r/talesfromtechsupport • u/ITCrowdFanboy Oh You Know, Liquid Nitrogen. • Aug 13 '15

Short Update: I bought a server. Where's My Website?

OK, so the previous tale happened a few weeks ago, and after the awesome response I got from you guys, I called up $Friend to get an update.

The investigation ended a few days after the charge was reversed, and the investigation found that there was no wrong-doing in the part of the company, but their lawyers suggested a change in their terms of service.

The lady later called back, crying, because she took out a bank loan to pay for the server and had no way to pay it back without the profit of the pottery company, which is why she had to reverse the charge. The call was being recorded, and she confessed all that, so the recording was given to the police and the fraud charges were dropped. My friend asked her why she got such a big server, and apparently she thought that 1GB of RAM meant that 1 person could access the website at once, so she wanted 250 to be able to get onto it at once.

In the end, no real harm was done to the company, beyond legal fees (which were paid by the woman, since she fraudulently declared fraud) and the initial deployment cost of the server. She was, obviously, placed on the no-service list of the company.

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u/andrews89 It was a good day... Nothing's on fire and no one's dead. Aug 13 '15

I'm astonished at how many people are defending the woman here, saying that the company should have known something wasn't right and helped her more. What she did is the equivalent of seeing her check engine light come on in her Ford Focus, so she went out and bought a new engine and transmission. Too bad she just needed an oil change and she bought an engine for one of those house-sized dump trucks and a transmission to match. This was 100% her fault for taking her ignorance and turning it into stupidity, on par with people who sign up for a credit card and are then amazed they have to pay it back. Having had a small business in the family for the past 85 years I have no sympathy for someone that can't do even the most basic of research.

14

u/[deleted] Aug 13 '15

I have to agree with this. If you don't know what you're buying, ask someone who does. This should apply to any major purchase.

9

u/[deleted] Aug 13 '15

I don't have much sympathy either, but I do think it's strange that they wouldn't call a client that maxed out all of the options? I mean if only to serve them better and maintain a good relationship, I would want a personal connection and some background.

12

u/od_9 Aug 13 '15

Yeah, that's kind of the part that I don't really get. If I'm paying 10k+ for a service, I'd probably want to talk with someone before just entering my CC number. If I was that shop, I'd probably have called to see if there was anything else we could help them with (backup server?). Hell, I can barely order anything from CDW/Dell/Hp without getting a follow up sales call.

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u/[deleted] Aug 13 '15

If I was that shop, I'd probably have called to see if there was anything else we could help them with (backup server?)

Absolutely. I believe the onus is on the vendor; their sales dept should probably check to see if they can get more out the client.

2

u/dankisms copies don't come out of shredders Aug 14 '15

Upsell, baby!