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For people commenting about overdraft charges, Dreamhost went through this a while back. I was in college at the time, and didn't realize they'd drafted a secon

For people commenting about overdraft charges, Dreamhost went through this a while back. I was in college at the time, and didn't realize they'd drafted a second charge to my account. A series of small transactions later, and I was $300 in the red with very little income to fix it. They offered to reimburse overdraft fees for those affected, but I never was reimbursed. This is also great as a "how not to tell customers that you just double billed them." At least Twilio is getting this right. http://dreamhost.com/dreamscape/2008/01/15/um-whoops/ http://dreamhost.com/dreamscape/2008/01/15/um-whoops/ Step 1: Don't complain to the customer how inconvenient your massive mistake was for you.

mischanix 13y ago
I'd say, as a general rule, don't put engineers into a PR role and expect it to go smoothly.
- dayjah 13y ago
  I think this very much depends on the empathy of the developers. We've a pretty strict rule that PR are not allowed to comment on technology; each time they have they've gotten it wrong and we end up looking "stupid". Now we have devs and PR work closely to get succinct and technically accurate updates out to our community.
phaemon 13y ago
What's wrong with the Dreamhost post? He specifically says: >"The end to this story is that of course, I’m very very sorry, we’re very very sorry, and I’m sure you’re very very sorry this happened. I really am. I understand the sort of problems that an unexpected large charge to your credit card (or worse yet, your debit card) can cause. If the tone of this blog post seemed a little light, I apologize I don’t mean to offend and I realize how serious an issue this is." I can see why you'd still be annoyed about not getting your charges refunded though. What happened there? Frankly, if your bank didn't refund them when you told them what happened, they seem pretty scummy. I hope you dumped them as soon as you could!
- eksith 13y ago
  I was about to say this too. There was a lot of vitriol on the comments as well, but all of them follow the frustration of being overdrawn. But I agree, if the bank or card company doesn't take this as a genuine error and erase the record, then it's a pretty lousy institution. Maybe he could have worded it differently and shown less irreverence, but that may be a byproduct of the stress as well. It's a pretty shocking thing too and they're human after all. My current web host uses them as a registrar for some years and they've been pretty happy with DH services.
  - benjamincburns 13y ago
    See my other comment for thoughts on the e-mail/post (sibling to yours). On the banks... "Overdraft protection" is probably the single most disingenuous thing the banks have done to low-income individuals. It's such a "squeeze 'em when they're down" tactic. I had all kinds of financial problems in college, mostly my own doing, but they were sooo complicated by this... service. Suddenly because of one mistake, 10 small transactions turns into an additional $320 expense. Three days later you get 10 little envelopes in the mail. And then the dread. "Shit, I did it again. Now what am I gonna do?" To the best of my knowledge, SunTrust wouldn't let you opt out prior to the CARD act. Or, if they did, none of their customer service reps or bank managers notified me of the possibility. Thankfully I manage my finances better now. And thankfully the CARD act makes overdraft protection opt-in (although for a lot of banks this is just another clause in the phonebook-sized account agreement you sign), and there are now a few checking accounts (ING Direct, Ally bank) that treat payment of transactions that cause overdraft like what it is - a line of credit.
    - PhasmaFelis 13y ago
      My local college credit union has an optional "Overdraft Protection Loan" service. You apply for an $X loan in the usual way (so bad credit, etc. can still hurt you here), but if/when you get it, they don't give you $X cash. Instead, they attach it to your checking account. If you go over, the bank automatically moves money from the loan to your checking account in $100 increments to cover the overdraft. There's no per-use fees, and as long as you pay it back within a month, there's no interest charged. (Or very little, I'm not clear--sometimes there's an extra 40 cents or so on there.) It's really, really handy and they don't advertise it at all. I found out about it when I accidentally ran up a dozen overdraft fees and talked to an account manager about how to keep it from happening again. I'd recommend that everyone see if their bank offers something similar.
superuser2 13y ago
This is, interestingly, a good reason to use a credit card (and pay it off in full every month) rather than a debit card. With a credit card, you at least have a layer of insulation between your bank account and an erroneous charge.
- benjamincburns 13y ago
  Indeed. I have a much better system in place now.
- mikeash 13y ago
  He who has the money has the power. With a debit card, an erroneous charge means the other guy has the money, and you have no power. With a credit card, you still have your money until you pay your bill, so up to that point, you still have the power.

