If you’d like to be permanently banned from a provider, I have a special trick I’ll show you that works 100% of the time.

You don’t need to send spam, host CSM, or try to hack the provider’s panel.  In fact, you don’t need any special technical knowledge at all.  A teenager could do it.  Many teens have.  They certainly didn’t read up on detailed technical techniques.  You don’t need to install software or buy anything for this to work.

And just to be clear, we’re not going for some kind of temporary ban.  We want a permanent, unconditional, “you can never come back here”, trespass-order level of ban.  The full nuke.

The Trick

So you’ve got a VPS or dedicated server and for whatever reason you’re unhappy with it.  You could reach out to the provider, state your case, and give them a reasonable period of time to respond.  But that would not achieve your goal of being banned.

Instead, what you should do is open the dreaded PayPal chargeback.

This weapon is your express ticket.  Once the chargeback is initiated, the provider will promptly turn off your service, close your accounts, and inform you that you’re no longer welcome at their shop.

Why Does it Work?

When you open a chargeback, the provider is hit with a fee, which is more than a year’s profits on a $5/month VPS.  If they want to fight it, they need to appeal to PayPal, document, and then roll the dice.  Often, PayPal sides with the consumer.

Put yourself in the provider’s shoes.  When you’re hit with a chargeback:

1. You lose a year or more’s profits.
2. That charge comes out of your account immediately.  So it’s not just a year’s profits, it’s a year’s profits in advance.  Those who understand the time value of money know that it’s actually more than the chargeback fee.
3. They also lose a customer, who may buy more in the future.
4. If the provider accumulates enough chargebacks, PayPal may cut them off entirely.

So the hit to the provider is massive.  Needless to say, after inflicting that kind of damage, they don’t want you around.

Should I Ever Open a Chargeback?

I think my first VPS was in the mid-to-late 2000s.  Since then – closing in on 20 years of buying VMs – I’ve only ever opened a single PayPal dispute for a VPS.

The provider had a $5/year special, and then a month or so after running it, announced they were closing up and thanks for all the fish.  If they’d refunded some of that money, I wouldn’t have bothered but this was a clear pump-and-dump.  I got my $5 back.

In those kinds of clear fraud cases, charge them to hell and back.  But that was an exceptional circumstance where the provider had closed up shop.

In other cases, give the provider a chance to fix the issue first before you fire off the chargeback.

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raindog308

Dread Lord of LowEnd Content at LowEndBox

I'm raindog308, techno polymath and long-time LowEndTalk community Administrator. My technical interests include all things Unix, perl, python, golang, shell scripting, vintage operating systems such as MVS, and relational database systems such as Oracle, PostgreSQL, and MySQL.

I also enjoy using LEBs! I have an empire of little guys for VPNs, larger guys for apps, and big guys for databases and storage. When I'm not in front a screen I'm into German Shepherd dogs, quality knives, target shooting, theology, tabletop roleplaying games, and forest hiking.

I enjoy writing technical articles here on LowEndBox to help people get more out of their systems. You can find me on LowEndTalk @raindog308

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