> there is no real pressure connected between the SLA and their true performance I'm not sure I understand this. Regardless of the refund, if a provider cuts e

> there is no real pressure connected between the SLA and their true performance I'm not sure I understand this. Regardless of the refund, if a provider cuts enough corners with SLAs, won't the customers eventually raise a stink about it and make use of the (thankfully robust) competition? Plus there's the support overhead of tracking the performance and issuing the refund, which might exceed the cost of the refund itself. I think to most people an SLA is an indicator that a company is serious about this aspect of the product's performance. Serious enough to write it into long term contracts and align its incentives to fulfill it.