Problems with web hosting company

[kevcam]

Hi,

 

I run a web hosting business and I recently changed data centre and connection provider as the company seemed to be offering a great price.

 

They seemed to offer a great service - 24/7 technical support, 100% uptime guarantee etc, so I gladly paid them £600 which included £150 setup costs.

 

In the first month however I was inundated with problems, the worst of which was when they carried out maintenance without any warning leaving me without service for 48 hours one weekend.

 

I tried calling their support line - but nobody answered their calls. Spent hours on the phone - 13 in total. I sent emails which were left unanswered. It appears to me that they do not in fact offer support at weekends and I therefore was forced to find another provider.

 

I called to complain but they "disconnected my service" and added £250 admin fee onto what thy claim I owe. They are trying to tie me into 12 month contract.

 

I have not signed and returned the contract but they are now withholding my equipment - several thousand pounds worth and I have had the added expense of moving suppliers.

 

I have also lost a large amount of customers, both from their poor servcie and from having to hire new equipment whilst they have mine. The added work in moving services has also caused a great impact on my business.

 

How can I get my equipment back?

[kevcam]

bump

[chesham]

I'm slightly confused -what equipment is that they are witholding worth several thousands and you paid £600?

 

If they offer a service, such as 24/7 support, and then you discover that they actually do not, this would breach the contract which you are to enter into. If you did sign and return the contract, then you would never be able to remedy the situation by any further breaches unless you were not aware of them at the time - i.e. you are aware (at the moment) of the crap support at the weekend so you would be entering into a contract with the knowledge that this had happened - in a court, it wouldn't be considered a voidable contract through this breach.

 

However, I would have thought from reading the above, they have your money and you would prefer that back as opposed to equipment?

[kevcam]

I'm slightly confused -what equipment is that they are witholding worth several thousands and you paid £600?

 

Thanks for your reply. I should have been more specific.

 

The contract was for colocation, which is where I provided my own server and equipment and they provided my with the connection to the internet.

 

Therefore I sent them 4 web servers (worth approx £1,000 - £1,500) each plus a switch etc). This equipment is my own and I paid them £600 which included one month connection and setup fee.

 

Because of my problems I have refused to sign and return the contract and I have requested my equipment back but they are saying I have agreed to 12 months contract.

 

However due to their lack of support and not meeting their 24/7 tech support or 100% uptime I simply had to move away as I have already lost a lot of my customers.

 

They are refusing to return this equipment to me so I have the added expense of now leasing equipment as well.

[chesham]

I'm not 100% sure on this, but I would say there is NO agreement because there is no contract been entered into.

 

If you took up the services over the phone/internet, then the distance selling regulations apply to you and you are entitled to cancel within a certain time frame afterwards.

 

As for them witholding your equipment, I can't see they have a valid or legal reason for doing so and I would say you have a case to either sue them for the value or get a court judgement for the return of the equipment.

 

Because contract law is so extensive and complicated, I would take anything written to a solicitor and ask for their advice. Or construct a letter to them advising of the circumstances and see what they say.

[meagain]

There's no such thing as a free lunch, unless you're in colocation. "So, I buy the server, install the OS, set it up, ensure it is secure, keep it patched up-to-date, go fix it when it breaks down, do the backups ... precisely what am I paying you for again?"

 

There may well be a contract here. There was invitation, offer, and possibly intention. It might fall down to whether or not both sides were considered to have accepted. If you've already paid and they've already got your equipment, it could be taken as an indication that both sides agreed to the contract and intended to enter into it, regardless of the lack of signatures. It may very well be that you do have a contract that they have breached. If they have done this within days of starting it, there may well be the provision in a contract of a cooling-off period, meaning you would be entitled to your money and the equipment back. You will need professional advice on whether or not you actually have a contract first, but if you have a contract, they've breached it, and if you don't have a contract, they've no business holding your equipment to ransom anyway.

 

First of all, if you think you definitely will be doing business elsewhere, then since you're probably not dealing with the datacentre directly (datacentres don't usually do small-scale colo, this is generally resold) you might want to think about whether you can get access to your equipment at the datacentre and recover it yourself. It is your equipment, and you probably haven't signed over any rights to it to the colo provider (though definitely check this with a legal professional). You will probably be entitled to recover the additional leasing costs from them too.

 

Whichever way it goes, you will probably need professional help, as you are potentially looking at a minefield here.

[chesham]

A question with regards to contract law would not relate specifically to the intention but the consideration...I can see that they got something out of it, but has the consumer?

[meagain]

To clear things up, in traditional hosting models, you rent services from the provider, whereas in colocation, you rent the facilities such as power and network connection, and bring your own servers. If a hosting provider is a pub, a colo provider is a BYOB party.

 

It is clear that something was on the table, it just appears that the promises were not lived up to. Again, all the more reason this is pretty much a minefield.