I think this is the right forum. My hosting company made and error and deleted my account. That deleted all of my websites and files. I don't have any backups, i tried to use the cpanel backup tool once, but it didn't work, so I didn't bother to try again. I estimate I have lost around $1225 because of this error. They are prepared to give me $250 compensation. To be honest I find that insulting. Do I have any legal rights? What can I do or say to get the compensation I deserve? I don't know my options, and they said to me "our liability in regards to these kinds of situations is zero" Thankyou.
I will add, the hosting has recently changed ownership, I signed up under the original terms of service and liability agreement. I was never told of the ownership change or the TOS change, so I never agreed to that. Does there agreement still count?
If you have any legal rights they will be in your original TOS.. so if you have it written down somewhere then check what thay say about backups and loss of data.. but probably you're screwed and should've been smart enough to make backups/copy everything locally
I wont say the name, now. If they are good to me I'll keep it to myself, but if they do something wrong... to put it lightly... I'll completely destroy they're reputation.
While others will say either yes or no, only a lawyer familiar with these things can truly tell you. Read your agreement on limitation of liability and disclaimer or so.
Friend DragonFyre! As Mentos ask you about the host provider name, I think you would mention here. We all are in this forum to discussion our problems. If you hide anything like this, how can one help you? We're not going to ask anything to your host provider. We just want to see only the host site, that’s all.
Read your TOS... Regardless of a change of ownership, or change the TOS, most TOS's state that there they reserve the right to change / modify it. You should ALWAYS, ALWAYS have a backup of your stuff locally. Unless you were buying backup services from your host, I would say they are being very generous offering you anything.
Read the agreement that you signed up under. Scrutinise it carefully. If you can't do it, ask a lawyer to go through it.
I recently had a similar experience with new owners terminating one of my reseller accounts for allegedly violating their TOS. It was nonsense from beginning to end, however the extent of their liablility was the hosting fees I had paid since the new owners took over. 2Checkout.com cheerfully handled that refund. Forget about wasting your time "destroying their reputation." Virtually every host I've worked with, and there have been quite a few, specifically states in their TOS that they are not liable for data loss and it's the client's responsibility to maintain backups. Not to be abrasive or anything, but if your site cost $1200, I would expect that you'd be careful enough to maintain a copy on a local server. Have you considered checking the Internet Archive to see if a mirrored version is stored there? Even if it's not, I'd take the $250 and settle.
Yep I agree, your host absolutely sucks. You really should not be so generous, because it is people like you who makes this kind of hosts do business even if they are absolutely the worst host ever.
Your host sucks... You not having backups....well that's just your own fault. Was the host responsible for backups or redundancy? If not then it's your problem and take the $250. What sites have you lost that you feel are worth $1225? The 4 in your sig and one in your location are all active. So how did you come up with that estimate? I agree. Most hosts would probably tell you "oops" and at most give you some free hosting but $250 is a gift...take it.
How do you know the host provider is a fake? Seriously, it hardly matters who the host is. Many hosts, especially those who plan to be around for a long time, will tell you and state in their agreement it's your responsibility to backup your sites. Of course, that's assuming they have an agreement. But many of them do. And no host will dare pay how much you believe your site is worth if what had occurred here happens to you because it's a subjective matter. That is where agreements come in since they spell out one another's responsibilities. Be aware, be responsible. Because if you're not, someone else can do that for you and you probably won't like it.
Im going to say that the host is right and sadly enough they probably have no liability in this case. 1. Im sure that the original tos you signed under as well as the current one were both very careful in how they describe appropriate action in a case like this as well as their liability, most likely they are liable for some hosting fees and what not but nothing more. 2. Unless you have some proof that you suffered $1225 of losses because of this, they won't even consider covering these costs. To be honest, they will probably dismiss this as you just trying to make an easy $ off them. If you have some sort of proof they might consider compensating you for some of the losses, but certainly not 100% 3. Any legal action on your part will turn into a long and drawn out process, likely resulting in you paying legal fees costing more than the final amount you recieve. 4. You are partly to blame. Like I said, the hosting companies tos probably has an section explicitly dealing with this situation, leaving any loss of data entirely your fault, regardless of how the host acted