Here is a quick summary of my experiences with Linode.com

I opened a Linode about two years ago, and felt like it was a great service.

In May of 2005 I knew I wouldn't need my linode after the fall, so before renewing my account I opened a support ticket to make sure that a refund was possible. It took a couple weeks for someone to get back to me, but they assured my that everything would be fine, I just had to request a refund when I cancelled my account. With that assurance, I went ahead and allowed my credit card to be charged.

In August, I was ready to cancel my account, so I confirmed again that a refund would be possible. It took over a month for someone to get back to me, but I was assured that I should go ahead and cancel my account and then request a refund.

In early December I cancelled my account, and requested a refund. I got no response. I emailed billing@linode.com, and got no response. I went to #linode and caker told me "It's in the queue, but the queue is long". In January I checked on #linode again. I sent another email to billing@linode.com with no response. Two weeks ago, I went to #linode again and was told by mikegrb "this week, for sure".

If Linode wasn't going to give me a refund, they should have told me so that I could keep using the machine I paid for. Instead, I have paid for a machine to which I have no access. The aggravation of being ignored is worse than them keeping my money.

Linode.com is a useful service, but don't expect any billing issues to be resolved quickly (if at all).

Invoice Number: 24496
Invoice Date: June 01, 2005
Cancellation Date: December 13, 2005

For the record, the refund came through today. I'm not sure why my emails weren't answered, but I was able to catch people on #linode that helped me out.