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As the Co-founder of a statup that has dealt directly with situations like this in the past, I don't see much wrong with how the situation was handled. You wou

As the Co-founder of a statup that has dealt directly with situations like this in the past, I don't see much wrong with how the situation was handled. You wouldn't expect a restaurant owner to put up with a rude and insulting customer being a dick to restaurant staff, so why should any other service have to put up with it? Some customers just aren't worth the hassle they put out PERIOD. I don't give a shit if you're willing to pay me $9.99 a month, if you purposely go out of your way to insult myself or a member of my team, you don't gain the benefit of using our product, end of story. * Edit * - Just to clarify, I don't see the need for them deleting the previous blog post, if you're going to respond to something in public, you should probably stand behind what you are saying before pushing publish.

starwed 15y ago
This seems to be one of those stories which has mutated. In the original account, the poster says they inquired about a problem, had their account terminated, and then flipped out. Almost every commenter on HN seems to assume that the account termination happened after the flip-out, but from what I can tell that isn't correct?
- wvenable 15y ago
  The fully paid and not in dispute account was suspended (disabled) because of the account owner's twitter comments. The account owner then swore on twitter and so his account was further deleted and all backups destroyed. The story hasn't mutated but the details are subtle.
  - starwed 15y ago
    The chain of events, as originally laid out[1], was: * OP has paypal payment issue with This. * Friend asks them via twitter "That's not cool. Suspending a friends account because of a minor PayPal dispute? When did you get into doing that?" * They respond saying "Please mind your own business."[2] * OP and This* get into a dispute about whether such a response was professional or not. * Both accounts are then suspended. (This part is unclear from the original account. OP says that is at this point his account was suspended, while friend's twitter implies it had been suspended earlier. My guess would be it was originally supposed to be a temporary suspension until payment was worked out?) * OP flips out a bit and swears on twitter. * Backups deleted. ------------------------------- Friend's twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/boriskourt http://twitter.com/#!/boriskourt OP's twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/berfarah http://twitter.com/#!/berfarah [1] http://www.reddit.com/r/web_design/comments/jk195/stay_the_fuck_away_from_this_thiswebhostcom/ http://www.reddit.com/r/web_design/comments/jk195/stay_the_f... [2] http://i.imgur.com/Hc0Bh.png http://i.imgur.com/Hc0Bh.png
alex_c 15y ago
They had ample opportunity to be the bigger men, but failed to do so at every step. By all means, terminate troublesome customers, with whatever advance notice you're comfortable / obligated to give them. Remain courteous and professional no matter what they throw at you. DON'T get in shouting matches with your (ex-)customers over the Internet, or take vindictive measures. It can't be worth it.
tzs 15y ago
To use your restaurant analogy, suppose I'm at a restaurant. There is some problem with my credit card. I get rude and insulting. It is perfectly acceptable, as you note, for the restaurant to toss me out and to ban me. What is not acceptable is that if a friend of mine later asks them why they banned me for them to state that it was due to a credit card dispute. They should just say "we do not discuss details related to past or present customers". In the deleted blog post that's essentially what they admit doing. A friend of the customer asked about the incident, and they responded giving information that they should have not given, instead of just saying "we do not discuss account details of customers with third parties".
- roel_v 15y ago
  But now you're turning it around, the nerd rage is not about them giving out that info, since the guy already knew that. The 'ruckus' (rather, Reddit lynch mob) is about them terminating the customer's account. (whether justified or not I don't know and I don't care).
wnight 15y ago
> As the Co-founder of a statup that has dealt directly with situations like this in the past, I don't see much wrong with how the situation was handled. If I saw a service I use unreasonably lock someone's account I'd be concerned for my own. The customer was totally justified in asking their questions, ironically merely seeking assurance for their site. Instead of telling the customer what they could they imply that it's the customer's fault for even asking because it could involve secret data, and they ridicule the customer for caring - as if they should have just known to shut up and hurry away. > You wouldn't expect a restaurant owner to put up with a rude and insulting customer being a dick to restaurant staff, so why should any other service have to put up with it? At a minimum I would expect them to provide the food to-go, and at a discount reflecting the changed nature of the service provided, or to refund the purchase price. That the customer's site and backups got irrevocably nuked doesn't fit into the restaurant analogy at all but just goes how "careless" they are with what could be your data. However, I would like to call attention to this needless concern trolling. A "dirty word" is not a knife, and is actually a reasonable response to PR shit and corporate excuses. > Some customers just aren't worth the hassle they put out PERIOD. I don't give a shit if you're willing to pay me $9.99 a month, if you purposely go out of your way to insult myself or a member of my team, you don't gain the benefit of using our product, end of story. This is a service you provide, if you can't be bothered to do it well don't hide behind your fear of rudeness to dodge complaints. > "Purposefully go out of your way" Yes, as if the customer scheduled "Go bug a legit company for no reason".

