At the 1996 MacWorld there was a bin of floppies for Earthlink's dial-up service supporting the then-new World Wide Web. They weren't prepared for the server c

At the 1996 MacWorld there was a bin of floppies for Earthlink's dial-up service supporting the then-new World Wide Web. They weren't prepared for the server crush. I made nine attempts to create an account, before succeeding. Each time the attempt hung in mid-session. Once I got far enough to see my preferred login was not available. In my frustration I gave that presumed stranger a referral credit. Then I got billed for nine accounts. There were unique transaction numbers, but my credit card company didn't use them, and couldn't keep track of otherwise identical transactions. To this day I want Earthlink to rot in hell for how they treated me throughout this conflict. They brought this on themselves. They accused me of fraud for the unintended self-referral. As Don Johnson once said in a less safe-for-work context, we all rely on the kindness of strangers.