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Are DigitalOcean not taking on new customers anymore?
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Are DigitalOcean not taking on new customers anymore?

cbrhermscbrherms Member
edited July 2018 in Reviews

Long time lurker, first time poster.

So, I work at a University and lead a team in the IT department. Recently I created a trial account with DO to test out some of their offerings as we're intending to move some of our services from general hosting reseller sub packages to low resource cloud VPS's. Part of this trial was going to be used to determine whether it would also be feasible to move some of our WordPress sites in to DO.

I'd been recommended DO by our Games Development and Programming head as he uses it for dev work and is recommending students sign up to it through the Github Education Pack for their work (blogs, git repo's etc).

Now, cutting to the chase, signed up using an email address on our .ac.uk domain (here in the UK that is only available to further education providers), used our departmental corperate card, and awaited verification.
Then.... a few hours later I get a lockout email.
Nothing had been created, credentials were secure, so it looks like it was just a case of an issue with verification.

Off I go then to create a ticket to find out why, wondering what further verification we'll have to provide as maybe using a corporate card meant some auto verification process failed, and just get stonewalled by the support team :S
Around 4 messages have been sent with no real answer giving an inkling as to what went wrong or how it could be corrected, with an extract of the final reply from them being "We feel that it would be in the best interest of all parties if you were to find services with another provider."

That is just not how people do business, especially not with educational providers, and I have to admit that I am quite miffed at this as in all my time running a department this has been the single worst customer experience I've ever had.

Now, this has turned in to a little bit of a rant, i do apologise. But, from this experience we cannot in sound mind recommend this service to any of our students.

Comments

  • Did you get through with Github Education Pack? I assume they require .edu as email. When I was studying I was successfully able to get Github education pack along with DO.

    It is also possible that they prefer students rather than teachers.

  • Nope, just signed up through https://try.digitalocean.com/performance/
    No referral, no education pack link as we frown on using student offers for business purposes.
    (Github accept .ac.uk as well as that is the UK equivalent of .edu, widely accepted as an educational tld).

    But anyway, this was myself signing up for an account on behalf of the business, for business purposes as used by the IT department, not related to our tutors or the like.

  • ChuckChuck Member
    edited July 2018

    Thank you for providing more details about this issue. We've taken this information into consideration and decided that our original determination has not changed.

    We'd appreciate your feedback. Please use the buttons below to vote about your experience today.

    Best regards,

    Sumanth C.

  • trewqtrewq Administrator, Patron Provider
  • pikepike Veteran

    At first I thought you didn't know he was banned but.... welcome back jarland!

    Thanked by 1netomx
  • @cbrherms said:
    Nope, just signed up through https://try.digitalocean.com/performance/
    No referral, no education pack link as we frown on using student offers for business purposes.
    (Github accept .ac.uk as well as that is the UK equivalent of .edu, widely accepted as an educational tld).

    But anyway, this was myself signing up for an account on behalf of the business, for business purposes as used by the IT department, not related to our tutors or the like.

    I see this offer is open for all. It could be that a lot of people are signing up for this offer and they are limiting the new signups (It could be a verification issue too, but they could have asked for more information).

  • @cyberpersons said:

    I see this offer is open for all. It could be that a lot of people are signing up for this offer and they are limiting the new signups (It could be a verification issue too, but they could have asked for more information).

    Indeed, which is one of the reasons I wasn't happy with how it was dealt with as i offered and showed willingness to give further information for verification.

    If it was an issue with payment details you'd think an option for another way to pay would be made available to you.

    If it is an issue with the trial link being used then fine, tell me we're not eligible for the free trial and we adjust our testing to take in to account it being paid time.

    Other than that the impression given is that we have unknowingly committed some sort of inexcusable act that can only be reacted to with an insta-ban.

  • jarjar Patron Provider, Top Host, Veteran

    Hello friend!

    That's not a great experience I agree. I can understand if you did want to move on after that. With that said, I would appreciate the opportunity to review what happened and at least to be able to offer to make it right. If you would be so kind as to grant me that opportunity, you can DM me here and let me know the email address you signed up with.

    <3

    Jarland

    Thanked by 2netomx dedicados
  • @cbrherms

    Many people using your organization domain might be signing up for this offer.

  • joepie91joepie91 Member, Patron Provider

    @cyberpersons said:
    @cbrherms

    Many people using your organization domain might be signing up for this offer.

    That seems like something you should expect from an educational TLD, though?

    Thanked by 1netomx
  • @joepie91 said:

    @cyberpersons said:
    @cbrherms

    Many people using your organization domain might be signing up for this offer.

    That seems like something you should expect from an educational TLD, though?

    As he mentioned

    I'd been recommended DO by our Games Development and Programming head as he uses it for dev work and is recommending students sign up to it through the Github Education Pack for their work (blogs, git repo's etc).