starwed 15y ago

This seems to be one of those stories which has mutated. In the original account, the poster says they inquired about a problem, had their account terminated, and then flipped out. Almost every commenter on HN seems to assume that the account termination happened after the flip-out, but from what I can tell that isn't correct?

wvenable 15y ago
The fully paid and not in dispute account was suspended (disabled) because of the account owner's twitter comments. The account owner then swore on twitter and so his account was further deleted and all backups destroyed. The story hasn't mutated but the details are subtle.
- starwed 15y ago
  The chain of events, as originally laid out[1], was: * OP has paypal payment issue with This. * Friend asks them via twitter "That's not cool. Suspending a friends account because of a minor PayPal dispute? When did you get into doing that?" * They respond saying "Please mind your own business."[2] * OP and This* get into a dispute about whether such a response was professional or not. * Both accounts are then suspended. (This part is unclear from the original account. OP says that is at this point his account was suspended, while friend's twitter implies it had been suspended earlier. My guess would be it was originally supposed to be a temporary suspension until payment was worked out?) * OP flips out a bit and swears on twitter. * Backups deleted. ------------------------------- Friend's twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/boriskourt http://twitter.com/#!/boriskourt OP's twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/berfarah http://twitter.com/#!/berfarah [1] http://www.reddit.com/r/web_design/comments/jk195/stay_the_fuck_away_from_this_thiswebhostcom/ http://www.reddit.com/r/web_design/comments/jk195/stay_the_f... [2] http://i.imgur.com/Hc0Bh.png http://i.imgur.com/Hc0Bh.png

alex_c 15y ago

They had ample opportunity to be the bigger men, but failed to do so at every step. By all means, terminate troublesome customers, with whatever advance notice you're comfortable / obligated to give them. Remain courteous and professional no matter what they throw at you. DON'T get in shouting matches with your (ex-)customers over the Internet, or take vindictive measures. It can't be worth it.

tzs 15y ago

To use your restaurant analogy, suppose I'm at a restaurant. There is some problem with my credit card. I get rude and insulting. It is perfectly acceptable, as you note, for the restaurant to toss me out and to ban me. What is not acceptable is that if a friend of mine later asks them why they banned me for them to state that it was due to a credit card dispute. They should just say "we do not discuss details related to past or present customers". In the deleted blog post that's essentially what they admit doing. A friend of the customer asked about the incident, and they responded giving information that they should have not given, instead of just saying "we do not discuss account details of customers with third parties".

roel_v 15y ago
But now you're turning it around, the nerd rage is not about them giving out that info, since the guy already knew that. The 'ruckus' (rather, Reddit lynch mob) is about them terminating the customer's account. (whether justified or not I don't know and I don't care).

wnight 15y ago

> As the Co-founder of a statup that has dealt directly with situations like this in the past, I don't see much wrong with how the situation was handled. If I saw a service I use unreasonably lock someone's account I'd be concerned for my own. The customer was totally justified in asking their questions, ironically merely seeking assurance for their site. Instead of telling the customer what they could they imply that it's the customer's fault for even asking because it could involve secret data, and they ridicule the customer for caring - as if they should have just known to shut up and hurry away. > You wouldn't expect a restaurant owner to put up with a rude and insulting customer being a dick to restaurant staff, so why should any other service have to put up with it? At a minimum I would expect them to provide the food to-go, and at a discount reflecting the changed nature of the service provided, or to refund the purchase price. That the customer's site and backups got irrevocably nuked doesn't fit into the restaurant analogy at all but just goes how "careless" they are with what could be your data. However, I would like to call attention to this needless concern trolling. A "dirty word" is not a knife, and is actually a reasonable response to PR shit and corporate excuses. > Some customers just aren't worth the hassle they put out PERIOD. I don't give a shit if you're willing to pay me $9.99 a month, if you purposely go out of your way to insult myself or a member of my team, you don't gain the benefit of using our product, end of story. This is a service you provide, if you can't be bothered to do it well don't hide behind your fear of rudeness to dodge complaints. > "Purposefully go out of your way" Yes, as if the customer scheduled "Go bug a legit company for no reason".