Need help figuring out how to recover website from "rouge" host!?!?

I own a small automotive restoration business, so web stuff isn't my strongest point, so bear with me.... A friend referred me to a website builder a little over a year ago to have a new web site built for our company. The site was posted to the web, and we were able to edit the content, photos, etc as we needed to. Although they were marginally helpful on instructing us how to do this, we've been working on it for almost a year. We have a web store that contains close to 20,000 part numbers, and was designed to handle 250k+. That being said, it has taken us a long time to figure out how to do this, and develop files to upload faster. Recently (after not having much time to work on the site for a while) I recieved a few comments that people couldnt find our site. I typed the address, and sure enough it was gone. Tried our log-in pages, email, everything, and it was all gone. I've tried emailing the host through previous emails, and all of the emails failed. My domain names are registered with Go-Daddy, and someone helped me to "ping" their servers, and they aparently are still working - some of the time.I did have the person who built my site on my facebook page, and after a message to him, he removed himself from my friend list. The message did show he read it. I've also done a little digging through a mutual friend's FB page, and he has a few different web services, but the services I did business with are no longer active? smokehost.net and essenselabs.net and now it appears to be allstuffweb.comI have not had conversations with the person who built the site since late last year, and never recieved any notice that my site was to be down, or something happened to it, or anything, and now although I know the person who needs to reply, I am being avoided.Do I have any recourse, or is there any way to "compel" him to at least give me my site back? I've spend thousands of dollars between his services, and labor to have people in my store helping build files and upload information. I feel that I should at least be given the information that I own and paid for and take it to a more reliable, more respectable person?

 

It sounds like this person is not responsible for hosting your website. He just built/designed it for you, right?
If so, your complaint should be with your hosting company and/or the domain registrar (godaddy).

What do you see when you do a whois of your domain name? Do you still own it? Where is it hosted? Use this or any other whois site to check: www.betterwhois.com

 

My advice: hire someone to run the website for you or get someone really understand the stuff. And you yourself should be better to know more about it.

 

A couple things need to be cleared up before anyone can offer you some guidance.

1. Was the "website builder" you hired also the person who you were paying to host your website?

2. Did you pay this "website builder" for building of the website only or was he being paid monthly to continue offering you help?

3. Is the "website builder" local to you?

4. Did the website builder set up the hosting and if he did he share all the relevant account information with you? It would seem that you had most of that information since you were making updates to the site/store for a year but it is not clear if you were being billed directly by the host for it or what.

If you are lucky, the host you were using still has a copy/backup of your site. It is not clear if your hosting just expired and so your site is down, but still pointing to that host. If that is the case (that a backup still exists) then you need to find a way to contact the host and either restore your account or get a copy of the backup so you can host your site elsewhere. (Probably restoring it at the current host first, make your own backup, then decide if you want to keep hosting it there) Keeping your own backup of your sites is critical.

I am not sure from what you have written if any blame should go to the website builder but more than likely he is in a position to help you if he set up the hosting for you, if he is the host, or even if he just has an older version of your site. Depending on where he is and what type of person he is a combination of asking nicely, pleading, and threatening might be necessary.

Obviously your main goal is just to get your site back up so clarifying who has the most recent backup and where you can get it is critical.

Good luck.

 

You don't have any backup of your files and database?

 

The website builder is either the same person hosting, or it's another person he's partnered with. Either way, all of my correspondance was with him other than to pay the hosting fees. I am also thinking that the fees may need to be paid, but there was never a notice, or anyone ever contacted me or sent me an invoice, and I can't contact the email that I originally paid. I do know he said they weren't going to bill us until we started seeing traffic, but for what they charged me for it, I could spend more on dinner at Applebees... Not something that if I did need to pay something, he didn't have my phone number, other emails, Facebook, etc.. I'm not hard to find. I know the hoster and the builder are friends, and I believe they may even work from the same location. Either way, something stinks. I don't know if they had a falling out and my site got caught in the crossfire and lost, or if they couldn't keep business going and they folded only to start under other names, or what??I do have backup files of my store information, but it's simply a pdf that we download from our vendor. we then have to convert each column to match the template for the web store, which for the first file of 9700 part numbers, took us a couple weeks to convert, add necessary info, categorize, etc.. The files I have don't do me any good, and I don't have a copy of the site itself. I was told that the site (templates, etc) can be sent via email? Forgive me, I'm not 100% knowledgable about how web building and hosting works.The hard part for me to understand, is that this person being a friend of a friend, and even on my facebook page for years, suddenly removes himself from my friends list as soon as I ask what's up?? Something didn't sit well with me, and after trying a few different ways to contact him, I'm thinking he's avoiding me. I did call Go-Daddy, who my names are registered through, and they said my hosting info was updated Sept 5th, but didn't say it was moved, or what. We pinged their servers the other day, and they responded, but when Go-Daddy did this afternoon, they did not. They timed out. With the ammount of time and money I'm losing without this, and I'm well aware of the pain in the rear that a legal persuit will cause, should I chalk it up to a "shame on me" issue and find someone else to re-build it? I'm already in it a couple thousand, I'd hate to think if losing it. I'm simply wondering if there is something like a Better Business filing, or Attorney General complaint, or something that may simply persuade him to at least communicate? Seems a bit extreme to have needed to deal with this...

 

I'm under the assumption that he and the hoster are/were one and the same. I was never given a back-up, and he was paid a lump sum to build the site and "train" us to do the laborious work. I know he was. and may still be running his web building business on the side away from a day job, but even though we did eventually get the site up and going, he wasn't the easiest person to understand or to communicate with.I chose to have him do this for us because at teh time he was building one for a friend and his work looked very good. I also investigated having Go-Daddy do the same, and even though they promised the site finished, store loaded and ready, payment system for the store ready, etc in 10-14 business days, I wasn't able to justify or afford the price they wanted at the time. I'm realising now that it may have been worth the investment, but as a new business, I simply couldn't do it.

 

Sounds like you might want to have a closer look at your contract.

 

Let's confirm a few things...

1. Go to http://whois.domaintools.com/ and type your domain in. Who owns it now? Is it you or your developer?

2. If it is still owned by either of you, is it current or was it allowed to expire? There will be an expiration date in the listing.

3. Where was the site hosted? It is conceivable that if the domain expired or was redirected, all of your content could still be alive on the web host and it is just a matter of directing it back to the proper place. The whois listing should list some nameservers.

Report those three answers back here, and you may get some better help. I doubt BBB and AG complaints are going to get you much satisfaction. Right now, focus on the recovery operation.