Have you ever spent a lot of time with an top company and when you finally needed something from them, you felt left behind? Accouding to a low-end talk forum post about a Hetzner customer who has been with the company loyally for five plus years. His story demonstrates that even mega companies can sometimes forget that there are real people on the other side of the screen. Let's review what happened and what we can learn from this experience.
Instead of being understanding of his situation, they proceeded to block his account and services. David did attempt to get in touch with their customer support, but nobody reached out to assist him. Everything seemed to be pre-programmed action patterns done entirely by computer.
After a long-time customer, you're allowed a little trust and empathy right?. What Hetzner did was apply rigid rules and quality automation. Their billing software didn’t care if he was a loyal customer! It just shut everything off once a payment was late.
Automation is great, but when it removes care, you have the unintended consequences to deal with.
Loyalty Doesn't Matter
Many people were chiming in the forum that it is common for large providers like Hetzner to treat all customers the same, even longtime customers! One user noted, "For large providers, it’s just normal behavior." True, but still not fair.
• Service interruption — All of his servers had been blocked.
• No real assistance — Solely automated responses.
• Faith lost — After five years of devotion.
The Story: A Loyal Client Let Down
A long time user we will call “David”, had been with Hetzner for over five years and had paid 60+ invoices without fail. Everything was going well until one month, when he was unable to pay his bill by the due date. David asked Hetzner to allow him four extra days to pay his bill.Instead of being understanding of his situation, they proceeded to block his account and services. David did attempt to get in touch with their customer support, but nobody reached out to assist him. Everything seemed to be pre-programmed action patterns done entirely by computer.
What Was The Issue?
Automation Vs Human InteractionAfter a long-time customer, you're allowed a little trust and empathy right?. What Hetzner did was apply rigid rules and quality automation. Their billing software didn’t care if he was a loyal customer! It just shut everything off once a payment was late.
Automation is great, but when it removes care, you have the unintended consequences to deal with.
Loyalty Doesn't Matter
Many people were chiming in the forum that it is common for large providers like Hetzner to treat all customers the same, even longtime customers! One user noted, "For large providers, it’s just normal behavior." True, but still not fair.
The Reality
This wasn’t only about one late payment. The reality was:• Service interruption — All of his servers had been blocked.
• No real assistance — Solely automated responses.
• Faith lost — After five years of devotion.
Lessons to Take Away
Whether you use Hetzner, or any other hosting company for that matter, here are some lessons to take away:- Make sure you know the payment policy, before you sign up.
- Make sure that support is actually reachable.
- Don’t be totally reliant upon one vendor — have some way to mitigate downtime.
- Keep backups of your work so that you don’t lose everything in a suspension.
