I recently ran a small webapp on Linode to test out response latency from their California datacenter. When I no longer needed the app, I powered down the node, thinking that the hourly billing as advertised on this page: https://blog.linode.com/2014/04/09/introducing-hourly-billing/ would mean that I wouldn't get charged for a powered down node.

Unfortunately, I didn't read the fine print and it turns out a powered down node is billed exactly the same as one that's powered up. Wow.

So I got ended up getting billed for 3 months worth of service for about 2 weeks worth of actual usage.

I tried to explain to Linode's customer service folks about the miscommunication and asked if they would refund the last month's bill. Yes, of course I understood where they were coming from (that the powered down node was still using resources), but they didn't seem to care where I was coming from. Not even after I requested to speak to a customer service manager. Clearly they value short-term gains over my long-term value as a client.

After 8 emails of back and forth, I finally gave up and paid the last month and cancelled my account. Forever.

I will never use Linode again, nor recommend any of my clients to. Not when there are so many respectable alternatives, e.g. http://digitalocean.com/

Congratulations, Linode. You just lost a client forever, and earned yourself some negative publicity. Was it really worth it?

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