[eek2121]

OP did say PER MONTH. They implied $18,000 total.

I'd start with doing a full chargeback for all months, and provide as much documentation.

Additionally, I'd reach out to folks like Ars Technica, after ensuring such an issue was not a result of my own error.

One big red flag with this story is that OP seemingly did not notice $1,500/mo coming out of his account. That is most certainly something that anyone would have noticed, even someone making a few million a year, and if you make that much money, you definitely are paying an accountant to manage your accounts.

The story smells off.

EDIT: Oh and I'm not denying that customer support at AWS and other places has gone way downhill which IS a problem, however, there is no way this story is realistically true. At the very least, the numbers were inflated in order to draw in attention. No normal person overlooks an additional $1,500+ per month bill on their bank statement. Even small businesses would've been all over that. I know, I've worked for and managed them, along with being a senior software engineer and manager.

[wahnfrieden]

It seems likely they provisioned resources, didn't use them, and expected to not be charged for them without understanding that most AWS resources don't "scale to zero" when left at rest.

[helterskelter]

Be careful with a backcharge. As I understand it, if you lose, the decisions are often binding and leave you no other avenue to become whole.