*************** Humble Pie Alert *****************
Some readers may remember that I lashed out at Amazon AWS (where I was hosting a masternode) a bit earlier in this thread. I criticised their service for billing me like crazy and for having an overly confusing charging regime. (If you don't want to read the background, just skip to the "outcome" bit).
Well I've since got to the bottom of the issue and would just like to set the record straight in case anyone else is thinking of using them as it turns out I've done them quite an injustice in my complaints even though their sign up process might be slightly improved to prevent the scenario I landed myself in.
Basically what happened is that when I originally signed up, it didn't force me to check my email for and confirmation or login information but allowed me to go straight in and set up an instance which I duly did just to experiment with. I planned to delete the instance after I'd "found me feet" with it.
On my next login however, the system didn't recognise me and directed me to the sign up page again where I duly needed to re-enter all my bank details. That time everything worked as expected and I proceeded to set up my masternode which ran for a few months.
Meanwhile, I started noticing monthly charges to my bank account of around $60-$75 which had no corresponding invoice in my account billing history on AWS. By the time I noticed it I'd already shelled out over $250 to Amazon.
After several cycles of correspondence with them, I realised that the "original" account had in fact persisted and that this had been the source of the charges. I'd used a wrong email address on my sign up and this mistake had gone undetected.
************** Outcome ********************
[1] - During the entire enquiry process (while I was trying to get to the bottom of the issue) AWS support were extremely responsive. Every reply I got from them was indicative of the fact that they'd actually done some digging and read the detail of what I'd said. Often up to a 24 hour wait bit who cares when they're actually doing something with the time. I don't think I've ever had such polite, helpful and professional technical support anywhere
[2] - Once I realised what had happened, I put my hands up and admitted it was my fault and that the bills were legit. The only slight "moaning" I did was to politely suggest they force people to check their signup email account before letting them set up any services which mitigate this problem
[3] - Amazon refunded me the entire May to September charge history with no fuss and directed me on how to shut the account down (I'll continue with the 'real' account that the masternode was running on). They did that without me requesting it other than saying that I'd appreciate their assistance in "mitigating my losses"
I just wanted to say that I'm pleased as f*ck about this outcome. I was quite ready to kiss that $250 goodbye and wouldn't have thought the worse of them for it as it was my own stupid fault for not looking into it earlier and I didn't have any real basis for requesting it.
I'll definitely be sticking with them after this (as I already know my way around the place) plus they look like they could do with the business right now
Thats all. Just a conscience clearing exercise and I hope it's of assistance to anyone who's looking for a hoster !
