if one of the richest companies in the world is hammering your server without paying for it I would hope they don't get their feelings hurt when the server blocks them until they pay for it.
I mean I've worked at some of the riches companies in the world and I think the conversation would have gone like this
Me: hey project manager our access to server X where we get the really needed X1 resource has been blocked. Probably cause we are hammering their server (which we probably talked about some months ago)
Project manager: hmm a paid account will need to go through approval. Can you tell them we are trying to get a paid account, see if you can get them to give us temporary access, and maybe we can cache the result so we don't hit their server that often.
Me: ok I'll do that.
In fact I mean if I was on a small company providing a service that a really big company was abusing in such a way that I think they might like to pay for it - I think the smart thing would be to force them to contact me somehow because how do I even call the part of the big company I need to talk to.
Can you tell them we are trying to get a paid account, see if you can get them to give us temporary access, and maybe we can cache the result so we don't hit their server that often.
Me: ok I'll do that
I’m not sure I would feel comfortable doing that - stringing along a fellow engineer for the benefit of a freeloading PM.
in the scenario I was envisioning, the big rich company wants to get a paid account now that they need it but to do so they will have to go through a process to get it approved which could take a while.
I mean I've worked at some of the riches companies in the world and I think the conversation would have gone like this
Me: hey project manager our access to server X where we get the really needed X1 resource has been blocked. Probably cause we are hammering their server (which we probably talked about some months ago)
Project manager: hmm a paid account will need to go through approval. Can you tell them we are trying to get a paid account, see if you can get them to give us temporary access, and maybe we can cache the result so we don't hit their server that often.
Me: ok I'll do that.
In fact I mean if I was on a small company providing a service that a really big company was abusing in such a way that I think they might like to pay for it - I think the smart thing would be to force them to contact me somehow because how do I even call the part of the big company I need to talk to.