I'm not a lawyer, but I don't think you want to make a deal or accept their little offering until you have worked out what the real cost is to you. Obviously it is more than three months hosting. Once you accept the deal, that's it, there is no changing your mind. Pay your bill until you get this worked out! They likely have liability insurance to cover this. Print out the contract and read it well. Likely it is pretty one sided, but that's a starting point. If the cost turns out to be worth the effort, consult a lawyer experienced with internet cases. Figure on paying a few hundred to just find out if you have a case. Move from there.
Hi, SoftLayer was not involved in anyway, it was MidPhase, they are resellers for SoftLayer. After last night we reached an agreement with far exceeds my expectations, they have offered me 2 years free hosting on the server that was re-provisioned. I have to admit i was silly not to have bought a backup service for my servers, so the result of this case was partly my fault. Never the less MidPhase came through, firstly by being dead honest, secondly by implementing a stricter policy on server provisioning and last by compensating my business losses, they could have walked away from this and not done any or the above and they didnt. Thanks to all for your advise