The Reddit Incident

In the original Reddit post, the client explicitly said that he was not provided access to full backups, and the backups he was provided access to were database only and damaged. The company's Twitter account also posted these tweets when asked about their incorrect WhoIs information

http://twitter.com/#!/thiswebhost/statuses/10354110805063270... http://twitter.com/#!/thiswebhost/statuses/10354195936432947...

That is, whatever way you look at it, unprofessional and inappropriate. This company is clearly run by ether a 15 year old in his bedroom or someone who really shouldn't be in business, or both

These are unprofessional bargain-basement web hosting customers and unprofessional bargain-basement web hosting providers laying into each other on blog posts, Twitter, and Reddit. I'm flagging this story and anything related to it; there's nothing to learn here, other than "don't be either of those two types of people".

From the post:

    So, when asked why their friends account was suspended we 
    told them “Our terms are very clear. Your friend should 
    not have opened a fraudulent dispute.” We then sent a DM  
    to the individual who asked, saying the following: “Please 
    mind your own business. Your friends account, and PayPal  
    dispute has nothing to do with you.” Of course, as a hosting 
    provider we cannot discuss the details of another 
    account and its status with others. *Because of this 
    message, we were informed that they would be canceling 
    their accounts due to our “unprofessional-ism”.* 

That would be this tweet: https://twitter.com/#!/berfarah/status/103287153043316737

    After much continued pushing from these users, we then 
    responded (rather sarcastically I might add) with the 
    following: “Fantastic. Perhaps you can sign up with a 
    hosting provider who doesn’t take privacy seriously then. Enjoy.”

https://twitter.com/#!/berfarah/status/103288360088514560

https://twitter.com/#!/berfarah/status/103289173687013376

    So, cue more pushing and baiting on Twitter and we then 
    come to the conclusion that this situation is obviously 
    some attempt for these users to attack us for reasons 
    unknown, and we decide to end our business relationship with them.

"Go fuck yourself." https://twitter.com/#!/berfarah/status/103291760972795904

So This*'s account of the story doesn't explain at all why both accounts were suspended, which is what triggered berfarah's outrage (and "Go fuck yourself" comment): https://twitter.com/#!/berfarah/status/103290311161290752

They responded very unprofessionally, but at least they are acknowledging the incident and explaining their side. It's almost exactly what I would do as an individual, but for a company they should have left it at "we cannot discuss the details of your friends account".

They may have been correct in their actions, but they shouldn't have come across as being passive aggressive. This is why you don't answer emails/tweets/phone calls or blog when you're not calm.

EDIT: Wow, these guys certainly aren't helping themselves at all: https://twitter.com/#!/thiswebhost/status/103541959364329472

I'd cancel my account too from that. That's a terrible way to respond to customers and queries.

Totally unprofessional.