By merely signing up for the Introductory Subscription and following Microsoft’s Introduction to Building Applications with Windows Azure video (www.microsoftpdc.com I was charged $350. Yes, for following their step by step instructions in building a “Hello Cloud” test application and then turning off my machine at the end. The Windows Azure people know that people don’t get how these charges work. Though they say they are refunding $47.05, which is the amount from the billing period in which I did the tutorial. Two subsequent bills were not refunded, though all charges are the result of the one-time of following the intro video, which does not warn you that when you are done that if you do nothing else, you are being billed $0.24/hr = $5.76/day. = $172.8/month! I am sure the refund for the first month was a standard response. On July 30. 2010, I discovered I was charged for having done the tutorial and I called billing. Told them the story and they said a decision would be made in couple of days. Wound up being jerked around for a week plus a couple of days. Several calls and more “the decision is coming” responses finally resulted in the totally unacceptable refund. Microsoft Windows Azure is redefining its relationship with the developer community and its customers for the worse. They are not user friendly and not worthy of trust.
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