82
Floppy
7y

[This makes me sound really bad at first, please read the whole thing]

Back when I first started freelancing I worked for a client who ran a game server hosting company. My job was to improve their system for updating game servers. This was one of my first clients and I didn't dare to question the fact that he was getting me to work on the production environment as they didn't have a development one setup. I came to regret that decision when out of no where during the first test, files just start deleting. I panicked as one would and tried to stop the webserver it was running on but oh no, he hasn't given me access to any of that. I thought well shit, I might as well see where I fucked up since it was midnight for him and I wasn't able to get a hold of him. I looked at every single line hundreds of times trying to see why it would have started deleting files. I found no cause. Exhausted, (This was 6am by this point) I pretty much passed out. I woke up around 5 hours later with my face on my keyboard (I know you've all done that) only to see a good 30 messages from the client screaming at me. It turns out that during that time every single client's game server had been deleted. Before responding and begging for forgiveness, I decided to take another crack at finding the root of the problem. It wasn't my fault. I had found the cause! It turns out a previous programmer had a script that would run "rm -rf" + (insert file name here) on the old server files, only he had fucked up the line and it would run "rm -rf /". I have never felt more relieved in my life. This script had been disabled by the original programmer but the client had set it to run again so that I could remake the system. Now, I was never told about this specific script as it was for a game they didn't host anymore.
I realise this is getting very long so I'll speed it up a bit.
He didn't want to take the blame and said I added the code and it was all my fault. He told me I could be on live chat support for 3 months at his company or pay $10,000. Out of all of this I had at least made sure to document what I was doing and backup every single file before I touched them which managed to save my ass when it came to him threatening legal action. I showed him my proof which resulted in him trying to guilt trip me to work for him for free as he had lost about 80% of his clients. By this point I had been abused constantly for 4 weeks by this son of a bitch. As I was underage he had said that if we went to court he'd take my parents house and make them live on the street. So how does one respond? A simple "Fuck off you cunt" and a block.

That was over 8 years ago and I haven't heard from him since.

If you've made it this far, congrats, you deserve a cookie!

Comments
  • 7
    that's low, even for an abusive, profit fetishist, capitalist 21. century company. apperantly they got what they deserved when they lost their clients.
  • 8
    You know, judging by the character of this ex-client, it almost sounds like the previous programmer set up a trap to screw them up.

    Regardless if that was the case or not, none of this was your fault. Good grief.
  • 3
    What a cunt. I don't have much patience with people who can't admit to being wrong in the light of evidence, especially when they're being an ass about it. Self-deception is truly something fascinating and tragicomic to witness. Glad it turned out it wasn't your fault.
  • 0
    !rant within a rant
    Its a good thing you documented everything you did! Its like your boss had a former employee that left a time-bomb when he left. Instead of taking the blame for it or having to pay for it he just pointed the finger. He prolly wasnt expecting his replacement to cover their ass so well. Or it could of been a mistake and he still didnt wanna admit it. Either way I see this kind of thing happen a lot when; old people, bosses, management try to use young people, interns, new employees as scape goats for most or all of their issues. Some ppl like to exploit unexperienced ppl to attempt to get free work out of them or maybe they dont want help even though they need it or got stuck with it.

    The only real defense if you are in this situation(IMO) is to document everything! Sometimes that isn't even enough!

    To management please keep in mind we all gotta start somewhere. We all have our own problems too. If you hate new people and don't like change please retire and go fys!
  • 2
    Damn, that was a good story. Bad guys got what they deserved and you got to tell them off, unscathed. Very good!
  • 3
    I can imagine that horror night and finally the climax revealed in the series of emails. OMG !!!

    And the best part is that you never gave up accepting you did it and this thought helped you swim to the shore. This one thought is sacred , worship it .
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