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> 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 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
This is basically a whole section in the grifters guide to business. Placing small hurdles to refunds via things like asking for one / filling out a form / cashing physical cheques etc will result in not having to give back 100% of the money that you have taken from people. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embarrassing_cheque https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embarrassing_cheque

by gwd 2y ago

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

This is basically a whole section in the grifters guide to business. Placing small hurdles to refunds via things like asking for one / filling out a form / cashing physical cheques etc will result in not having to give back 100% of the money that you have taken from people. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embarrassing_cheque https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embarrassing_cheque