DigitalOcean is chasing me for $0.01: What it taught me about automation

[hydn (Hayden James)]

Read the full article: DigitalOcean is chasing me for $0.01: What it taught me about automation

There are three kinds of emails that can ruin a quiet Saturday: a security warning, an outage alert, and, apparently, a repeat reminder that you owe a cloud provider one cent, yes, $0.01. I’ve been using DigitalOcean since 2013. Personally, I don’t use it often, but I log in several times a week to support… continue reading.

[toadie]

This is just the tip of the iceberg. (I hope the saying goes in English too?)

Years ago I got a reminder about 10 cents, by mail! No not email, paper mail.

Just the paper and the sending was more expensive than 10 cents

[hydn (Hayden James)]

Update:

I’m not sure if it’s coincidental. Because I certainly have not requested a refund. But DigitalOcean issued a refund overnight, not for $0.01 but for $5.00:

In any case, I’m passing this along to a small project that I occasionally support: Beekeeping Community Development Zimbabwe

You can learn a bit more about this venture here. You can also find them mentioned in this PDF document: Farmer-Led Adaptation: Best Practice Case Studies.

[unixdude (Daniel)]

Reminds me of 30 years ago when a local tax authority cashed my check for 6 cents more than they were supposed to. I mailed a letter (30 cents or more) demanding my 6 cents back. I received my letter back with 6 Pennies taped to it. They actually paid to mail that back to me.

[sitedata (Larry Johnson)]

In addition to the excellent points you made, retrieving an uncollected debt of $0.01 via PayPal Merchant Services (i.e. PayPal checkout on website) will result in a net loss of about $0.28 or $0.48 (with chargeback protection) according to PayPal Business Services website.

Transaction fees: 2.9% + $0.29 or 2.9% + $0.49 (including chargeback protection service)

They are, in some cases, multiplying their original loss x 2800 or 4800% with each successfully collected debt.