cousin — the CEO of SUP which owns LiveJournal? Brushing elbows with the big folk now! LOL
Robert
@PM: Sorry, we can’t all be me, but that’s definitely a good thing.
@Robert: I don’t think even an important CEO could be convincing enough to get me up in time for a breakfast out… unless s/he was buying!