Hosting contract but host is terrible

[jon_]

I had a contract with a hosting company to host our web site but they had way too much downtime for any reasonable company. I sent them an email (I don't have their telephone number) demanding that they refund the money I put down and they replied that the setup fee and the payment for the month I made on my credit card is not refundable. They were down 5 hours a day for two days in a row during the day. Then they were down 6 hours yesterday. This is ridiculous and I want my money back. What can I do?

 

[Michael Wechsler]

Originally posted by jon:
I had a contract with a hosting company to host our web site but they had way too much downtime for any reasonable company. I sent them an email (I don't have their telephone number) demanding that they refund the money I put down and they replied that the setup fee and the payment for the month I made on my credit card is not refundable. They were down 5 hours a day for two days in a row during the day. Then they were down 6 hours yesterday.

Sharing my experience in this area, I never do business with a company that tells me that they will only provide me with contact information via e-mail or icq. While I can understand the desire not to create a support problem, I think that this means that the vendor is looking to create an impenetrable wall between the customer and the vendor -- not a good start.

Second piece of info -- you should always review the terms of service that a host provides, especially downtime. If you are spending more than a few dollars a month on hosting, for example over $100 for a dedicated server, you want to see the uptime for your server, which is usually a guaranteed percentage, e.g. 99.5% uptime less reasonable downtime for maintenance during nonpeak hours. For important work you will want to see a service level agreement and an "escalation" clause which will say how serious problems will be resolved internally.

Of course, much of this is not standard practice with virtual hosting. I'd demand my money back due to this company's not providing reasonable uptime. I'm not sure that 16 hours downtime is enough to say that it is a absolute breach without a specified level but I think that 98% is about as low as I'd go for reasonable industry downtime. Typically I see 99-99.5% uptime, which equates to roughly 4 - 8 hours of downtime a month. I'd argue that downtime is well below 98% (prorated) and that given the substandard performance that is below the general industry standard, they have not provided you with the service they purported to provide. You may want to tell them that you will challenge the charge with your credit card company. Most of all, companies despite chargebacks as it could affect their ability to provide acceptance of cards online.