mischanix 13y ago

I'd say, as a general rule, don't put engineers into a PR role and expect it to go smoothly.

dayjah 13y ago
I think this very much depends on the empathy of the developers. We've a pretty strict rule that PR are not allowed to comment on technology; each time they have they've gotten it wrong and we end up looking "stupid". Now we have devs and PR work closely to get succinct and technically accurate updates out to our community.

phaemon 13y ago

What's wrong with the Dreamhost post? He specifically says: >"The end to this story is that of course, I’m very very sorry, we’re very very sorry, and I’m sure you’re very very sorry this happened. I really am. I understand the sort of problems that an unexpected large charge to your credit card (or worse yet, your debit card) can cause. If the tone of this blog post seemed a little light, I apologize I don’t mean to offend and I realize how serious an issue this is." I can see why you'd still be annoyed about not getting your charges refunded though. What happened there? Frankly, if your bank didn't refund them when you told them what happened, they seem pretty scummy. I hope you dumped them as soon as you could!

eksith 13y ago
I was about to say this too. There was a lot of vitriol on the comments as well, but all of them follow the frustration of being overdrawn. But I agree, if the bank or card company doesn't take this as a genuine error and erase the record, then it's a pretty lousy institution. Maybe he could have worded it differently and shown less irreverence, but that may be a byproduct of the stress as well. It's a pretty shocking thing too and they're human after all. My current web host uses them as a registrar for some years and they've been pretty happy with DH services.
- benjamincburns 13y ago
  See my other comment for thoughts on the e-mail/post (sibling to yours). On the banks... "Overdraft protection" is probably the single most disingenuous thing the banks have done to low-income individuals. It's such a "squeeze 'em when they're down" tactic. I had all kinds of financial problems in college, mostly my own doing, but they were sooo complicated by this... service. Suddenly because of one mistake, 10 small transactions turns into an additional $320 expense. Three days later you get 10 little envelopes in the mail. And then the dread. "Shit, I did it again. Now what am I gonna do?" To the best of my knowledge, SunTrust wouldn't let you opt out prior to the CARD act. Or, if they did, none of their customer service reps or bank managers notified me of the possibility. Thankfully I manage my finances better now. And thankfully the CARD act makes overdraft protection opt-in (although for a lot of banks this is just another clause in the phonebook-sized account agreement you sign), and there are now a few checking accounts (ING Direct, Ally bank) that treat payment of transactions that cause overdraft like what it is - a line of credit.
  - PhasmaFelis 13y ago
    My local college credit union has an optional "Overdraft Protection Loan" service. You apply for an $X loan in the usual way (so bad credit, etc. can still hurt you here), but if/when you get it, they don't give you $X cash. Instead, they attach it to your checking account. If you go over, the bank automatically moves money from the loan to your checking account in $100 increments to cover the overdraft. There's no per-use fees, and as long as you pay it back within a month, there's no interest charged. (Or very little, I'm not clear--sometimes there's an extra 40 cents or so on there.) It's really, really handy and they don't advertise it at all. I found out about it when I accidentally ran up a dozen overdraft fees and talked to an account manager about how to keep it from happening again. I'd recommend that everyone see if their bank offers something similar.

superuser2 13y ago

This is, interestingly, a good reason to use a credit card (and pay it off in full every month) rather than a debit card. With a credit card, you at least have a layer of insulation between your bank account and an erroneous charge.

benjamincburns 13y ago
Indeed. I have a much better system in place now.
mikeash 13y ago
He who has the money has the power. With a debit card, an erroneous charge means the other guy has the money, and you have no power. With a credit card, you still have your money until you pay your bill, so up to that point, you still have the power.