Hello all this is the first time I have posted in this part of the forum. I am a small business owner and I have a small hosting package with Lunarpages. I have bought many domains through them over the past 3 years. Here is the problem, I do not check up often with those domains because most are static and I do not change anything on them. They are already made template sites for small businesses to buy if they like the site and domain as one package. I did some checking after they started asking me to pay for expiring domains so I was thinking about whether to actually renew some of them so I found out some of them were not even live, even more so, not even registered. So Lunarpages says it was an internal error and they were just deleted and many months ago some even more than a year ago, and some are not even available anymore, meaning someone bought my domain that I paid for with lunarpages, yes seriously. I'm not sure how much money I have lost in lost possible sales but I am here asking for advice on what to do because I am infuriated about this and the fact they keep saying a manager will call me but noone calls me its been 3 days now. Basically, what should I do? I do not care about getting those domains back, I really could not care less. I care about what has gone on in the past year+ and how much money I lost. Thank you for reading my lengthy post, much appreciated. Travis
Not trying to bump my own thread (it's still at the top) but... I just got off the phone with a supervisor and he said the most he can do is refund me the money I paid for the domains. That is not enough, I lost I don't know how much money in possible sales from their "internal technical error" (as he says it was). He said I should of been checking the sites and told them earlier. I have hundreds of sites on many many hosting companies, most are static sites that if they sell I get contacted via phone or email and noone contacted me saying the sites were down so I did not know. I don't think its my job to make sure what I purchased or renewed in this case, got renewed... I get an email confirmation from Lunarpages that says a site/domain renewed and everything is good, so that is what I go by. I am really stuck here and I have been taken advantage of, if this was a huge client of theirs like a fortune 500 company I think they would do more than just refund them for a years+ of a domain registration/unlive site. He said I have to contact their legal department via email or physical address but does that mean I need a lawyer, my small business isn't in the position to afford an expesive lawyer and I think Lunarpages knows this and thats why they are offering me nothing. I really need advice here, thank you alot. Saddened, Travis
Well that (the bold part) is the important part... and the answer "could be" $0... I'm sure if you could prove "how much you lost"... they would be force to refund that as well.
It's hard to sue for damages when all you can do is speculated unfortunately... It would never hold up
Ok I see what you mean. There are 20 domains and 8 of which I send out quarterly pamphlet packages to small businesses showcasing these domains with live websites taylored to their small business. The packages cost from $10-$15 each so the math on that I can calculate. How could I prove how often I sent these packages out? They are all sent in large envelopes via USPS that are dropped off in drop boxes. Then there is the question if even one of these sites would of sold. The sites I sell range from $800-$1400. And about half the time the client signs on a monthly contract for updates which is $50 per month a standard flate rate. But then it comes down to how can I prove a site could have sold. I'm not sure how I could prove that it wouldn't sell or that it would have sold either way.
Sorry to read what happened, Travis. Unfortunately I agree with the other two posters based on what happened. Here are some problems...or challenges, depending how you see them: 1. It's arguably hard, if not impossible, to demonstrate how much money you've lost. While you can argue how much based on perhaps previous sales figures on a period or so, it'll be tough convincing someone of such. 2. Your legal agreement/s with Lunarpages defines one another's responsibilities, relationships and limitations. Some of them will likely indicate you agree to not hold them liable for certain things like things, even if you don't agree to any of those terms personally. 3. Following from 2, they'll at least refund your registration fees. Maybe they'll be kind enough to offer a free year of hosting or whatever they're willing to give, but obviously you can't force them to do more than what you want. Unless, perhaps, you sue them. But as you yourself said, you can't afford what might be an expensive lawyer. OTOH, try contacting their legal department as they said. Explain your problem as politely as possible. For sure, they won't pay you other than the registration fees. Just try not to expect a lot, despite what happened. I hope things somehow work out between you and them. And do be ready to... move on. Ultimately, it's all up to you how you want to approach this.
I see what you are saying, but it is not speculation on how long it took me to develope the sites that were on all of these domains. That is a concrete number that I have logged. So what about what I'm worth, I don't work for free I have an hourly cost, my business charges per hour to develope sites. How can they get away with this?
You are basically at the mercy of lunar pages. As others posted, they aren't likely to offer you anything for your time - except perhaps some free hosting. Explain your situation to them politely and see what you can work out for them. Your only other option is to hire an attorney (you would need to check their tos agreement) and quite frankly, it isn't going to be worth the cost to sue. You'll probably need a $5K retainer and a lengthly court battle is going to cost a lot more. If you don't have a prevailing party clause, you aren't going to be able to recover legal costs.
i dont wanna be rude but if the sites ment that much to you shouldnt you have known if they were live or not? so you cant go saying oh these domains/sites meant $xxx amount to me but i didnt even care to keep an eye on them at the end of the day all you can hope for is your money back for them domains and maybe youll be able to squeeze some free services out of them