[occultist_throw]

> Never use a pay-per-use service that does not include a reasonable "turn off after $X" feature and appropriate warnings.

None of the "Cloud providers" offer that. They "claim" that it could impact service - yeah, service of debt that you owe them.

[mipmap04]

Azure has this. When you hit your spending limit, it shuts down your services.

[occultist_throw]

They didn't a year and a half ago. Created a 3k bill for my employer over RemoteApp. Yeah, charge per user, they said. Oh yeah, min 20 users, and we round up - of course in small print at the time.

Unless I have hard guarantees, I give "cloud providers" re-loadable cards. Can't take more money than what's on there.

[concede_pluto]

The vendor could still assign the debt to a collection agency or sue; a declined charge does not get you off the hook unless they decide it's not worth pursuing.

[occultist_throw]

That's very true. That's why I provide generic usernames and everything. Because how the current providers offer service is as through a debt system. You rack up the $$$, and they tell you after the fact.

I would greatly prefer to pay up front, and have services take my credit. That way, I could control my costs directly and concisely. No surprise billing. DOS'es get stopped by no more funds- they aren't the infinite money piggybank they are now with debt.

I also understand why some clients would want a debt based system where they can expand and contract their costs. I'm cool with that, as long as you know what you're signing up for. The person in this article didn't, and surprise billing is majorly at fault here.

My solution would stem this "You owes us $20,000 by end of month", to "Your credit is exhausted after 10 minutes. Something seems wrong with this account cwhen compared to history."

[vacri]

If you're out of credit, what happens to your data-at-rest? You know, the stuff you're storing in their block storage, where they charge just for storing it? Should they just purge your data?

[mipmap04]

It's been around a while, but I looked into it and it looks like it's based on the type of account you have[0]. I've only had the accounts that had spending limits as an option. I'd imagine a lot of people are on Pay-As-You-Go, so many people won't have the ability to set spending limits. Frustrating that they would lock these features behind different plans.

[1] https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/support/legal/offer-detail...

[kristianc]

They can terminate your AWS/Azure/DO account though.

[clentaminator]

And now we wait for the first reports of production services that were shutdown due to spending limits :)

[fenwick67]

I would rather production go down for a bit than have the whole company go bankrupt

[moondev]

Or you bankrupt them by not having them shut off. Its a CoS - Cost of Service attack