Back about a week ago I registered a new domain for a new project I want to work on.

The Dreamhost system gave me a confirmation on the website that the domain had been registered, and (here is the important part) charged $19.90 to my bank card.

I never received the confirmation EMAIL that the domain had been set up, so I went to double check the registration.

The registration never happened. OK, I thought, a hiccup in the system that Dreamhost can remedy for me, so I emailed customer service.

Dreamhost absolutely insists that they NEVER EVER charged me $19.90. Not in the month of March, not since January when I registered soulsofglass.com. I offered to send them a fax of the relevant portions of my bank statement, they never accepted nor declined.

I went back and forth with this guy over the course of about 6 or 8 hours of email, trying to explain to him that his Customer Service system might not show the charge, but that he may want to have someone check the back-end system because I definitely was charged. He refuses to admit/acknowlege that it´s even possible that this has occured.

I call my bank, and have them charge back the $19.90, since I´m getting nowhere with Dreamhost.

Dreamhost emails me and threatens to re-charge to my account any back-charges I send to them through my bank, since they insist that they have made no error.

I tell them (this is this morning, this is after about 50 emails back-and-forth) that if they do this, I will probably have a case for credit fraud against them. What is the POINT here?

I asked them if they REALLY think that after 6 years of being their customer, that I´m trying to swindle them out of TWENTY DOLLARS.

I´m still waiting for the response.

During all of this nonsense, I went and re-registered the domain, so now they´ve even once told me that the domain was registered and so I was charged correctly, but there are TWO CHARGES.

AUGH!

That sucks.

But hey, at least they have a football table and arcade machines in the office. [http://dreamhost.com/jobs.html] You can't expect people to help you when it takes away precious arcade time.

Another quote from their webpage:

But of course, the biggest difference, the one that keeps people singing our praises and referring their friends, is our customer service. Every message is responded to with a friendly, helpful, and completely honest answer. Sometimes a server does go down, and we let our customers know when it happens. We'll also let them know if a cheaper plan better fits their needs, or what sort of software we personally use for whatever they're trying to implement. We constantly try to treat everyone as a friend in need (indeed!).

Your complaint must be a praise in disguise, right?

Haha what is so funny about that is you couldn't do a chargeback unless there were an initial charge to begin with. I think you need to talk with management. It sounds to me like someone may be skimming somehow.

On the bright side...

http://www.despair.com/disservice.html

Why don't you grow a pair and deal with them properly.

How's that blank? Enlighten us all.

Show up there personally and beat them with your wooden club.

Drag the women back to your place by their hair.

:)