7 ms·

Pathological customers: when you give them free stuff, they will demand more free stuff, and if you refuse them more free stuff, they will do their darndest to

by patio11 13y ago

Pathological customers: when you give them free stuff, they will demand more free stuff, and if you refuse them more free stuff, they will do their darndest to destroy your business. Meanwhile, look at all the nonsense that e.g. GoDaddy (who also charges for revocations) is not getting right now. Because the folks with altered understandings of reality got scared away by the $20 or whatever it costs on year 1, and are plaguing StartSSL instead.

cpach 13y ago
Business owners, beware. Try to find a business model that doesn’t attract patological customers.
notdonspaulding 13y ago
I wonder what percentage of StartSSL's customers are actually pathological though? I mean, are there cases where the pathological customer is a justifiable cost of doing business? Is StartSSL one of those cases?
lucb1e 13y ago
> Pathological customers: when you give them free stuff, they will demand more free stuff, and if you refuse them more free stuff, they will do their darndest to destroy your business. I guess you caught me. On the other hand, at the time I started using StartSSL, the cheapest non-free certificate provider I could find charged something like €70 a year, which was more than it was worth to me. Just two days ago I happened to look for cheap certificates again and found one for €9, and I'd totally pay that as long as my real name can stay anonymous (like now with StartSSL, my name isn't included in the certificate). So it also has much to do with how much you charge. Free is a special price and may make people ask for unreasonable things, but if the choice is between nothing or more than it was worth, that choice is very easy. Then when shit hits then fan...
makomk 13y ago
If you read the linked thread, some of their paying customers are apparently unhappy about being charged $25 per certificate to revoke them. (In some cases, this could cost substantially more than they paid for the certificates in the first place.)
dan1234 13y ago
>Meanwhile, look at all the nonsense that e.g. GoDaddy (who also charges for revocations) is not getting right now. Because the folks with altered understandings of reality got scared away by the $20 or whatever it costs on year 1, and are plaguing StartSSL instead. FWIW, GoDaddy didn't charge me anything to rekey my certificate. I also have a certificate with StartSSL, but on finding it would cost $25 to revoke, I purchased a new one from namecheap for $10. I know this leaves the StartSSL cert potentially floating about but it's only for a personal site (no real valuable data) so que sera sera…

by patio11 13y ago

cpach 13y ago

Business owners, beware. Try to find a business model that doesn’t attract patological customers.

notdonspaulding 13y ago

I wonder what percentage of StartSSL's customers are actually pathological though? I mean, are there cases where the pathological customer is a justifiable cost of doing business? Is StartSSL one of those cases?

lucb1e 13y ago

> Pathological customers: when you give them free stuff, they will demand more free stuff, and if you refuse them more free stuff, they will do their darndest to destroy your business. I guess you caught me. On the other hand, at the time I started using StartSSL, the cheapest non-free certificate provider I could find charged something like €70 a year, which was more than it was worth to me. Just two days ago I happened to look for cheap certificates again and found one for €9, and I'd totally pay that as long as my real name can stay anonymous (like now with StartSSL, my name isn't included in the certificate). So it also has much to do with how much you charge. Free is a special price and may make people ask for unreasonable things, but if the choice is between nothing or more than it was worth, that choice is very easy. Then when shit hits then fan...

makomk 13y ago

If you read the linked thread, some of their paying customers are apparently unhappy about being charged $25 per certificate to revoke them. (In some cases, this could cost substantially more than they paid for the certificates in the first place.)

dan1234 13y ago

>Meanwhile, look at all the nonsense that e.g. GoDaddy (who also charges for revocations) is not getting right now. Because the folks with altered understandings of reality got scared away by the $20 or whatever it costs on year 1, and are plaguing StartSSL instead. FWIW, GoDaddy didn't charge me anything to rekey my certificate. I also have a certificate with StartSSL, but on finding it would cost $25 to revoke, I purchased a new one from namecheap for $10. I know this leaves the StartSSL cert potentially floating about but it's only for a personal site (no real valuable data) so que sera sera…