All my websites were down, I gave it a couple of days, still down. So then I contacted my hosting support, two days later I get a response. Their response is basically: So basically, they screwed up, and somehow every file and website on my hosting was deleted. And what do I get? An empty hosting account. Here's the worst bit, they didn't even extend the expiry of the hosting. Basically they delete all my files and give me nothing. No compensation, no extension on my hosting, no backups (they guarantee free daily backups.) Is there anything I can do? Do I just have to lay down and accept it?
Did your hosting expire with them? Were you due them any money before this happened? Why did you wait 2 days? Waiting a short period of time might be reasonable (an hour or two) but 2 days is too long. Our Terms of Service say that if you can't use our services for more than 48 hours due to our negligence we'll give you your money back but our Terms of Service are fully compliant with existing consumer protection legislation. Your hosting company have a duty of care to you regarding the protection of your files and data. If the data was deleted due to you owing them payment (even if there was a dispute) or they could show that the files were deleted via, say, an FTP account, then it isn't down to them. But, if the loss of data is a mistake on their part, or due to a failure of their systems ,then it isn't good enough to claim that you should have had backups as a server or drive failing is a reasonably forseeable occurance. I can only speak about the UK, but here they could easily be held liable for the loss of data irrespective of what their Terms of Service said if you were using their services purely as a consumer. If your site was commercial, or you purchased as a business, then you would have problems but the link in your title doesn't appear to be commercial.
Can i know what the company name? The only thing you can do now is switch to other hosting company that able to offer you refugee plan.
Nope, there's about two months left until I need to renew. I waited two days because I didn't notice for a day and then waited another just incase it fixed itself, I've had a few problems with downtime with this hosting. I expected it to just be like normal. I think it was a system failure. I don't have anything that I need to pay for a couple of months, I haven't had much contact with the hosting people so there were no disputes or anything. It just happened out of the blue. Only one of the sites was commercial, but luckily it was just a basic HTML site without a database so I could get the files from Google cache. I wouldn't take legal action, mainly because the data lost wasn't overly valuable. It was a bit, but not enough to warrant legal action. I'll get in contact with the hosting and see if there's anything they can do to rectify themselves. Thanks.
Civil legal actions can be costly and sometimes aren't worth pursuing, but that is shocking behaviourfrom your hosting company. Data can get lost due to failure, and backup systems aren't foolproof, but their response to your query (sending you login details) is derisory, ignorant, and dismissive. I'd be asking for a refund and moving on - don't hold out hope on getting a refund given their attitude so far. I'd also name & shame them. Downtime can happen even with the very best hosts, but its how they deal with that downtime and how quickly they fix it that is the true measure of your host. Uptime guarantees count for nothing.
Pretty much all companies offer backups, or so they say, but actually few of them do it right. You should always back up your data on your PC from time to time just to be extra safe.
Are you sure there is no reason for it? I'm 110% sure there was a reason for it. P.S. If it's not the cheapest hosting provider, you should be able to get your backups restored in minutes. If you went with cheapest company around, then you got exactly what you paid for.
I believe if he stops guesswork and contact his web hosting and ask for the reason that would be the best option for him.
The reason, as I said, was an error. Something in their system stuffed up. I did that straight away, they never responded. I opened a new ticket, still no response.
Then most likely you did something really wrong. As far I know, all hosting companies want to keep their clients happy. However, if clients does something really really really bad and causes lots of problems for hosting provider, they don't even bother responding.
As I said, I didn't do anything wrong. If I did something wrong why would they still let me host my sites with them?
Don't know what to tell you regarding your host and problems. In the future should you continue hosting a web site somewhere, make a point to do some of your own backups to your local pc. Most hosts do claim at least a weekly backup, but not all of them do. They mess something up and all of a sudden they have a month old backup for you, none at all, it was corrupt, a hacker busted into the server. Even hardware failures happen and even if they did have a backup, they may not be able to recover it. I know it is a pain to download backups, and some sites can be rather large and time consuming, but you never know when you might need it. You will kick yourself for not having one should you need it. Good luck getting your sites resolved with your host.
What type of web sites did you host with them? May be we got to see thing on the other end as well before making any conclusion.
Yeah. They just had an error and deleted all my sites, but they're giving me nothing in return. Yeah, definitely changing hosts now.