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Lost a client because of an AWS bill spike last month.
Forgot to turn off a dev server over the weekend and racked up $600. Had to eat the cost to keep the contract. Anyone else dealing with cloud cost surprises?
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max_brown1mo ago
$600 is a tough lesson but lets be honest here. If losing one client over $600 breaks your business then you had bigger problems from the start. Most clients I know would have split the cost with you or at least paid half if you just told them straight up what happened. Sounds like you panicked and ate the whole thing when you didnt have to. Cloud costs are annoying but a single $600 mistake is not going to sink a real company.
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samk771mo ago
Had a similar thing happen with a client project a few years back. Left a dev database running over the weekend and racked up about $400 in extra compute costs. Called the client Monday morning and told him exactly what happened, offered to split it. He actually thanked me for being upfront and paid the whole thing. Most clients respect honesty more than they care about a few hundred bucks. Your mileage may vary, but I've found that eating the whole cost yourself just builds resentment and teaches nobody anything.
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vera1951mo agoMost Upvoted
Keep the splitting approach. It shows you're accountable without eating the full loss. Client relationships are about trust, not perfect execution right?
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