    And as this offer is open for all it is not a bad thing to do, but on DO side they might want to spread this offer to more organizations/people.

    Otherwise what could go wrong? As OP insisted on providing more documents for verification.

  • needavpsneedavps Member
    edited July 2018

    Why not sign up at github student developer pack? I don't use DO but their student pack is obviously for students so if you state that you work there but with just a edu email... what's the problem? I don't recommend DO either but might get the facts straight.

    Obviously I got confused down the thread with people derailing the conversation with student pack but what's the big deal. Plenty of vps providers. At least state what university so it is meaningful.

  • Thanks to @jarland looking in to the situation, my issue has been successfully resolved.

    Thanked by 1jar
  • cbrherms said: Thanks to @jarland looking in to the situation, my issue has been successfully resolved.

    Did they provide a reason for the confusion? What was the resolution? Was there something that future new users could avoid so they don't run into the same problem?

    Cheers!

  • jarjar Patron Provider, Top Host, Veteran

    TheLinuxBug said: Did they provide a reason for the confusion? What was the resolution? Was there something that future new users could avoid so they don't run into the same problem?

    Without going into too much detail, I'd say equivalent to being flagged by maxmind at most other providers. Obviously some valuable pieces of discussion about policy as well but that's not a discussion for me to have publicly.

    The never-ending tug of war between keeping abuse out and preventing false positives.

    Thanked by 2Kris cbrherms
  • psb777psb777 Member

    @jarland said:

    TheLinuxBug said: Did they provide a reason for the confusion? What was the resolution? Was there something that future new users could avoid so they don't run into the same problem?

    Without going into too much detail, I'd say equivalent to being flagged by maxmind at most other providers. Obviously some valuable pieces of discussion about policy as well but that's not a discussion for me to have publicly.

    Fair enough, but how would they explain the wording of your customer support?

    cbrherms said: Around 4 messages have been sent with no real answer giving an inkling as to what went wrong or how it could be corrected, with an extract of the final reply from them being "We feel that it would be in the best interest of all parties if you were to find services with another provider."

    Thanked by 1jar
  • jarjar Patron Provider, Top Host, Veteran

    psb777 said: Fair enough, but how would they explain the wording of your customer support?

    I would categorize that under the "some valuable pieces of discussion about policy as well but that's not a discussion for me to have publicly" part. I realize how it comes across.

  • eva2000eva2000 Veteran

    Not sure if it was DigitalOcean or another cloud provider, but I vaguely recall something about sign ups by organisation name need to have all sign up details by organisation's legal owners and not just the company documentation i.e. sign up person's first/last names needed to be names on the company legal documents ???? Maybe that's why OP got flagged ?

  • raindog308raindog308 Administrator, Veteran

    I really don’t mind being maxminded or the equivalent IF there is an obvious, timely human appeal option. I have had just that experience with a couple providers over the yeara and wasn’t offended in the least.

    I hope what @Chuck posted is not a real DO copy/paste, because that’s awful.

    That said, the bigger the org, the more bureaucratic it becomes and the more you run into these kinds of things.

    Makes you realize the percentage of humans who are scammers. We’re a pretty horrible species. No wonder the rest of the universe hides from us.

  • ChuckChuck Member
    edited July 2018

    @raindog308

    That was copy/paste from Amazon. I'm working as independent contractor for Amazon in my spare time.

    If I have issue (customer, amazon employees) while working, the only option is to email Amazon, then you have to wait for 24 hours. Then Amazon will email you back with the same copy/paste garbage.

    Thanked by 2raindog308 Aidan
  • raindog308raindog308 Administrator, Veteran

    Chuck said: If I have issue (customer, amazon employees) while working, the only option is to email Amazon, then you have to wait for 24 hours. Then Amazon will email you back with the same copy/paste garbage.

    Yes - exactly my experience as well.

    Thanked by 1Chuck
  • jarland said: Hello friend!

    That's not a great experience I agree. I can understand if you did want to move on after that. With that said, I would appreciate the opportunity to review what happened and at least to be able to offer to make it right. If you would be so kind as to grant me that opportunity, you can DM me here and let me know the email address you signed up with.

    <3

    Jarland

    <3<3<3<3

    dear jarland i would like to have unlimited credits. thanks lov u.

  • @Chuck said:
    @raindog308

    That was copy/paste from Amazon. I'm working as independent contractor for Amazon in my spare time.

    I did wonder what that was about but brushed it off as no provider tag.... xD

    Thought best to not divulge the explanation given due to it potentially being an insight to the inner workings of DO, and thus not my place to relay.

    I would like to stress though that the manner in which Jarland dealt with the issue was exemplary. Yes our relationship with DO started off with a bit of a hiccup, but with how it concluded I'm happy. These things happen.

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