4 ms·

It is very unusual for AWS not to issue refunds in situations like this, so I don't think it's a function of them finding an edge to milk thousands from user mi

It is very unusual for AWS not to issue refunds in situations like this, so I don't think it's a function of them finding an edge to milk thousands from user mistakes. More likely they've found that issuing refunds is less onerous than it would be to provide accurate and cheap tutorials. Perhaps that does not excuse the behaviour but AWS reversed a $600 charge I incurred using AWS Textract where the charges were completely legitimate and I was working for a billion dollar enterprise.

bdcravens 2y ago
I accidentally pushed an AWS key to a public repo, and by the next day, had like $50k in charges from crypto miners. AWS reversed the charges, with the only condition that we enable some basic security guardrails that I should have had in place to begin with.
- normie3000 2y ago
  What were the guardrails?
  - duckmysick 2y ago
    Automated secrets scanning is one of them. You can do it as a pre-commit hook. GitHub and Gitlab can scan it too. https://docs.github.com/en/code-security/secret-scanning/introduction/about-secret-scanning https://docs.github.com/en/code-security/secret-scanning/int... https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/application_security/secret_detection/ https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/application_security/secret_...
gwd 2y ago
> It is very unusual for AWS not to issue refunds in situations like this ...when asked to. But what percentage of mistakes like this end up just being "eaten" by the end-user, not realizing that they can ask for a refund? What percentage don't even get noticed?
- vbezhenar 2y ago
  I encountered similar situation twice and AWS did not issue a refund both times. I'm avoiding AWS like plague now. Not going to rely on goodwill of support person handling my ticket today.
  - HumanOstrich 2y ago
    Care to share any details?
    - vbezhenar 2y ago
      First time I've used S3 glacier in a wrong way and downloading few gigabytes resulted in multi-hundred dollars bill. I don't remember all the details, but it was absolutely non-obvious behaviour. I think it was corrected since then and today it wouldn't work like that. Second time I've configured virtual machine with some fancy disk. It was supposed to work as CI build server, so I've chosen the fastest disk. Apparently this fastest disk was billed by IOPS or something like that, so it ate few thousands of dollars in a month. I couldn't even imagine disk could cost that much. Basically these pricing nuances contradicted everything I ever encountered on multiple hosters I worked with and it felt like malicious traps designed specifically for people to fall into.
      - HumanOstrich 2y ago
        Dang, they got you a few times. Those are all things I could've been bitten by. They used to be better about refunding accidental or misunderstood charges. I had a couple winners a long time ago like a $600 bill for a giant EC2 instance I meant to stop. They refunded it quickly, no questions. The last time I needed to refund some accidental charges though, there was a lot more stalling and forms. You know what's insane? RDS (database) instances can be stopped, but automatically restart themselves after 7 days. Didn't read the fine print and thought you could spin up a giant DB for as-needed usage? There's a thousand bucks a month.
- blitzar 2y ago
CJefferson 2y ago
I hear people say that all the time, but it's not my experience. I once ran up a bill of $60 accidentally, didn't get a refund. I've had three friends with bills, one got a refund. It might depend on who you know, if you look like someone who is likely to spend more money in future, how stupid your mistake was, I don't know.
BoxedEmpathy 2y ago
I very recently had a run away SageMaker issue that wasn't refunded. Wasn't much, only $50, but they said no.

bdcravens 2y ago

I accidentally pushed an AWS key to a public repo, and by the next day, had like $50k in charges from crypto miners. AWS reversed the charges, with the only condition that we enable some basic security guardrails that I should have had in place to begin with.

normie3000 2y ago
What were the guardrails?
- duckmysick 2y ago
  Automated secrets scanning is one of them. You can do it as a pre-commit hook. GitHub and Gitlab can scan it too. https://docs.github.com/en/code-security/secret-scanning/introduction/about-secret-scanning https://docs.github.com/en/code-security/secret-scanning/int... https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/application_security/secret_detection/ https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/application_security/secret_...

gwd 2y ago

> It is very unusual for AWS not to issue refunds in situations like this ...when asked to. But what percentage of mistakes like this end up just being "eaten" by the end-user, not realizing that they can ask for a refund? What percentage don't even get noticed?

vbezhenar 2y ago
I encountered similar situation twice and AWS did not issue a refund both times. I'm avoiding AWS like plague now. Not going to rely on goodwill of support person handling my ticket today.
- HumanOstrich 2y ago
  Care to share any details?
  - vbezhenar 2y ago
    First time I've used S3 glacier in a wrong way and downloading few gigabytes resulted in multi-hundred dollars bill. I don't remember all the details, but it was absolutely non-obvious behaviour. I think it was corrected since then and today it wouldn't work like that. Second time I've configured virtual machine with some fancy disk. It was supposed to work as CI build server, so I've chosen the fastest disk. Apparently this fastest disk was billed by IOPS or something like that, so it ate few thousands of dollars in a month. I couldn't even imagine disk could cost that much. Basically these pricing nuances contradicted everything I ever encountered on multiple hosters I worked with and it felt like malicious traps designed specifically for people to fall into.
    - HumanOstrich 2y ago
      Dang, they got you a few times. Those are all things I could've been bitten by. They used to be better about refunding accidental or misunderstood charges. I had a couple winners a long time ago like a $600 bill for a giant EC2 instance I meant to stop. They refunded it quickly, no questions. The last time I needed to refund some accidental charges though, there was a lot more stalling and forms. You know what's insane? RDS (database) instances can be stopped, but automatically restart themselves after 7 days. Didn't read the fine print and thought you could spin up a giant DB for as-needed usage? There's a thousand bucks a month.
blitzar 2y ago

CJefferson 2y ago

I hear people say that all the time, but it's not my experience. I once ran up a bill of $60 accidentally, didn't get a refund. I've had three friends with bills, one got a refund. It might depend on who you know, if you look like someone who is likely to spend more money in future, how stupid your mistake was, I don't know.

BoxedEmpathy 2y ago

I very recently had a run away SageMaker issue that wasn't refunded. Wasn't much, only $50, but they said no.