A Halsall Rant: Oracle Cloud... Thanks for wasting my time.

[chalsall]

Subtitle: Caveat emptor [even in the] nubes.

I would like to go on the indelible record that is the Mersenne Forum, and say formally how very disappointed I am with the "Customer Experience" I received trying to work with Oracle Cloud late last year and early this.

The VPS' themselves are very good. They passed every QA test I threw at them.

However... I would like to put on the record that the billing systems need some work... Particularly when human interaction is required.

I think in my particular case I simply found a simple bug that showed up when I tried one last experiment with the OC before I shut it down (after spending some of my own coin evaluating before advising my clients).

The results of this one last empirical test? It seems Oracle's version of Preemptible Instances do indeed get terminated, but never stops getting billed for...

@Larry Ellison... I will accept a personal apology from you (or, at least, your teams), along with a whole lot of compute credits for my trouble debugging your company's cloud compute offering.

Otherwise, I'm going to suggest that it's something along the lines of a song I remember well, and might be considered something to be considered carefully before using...

P.S. I have no problem with working with people in India for support; I work with people all over the world every single day. But, ***PLEASE*** -- in this particular case -- they were supposed to be answer phone calls and emails I had to your organization.

P.P.S. Just in case it wasn't clear, they didn't... At least, the many (many) times I tried using all the offered channels.

P.P.P.S. Larry... I know how much you enjoy leveraging the courts... Happy to defend my position with evidence.

[chalsall]

So... Just to document this...

It is the last day of February for 2022. And, I'm still being charged by Larry et al for services I am not consuming.

The next thing to observe is when Oracle tries to bill my Credit Card, and finds it has been canceled.

I expect all kinds of interesting threatening emails... I will continue to report the empirical...

[LaurV]

Originally Posted by chalsall

a song I remember well,

"This video is private.

Go home!"

[chalsall]

So... As some of you will remember, I ran an experiment with Oracle cloud.

It didn't go terribly well. Their systems are rather good, but their customer-facing side of things is somewhat lacking.

Just today I was threatened by way of an email. When I tried to contact their Collections Call Center at +1 888-803-7414, if you have any queries regarding this email or your account. I was told they were closed for the weekend.

The email is copy and pasted below...

==========================
Dear Customer,

Thank you for your interest in Oracle. Oracle appreciates your business and values you as a customer.

This email is to advise you that Oracle’s records indicate that Oracle has contacted you several times about the following invoices, which as of today, remain unpaid and past due.

Invoice # PO # Ship To Contact Invoice Type Invoice Date Invoice Due Date Invoice Amount Balance Due

It is Oracle’s desire to work with you to quickly resolve this matter so Oracle requests that you promptly forward payment of the invoices to Oracle as follows:

Mail Checks To:
For customers in the state of AK, AZ, CA, HI, ID, NV, OR, UT, WA,
Please mail checks to:
Oracle America, Inc., PO Box: 884471,Los Angeles, CA 90088-4471
For customers in all other states,
Please mail checks to:
Oracle America, Inc., PO Box 203448 DALLAS, TX 75320-3448

Send Wire Transfers To:
Wells Fargo Bank
ABA -121000248, SWIFT Code: WFBIUS6S
Beneficiary Name - Oracle America, Inc.
Beneficiary Account - 4522020841

Please send remittance advices by e-mail to: cash-appsin_ww@oracle.com

If Oracle does not receive your payment by sysdate+30, subject to the terms of your agreement with Oracle, your Oracle services and related account, password and support will be suspended, and data in your services environment will be deleted. Suspension of services shall not excuse you from your obligation to pay for such services.

Please contact our Collections Call Center at +1 888-803-7414, if you have any queries regarding this email or your account.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.

Yours sincerely,

Regards,
---
Oracle Collections

=================================

I have documentation that I have tried to contact Oracle. Repeatedly.

It was a mistake that I gave them my credit card credentials.

All I can do at this point in time is document why no one should work with Oracle.

[chalsall]

Originally Posted by LaurV

"This video is private. Go home!"

Thanks for bringing this to my attention. Interesting.

Hopefully this version of Hotel California won't be deleted any time soon. The point I was /trying/ to make is you can check out anytime. But you can never leave.

Serious lawsuits about APIs. Simply costs lots of money, and slows everyone down. Exactly as designed.

[chalsall]

Did you know that studies have shown that when a creative person is interrupted from their work, it can take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour for them to get back "into their groove?

TL;DR: Oracle and I had a dispute. I was testing their cloud, and they billed me for stuff I didn't use.

I had to cancel the credit card used, and my local bank tried to reverse the charges. The agent was very diligent but didn't really understand the whole concept of renting compute... Back and forth, yata, yata, yata...

No problem. I'm out a hundred bucks. An inexpensive lesson in who *not* to use for mission-critical stuff.

But... Just now (6:30 pm Barbados time), I receive a phone call from Oracle.

WTF??? I answer... "Hello?

No one on the other end. "Hello? Hello?

Just like I've never been able to reach a human when this issue first manifested, when I was trying to call them. Repeatedly. The number, if anyone would like to try it, is toll free: 1 - 888 -- 803 -- 7414.

@Larry_Ellison...

My time is as valuable as yours is. At least, to me.

Please get your house in order.

Your cloud infrastructure was very impressive.

Your billing back-end, and customer support, sucked beyond belieive. And I have worked with very sucky service providers.

@Larry... Because I know how litigious you have been, please know I have *full* documentation on my entire experience with Oracle Cloud.

Over...

[chalsall]

I don't believe the Universe is guided by a sentient. Could be incorrect on that.

But... I do believe the Universe reflects (some call this karma).

An Oracle representative reached out to me yesterday by way of email saying "I’m a Product Manager at Oracle Cloud focused on Preemptible VMs. I see you have been using the Preemptible VMs consistently in the last several months. I would like to understand how you are using the product and whether you would be interested in sharing some feedback.

I gave some feedback...

Apparently a "Bug report" has been submitted, and they're to get back to me...

[chalsall]

The latest... The exchange between the Oracle representative and myself today...

Dear [REDACTED].

No... I don't have what you've asked for. I have, however, forwarded to you the last invoice Oracle sent to me (dated January 9th, 2023) under separate cover. Hopefully, you can figure out what you need from this.

Further... I can confirm NO SERVICES HAVE BEEN CONSUMED for just about exactly a year. I haven't even bothered to log into the interface.

The documented fact remains... Oracle billed me for services I didn't use. I had to cancel my credit card because of this.

Once again... My experience with Oracle's cloud has been a huge waste of time and money.

My only recourse is to advise my clients to never use your services.

Kindest regards.

P.S. I continue to document this publicly.