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[DigitalOcean] Credit Expiration Update

24 points by oridecon ↗ HN
Original e-mail: http://pastebin.com/enmCYWbH

I spent a lot of time getting referral credits on DigitalOcean. I was saving the credits for a long time and just a couple of months ago I started using droplets. And now they are going to expire.

I feel cheated. I never asked to get stuff for free, and I didn't. I got them a few paid customers and even recommended the service for my employer who host quite a few things there.

Am I being immature? I feel like they got what they needed from me. I'll be moving my stuff if this really happens. Not by choice but because after taxes and monetary conversion I would be paying about 4 times that if I host in my country. I choosed DO because if I start getting more traffic I would be able to trust that my servers would work. Hosting in my country is really bad (no infrastructure). So yes I wasn't trying to abuse the credits and move away. It was a business decision. A badly one.

12 comments

[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 33.4 ms ] thread
patio11
This is likely an accounting decision by DO, no more no less. They simply don't want to have indefinite liabilities on the books.

Email them and ask them nicely if they will replace your expiring credit with a 12 month customer goodwill credit. Evangelists at tech companies can give those out like candy.

oridecon
Yeah I don't feel like begging right now. Now that I think about it I'm more pissed that I realized. Might as well convice all the customers I brought to move on too.

They offered an option to withdraw the money (Paypal) but I was trying to show support and left the credits there. I won't make the same mistake again.

So I guess I answered my own questions. I am being immature about it, like these companies complaining that Twitter cut API access. I should have known better.

stedu
I got the same message and I'll not be asking for a 12 month goodwill credit as that should have been something they gave instead of only giving a notice that credits will only be usable for the month of April on the last day of March.

It seems a little silly if they give such little notice that I'll just move elsewhere. I feel quite a bit betrayed by them not grandfathering in customers for at least a reasonable time (like the 12 month period they have on their new credits).

snehesht
It's nor just referral credits, they gave me same notice on educational credits from github pack.
jackgolding
Got the same thing a week after I started using DO, very reasonable for them to do this but now I'll be transferring my domains and servers over to AWS.
kchoudhu
Wait -- so you're saying that if I add $20 to my account via credit card, it'll expire after a year?
fatratchet
No it's limited to promotional and referral credit from what I've read in their TOS.
kchoudhu
Ah, see, that's okay. Phew!
[deleted]
(comment deleted)
akoster
Original support request: 2016-03-31

Subject: Credit expiring soon- your assistance is appreciated

Hello there! I have $100 of credit with you. I just found out on an email that it will be expiring in a month due to a new policy. Is there any way to prevent this credit from expiring?

Thanks for your help and consideration!

   Reply from (Support Team) Yesterday at 7:09 PM
Thanks for reaching out! We certainly understand your concern here, as we're just beginning to enforce the expiration of unused credit after making the change last year. We see that you haven't used DigitalOcean or the account credit just yet; while we're not able to change the expiration date for credits, or allow credit to expire more than a year in the future, we'll be glad to add another $10.00 credit to your account as a one-time courtesy to help you get started. Moving forward, however, please note that any unused balance from promo credits (including this one) will expire 12 months after being redeemed.

Let us know if you have any other questions and we'll be happy to help!

Platform Support Specialist

nowlnowl
I got 60$ (from 110$) from them.
MichaelBurge
It's the same reason why companies give unlimited vacation or demote it into sick pay if you don't use it. Otherwise, people would accrue credit for years and years, and there'd be millions of dollars on the books in liabilities.

Similarly, if you write someone a check and they never cash it, it stays on your books as a liability. Your state government usually runs a service where they'll hold the cash for you and assume the liability. If you run through your old books and remember a check that you never cashed 60 years ago, you can sometimes find it from the government.

Unless you're running a bank or insurance company whose entire purpose in life is managing liabilities, companies don't like leaving liabilities on the books for extended periods of time. It's a different story if you charged someone's credit card for the credits, because there's an asset to balance it out.