The relationship between Airbnb and its home city of San Francisco is complicated to say the least. the least. The two have repeatedly duked it out over regulations, taxes, and liability, and now the stage is set for yet another battle between the city and the home-sharing platform, as the San Francisco Board of Supervisors considers reducing the number of days people in the city can rent out their homes each year. [More]
hosting
![Dreamhost Billing Apocalypse Refuses To End](../../consumermediallc.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/getdreamhostonthehorn.jpg?w=298&h=225&crop=1)
Dreamhost Billing Apocalypse Refuses To End
I need help—or at least, just to kvetch. You remember that big $7.5 million snafu Dreamhost made? Well, I received an invoice the day before and trustingly paid it with my credit card. Then, I learned—from Consumerist, no less, not from Dreamhost—about the billing mistake. Nowhere did Dreamhost mention that legitimate invoices were *also* sent out. I looked at the invoice they sent me and noted the error in the date:
![Dreamhost Is "Very Very Sorry" For $7.5 Million Billing Error](../../consumermediallc.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/fatfinger.jpg?w=300&h=225&crop=1)
Dreamhost Is "Very Very Sorry" For $7.5 Million Billing Error
Dreamhost would like you to know that its very very sorry for accidentally billing its customers $7.5 million it wasn’t actually owed. You see, someone typed 2008 when they really meant 2007 and their billing system decided to charge all of their customers in advance for the entire 2008 calendar year. This included debiting huge amounts of money from people’s checking accounts and all the “worst possible scenario” situations you could possibly imagine.
![Cheap Ideas For Holiday Parties](../../consumermediallc.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/con_toasting.jpg?w=300&h=225&crop=1)
Cheap Ideas For Holiday Parties
Kiplinger set itself three basic rules to follow for affordable holiday entertaining: “make it a team effort” by splitting hosting duties or having guests bring food, “borrow what you don’t have,” and ” be creative.” Following these rules, they came up with ten ideas for holiday get-togethers that even people on tight budgets can pull off. Here are the first three.
QWK.net ISP Kicks Off Customer, Then Tries to Have Her Shut Down at New ISP
This one is a little hard to follow, but we think we’ve got it straight. Roughly, here is the sequence of events:
![Why The Consumerist Won’t Use Westhost Again](../../consumermediallc.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/westhost.jpg?w=221&h=84&crop=1)
Why The Consumerist Won’t Use Westhost Again
We apologize for the slower updates today, although we would also like to acknowledge that this is the first Friday The Consumerist has even been open for business, so maybe we should just pretend this is going to be standard operating procedure. We’ve been on the phone for about two hours trying to gain access to two domains that were registered about five years ago with Westhost. As you may have gathered from this post, it did not go very well.
![TextDrive: Don’t Be a Dick](../../consumermediallc.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/textdrive_logo.jpg?w=137&h=28&crop=1)
TextDrive: Don’t Be a Dick
I don’t think it’s necessary at any level. It’s really no different then yelling “fat fuck” at a fat person on a treadmill.
That, friends, is how you talk to customers. (Before you .zip up their account and cancel them, like Hoffman did to the customer who was complaining.)